Hey,
A big thing is the type of mics you buy. They sell mics that record all in one direction, or that will pick up things in the whole room. They have specific instrument recording mics. IN this book, "The Musician's Guide to Home Recording : How to Make ... by Peter McLan; Larry Wichman", you'll learn a lot! You can get it at borders books, where I got it...or try looking on Yahoo shopping - books. It has a whole chapter on miking techniques. It also has diagrams of the recording directions that mics pick up...such as omni-directional, etc...I spent a couple of months studying this book in the summer of last year. It was VERY helpful.
Another cool thing in this book is the section on equalizers. It tells you what levels to turn down if your sound is too muddy, or too canny sounding... it was a great book. I recommend it.

-Tracey