Steev

Not at all a fan of using quantification and if I do it's in very small sections phrases or scale fragments of the timeline and typically under one bar. But ONLY if it's an easy fix when a new take or punch in performance isn't feasible. I spent decades trying to humanize and knock the machine feel out of MIDI and I'm not about to intentionally quantize it back into human performances. I have a friend and long time collaborator who composes predominantly in MIDI with Reason and programming drums and perc with a step sequencer, usually creating music about 4 bars at a time, and STILL insists on quantizing all the parts he performs from a MIDI keyboard before moving on to the next 4 measures! Drives me crazy, as he's one of the best performing keyboard players I ever met, and he's jamming along with a step sequencer!?!? And when he's finished He'll pass it on to me for collaboration which always starts with a first session of me having to apply MIDI "Swing" editing on my part to get as close I CAN to try re-humanizing his performances with reverse engineering to apply all the human sounding error that makes him so good to translate back into his own natural expressions and feelings. One of my favorites and profound "Quotes" of all times is by Ray Davies of the Kinks when he said; "If you knock all the flaws out of Rock and Roll, then it's not Rock & Roll anymore."

@BRainbow Taylor doesn't make pickups, and if you buy a low end Taylor you're going to get a low end pickup. I'm a huge fan of the Fishman PREsys. It has both Piazo pickup and a adjustable condenser mic built in "preamp" with gain, EQ, notch filter, phase switch, tuner, and blend knob. It is extremely adjustable and tweak-able. and works greater for performing live plugged into my Line 6 Spider V120 which also has 5 very usable presets for acoustic guitar that didn't require much tweaking to get what I want out of my Alvarez to sound very authentic and VERY LOUD. Works surprisingly well for recording and getting very close the the authentic sound of natural beauty the Alvarez acoustic, and of course a touch reverb for "room sound" is always needed for direct in recording if you don't want your recording to sound like you have your ears pressed up to the sound board of you guitar. And dialed in properly the PREsys is close enough to sit pretty well in a mix with comparing it to micing the Alvarez with a matched pair of Rode NT 5 small diaphragm condenser mics (a.k.a. Pencil Mics) placed in a stereo X/Y position approx 2 feet to 4 feet away with one pointed towards the 12th fret and the other pointed at the bridge is doable, and certainly close enough for rock & roll, but a pretty hard to improbable act to replicate for serious natural sounding audiophile results of the air between the mics and the guitar itself. Mic placement it critical. The "Nicer" 'softer' and 'flatter' your room sounds, the farther away you can place your mics. But if you have a lot of untreated hard surfaces like bare walls, hardwood floors, you will want to keep your mics closer, and small diaphragm condenser mics are great for taking advantage of proximity effects for this. At close distances their proximity effect is naturally narrowed down (super cardioid) a few feet away for natural sound acoustic guitar and the cardioid pickup pattern naturally and smoothly increases by distance, 6'-10' away great for recording a natural sound of a group of background singers, 10' and beyond they will capture the natural sound of an entire band. By be careful with that, because they will also capture the natural sound of the room, and that includes room sounds us humans are naturally inclined to ignore without even thinking about it. Until we hear it being played back in another room environment, like you car, or just another room, you will hear all the faults of the room in your FACE that you naturally originally ignored. But using "pencil mics" to record acoustic guitar is one of my favorite ways to capture a very natural acoustic guitar sound in almost any room environment quiet enough to hear the acoustic guitar properly. And the Behringer C2 matched pair of pencil mics are mind boggling GOOD and selling for a retail price of $60 (us) had earned the solid 1st place for my ""!!! WTF?? !!!"" AWARD of 2016. Do I think they are as good as my $300 Rode NT 5's for recording acoustic guitar? YES! But not for all recording applications. Do I think they are as good as my $700 Shure SM81's? No, but either are $1600 Neumann KM 184's, and I'm talking about ALL recording applications. Now we're just comparing peaches to nectarines. I have half a mind to think it should be illegal for Behringer to sell the C2's for only $60. 😲 If you can't get a natural acoustic guitar sound you won't be happy with with Behringer C2's then I'm sorry, but I'll have to assume you won't ever admit to being happy with anything However if you are the type who loves the sound and likes to jam with a large diaphragm condenser inches from the sound hole of an acoustic guitar, you will LOVE the Fishman PREsys plugged direct in, and before you know it you'll be using the Lg Condenser for something else.. And the best and most amazing part about the Fishman PREsys? You can find very capable great sounding discontinued PREsys's on eBay for around $20 (us), and IF you are capable of installing them, and that includes "Precisely" cutting or enlarging a whole within +or- 1mm to 2mm margin of error. This is not a job for the impatient or those who like to rush results with power tools, because you do not get any do overs. Installing the PREsys in my beloved Alvarez was the scariest thing I ever did since getting married for the first time, which unfortunately didn't work out as I expected. So before you try and cut into your precious acoustic guitar, I'd highly recommend try cutting into something else first to see if you like it.😴 Practice makes perfect, and nobody is perfect, so measure at least twice and cut once.

