These are horrible answers.
The goal is to make our home recordings as good as possible, not settle with all this "meh" nonsense.
You don't want to overprocess during tracking either, you'll have less options in mix down.
You do want to use the right mike, especially for vocals, to get the most out of the tone of the singer.
use reductive eq to get the tracks out of each other's way, lowpass/hipass,
then solo and focus on bringing out the sweet spot of your tone by adding eq, or taking out bad frequencies in your mid's. low q or bandwith produces cleaner results.
You can have a full sound that will be muddy and if you roll of eq it will actually sound clearer in the mix.
If your tones are harsh try processing through analog effects or a tape player, 2 track tape is still analog.