improving sounds

Here's another little piece of advice. When I was first getting started I only had pretty cheap monitoring but try to get used to their downfalls. When trcking or mixing a song, import a simliar styled song you are really familar with into your session. Just have it there muted but every now and again, have a listen to it to refer back to it. When you've done a mix, have a listen to it on as many different systems as you can. If it constantly sounds dull and muddy, your monitoring is too bright. Make your next mix brighter than you'd normally would like and you'll be heading on the right track. Opposite (of course) if your mix constantly sounds too bright. Your monitors are too bassy and you'll have to add more bass than you'd like. We all can't afford perfectly accousically balanced rooms with thousands of dollars worth of speakers so it's a matter of just working out what areas your speakers/headphones lack and compensating for that. This will by no means give you an absolutley perfect mix but certainly a head in the right direction. Hope this helps.