Ah yes, the oldies but goodies. Brings back memories of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Yes, Kansas, and Styx to name a few..😁 I'm thinking you are trying to use too many very old and outdated DXi's at once that write written well before DX v12. These synths are indeed all powerful and kind of reigned supreme for me with SONAR Producer 8.5 but I started noticing getting weak on performance and stability after X3, at which point I started using another computer a Dell Inspiron running windows XP, SPRO 8.5 more or less as a dedicated hardware instrument. Simply because the great old synths were built to run on XP when 64x computing was still a futuristic wet dream, when we all wondered if it was even possible at all. And I'm not entirely sure, but I have a bad, bad feeling that running softsynths created in 32 bit DX 9 world might not be up to speed in traversing to a 64x DX 12 universe? I still use TTS-1 today and it works excellently in projects set up to 24/48 but have stability issues with using any one of the others Cyclone GroovePlayer PSYN II Pentagon I I completely forgot about Roland GrooveSynth. I never used it, but owning a Roland JV synth module there was never any point. Hmm, can't remember the last time I used that either. A great alternative to achieve the old school analog synth sound for me is either, and yet still vintage Dimension Pro, Rapture, or better yet, which I guess have just recently slipped into the vintage category, the Rapture Session or Pro version is more my cup of tea because I can dig deeper into sound creation and design, but if you're just choosing and selecting patches then the free included Rapture Session is more them powerful enough. Not sure if Rapture Session or Pro will continue to slip down the spiraling drain of obscurity, I certainly hope not, but we can wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which fills up first... Or, I'm thinking Native Instruments puts out some nice stuff? You don't need to go broke going overboard and be a Complete MACHINE head if all you need is one of their synths that can do all of the above, perhaps, I was always kind of fond of Absynth years ago which is still on my Dell laptop. I never upgraded it so it won't work well on on my Win 10 computer if at all.

Not really, CDRs are extremely fragile one little scratch and PPPBBBTTTZZ, and it's either, "Hey could you send me another one?" Or more then likely "Ah MAN, just forget about it.. Haven't you ever heard of the Internet?" Mail delivery is slow here in the US if you don't pay extra to help movie it, especially when customs gets involved, filling out forms, and paying fees here in the US and mailing CDs and thumb drives first class overseas are subject to customs inspections. Those guys can be rather testy on a good day, and those working today are working on a skeleton crew and not even knowing when they are getting paid these days doesn't do anything to improve their moods, and I know and moving sloooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwllllllly and grudgingly, and our air traffic controllers aren't getting paid either. Then all of a sudden BLAM! The CD gets accidently SMASHED into 1000 PIECES and sent to 200 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, and none even close to the desired destination, and about 2 weeks after that you get an angry call with shouting "WELL WHERE'S MY CD YOU PROMISED ME?" and you weakly proclaim, "What? But I sent it to you 2 weeks ago". and then the angry voice on the other side retorts; "OH DON'T EVEN TRY TO GIVE ME THAT CD IS IN THE MAIL BULL CRAP!! I HATE YOU, YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THEN HIDIOUS UGLY LYING PIG TRYING TO WASTE ALL MY TIME TO DISTROY MY LIFE AND MY MUSICAL CAREER!" is the last thing you'll hear before realizing... Well, hmmm, wow, that didn't exactly go as I expected.. Maybe I should use Google or Drop Box next time. But even moving quickly with no problems it could takes weeks for something that can happen in mere hours sending through the cloud? Hello? Is Anybody OUT THERE? Wow, do I ever got to pee! Hey, I don't know what happened, I was just trying to pee in a jar and I saw NOTHING! This has GOT to be somebody else's fault!

