<----- I have a ton of mastering questions. In the simplest way to ask.
Hi mate, seems like a lot of your questions are actually mix questions. Mixing is creating the balance of audio in a track- volume levels, panning, compression, eq, as well as other effects like delay, reverb, etc. ( some of these things fall into sound design categories as well, but ignore that, for my reply here )
Mastering is the final stage of preparing a track, or a group of tracks, either for a cd, digital album, single, ep, etc, etc.
<----- What am I looking at?
when you are mixing, you are trying to create an imaginary book shelf, where each book ( audio ) is placed in its own spot, and you can, “see (hear),” each book clearly.
<----- What am I looking for?
to balance the audio, and make a great sounding mix…
<------- Where does everything belong?
totally varies, and depends on the track.
<----- What tools do I use to bring things where they’re supposed to be?
great mixes use volume, panning, compression, eq, and verb. simple in concept, but a dark art nontheless. delay, chorus, filters, automation, whatever; can all be part of a mix
<------ The new spectrum analyzer will probably help a bunch with seeing if there is space between sounds.
doubtful, and no… to be blunt.
<----- How do I get rid of muddyness?
try lowering the volume of your bass?
<------- How do I get rid of pops and clicks?
there are several ways to do this. the most simple way is to experiment with your latency in the ----> preferences —> audio. you may also try freezing tracks.