For those of you who have been doing this for a while- do you you normally process your tracks further after exporting them to your DAW? I am specifically referring to comp and eq mostly. ......... To my ears, the tracks sound good right out of the box. ........I'm still fairly new at this and have much to learn- especially processing and mixing vocals.
Absolutely. I find that for my taste, the BB tracks are generally pretty good but can always use some spicing up.
The way I normally treat the BB tracks is that once I get them into my DAW, Sonar, I use some custom presets I've created and saved using the Sonar default EQ, compression, and reverb. I use these on the drums, the bass, and the piano as well as the guitars to bring out the characteristics of that instrument a bit better. Most of the EQ's are high pass to one degree or another.
None of those settings are radical. Just a subtle touch here and there as needed.
Vocals..... you have to get a good recording to start with. Again like you mentioned, dry and centered and with a good S/N ratio. You are aiming for a natural sounding vocal track most of the time. On vocals.... my processing consists of mild EQ (high pass), very little, if any compression at the track level, and a slight reverb. That's generally it. Keep it natural.
A low cut/high pass is almost a given on most instruments including the kick and bass. Eliminate the mud in the mix and having one instrument step on another. I also drop in a custom preset for Ozone on the master buss to give the entire mix a bit of sparkle, air, and thump. This also provides a point to use an overall buss reverb, again very slight to glue the mix together a bit, some compression on the entire mix, and final EQ, again as a finishing touch. Most of this is in Ozone with the exception of the reverb. I don't like the sound of the Ozone reverb.
Note on the presets including the custom ones. They are simply starting points and no 2 mixes ever have the same exact settings or plugs running.
In the end, it all comes down to your tastes in music and how you think it should sound. In many of the DAW forums, you will find quite a few folks with good ears that can help you fine tune your mixing skills. It doesn't hurt to ask for deeper critiques if that's what you want, but be prepared to "hear" the advice given.