Kirby,

What you are experiencing is normal, making your recorded wave tracks "sit" in the overall mix. The USB mic should be set as a mono input device, if possible? Once you have captured your wave file, you can later duplicate it for a stereo field.

You should be recording without any effects enabled. Once you have captured your dry signal, you can then add effects in post editing. Using the same reverb settings on everything will also help "setup" the room sound.

It is harder to record effects live and have them match up with different effects in post edit. The rule of thumb is to record everything dry and then add in effects so the volume, effects and eq can be added and adjusted to taste.

It is easier to add to a mix then trying to remove an unwanted sound.

Trax