Gb, Cubase And Garritan, working with Cubase, Garritan and Garage Options

[taiqi]

I've been lurking for a while and thought I would bring up some problems I'm having. I have a 400 htz G4 ibook that I'm using with Cubase SX and Garageband with Garritan Strings. I mainly do ambient soundtrack like music, rather long tracks with a mix of live and midi instruments.

The first problem is that everytime I use Garritan with Garageband I can only get one sound. Each new track has to bring up a new Garritan keyboard. Can I assume that this is the midi limitation of Garageband?

I would use Cubase more but I find the effects for midi very limited. I love all the control I have with Garageband effects. Is there a way to get a fuller range of effects for the midi channels in Cubase without resorting to the end mix?

And finally (for now) suddenly it seems that I am not able to control the mix of the midi instruments through Cubase mixer. I've been all over the software looking for a way to control the levels. They show up in the mixer but don't respond.

thanks,
doug