Sounds like Buffer setting

Whether you think its related or not, if you have a compressor or other gear between the keyboard and the interface that is necessary info.

i do not have any gear between. using 4 sm58's directly into the interface which is an maudio fast track ultra 8r. the outboard gear i was referring to, is any processing put on the guitar before amp, which is on the same circuit as the interface(if by some insane way it was affecting the recordings). but i separated circuits and stripped down gear used on the guitar and came to conclusion that is has to be within the program, as nothing else makes sense.

i guess im more wondering if anyone who has used or uses cubase and experienced any problems with their audio once recorded(ie. some settings within the program that could cause this)

If you are running four 58's into your interface and getting digital noise then I agree with audiokid. Go into your settings and increase the buffer. Start at 1024 and work your way down.

Hello C.

Be asured that the problem is not Cubase, provided it was properly installed, updated and licenced.
But there is a great chance that you have a wrong project setting, buffer size or interface driver problem.
I do not work with the LE version, but maybe there are some similarities to Nuendo...
Is your driver choice inside Cubase set correctly to the ( latest version ! ) of the dreaded m-audio gadget?
Have you tried the ASIO driver?
Are the project settings you have chosen for this recording ok?
Is the buffer / latency set to a value that allows the set-up to work properly?
Is there a direct listening feature you might have overlooked?
Maybe try a fresh install of Cubase and any given updates. That has helped, occasionally.
When you have found all this ok, come back and we go on ...

ive been screwing around with my project settings in cubase(buffer and latency) and can get most noise out(but not all), i even tried putting a mixer in line before the interface, so i dumped in down to just 2 input on the interface, but still get the digital crap. ill do a fresh install of the driver for the interface, and fresh install of cubase and hopefully this will clean it all up. thanks the help!

Have you tweaked your computer for audio work? If not you need to turn off lots of unneeded services and programs from starting with Windows.

Could it be coming from your airport card. But it's hard to say. Could be a cell phone near by? Are there any radio towers near? Do you have fluorescent lighting anywhere nearby. Have you tried with the Macbook unplugged? Could you post a sample of the noise?

I may have the solution.

Is your interface sharing two audio apps? Could it be that you have, example: Cubase audio out sharing the same channels as something else like your media system (youtube)? If so, and not configured correct can cause this exactly. Look to see what else is sharing your output routing on the same channels.

You mentioned that everything sounds fine when you monitor the signal. However, that may be simply because of Direct Monitoring. I don't remember which way it is, but if you have Direct Monitoring either ticked or unticked in the Device Panel then you will be hearing your signal before it is processed through Cubase. If you change the setting and the signal is now distorted it will further confirm what everyone is saying that it is most likely a settings related problem and nothing else.