OK then, I didn't update my workstation with 10 Pro yet. I have too many active in the works Cakewalk projects going on to fix something that ain't broken yet and I'm sure Microsoft will bury it deep, and as usual they changed the Windows 10 settings controls panel the "gear" icon opens. I prefer the legacy Windows control panel gotten to by typing it into Cortana. I'm sure it's hidden there in plain site. However, I have absolutely NO intentions of stopping any security and patch updates. I'm a big fan of keeping up to date, even if I need to buy a new printer or MIDI keyboard controller occasionally, my computing for free and hacking days are long over. When I think about I was using my Edirol PCR500 since Windows 2000 to Win 7, it kind of broke my heart, but that was short lived after getting and falling in love the Novation Impulse 61. 😍 And a bulb went off in my head soon after remembering the PCR's nothing more then a MIDI controller, and I can plug it in via standard 5 pin MIDI ports Duh... And I discovered a real quite shocking WTF epiphany moment when I realized how much my PCR was slowing down SONAR running off the ancient USB drivers, and hacking them to work in Win 10 only made it increasingly worse. And my new HP Envy 7640 prints great at blazing speed super cheap to run, orders it's own ink cartridges over the Internet when it get low with HP's instant ink subscription at $3.24 (us)= 1/2 price off for 50 pages per month color, B&W pictures, it doesn't matter, and with a roll over plan. I've never been printer crazy so got like 200 page built up for a big printing project when and if it arises. And I'll never have to run out to Staples for an emergency ink cart run again and that alone is PRICELESS! Yes I am BIG fan of staying current and on top of technology and never falling too far behind anywhere, and especially staying on top of security updates, especially since I make my living on computers. Well I actually make my living on my Mac which is pestering me up upgrade from High Sierra to Mojave since it came out in December, but screw that, that's a little too soon, that's for Apple Head Test tube babies, and I'm done beta testing both OS's. Don't ever believe the BS that Mac's don't have problems and get viruses like Windows computers. Because they have Mac problems and catch Mac viruses, AND even though they might not be infected by Windows viruses, they're still vulnerable to exploits and can still pass on viruses to Windows computers, and that's nothing short of FAQed UP. And I'm sorry boys and girls, but so is not letting Windows patch security and exploit flaws. There are a LOT of nasty hackers out there they work 24/7 365 days a year with nothing better to do then screw you up for no other reason then "Because they can". And THAT is why Microsoft continuously has to update, and also keep abreast of the constant ever changing newer advancements in both software and hardware technology. I'm keenly aware and know all to well what a screwed up world we're living in, but Microsoft is into Computer Science not Political Science, and Google is still hell bent on their original motto of "Do No Evil" and they don't. In fact I truly believe both Microsoft and Google do everything they can to stop evil people from spreading evil upon us, but all they can really do is slow it down. Blaming Microsoft and or Google for spreading evil is like blaming a gun for shooting you or a knife for stabbing you I've actually come to being more trusting, confident, and happy with Windows 10 performance which I definitely find noticeably BETTER then Win 7 and lack of troublesome issues then any Windows OS upgrade since Win 2000 This is more of a curiosity to me then anything else, and I'm even surprised Microsoft caved into the pressure of allowing anyone to stop security updates. But hey, even responses I get here I completely disagree with are infinitely more interesting and accurate then what our poor dear "Toddler in Chief" has to say on TV with his Jibber jibber, jibber jabber, Jibber jibber, jibber jabber, Jibber jibber, jibber jabber on and on...……….. as we play with our favorite toys he plays with his favorite toys and sings his songS of Jibber jibber, jibber jabber, Jibber jibber, jibber jabber, Jibber jibber, jibber jabber, as the pretty talking heads delight in him signing praise to him... And always pointing thy fingers at others...…………….. And naming and re-naming the names of the doomed...………………. ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY. GEESE! Oh he's a true ROCK STAR that one, YES indeed! Thank God I can get the local weather on my computer or Android phone, thank God for Netflix or I wouldn't have a TV in the living room at all. There is only so much music I can record and make before burning out.. And, and, and...……………….. Ummm, what was this conversation about?? Oh yeah, there ARE NO SOLUTIONS! WHEN THERE ARE ONLY DEBATES!

OH HELLS YEAH! LoL.. Any doesn't anybody believe in posting different threads for different topics anymore?? Hmmm, I'm not entirely sure we ever did so... And now going back to something completely different from this thread.... I just updated my crash test dummy Intel i7 machine to Win 10 1809 yesterday to resolve my misunderstanding of Windows 10's new found ability to give the user the ability to "refuse" to accept updates.. And I've seen with my own eyes that it still isn't possible, you can only "Defer" updates, meaning in common layman's terms... PUT OFF UPDATING TO A LATER DATE! Like a week from release notification. That's just too much extra work and fretting for me, since I can choose when to let it update, and considering Windows hasn't installed a poison pill update on my computer since v10's release, by telemetry Windows scans and checks the update results, and if something is wrong and the update FAILS, Window Update will stop and roll back if necessary, and try again next week after fixing the patch, all by itself without any output from me. Any if I don't LOOK into Windows Update History, I would even know there was ever a problem or even know it happened, because the only notifications I have turned on is telling me I have an update waiting to be installed. And that will only happen after a few minutes of idle time, NEVER when I'm working with an open app window running. I always choose to let Windows update when I don't need to use the computer. Why put off until tomorrow what I can do NOW and get it over and done with?? And I also noticed, that even though 1809 does in fact "Break Apple's iCloud" since Microsoft dropped support for Homegroups Networking in 1803, it doesn't matter to my network running on a Netgear Nighthawk router. And so I shall be continuing updating all my Windows computers, via USB flash drive as I write this, so I don't have to DEFER the major update again. By using Windows Media Creation Tool, I not only have a hardcopy of 1809 for emergency purposes, I don't have to download it to every computer for the upgrading ritual. Unlike v10 home, with v10 Pro I can and did choose to DEFER the 1803 to 1809 update for 3 months, and I can do it as many times as I want for as long as I want up to a full year.

