sorry for the late reply guys, but thank you all for the input. I was hoping I could get by without buying a program but it appears that I may have to. I havent tried limiting or much EQ, both of which I could do in Cubase. I'll fool around with that first, but as I said, I already had the output levels close to peak, so it looks like I will need some other program (like ozone) to take it the next step. I'm sure it would be easy to take it to a professional, but as much as it stresses me out, I love learning all this on my own. It's really time consuming but very rewarding, not to mention it saves $$. I haven't had a chance to download anything or read anything suggested yet, but I will and just wanted to post a quick update. thanks all, Dylan