I'm still learning mixing myself, but have found some stuff that seems to work:
- i found that it's hard to make it sound professional without good equipment (condensor mic, a compressor, mic preamp). the software can only do so much...
- as far as the actual mixdown, don't be afraid to copy a mono track and paste it into a second track, panning one left and the other right. (for panning, go to view/console and you will see little sliders near the top of each track). I use this double-ing up trick on the main rhythm guitar and it fills out the sound nicely.
- be careful not to wash the song in too much reverb.
(lots of articles, such as those at
prorecording.com emphasize this, and over time I have come to believe it)
- if you have soundforge software, try the wave hammer function to add some compression. or do like i did and buy an RNC Compressor box to route your instruments to before it goes to the soundcard. i think other companies make good compressor boxes too but everybody raves about the rnc... plus it's not too expensive (around 200 i think?)
- your crackling may be from the soundcard input? make sure to use the line-in instead of the mic-in (although this will only work if you have a mic preamp... I got a little art preamp from sam ash for less than 100 bucks that works well and has phantom power for the awesome 80 dollar
Marshall large diaphragm 1006 condensor mic
- take it one step at a time and experiment. treat it like a demo and don't try to make it perfect the first time. that's the best advise i have to give!
Good luck and be patient, experiment, and read all you can online.
Cheers,
Brendan