I agree in this theory. It's still a theory to me because I haven't had the opportunity to actually bench test it with a DAW yet. And as a long time user of AMD all their CPU technologies through the years start out with low wattage/ low clock speeds, and steadily increases by generation, it fact they've already started the process. The Ryzen 7 2700 8-Core (1st gen) only needs 65 Watts which clocks at 3.2 g/Hz with a 4.1 g/Hz turbo boost. Ryzen 7 2700X 8-Core 3.7 GHz (4.3 GHz Max Boost) They raised the Wattage of Ryzen 7 2700X 8-Core (2sd gen) to 105 Watts to raise the clock speed bar to run at 3.7 GHz (4.3 GHz Max Boost) And If my theory is correct, by years end the Ryzen 7 xxxxx 8-Core should be right on schedule to be topping 4 G/Hz with a 4.6 G/Hz Turbo Thrust. That's exactly how they progressed generationally when I started using AMD's with the XP series AMD CPUs , equivalent of Pentium 4, running Windows 2000-32 bit The Athlon was a consumer grade monster and serious contender and threat to Pentium line. It open eyes and introduced me to AMD 🙂 The Phenom "GAMER GRADE" series = early Intel "i" series, 32 bit Win XP, 64 bit Win 7, and 64 bit Mac and the FX series = Intel Xeon "WORKSTATION/SERVER" grade 64 bit Win 7- v10, and Mac Pro HD This is like an Overclocking lesson 101, and being Ryzen 7's are unlocked, users can crank up the juice and get the same results, how ever by doing so, AMD will void warrantee because you overclocked and no longer be responsible for any damage done to your computer, so I highly recommend NOT doing this unless you have mad overclocking skills with a detailed working knowledge of your Computer's BIOS, you have a better chance of a blue screen of death instead of botting Windows, or FRYING your motherboard then you do frying the Ryzen 7. It's much cheaper and less risky to simply upgrade the whole CPU every year or so if you lust for the extra POP under the hood, BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE A HIGH PERFORMANCE, GAMER GRADE MOTHERBOARD WITH SUPPORT FOR OVERCLOCKING! Being all new AMD CPU's and "APU's" used the same standardized AMD Socket 4 slot, you CAN install a Ryzen 7 8-Core into a cheap bargain box AMD that you got on a black Friday blowout sale at Best Buy and it will run by scaling itself back to what your new cheap arse mobo can do, so it's a total waste of time and money, and maybe even perform worse then the much cheaper APU you yank out of it. AMD motherboards come standard with built in Upwards compatibly since I can remember. It's only takes a couple of minutes to swap out a CPU if you know what you are doing, and if you don't, you can just as easily find out exactly how to do it on YouTube. It's so easy, there are NO TOOLS REQUIRED! As of to date, I'm not aware of any Macs running any AMD CPUs, but they do LOVE their AMD FirePros that RULE THE KINGDOM of the high end Apple boxes, er, I mean "trash cans", because that's exactly what a Mac Pro looks like. Mac Pro Intel Xeon E5 3.5 GHz, 16 GB DDR3, 256GB HDD, Dual AMD FirePro D500 3GB Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks I know it looks funny, Apple has always had a great sense of rather campy "design humor" but this puppy will make you feel like "Final Cut Pro" runs like you're playing "Grand Theft Auto". And please take note of the low clock speed of the Xeon running 16 GB of DDR3 memory. And the bad part of the new Mac Pro design is it should never be placed on the floor, because sooner or later somebody is going to accidently for get it a weird looking computer and try and throw an 1/2 empty can of beer at it or spit their "Chew" into it, and or even maybe empty an ashtray into it full of soggy ciggy butts and ganja roaches into it whilst listening and jamming to the the playback of their current DAW project.... And WHO'S FAULT WOULD THAT BE? But the AMD FirePro doesn't care what kind of CPU you have OR what kind of OS you have. It has it's own totally independent Accelerant ENGINE powered by its own highspeed GPU and VERY highspeed DDR5 memory ALL kinds Spec-ed out for "digital content creation".... zoom, zoOM, ZOOMMMMM. And that's even with a high speed Thunderbolt 3 device plugged in one of it's 2 DisplayPorts, hee, hee, oh YES YOU CAN! AMD has excellent and very advanced support for DisplayPort technology. Well that's only natural because they are the original Patent Rights designers.🤑 And for best results with any Intel i7 or AMD systems, "Shut down and disable any and all CPU based video processing controllers in BIOS if possible, and in Windows Services!" so Windows doesn't accidently turn it back on in a future major "Update' " And disable all onboard video chipset drivers in "Device Manager" so Windows doesn't accidently turn it back on in a future major "Update' "Insure your FirePro is the Default Graphics device for the system." so Windows doesn't accidently look past it, because FirePros aren't Windows legacy devices, and so it doesn't "exactly" know what it is and select the 'obvious' run of the mill graphics and default back to onboard graphics in a future major "Update' "And specifically choose the FirePro as the Default Graphics Card to use for "Accelerated Graphics Processing" within the NLE of your choosing. i.e. Vegas Pro, Adobe, Pinnacle Studio, etc." This step is quite similar to forcing a DAW to default to ASIO drivers as opposed to selecting Windows MME drivers as default. It can happen, and always does for no apparent reasons when you least expect it for many various reasons. Why??? BECAUSE IT DOES! That's Whyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Ask Not onto Others no Obviously stupid Questions!" Especially when you already know that BECAUSE IT DOES! is the only obviously simple correct answer!

