[String7th]

I agree with the idea of keeping the audio tracks real and fine tune them later, especially for EQ. If you don't have anything yet, I'd suggest shopping for VST effects, rather than hardware.

If you allready have some awesome, expensive rackmount analog compressors or tube channel strips, use 'em. Just be sure you've mastered the hardware before you permanently lay down an altered track.

If you have the interface capabilities, lay down a dry track, then bus out that track to your hardware onto a new, modified input, using your compressor/effects. If you mess up, just delete it and start again with the original dry track..