Herring...congratz!  Finally!  If you have a condenser mic it will need phantom power or you will not hear anything, muted nor otherwise.  I'm sure you've checked this out by now.  If it's a dynamic mic then you don't need phantom power, and it likewise should not sound muted.  The tascam unit has a mic pre (preamp) on board and so you must tweak that to get optimum sound, since a mic is LINE level input, it will require a boost for you to hear it.  Good luck.

Now let's hear somethin' from you, and give it to Dan to post!

Gene