I just helped a friend configure and build a new AMD Ryzen 7 ThreadRipper workstation with the new FirePro Z series PCIe 16x v3 Graphics card running Vegas Pro 16 and it's a jaw dropping rather shocking experience. 😮 I WANT ONE!! And what's equally shocking is all the components for this build was less then $1600 (us) from Newegg.com. That's about 40% less cash outlay then a comparable Intel i7 build. I'm actually planning on upgrading my current AMD FX machine to Ryzen by years end as it's getting a bit long in the tooth, and only supports PCIe 16x v2.1 which does a serious job with the older FirePro V5900 which I thought was blazing fast.. But that was before I actually witnessed what the Ryzen could do running a 15 minute long music video with heavy editing with 3D titling, all kinds video FX and transitions and iZotope Ozone running on the master buss and in 5k video pumped into a 24" Acer desktop monitor for Vegas GUI and a 40" 4k Samsung Monitor for full screen video monitoring both connected thru DisplayPort. WOWZER is more like an understatement. No video lag, no latency, no ghosting, not even a burp or flicker with all that processing going on. AND it rendered the 15 min project to 4k .mp4 in less then 6 minutes. And so after some rather rigorous benching the new Ryzen workstation with Vegas Pro all I can say is I WANT ONE NOW! 😍 I think if we finished that case of Beer I brought over for the build party I most likely would have logged into my Newegg on the spot and reordered the exact component list, LoL, but I'm still more then good until the end of the year, even though I really, really WANT ONE NOW!🤣

Oh I can believe that if don't don't specify how many streaming cores Vegas is allowed to use, considering the GTX1050ti is a GAMER card, and not a DCC card, it'll most likely reserve most of it's cutty cores for serious flash bang shoot'em ups across your computer screen. 😁

This maybe hard to see without squinting with the 400p limitation, but it's a screenshot of CbB smoothly running 50 tracks of audio and MIDI with dozens of audio FX actively running by Cakewalk, Eventide, and Waves.. Waves Sheps Omni Channel window displayed which was used in real-time vocal recordings monitored through Cakewalk "Input Monitoring" with undetectable latency, and also running Addictive Drums 1 (active) and AD2 (frozen), Rapture Pro (active), and Cakewalk TTS 1 (frozen) As a long time rule, went I'm satisfied with a track, I freeze it. Period. More for safety percaution against accidental destructive edits, then to recover needed CPU power which is seemingly endless with an AMD FX 8370 running any DAW (it isn't), it certainly isn't with Video editing software like Sony Vegas Pro, it's merely MASSIVE CPU performance which, like everything else in the world, has it's limits. Anyway, my Scarlett 18i20 gen 2 USB 2 has no problems keeping up with 50 tracks with CAKEWALK by BANDLAB and delivering ROCK SOLID performance with ultra low latency through all the above, with CbB's CPU meter staying under and average 30% across all 8 cores.. Only thing breaking a sweat in this music project is ME single handedly performing every part multi tracking and recording my rendition of Frank Zappa's "Wet Tee Shirt Nite", which after about 5-6 months of the old school trial and error method is almost ready to be posted to Bandlab.com and grouped down to under 12 less then perfect tracks available to all in Bandlab's nifty "Mix Editor" where anyone can mix or retrieve for importing into your DAW of choice, and by all means, do what you think is necessary to perfect them if you want and think you can... Have at it! I have an enormous amount of fun on Bandlab jamming and collaborating with musical artists of all skill levels.. Working in the studio on a professional level isn't fun, it's WORK, often tedious, often painful working hard to make poorly executed "elevator music" sound like professionally crafted "elevator music", and doing so in genres I normally wouldn't even listen to. It can really, really suck sometimes, but it pays a hell of a lot better then driving a truck, which can be a hell of a lot more fun at times, but hey, we do what we do to survive. I don't make a dime on Bandlab, but it's fun and it reminds me of who I was yesterday and who I am today, both at the same time, and why I learned how to use all this recording studio crap in the first place, and how far I need to go to take it to the limits.. And where to stop before going to far.😍

