recording is like painting and that whole canvas should be properly arrange, not to put alot of stuff in it but make sure each frequency and signal of the instrument recorded will not overpower another, if you think compression thats not always the savior, in guitar not every frequency is needed to be heard and you could use a filter to remove those,
ambience the space used, i dont think recording is just a one plain space, where all you have is left center right mixing, try to mix in a multidimensional way, i prefer mixing my kick where it sounds im sitting in the drumset and the kick is coming from below my knee,
what is your DAW?
Hmmm...
I don't really have that much but I do use Finale 2006 and Goldwave 5.20
I have Cubase (of which I have only used ONCE)
Here's what I did with the song 'Trigunesque'
1 - Did MIDI tracks for drums. (Finale 2006)
2 - Separate staves for clappers, snare & kick, cymbals, toms... and the bass guitar parts, of course.
3 - Rendered the MIDIs in digital audio. Each staff had been rendered separately.
4 - Used Goldwave to boost the signal (changed volume levels to about 75% more).
5 - "Mixed" the separate tracks with Goldwave. (I separated the kick from the clapper because having them together on a single staff made me lose control over volume. It's like I emulated the process of having separate mics for each instrument)
6 - Recorded the guitar part also using Goldwave. I have a ZOOM G2.1u so it was easier for me to make the necessary adjustments.
7 - I made some fine tuning (like compression and reverb) before I 'mixed' the soundwaves.
8 - Saved the entire project as .WAV (for back-up) and .MP3 (for general purpose).
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That's what I basically did. I'm still reading materials on 'mastering' and 'mixing' techniques and getting myself familiar with the audio jargons
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Thanks for the descriptive analysis. I think I've pictured it. I'll try using Cubase when I get the chance again.
I've just uploaded my "Canon Rock" version. This was when I was testing Cubase for the first time. The backing track came from some site (which I forgot where).
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=823307====
EDIT:
Hardware I'm using:
AMD Athlon 64bit X2 4200
REDFOX NVIDIA 6100 CHIPSET
512MB DDR2 667
Gforce 7200GS 256mb pci-e
80GB 7200rpm Seagate (50+30); 250GB 7200rpm (100+100+50)
Onboard sound
Altec Lansing speakers (if that counts)
Did I miss anything?