Tips for the perfect mix?, how to do a good mixdown Options

[kelitupu]

Hi everyone,

I'm running Logic Platinum 4.8 on a Mac G4-466, with a Delta 44 4in, 4 out soundcard, a Behringer 16 channel mixer, Roland JV 1010 module.

I'm a newbie who's doing his first mixdowns, and I was wondering if anybody had any basic tips/recipes for getting a good final mix. I know it takes years to learn mixing and millions of books have been written, but all I'm really looking for is some general tips on how to set reverb, compression, and how to keep the signal to noise ratio down as you bounce down. This is only to augment all the
reading about mixing which I'm doing right now.

Also, if any one has the time and inclination to address a mixdown which I did last night, I'm including a play by play below:

1) Recorded MIDI tracks.

2) Recorded lead and background vox.

3) Bounced each individual MIDI track to audio tracks.

4) applied compression and reverb to all the audio tracks, then bounced to just lead vox, background box, rhythm section (bass and drums), and piano/synth track.

5) applied compression again, bounced down to just vocals and music.

6) applied compression again, and bounced down to final stereo mix.

The end result was pretty crappy. There was a lot of hiss, and the vocals were way in the back and very muddy. I'm trying to get a very pristine/pop R&B sound. I know that compression is important in doing this, but I don't quite know how to get the vocals up without bringing the noise along with it.

Last 2 questions:
Is Logic sufficient to master a recording with, or do I need to buy an additional software package? If so, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Is it a good idea to build a synth mixer to control the reverb parameters, etc of my sound module so I can record more of a dry signal patch then with the factory presets -- and then apply Logic's
reverbs to the bounced audio?

Sorry if this was too long, but thanks in advance to the brave soul who takes the time to read this and perhaps even respond.