Thank you Jim, so kind of you to notice. 🙂 I do believe and sincerely wish that we can be friends. And if Bandlab didn't pick up where Gibson left off, I'd be well on my way to be moving from SONAR to Studio ONE and most likely set my sails for the Quantum eventually, by the time SPLAT slipped deeply into the deepest depths of obscurity.. Ah but God, and Meng were on my side and saved me a BOATLOAD of Franklins, and my future looks bright.... So I'm gonna leave off with some of my favorite rock and roll words of wisdom of all times. Where it is written.... On what ever they right it on in the mighty "Church of Rock Music" Ew,,,,,EE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Ewwww, ah, ah...……. Ting, Tang...…………….. Rama/Lama...…………. Ding..Dong……... Yep, it's ALL GOOD! :O))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

My sentiments exactly, built in audio interface mic preamps are designed multi purpose interfacing balanced equally between high energy line level signals that require little to no gain, and very sensitive condenser microphones that typically require a wide range of gain structure and cover a wide impedance range to cover an insanely wide range of mics from various dynamic mics to various condenser mics with no coloration with the least amount of noise. And as far as I can tell these days, they are all doing a pretty damn good job at it in a one size fits all manor of speaking, they are all "good" enough. That is until you plug in an AKG 414 or a Neuman U 87 good enough is no longer good enough to fully appreciate in depth of why these are widely considered the cream of the crop World's Best and why so many manufacturers strive so hard to reach these standards and even clone them. I do own a vintage Focusrite ISA 1 which is excellent for dialing in the proper gain structure and exacting impedance for any particular mic. I also have a vintage Focusrite Liquid Channel channel strip which is more versatile and excellent. And I relied on them heavily for decades and meticulously maintained them with tender loving care... And then Cakewalk built in a surprisingly powerful ProChannel channel strip, perfected "Input Monitoring", Focusrite enhanced ultra low latency USB 2 interfaces, Eventide came out with the UltraChannel, and Waves came out with the Sheps Omni Channel, and it didn't take long to realize, through empirical evidence, that these beloved pieces of vintage gear where no longer essentially needed, and still great, but became more of a PITA then anything else.. And the only piece of essential outboard hardware I rely on in my studio today, is a VERY reasonably priced less then one year old Allen & Heath ZED 14 analog mixing desk, which I consider the world's smallest large format mixing console.. But that's a topic for another conversation involving Allen Parsons and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" album "Tour".😮

@Grem I didn't miss the point, Jim demanded I show him a Thunderbolt to Firewire adaptor, and I did. ALL COMPUTERS NEED FIREWIRE CONTROLLERS FOR THUNDERBOLT. and whether they are built into Windows motherboards, a card plugged into a PCIe slot, or embedded into Apple Logic boards, the one thing they all have in common is ALL COMPUTERS NEED FIREWIRE CONTROLLERS FOR THUNDERBOLT SUPPORT. I made the point of pointing out that you do NOT need to reach the super sonic speeds of today's modern PCIe Buss speeds for safe, indictable, and reliable very low latency recording. Do you guys have any comprehension of how short a period of time a millisecond is? No of course you don't, no human being does. On my Windows computer I'm using the Focurite Scarlett 18i20 gen 2 USB 2 and with near enough Thunderbolt latency With SONAR or CbB. On my Mac I'm using a Thunderbolt 2 device through a Firewire 800 port which for obvious reasons CANNOT reach full Buss bandwidth either, but that doesn't matter because they is NO NOTICABLE LATENCY ISSUES BETWEEN ARTIST AND PRO TOOLS. @Starship Krupa I had suggested the AMD FirePro because AMD has a history of staying with sockets and drivers that are very forward compatible and can last a much longer support timeline then anything Intel and nVidia has ever offered. AMD has a history of staying with the CPU socket for decades as well, for instance, when I first bought my ASRock FX990 gamer grade Motherboard with a AMD3+ socket about 6 or 7 years ago I was running the all powerful Phenom 965 4 core Black edition at the time. I was able to swap out AMD CPUs over the years without the change any hardware or my motherboard, all it took was a simple free BIOS flash and the FX990 mobo was ready to support FX 8 core CPUs which is currently running the FX8370 which just became obsolete last year or so when AMD introduced the AMD4 socket to support their new Rysen Thread Rippers MORE THREADS FOR SUPPORT THE UP AND COMMING NEW FRONTIERS OF VIRTUAL REALITY COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY WE ARE RACING HEAD LONG INTO. And AMD4 CPU sockets like AMD3 sockets, support all grade AMD CPU's from the cheapest to the most expensive powerhouse workstation grades. Which pretty much means they a rather long history of not, or seldom do Orphan any hardware tech just to sell you the new latest and greatest new hardware. Being all AMD FirePro's from the early V3900 first gen PCIe , V4900 2sd gen PCIe, and up to the later more powerful V5900 PCIe they all use the same AMD legacy drivers. Apparently nVidia has already "orphaned" the Quatro FX580, meaning they are not doing update the drivers allow support for Windows 10, I wouldn't put it back in AMD FirePro accelerated graphics cards hardware and drivers are designed specifically for DCC (digital content creation) workstations, not gaming. While they can hold there own in games they'll never compete in a bench test with video cards designed for games running FirePro drivers and vise versa. All your DAWs will display a stunning crisp look, especially noticeable in the LED VU displays, the cursor will glide smooth as silk across the time, and being all this is handled entirely by the FirePro's own GPU and RAM, your CPU and system RAM will be freed and relieved of graphics processing tasks, and you WILL notice a slight bump in DAW horsepower and performance, as you would with installing any Accelerated Graphics Card by AMD or nVidia. Running onboard graphics chips are like recording with onboard audio chips. Which they many look and sound great enough to fool you into thinking they are powerful by watching videos, they are crippling performance for any DAW or NLE (video editing/DAW)

