> 5-string bass into the mic and line-in slots of the card, booted up 
 > Cakewalk,
 > could hear just a tiny little signal (nothing registered on the 
 > meter check),
Well that's interesting. 
My first thought is that your Bass has a mic output rather then a line out???
I have not gotten to the point of trying to record Wav. files yet (lazy).
But with the "fight" I've had just gitting the Wav. to play, Well!
MIDI now works fine cept I can't find the correct driver (3.1) to use both 
ports of my Music Quest mqx32M?????  It appears that I can have port #1 or #2 
and not both?????
Check your connections into the card for record. Could be your sending the 
signal on the other line and just hear/seeing the crosstalk. If you have a 
mixer with stero out send the signal to both inputs and see what happens.
I have a little Tascan 06M 6 in with panpots and several stero outs. 
In what doc reading I've done there a small amount of real info.
Luck
Clint
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