Based on some of the confusion people seem to have recording and mixing with vegas,
I've put together the way I would go about it from start to finish. This may not work for everyone, but I find this makes Vegas really quick for mixing big multitrack projects!

The plugins used means that a very fast CPU Athlon XP 1700+ and upwards is required,
for slower CPU's, you'll have to substitute alternate plugins!

This is based on a rock band with the following instruments:


Microphone / positioning rough guide. (Change microphones according to taste!)
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Each instrument has a sub listing of what is miked up.

Drums -
Kick (AKG D12E / D112)
inside drum, not too close to the skin that gets hit.


Over Snare (Shure Beta 58 (sounds better than Beta 57 for some reason))
Angle from edge of snare pointing towards centre. Nice and close.


Under Snare (Shure SM57),
Close as possible, pointed at snare wire (try clamping the mic to the snare drum stand!)

Hi-Hat
Quite Close, above hats. NOT THE SIDE, avoid air blasts! C1000 / C451
Try and get the drummer to keep the hi-hat's quite high up, to avoid spill onto the snare mic.


Left Overhead (RODE NTK), Right Overhead (RODE NTK)
Spaced overheads. About 1 meter above. The off-axis frequency response of
really good condenser mics can sound horrible. Places with low celings can sound
horrible due to reflections into the back of the microphone.
This can result also in a muddy stereo image. Try taping pillows directly above
the back of the microphone, or even better, acoustic foam.


1st tom (Shure SM57 or C451), 2nd tom (same), 3rd tom, (mic with good low freq. response). Microphones close, point directly at the edge of the skin if poss, to avoid spill.


Bass - good bass guitar, and nice sounding cab.

DI'd signal - try find one not too noisy. Behringer surprisingly good.
Mic'd cabinet - RODE NTK - center speaker.


Guitar 1 rhythm - good guitar setup... example PRS or ESP - 4x12" cabinet Marshall, with Peavey 5150 head -

Mic up one speak centre cone very close. RODE NTK / good condenser.

Mic up another speaker, edge of cone AKG C3000 / 414.


Guitar 2 lead - Similar setup, DIFFERENT GUITAR at least.


Lead Vocals - Again, watch reflections into back of microphone.
put pillow / mattress / acoustic foam on the wall behind the microphone.
Not too close so that it sounds unnatural.


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The Sonic Foundry Vegas Setup
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Multi-input soundcard such as M-audio Delta 1010
Quick computer. Up to date / good drivers etc.

8 buss mixer / preamp outputs feeding the Delta 1010.

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Plugins
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Waves Native Gold 3.2
Sonic Timeworks Milennium Bundle
Cakewalk FX2 FX3
Native Vegas Plugins
PSP Stereo Pack (and VST adapter to make them work)
TC Native Reverb

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Project
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Start a new vegas project.

Close the video preview pane which we won't touch. Make sure the buss mixer is visible.

Change the properties: Project tempo, and depending on computer speed,
record 24bit 44.1 or whatever.

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Busses
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Create BUSS A, name it overheads.
plugins: Waves Renaissance Compressor, Sonic Foundry Track EQ x 2
(for 6 bands fully parametric)

Create BUSS B, name it Kick
plugins: Waves Renaissance Compressor, Sonic Foundry track EQ x 2 ,Timeworks Mastering Compressor, Waves Maxxbass.Create BUSS C, name it Snare
Plugins: Waves Renaissance Compressor, Sonic Foundry Track EQ x 2

Create BUSS D, name it Toms
Plugins: Sonic Foundry Track Gate, Track EQ x 2

Create BUSS E, name it Bass
Plugins: Sonic Foundry Track EQ x2, Waves Renaissance Compressor, PSP Pseudo Stereo, Waves Maxxbass.

