This is frustrating. My kickass desktop DAW works perfectly. Problem is scheduling and ambient noise. I share a house and rarely have control of external noise. It would be extremely difficult to get the storyteller, who wants to read several books, here during those times when I am alone. (It's rarely a problem for my own work because most of what I do is electronic, and I can record voice whenever it's best.)

Hence the plan to use the laptop. I can take it to her place and record at our mutual convenience, if I can get the system to work properly.

John: I can light up the signal indicator on the I/O and occasionally get the peak light to flash. I also show good levels into the Windows mixer. I barely get any signal into either RB or Cubie.

Scott: I routinely change the input and output devices. (I even found a cool hack that lets me listen to one thing on headphones and another on external speakers connected to a docking station.) The US-224 is for certain sure set as the audio I/O.

Daisy: I'm willing to try anything, but I have used these programs and others elsewhere with good results. It's something I'm missing with this particular system. As John says above, it's either me or the hardware.

Mike: Cubase VST is a bundled version that came with the TASCAM and dates to 2004. It is fully functional except for having only one level of undo. (I am also familiar with its big brother, Nuendo, versons 1.0 through 4.xx.) I tried what you suggested. Either the gain knob is somewhere else or it doesn't exist in this version of Cubase.

I do appreciate the reminder about gain processing. Unless I can get at this issue from the front end, that's what I'll have to do.

Also, for the record, I have diagnosed two bad mic cords and replaced them with a tested and known-good piece. I wonder about the USB cable. As far as I know the TASCAM is USB 1.0, but if I can find a replacement I'll switch that out, too.

Still open to suggestions.

"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."