Are getting a good signal to the BR-8? By this I mean, are your recording levels between the 12 & 4 marks in the info screen. Do you pull your tracks down and EQ only one track at a time? You should only have to EQ a little if you have your instruments' tone set up. I'll sweep the EQ back and forth until the guitar, bass or whatever sounds the way I want.
The stereo pan makes a different too, you don't want the bass near the drum kick. I record my drum tracks in stereo and have the bass at 9:00, vocal at 12:00, rhyt guitar about 11:00, lead guitar maybe 2:00 (these are just examples).
I had a friend who was doing EQ with all the tracks playing at the same time. I showed him how I eq/mix and now he has great mixes.
What media are you listening to your mixes, i.e, speakers, headphones? This make a huge different in eq, if the speakers/headphones add too much 'color'.