mastering nightmares! Help!

hi, having spent 10 years recording on a hardware audio workstation (yamaha aw16g) with no problems I decided to switch to making music online with GB and have enjoyed figuring out how to arrange and record songs for the last couple of months. My problem is that while every thing sounds perfectly balanced in GB when I go to mix it or after mixing sending to disk or itunes etc..the songs sound unbalanced and awful. First the drums were on 0db and came out to quiet so i turned them up 3db in the mix and now they are way to loud compared to everything else in the song. I am spending 10 times as long as writing as song just trying to get a great clear balanced mix. I have panned things sensibly and am making sure nothing is peaking , I have taken time to choose FX that work with each instrument and like I say all sounds brillaint and professional pre mix -but Im about to give this whole thing up in frustration. Can it really be so hard to get a mix sounding like the final pre mix verison of a song. If its GB's incompetency and not mine can anyone recommend a DAW that can simpify things or just make it easier to get a good quick efforltess mix like I used to.?