Jim, running a PCIe Firewire controller card into a PCIe port IS PORTING DIRECTLY INTO THE PCIe BUSS!! It works for me it works for @Base 57 see his comments above, AND NEITHER OF US HAS ANY LATENCY PROBLEMS! That being said, although I've always liked Presunus well enough and respect it and all, I absolutely LOVE my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 with MKII OctoPre, and I have 12 more wonderful sounding mic preamps then you do, don't I? Yes I do, and that makes my crappy USB interface more flexible then your Nitro burner. HAHAHAHA. It only get 1.7 msec EFFECTIVE RECORDING LATENCY, shameful I know compared to your killa Quantum. And it takes an abysmal 6.3 Total Roundtrip msec to send audio coming from my mouth thru CbB and back out to my headphones no matter how many tracks, are running though how many plugins are running and or how many I run thru CbB channel in real-time monitoring with Cakewalk's Input Monitoring thru my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 gen 2 USB audio interface, with 8 more audio channels fed into it via ADAT, plus stereo S/PDIF feeding I/O into a Lexicon MX400 multi FX processor ready for finecky singers who insist on too much FX I can bear to be pumped in to their own headphone mix Now these specs may completely REPULSE SUPER FLY PROFESSIONALS LIKE YOU, but us mere mortal humans with ears that can only hear between 20 Hz and 20 k/Hz, if we're lucky, CANNOT DETECT 6.3 MSEC OF LATENCY. So we typically don't give a monkey's arse about any reported lower latencies then that, as a rule of shut the FAQ UP about specs already, and lets JAM! And OH!!!!!!!!!! Don't think Ican't shave off at least a full msec of these horrible latency reports, I CAN but being I don't know any humans who could tell the difference, I don't have any reason to.. SPEED KILLS stability RULES at Delirium Studio!

Cool that's $15 cheaper then the Siig card I bought from Sweetwater. I've never tried using more then one app at a time with the Apollo, but now you put it on my mind I am going to have to try on my Windows machine which I traditionally use the Focusrite Scarlett on for Cakewalk But I'm guessing no, because Pro Tools most likely want to hog the audio drivers and won't allow it on the Mac.

Well they got some dirt cheap decent nVidea cards too if you prefer, bro. If you got PCIe v 2 I'd look for a FirePro V4900 that'll freak'in ROCK in Vegas Pro 10 and can support up to 3 monitors independently. 1 DVI and 2 Display Ports. It's kind of cool for Cakewalk having your tracks in from of you, mixer on the side, and GREAT for Vegas, it'll run more video plugins, FASTER, MORE BETTER, and you can even monitor full screen 1080p as crisp and sharp as a tack in a big screen smart TV. AMD FirePro V4900 ship with a sizable handful of adaptors included Displayport to HDMI adapter need for that. I found a V4900 on pricewatch not long ago for $35, and I'm sure if your patient, it won't take long for one to spring back up. If you see anything nVidia that interests you more just make sure you Google it and or email the vendor first before buying to see if it's supported by Windows 10. AssendTech is very good and reliable about stuff like that. And they are the Kings at digging up brand new in the package obsolete shit!! LoL.. Oh yeah, pricewatch has made me seem like a Bug's Bunny grade genius many times through the years for stuff like this..

