+1 to everything above, however, I rarely see this response when this sort of question is asked... so here goes...
Taking into consideration that you have a decent space, mic, preamp, and monitoring situation, and track at appropriate levels, you're going to get a good clean sound going in. Then you have what you need to begin the "process" which is what I believe most answers to these types of posts neglect.
Tracks are individually listened to, shaped, modified, (or left alone sometimes) compressed, expanded, eq'd. reverb'd etc etc so that it fits. Overdoing this, underdoing this, screwing up a good mix, making the best with what you have, twisting knobs, and learning are all things that make you better, and will improve your quality. I've seen great engineers make great recordings with crap gear, but I have never seen inexperienced people make great recordings with great gear.
Do the best you can with what you have, and every time you finish a project, go back and listen, you'll find things you like, things you hate, things that embarass you, and things you want everyone you know to listen to. Just remember what you did for certain scenarios, and twist knobs until you get familiar with as many processes as you can.
Tracking is a process with individual steps, mixing is an altogether different process with its own steps, mastering, burning, etc... break down your goals into smaller processes and focus on one. If you try to tackle the whole thing at once, it will beat you.
That's a long winded way of saying, look at the above mentioned advice, and if you determine that maybe you're tracking too loud, practice just the tracking process until you KNOW it, know what a compressor does, a limiter, gates, enhancers, what mics are good for what sources, learn how your pre plays with each of your mics, and where the sweetspots are in the gain staging... see what I mean... there is a lot to consider just in the tracking process.
HTH
JM
