Ivan - I went to one of the small music rooms last night, and the guys were incredibly indulgent, and I believe I have the mic on. I've highlighted and copied your advice here and will try it this evening to make sure I have the correct items checked and working.

I'm currently getting some volume but not that nice bassy sound so indigenous to a full bodied acoustic. In other words it sounds like I'm set on the smallest setting.

My local music shop, my town has one stop light, has a small pre amp (I don't know what kind) that they are going to loan me to see if I can figure this out before my concert this month.

If I am reading you correctly I should be able to preamp the sound after the mixer. Put my mic and guitar into the mixer and then preamp to the computer sound card.

Currently my mic is in the mic hole on the sound card and the mixer/guitar is in the input hole. Another problem I encountered was that the mic hole in the sound card is a stereo jack and my old shure mic is a straight mono jack. Will getting a stereo jack converter for the mono on the mike give me more volume on the mic? Or will it need to go through the pre amp also? I'd really like to be able to adjust them independently.

Thanks for your assistance - Steve