Kit, yes, for a while there i would not use xp even if it had been out for a couple of years. i was pretty comfy with 98 because most of my softwares ran happily and you know how the saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." i shifted to xp around 1 and a half years ago. something mustve broke though i don't remember what exactly. or perhaps it was the LE version i tried? i remember downloading it from the net so it must've been the free version.
i'm happy with cubase. really. correct me if im wrong, but i am under the impression that with pro tools HD, latency, hiccups, and hardware problems all magically go away. i'm guessing that you can record and play so many tracks, insert fx to your heart's content, automate, etc etc in HD without experiencing so much as a blink.
my experience with ordinary sound cards and cubase were very painful
inserting a couple of plugs and mixing 24 tracks or so will cause the cursor to jump from time to time, play back stops once in a while, and then if you're really lucky everything hangs in the middle of a mix (actually not in the middle, more like when ur 5 minutes away from hitting the "mixdown" button).
now with the rme i really don't know how it will perform. perhaps quantum leaps better than the old setup, but i'm guessing i will hit the limit sooner or later, as most of it is still dependent on pc hardware. is there a big difference in performance using HD? or is it the same thing with yopur cubase and sonar setup (what hardware do you use with your cubase and sonar rig)? i'm under the impression that HD is so much more powerful in terms of simultaneous record and playback tracks, the ability to insert plug in's etc. if that is the case, then the $$$ expense is justified. if not then im sticking with the reason why i did not purchase digi 002 in the first place ---> there are better options for the same money.
thanks everyone. almost done. clean up proves to be the most daunting of tasks