Hi folks - I haven't given up on this although I am currently flirting with GarageBand (which is happy with my new mike) and which is looking very versatile.
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GarageBand is indeed versatile. It's worth reading, or at least skimming, through the manual and the 'getting started' bit of the on-line help.
One thing to be aware of is that GarageBand produces quite large files when it's saved in 'raw' .band format. But you can choose to export the sound files in other formats. Go to <Share> <Export song to disk>. This allows you to save the file in several formats, including mp3 which will significantly reduce the file size. If you're happy that you will never want to perform any further edits, you can then safely delete the .band file and save yourself some disk space.