Recording was never my strong suit

Alright, so the latest is that I sent out a mass email to musician friends in New York seeing if anyone knows anyone who could give me lessons on how to use all the expensive junk I just bought. I'm in good spirits, despite not getting any sound out of my keyboard yet, when it is plugged into the interface. Hopefully I will be logging sound engineering lessons very soon.

Sound engineering is something I've never been excited about, especially when I spent four months studying it (along with songwriting, and performing) in a program on Martha's Vineyard during college. I really, really do not understand it, and only by necessity am I struggling to. I wish someone made a program that was like using a Fisher Price tape recorder, except digitized. Instead, I look at the Cubase screen and am overwhelmed by all the pull-out tabs, clickable buttons, pop-up tool bars, and dozens upon dozens of EQ and reverb options. Give me Record, Stop, Play, Fast Forward, and Rewind. Give me a "Reverb or No Reverb?" button. I'm good to go with that. That's all I want.

Karl wants to know the brands of the stuff I got. I'm a little hesitant to share this info because buying it was a big step and now I'm stuck with it. I dread hearing something like, "Oh, man, you got (X) brand of interface?? Daaaang... you should have bought (Y), which is the professional standard, much easier to use, and costs half as much on (insert discount electronics store URL here)." So just bear with me. Help me think positive. :) That said, here's the line-up:

Omega Desktop Recording Studio including:

• Steinberg Cubase LE multi-track recording software
• Lexicon Omega interface - 8 Input x 4 Bus (what's a Bus again?) x 2 Output USB I/O Mixer
• Lexicon Pantheon world class VST reverb plug-in

ATH-M40fs Audio-Technica studio headphones

GT55 Groove Tube condenser microphone

ProLine boom microphone stand

Raxxess pop filter

Monster 12-foot 1/4" cables (two)

Mogami microphone cable

The end.