Ok you have a good idea but don't over think mixing. Do you understand the fletcher munson curves, this will give you a better idea about mixing and I use it as my guide when I mix.
Fletcher Munson curves tells us that we percive different frequencies at different volumes. Now heres a trick I suggest you do, import into Sonar a song that you can use a reference and then using the Span Voxengo frequency analyser to see how the track behaves in terms of frequency response.
And this is why Fletcher Munson curves are importent, you will see instantly that the bass frequency and lower mids is where all the meat of the track is.
Ok put this to one side, and now think about what you are recording, is it a bass guitar with an amp or an acoustic guitar or keyboards with a DI.
Think about two things mic selection and mic placement, this is the first fundmental in audio recording, so Danny is right, get this right and it should all fall into place, in terms of the mix.
Get in there with with your ear and listen and when you find the sweet spot of the acoustic, place the microphone.
Now micing up a amp is different, some like David Gilmour and this is why I suggested historical perspective, just place the mic wherever, and these are his words. Others like the true and tried method of a certain AKG and an SM57 in an off axis position, so pointing at the side of the amp. Hell I even know people who like to put one at the back of the amp and this can be useful if they are using a spring verb on the amp.
And here is the 2nd lesson in audio 101, gain structure. In that signal chain, everything has to be set to a correct level it's no good if the guitarist has his guitar or his amp up to loud because you are just going to clip. Now if you are just DI the track and using amp sims my technique of recording hot comes in handy because that is half the problem solved in terms of a getting a rich full guitar tone.
So here are two things that make a good recording, mic technique and gain structure.
Next this is where Shad (foxenwolf) is right and you need to go back to the history books, read up how David Bowie and Tony Visconti got his reverb sound on the track Heroes.
A well recorded room sound gives the track space and perspective and yes def Reverb is the third fundemental of recording, now this is where it gets confusing.
In the 50's it was all about room sounds, or the famous chamber reverbs at EMI and Capitol Records, now I won't go into semantics but once again do some research, this all changed in the 60's with close micing techniques and a fairly dry drum sound, this is how The Beatles latter albums were done. This lead to to the completly dead studio concept in the 70's where the famous lexicon reverb was introduced and this where your understanding of how to EQ a reverb comes in. Also Stav (Micheal Stavrou) talks about the concept of the black back drop, or where the recording has so much space you can peer into it, think Dark Side of The Moon.
Basicly the idea is to remove any and all the frequencies not being used by certain instruments using a hi or low shelf filter and close micing your instruments.
Confused??
Ok so what I am suggesting to you is there are two techniques, recording a band in a live room requires mic placement, mic selection and an understanding of how to capture the space by way of again mic placement and mic selection and I highly recomend Heroes as a guide because it will give you an understanding of how and why you record reverb or your room sound.
The second technique is recording everything close miced and we add in the flavours in the mix and this requires a different skill set and a different mind set to get the best out of what we have recorded, and in this technique mic placement and selection is still crucial and so is gain structure but understanding how to use EQ, Compression and Reverb units become your fundements in getting a great sounding track.
So what we have here is two different techniques, one the old way of doing it (all live in a live space) and still very much in vouge esp around Melbourne at the moment, if you think of all the indie folk pop coming out at the moment.
And the 2nd which is really the modern way of recording, this would be if you are doing a peicemeal recording, laying down one instrument at a time.
If you can indicate to me how you are recording or what you are recording, I can put you onto the correct method and recomend some techniques, to help get better recordings. Don't go to my soundcloud page and go I don't know what I am talking about or maybe you should because on my soundcloud page is almost 6 years of the experiments that I have gone through to get to this point, Danny likes to point out their deficiencies but this is not an ego thing. Just tell me what is the most commen way you record and I can point out some resources to help you on your way.
I have books and guides that I can scan and send your way, I also know and understand recording history, which makes for interesting reading and can give you some clues about how to achieve certain flavours and nuances.
It's up to you, I can take you through the various stages of recording, mixing and mastering, if you can tell me where you are in terms of your journy.
And thats my final peice of advice, because your question is loaded, um, in that we are talking about three different processes that can make a difference in your recording/music quality and it use to take three different engineers to do what now one has to do. And we haven't even touched on songwriting, arranging and prodcution, which normaly was handled by a mad genius producer, think Phil Spector and George Martin.
Regards Ben