the Lewitt LCT 240 Pro I have is a beast of a Condenser mic, I use it with a SM57 (near the sound hole) and the condensor around the 12th like pmkns said.. the NT-1 by Rodes is also a staple in guitar recording (it has the same tenure as the SM57 for recording)
I'm not really a pro at recording or mixing, I just do concept stuff for myself - but an easy way to immediately get mileage is to understand what an EQ will do with that chart up there^
For example a bass lives on the lower end of the frequency, so if you know a flute lives up in the higher register you will benefit from cutting out the 'redundant' high end of a bass to basically give breathing room for the flute
the acoustic guitar tends to live wiith beautiful midrange and I find often I OBLITERATE the low end - I just remove EVERYTHING that's sub-lows.. why even keep it there? It's just taking up space for an instrument that would nicely fit there (the EQ will show you where the frequency lives to notch out unnecessary ones)
Compressors are something to dabble with, they basically try and bring up the lows and squash down the highs so you can get a more direct, controlled sound.. it's THE sound of Adele-esque vocals and funk guitars
Limiters are also pretty handy - you can really bring up the input of a sound without really clipping (hence limiter) which helps control wild sources of audio
You can also stack the same track and pan them out to give them more GIRTH (YEAH! Girth! :D)
All of your tracks are going to fed into a MASTER fader.. that means all the audio data and effects will be summed up together, this is where you can slap on another limiter so the final mix isn't tearing someones poor eardrums with squeaky highs
How and what is really up to you honestly - lots of people use specific vocal chains to get a modern sound or whatnot.. I follow Warren Huart and Andrew Scheps on YT
Basically just find up as much as you can about your favorite songs and the way they were recorded and who recorded them
@FrankJaegr this is all good knowledge, thank you. im familiar with the terms because ive actually had a lot of studio time with my band when we recorded and done some basic stuff of my own with my classical audition tapes, but the actual procedures behind it are so foreign to me lol.
if i may wind up recording a couple things and sending em your way as an ear for mixing suggestions, if you wouldnt mind