Here is one common example and applies here I think. When the bass and the kick have a similar tone and frequency range, you can afford to cut the kick to let the bass carry the tone. What you leave when the two are on "par" is just the top end of the kick.. the sound of the hammer in hit and initial attack. Then the rest is carried by the bass (the inverse also works, it depends of the sound you are looking for). Artificial or real, the engineering is the same.

However, in the computer world, there is a saying.. garbage in garbage out. While a bit ugly, it does apply, and it also applies to music production. The better the source the easier it will be to mix. If you were planning on retracking some of this, then I urge you to do so before going any further mix wise. You dont want to risk growing frustrated with it, or that frustration might taint your perception of the mix (and song) in general later on.

Been away for a bit but now I'm back. Thanks again for the props on the song. Fox - I'm stuck with the bass and the drums as tracks but everything else is pretty well a scratch track. That's why I'm so concerned about the kick/bass relationship. I'll take all of this good advice and apply it after tracking the guitars and final vox.

Bapu - thanks for the suggestion of using Danny to mix. I've often wondered if anyone out there "mixed on demand" and it sounds tempting to see what someone else would do with the song. I might give this some consideration.

al