I'm getting there! BUT, do I have this right?

I'm getting there! BUT, do I have this right? 

Here is a short history of what I am doing: I am a singer. I am recording the song 'Hero' by Mariah Carey. I have video recording equipment, lighting, web cam, etc. What I have done is video taped myself singing the song 4 times, each time with the camera at different angles. My music is pre-recorded that I downloaded off the internet. I am now close to Mastering the song. Would it be correct of me to solo each track one at a time and EQ to where I like it and then adjust all the volumes of each track accordingly? I know that there are a ton of videos out on YouTube on MASTERING music. As a novice at this, can you guys please recommend a few good videos on MASTERING that a newbie can best understand? If you can do that I would be grateful! -Steven Bayside Studios Berkeley, CA USA 'Home of the Bears' at the University of CA at Berkeley!

Kenny has a few on the reaper home page videos... good place to start

If I recall, you're using karaoke backing tracks, right? They should be at least reasonably balanced and EQed against each other to start with. Maybe you've messed around with the backing tracks along the way, but I'd suggest the first thing to do would be download them again clean and set them all at unity. Regard the backing tracks as just... done. Those kind of tracks are designed to sit nicely together - the only rogue element is your performance. That's where you put the effort in when mixing. You're new to this and you're going to be stabbing in the dark here, so stab at one thing. Try to get your vocal to work as well as you can with the backing. Try to make it sound like it belongs with the backing. You might not know how or why to do anything specific, but keep researching and experimenting until it starts sounding less and less like a singalong. Then - only then - if you think a string swell is too heavy or a bassline isn't as punchy as you'd like, you can tinker. PS One little trick you can try - use a very short slapback delay on the vocal. It has the psychological effect of bringing the track forwards in the mix.