I guess that's why if I simply let Forte's GM handle the instruments, my songs sound like they are good to go, but when I import MIDI tracks to my DAW and load individual instruments, the overall results sound disjointed. Got it now.

And as far as reference recording, yes I do that all the time. I always leave one track in my DAW dedicated to a stereo reference song, of course without any processing and with plugins on the stereo bus disabled (only when I solo this track). Sometimes if I want to get really picky, I'll use an EQ analyzer on the stereo bus and A/B my song and the reference song.

Thanks Mac.