[musicamigo]

Well ... first off, thanks for all the quick replies.
I'll work through the comments and provide more info below,
and again, keep in mind my original comment ... I'm looking
for advice on how to best approach moving up to the next
level ... up until now, I've been using the recording for
utilitarian purposes in conjunction with other musicians.
And while this hasn't honed my "mastering" recording type
skills, it has made me *very* comfortable with the process
of getting instruments into the software, and learning many
nuances of manipulating the WAV format files with Cubase.

>What monitors are you using? What computer, mac or pc?

I'm using what I'd consider a robust PC - dual 2.1 GHz processor
with 3 Gb of RAM. Haven't really invested in monitors yet ..
I tend to try and listen to mixes on a handful of different
sound systems/head phones, and sort of default to a small
Bose CD player, 'cause thus far it seems to have the most
"neutral" tone of anything I've got around my place. Have tried
headphones as well ... and realize this is an area I need
to address.

>Why don't you post a tune in the Bash This Recording section?

Will do that in the next day or two - and that's likely the
best way to establish what level I'm at with you folks.

Audio~Geek wrote:
>FP10 has 8 preamps and 2 digital inputs. Those tube preamps
are not necessary and probably do more harm than good.

This is an area I'd like to learn more about. The FP10
documentation confirms the preamp aspect for all inputs.
What I have experienced is that if I run a mic directly
into a channel without a preamp, the levels (when viewed
and heard in Cubase) seem way too low. If I crank the gain for the
channel all the way up, it shows better levels, but seems to
introduce noise into the track. So I picked up the preamps so I
could keep the input gain levels more at midrange, which seems to
eliminate the noise issue. I have an AKG kick drum mic I use to mic
the Bose bass module output, and if I run it direct (with no preamp)
I can barely get a signal to show when pull it into Cubase.
I have a feeling I've got a lot to learn in this area. I've thought
about taking a "weak" input track like this, and normalizing it
to get the levels up to a more appropriate gain level, but that
doesn't seem like it makes sense.

There was a comment about cables ... I really don't think
that's an issue ... most of my longer balanced cables I've
made up using high quality fully shielded XLR cable.

Brando mentioned:
>Improving your studio monitoring environment is ALWAYS
the best way to improve your recording quality.
If you can't hear, the fancy toys make no real difference.

This makes sense to me, and I believe that's the first issue
I might want to throw some dollars at. I'd appreciate
suggestions and/or recommendations on what path to follow.
I have wondered ... are there high-end headphones that can
perform as well (or nearly as well) as monitors? I'm willing
to spend dollars on decent monitoring gear, but would like
to spend the "right" amount. By that, I mean spending enough
to prevent the monitoring from being the weak link, but not
so much that the quality of the monitors will never be
recognized due to the other weak links in the chain.

I am a firm subscriber to the notion that the most important
aspect in improving the recording quality is identifying the
weakest link in the recording chain, and focusing on improving
it until something else becomes the weak link.

Again, thanks to everyone for the input.