more on mixing: it seems my vocals don't always seem to "fit" with the instrumentals. like, they seem like they stand out and don't fit nice and cozy-like with the rest of the song
have you used any compression (not file compression, that's different, i'm talking about the thing that automatically adjusts the volume so it's always about the same). Using compression on various tracks, especially the vocal, and also some on the master, will help this very much. But the funny thing about compression is, you can't just 'turn it on' and expect it to work, you have to tweak it quite a bit until you get it so it's even really doing anything. Check the gain reduction meter to confirm whether it's doing anything. you can check out some tutorials about this i'm sure. Basically what it does is it's like you hired a gnome to very quickly adjust the volume of a track (such as the vocal, or maybe the entire song) in small amounts to prevent the volume from being so all over the place. turns it up when it gets quiet, and turns it down when it gets loud. Not so much to ruin all the variances, but enough to keep it from poking out sometimes and disappearing other times. forgive me if you already are doing this. but this sounds like the most obvious answer to the situation you are describing