rereformat pako pc after this. i was adviced to reformat before installing my m-audio card.
Personally, I don't see a need to reformat when installing new hardware, but I do see a need for making sure your system is properly tuned for audio. By default, after every new install, windows is more primed for video and multimedia than for the needs of audio. Another thing is to make sure your audio card does not share an IRQ with the video card. Windows may report no conflicts, but when it comes to audio, windows know practically nothing about it, that's why we have to tweak our systems first.
About built-in soundcards... if anyone here has performed as much tests on his own system as much as I have, why not try sharing that with us? Unfortunately, my own tests were undocumented but they did prove to me how important a good soundcard is for recording and mixing. My pet peeves with cheap soundcards and onboard audio? A high noise floor, uneven frequency response and DC offset. I've also mixed on Altec Lansings and I can tell you to stay away from them for serious mixing, unless you happen to be making music for computer games.
Glad you are thinking about getting Cubase, Rodster. Pirated software is so easy to obtain nowadays and versus the cost of the real thing, it's almost easy to justify obtaining it. Just to be clear, though, not all of us are rich enough. My first, biggest investment was my 1820m which came with Cubase VST, and that took quite some time to pay off (it helps when one has relatives abroad). There was an upgrade path to Cubase SL2 which cost under $200 so I took the plunge. And then came Sonar 4... it did take me quite some time to pay off my debts. The beauty of having the real thing is that upgrading is so inexpensive, plus the manuals that come with the software are practically priceless!
I agree we shouldn't be so judgmental about people, but let's also be clear about software piracy. The proliferation of pirated software and the amount of people using it has a direct bearing on the cost of the original product. People don't buy the real thing leading to lower sales thereby driving up the original's cost. Eventually, there won't be enough demand that the company will have to close the line or go out of business altogether. This makes the support of pirated software a self-defeating exercise, doesn't it? It threatens the existence of the very tools we use for our craft. It also makes vendors very apprehensive about selling software here since they know they cannot make money if people will buy pirated software instead. We all lose out since we will be depriving ourselves of much needed software technologies and support.
A Happy New Year to you! I hope the above has given you a more enlightened view about our reactions and our way of thinking. When I saw your first post, I knew how people were going to react; it is unfortunate that some were too quick to anger, and for that I apologize.
A Prosperous New Year to all!!!
