Bob, classes in mixing ARE in the cards. There's a great freebie class from Berklee College of Music online that you should take. It will help you get your head around the whole process.

https://www.coursera.org/course/musicproduction

It starts on October 13. It's free. Did I mention it's FREE? It's very worth the time and effort. Do the assignments to the best of your ability. It will stretch your computer use as some of the assignments involve making videos of your process/assignments. But lots of help in the forums there. Oh, it's FREE.

It's easily worth $1000 if you are just starting to wrap your head around audio production. But again, it's f r e e .

-Scott