Mixing

[ClassicVibes]

A mate gave me a few of his songs recently and asked if I could have a go mixing them. I've done a little bit of work here and there over the years but would definitely say I'm not a professional! I am a bloke armed with a laptop, Audacity and some headphones. 

Anyhow, I had a go and sent him back the mixes. It seemed he genuinely liked them and said I had done a good job. He said he would keep me in mind for future if they were to do any more recordings.

This has given me a real bug for mixing. I want to get better at it and have something to do during the lockdown. What pieces of equipment would you recommend to help improve my current set up? 

[TwoTimesBass]

Good set of monitor speakers and checking/treating the acoustics of your room would be my next move before getting too far into equipment

[Dad3353]

This is a good source of information concerning mixing ...

Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio - Additional Resources ...

Personally, I'm not so concerned with the room acoustic aspect, as it's very difficult to get decent results, especially for cloth ears such as mine. Instead, I bank on 'comparative' acoustics, whereby I listen to stuff I like in the room I have (or with my headset...), and compare my mixes to that. Any major flaws will be common to both sessions, so should cancel out, hopefully. Not perfect, but I'm not disposed to set up a 'pro' studio with my budget and modest needs.
On the site linked above there are scores of stem tracks to have a go at, and test one's skills and inspiration, all for free. Recommended to get a feel for what works and what works less well. I wouldn't use Audacity for long for mixing, although it's very good, and I use it a lot for other stuff. A full-fat DAW is what is required (I use Reaper; there are plenty of others, from free to very expensive...). Enough space on your hard-drive, and a means of easily and regularly making back-ups is essential if you're doing stuff for others. 'Losing' that masterpiece is a Bad Idea. Again, doesn't have to be expensive, but must become part of the routine, preferably before the inevitable crash, rather than later.
Hope this helps.