There’s a LOT to learn about multi-track recording. You might want to pick-up a book and/or subscribe to [u]Recording Magazine[/u]. The more you can learn, and the more you practice you get, the better your recordings will be.
It’s all “links in a chain”, and it all starts with a good instrument, a good performer, good acoustics, a good microphone in a good position, a good preamp/interface, etc., etc., etc.
The recording software isn’t actually that critical for recording quality… Your recording software basically just routes the digital-data from your soundcard (or ADC/interface) to a file on your hard drive. But when you start adding effects, some effects are better than others. Effect plug-ins can cost hundreds of dollars, and it might be worth it if you need that "just right " reverb, etc. And of course, your skill and your “ear” make a big difference when mixing and tweaking effects.
Your basic procedure looks good…
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You probably don’t need to normalize the tracks first, but if it makes things easier for you, it’s a good thing to do.
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You might be doing this already, but you SHOULD normalize after mixing & EQ (but before saving) because both of these can boost your levels over 0dB, and you’ll end-up with clipping if you save a file that goes over 0dB.
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If you don’t need to adjust EQ (bass & treble, etc.) on the individual tracks/instruments, that’s fine. I always start with the philosophy that a perfect recording doesn’t need any EQ. But sometimes different instruments need different EQ, and it’s common practice to filter-out the bass (maybe below 100 or 200Hz) from everything except the bass & kick drum. And in the real world, most pro recordings have some EQ on every track.
Since I play back the tracks through a bass rig, I may scoop some of the mids out on my amp.
That’s fine. You want the “P.A.” to sound as neutral/natural as possible. Bass (and guitar) amps/cabinets are designed to be “part of the instrument” and add “character” to the sound. That’s not what you want when reproducing the sound of many instruments (or vocals). So, some adjustment may be necessary.
I’d EQ the mix to sound good on your regular monitors (or on a good system) first. Then if you can EQ the bass rig to sound good with full-range music, you’re done. You can also consider making a special mix EQ’d for the bass rig, but I’d keep the mix that’s EQ’d “normally” as a master. You may want to use a different system someday, and you don’t want to be stuck with a recording that only sounds right on your bass cabinet.
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You might experiment with some (dynamic) compression. Most recorded music has some compression. You can compress the individual tracks and/or the final mix. Compression evens-out the loud & quiet parts and it’s often used to make music “louder” by boosting the average level without boosting/clipping the peaks. Although compression is a reduction in dynamic range, people often hear the compressed version as “more dynamic” or more “punchy”.
You might also consider using more advanced software. A [u]DAW[/u] (digital audio workstation) application is designed for multi-track recording & mixing. [u]REAPER[/u] ($60 USD for home use) is very popular for home recording and small studios on a budget. The downside is that using a DAW is probably 10 times more complicated than using an audio editor, and there can be a long learning curve.