How are you transferring them?

Are the waveforms visibly quiet (if you have the ability to see them)

Maybe it's something in your hardware settings, like the sound card volume?

I transfer them via USB thats in the fostex..and i just drag and drop them to a folder on my computer hard drive. There is no sound card involved b/c i'm on my laptop. This is even before any editing so I cannot see sound levels.

Well, if they're fine on the fostex, I would guess it's something with your laptop's soundcard on playback. Check around in the windows volume settings and see if that helps.

I tried 3 different playback programs and on 2 computers...both had this problem. Thanks for the suggestion though

are you listening to unmixed unmastered raw waves? because if so, bingo bango theres your problem

Hello all! My first post in a long time. A loooong time. Good to be back.

My guess, its the preamps in the Fostex, you need an external mixer or decent pre. That is, assuming you have done all the software updates. Let us know how you get on so future users get the benefit.