Emagic 6|2m Recording Level/noise Help, maybe my input levels are wrong? Options

[guatamaham]

I'm kind of new to the world of computer recording and using a decent interface (i.e. not my 1/8" audio input!). I like the emagic 6|2m I'm using so far. but I seem to have some issues with extra noise and getting levels set correctly. can anyone out there that has this card give me some pointers on how to set up the levels in audio/midi setup? all that I'm doing now is setting the input levels (of the instruments I'm recording) so that they're close to 0, but not clipping. that provides a good level with nice headroom, but there's also a bit of static there that I always seem to have to filter out.

thanks in advance!
Joe