Create BUSS F, name it Dist. 1 (Distorted guitar 1)
Plugins: Sonic Foundry Track EQ x 2

Create BUSS G, name it Dist. 2 (Distorted guitar 2)
Plugins: Sonic Foundry Track EQ x 2

Create BUSS H, name it Clean (Clean Guitars)
Plugins: Sonic Foundry Track EQ x 2, Waves Renaissance Compressor.

Create BUSS I, name it vocals
Plugins: Sonic Foundry Track EQ, Waves Renaissance Compressor

Create Buss J, Name it Reverb
Plugins: TC Native Reverb, Sonic Foundry Track EQ

Create Buss K, Name it Delay
Plugins: Sonic Timeworks Delay 6022

Record the drums on tracks one to eight.
Submixing the toms to inputs 7+8 on the delta 1010

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tracks: label everything! Most the time leave track faders untouched.
Apart from a few cases, i.e balancing Over and Under snare mic levels.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

drums - record the drums to a metronome,
so looping and editing is easy in beats + bars mode of Vegas.

Track 1 - Kick. Route to BUSS B
Track 2 - Over Snare. Route to BUSS C
Track 3 - Under Snare. (phase inverted) ROUTE TO BUSS C
Track 4 - Hi-hat. Route to BUSS A, and mute it - probably won't be needed.
Track 5 - Left Overhead. Route to BUSS A, pan left.
Track 6 - Right Overhead. Route to BUSS A, pan right.
Track 7 - Left Toms. Pan Left, Route to BUSS D
Track 8 - Right Toms. Pan Right, ROUTE to BUSS D

bass

Track 9 - Bass guitar DI, route to BUSS E
Track 10 - Bass Guitar Microphone, route to BUSS E

distorted guitar - double track the same parts! If a lead part is there,
try putting down the middle to fit it in. Use PSP Pseudo Stereo or another
stereo width plugin if needed.

Track 11 - dist. guitar 1 L, pan left, route to BUSS G
Track 12 - dist. guitar 1 R, pan left, route to Buss G
Track 13 - dist. guitar 2 M, pan central, route to BUSS G

Track 14 - Clean 1, route to BUSS H
Track 15 - Clean 2, route to BUSS H

Now the music's done, setup a few tracks, and route them to the vocal channel
for really easy drop ins!

Enjoy the quality of the plugins, and the ease of use of vegas - compress and EQ
things together on the busses, and suddenly mixing becomes very fast!

Always try to think of where things are going to fit in a mix.

Think that if you are going to add a new part, you will have to cut something from
the mix to make it fit in.

i.e Bottom end is provided by the bass, so cut a lot off the guitars.

Most important is getting the bottom end of the mix right, as this is where most of
the power from the mix comes from. Keep cutting frequencies until the parts fit.

Look at emphasising the click of the kick drum,
(boost around 2.6 - 6khz, don't be frightened) Because of the two track EQ's we have six bands fully parametric, so you can stack EQ spots for really extreme EQ!

Usually, when EQing, try to cut instead of boost. Boosting can spoil a mix very easily.

If an instrument is not meant to be low end, i.e snare, vocals, guitars, cut the very bottom EQ off. This is often known as a high-pass filter. Don't go too far with this, as most instruments need some low end, but a microphone will typically capture some subsonic
rubbish!

On the Drum overheads... cut out most of the boxy mid-range. (now it's on a buss, this is sooo easy!)

Compression is essential. The presets in Waves Renaissance Compressor are a good start, but really fiddle around with the attack ratios, and watch the output!

Incidentally, put some kind of mastering compressor and EQ on the master buss which all the other busses are routed to. I usually use Waves Renaissance Compressor, and Then Timeworks Mastering Compressor (sometimes two of those with different ratios!)

Use the reverb and delays as aux sends, (Click on the pan, and the list of busses will come up, then you can feed a little signal from any track you want to any of the busses!) Use envelopes on the tracks to control this.

This is a very versatile FX automation, and for most purposes is perfect.

I may update this at some point... but for now, my hands are tired of typing!