Hey everyone,

Hopefully I can ask a few questions about my home recording set-up here. I'm completely new to all of this, and I thank you for being patient with me.

My background, really quickly, is this: I've been writing songs since I was 15 (I'm almost 30 now), and have hundreds of songs at this point, but I've been far too shy to get up onstage for more than a random open mic every once in a while. Anyway, I thought my only hope might be that I'd record and post my songs online for the friends who have heard my stuff. I finally saved up enough for the following equipment:

Cubase SX 3
M-Audio Fast Track Pro
MXL 2001 and MXL 603 mics

And now that I've got it all together in one place I have to confess that I don't have a freaking clue how to put it all together. I've installed (successfully, I think) all the software and all the drivers, but it's not working. The "Help" documents might as well be in Chinese. I wonder if I'm missing something in order to get the Cubase software and the Fast Track interface to recognize each other. Of course I have the USB cable going from the Fast Track into the computer (Windows XP, service pack 2). I can get Cubase to start recording, and while it's supposedly recording I'll clap my hands in front of the microphones -- and this will light up some green lights on the Fast Track -- but then when I try to play it back (using my computer's speakers), all I get is some very quiet static instead of hand clapping.

I understand that this is all pretty vague, and that there could be a couple hundred potential solutions to finally get this going. Sorry about that. I'll try one thing at a time if you've got any fixes in mind. Luckily, I just quit my old job and won't start my next job until January, so I've got all of this month to get this up and running. I'll be happy to post any further information as needed in order to help narrow things down and pinpoint where I'm going wrong.

Again, sorry for the cluelessness. I respect what you've all got going on here, and I hope someone would be kind enough to point me in the right direction.

Thanks,
Tadpaul