@Jim Roseberry Pssssst, don't tell anybody but you can get an Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter on Amazon for $29 FREE SHIPPING! I have personally "Field Tested" this product EVERY DAY for about 2 YEARS NOW with my Universal Audio Apollo 8 Quad plugged in a Firewire port on my Mac. For Windows Computers I highly recommend "SIIG" PCIe Firewire cards for robust and reliable performance.

Yes Grem, it happened, and it was quite funny actually. Especially around the part where some guy named Jim was claiming to "UPGRADE" and replace his Universal Audio Apollo with a Presonus Quantum, and bragging about it??? Pheww, my bullshit meter got pegged over red line with that one, and I read that post 3 times to see if I was even reading it right, wondering if I was losing my mind or my reading comprehension or both. I don't know if you ever had the pleasure of recording with an Apollo, but...………….. In my mind's eye that an equivalent of saying you are upgrading from your Bentley Arnage' T to a Hyundai Elantra, and even though I really like our family Hyundai Elantra quite a bit, who in the name of Zeus's BUTTHOLE would be arrogant enough to try and sell that as an upgrade, and CLEARLY write a claim that I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! 😵 And then a Troll buddy chimes in and retorts; "Ya know Steev some of us are professionals around here like me (snort, snort) and Jim (oink, oink), and there are reason's why we (burp) and (fart) (fart). so on and so forth. Too bad you missed it. I'm sure it's still there somewhere unless it was deleted or edited.?? I've been spoken down to as if I was a naughty child and my feelings got hurt is all.. No biggie, as I am, admittedly, at times, often very child like..😥 Nah, not really, I've been involved in writing, recording and making music in this crazy biz since the late 60's, and so I think I may have completely lost my abilities to become offended or even respond to anything like flattery or praise.. It's not that I don't notice, it just doesn't make me particularly angry or happy, it actually makes me LMAO.. 😍 I swear, I even woke up this morning giggling, and LMAO at times at the thought until my better half Susie, started giggling with me, and finally asked, "OK what's so funny?" And so I gave her my "look" and asked her if she really wanted to know, and she just shook her head, "I don't have the time right not now, I can see an idea forming in your head and I'll wait until the song is finished." And so Susie drove off to work into the morning's frigid, frigid air, and with the creaking sound of ice crackling under the tires of her Hyundai Elantra she waves and blows me a final kiss goodbye as she drives off to stoke the fires of Hell, oops, I mean she drives off to work...... So what do you think Grem?? Ummm, I'm think'in I'm in a 6/8 mood, I'm still recovering from the flu, so I'll go easy on the vocal chords in G minor, but in a lively tempo of say 134 BPM? I'll start with the piano, NO, geeze what am I think'in, I mean Addictive drums to establish the right 6/8 groove and noodle around on the Fender T Bucket acoustic bass. Them move on to either Stratocaster, Telecaster, or Les Paul maybe... Let see where the Muse takes me.. 🙂 Anyway, everybody has something to learn here, and everybody has something to contribute.. So carry on mates, it's all good..

Yes, don't send project or bundle files though cloud services unless the DAW is stored and operated on the cloud like Bandlab's Mix Editor is. Even if you use the same DAW, you most likely don't have the same exact setup, audio interface, plugins, and computer configurations. 100's of undetermined things can go wrong, and there is a better then not chance that "Murphy's Law" will take over and kick your project's butt to utter destructive total and complete waste of time. Especially considering how painfully slow Google Drive is... That's the price you pay for free. But so is Bandlab and it is indeed much faster because you transfer tracks back and forth thru compressed .MP4 files. These .MP4 retain very good very usable sound quality, and you can easily set SONAR or CbB to automatically up sample them into your desired bit depth and sample rate of your choosing during "Importing" for a truly normal and rewarding DAW experience that you are used to working in. Or not, I don't want to get into a whole different conversation about compressing and up sampling audio files or what sample rate is better then the next, blah, blah, but I will say don't knock the Bandlab alternative until you try it. It's a new technology and I'd be willing to bet it will shock you as much as it did me. Either way you feel comfortable with, Bandlab, Google, OneDrive, iCloud, Drop Box, what ever and or all of them...………... Always send projects as dry "Stem" or "Group" channel mixes and export projects from the "Buss", and you can send any desired FX to other Buss(es) from the related channel's Aux. send for mixing in parallel processing if you desire. Always try to keep your track (buss) count down as much as possible when stemming or grouping tracks together so you don't overwhelm anyone else's computer. For instance, My computer/workstation has all the extra ProChannel modules and it can run 50+ audio MIDI tracks, dozens of all my favorite Cakewalk, Waves, Eventide FX plugins running, and can do it easily without breaking into a sweat, staying under 50% across all 8 cores reported by Cakewalk's CPU meter.. Can your computer even easily handle that kind of load? Maybe, but do you have the ALL the Cakewalk PC modules, all the latest plugins that ever came with every version of SONAR 4 Producer up to the latest version of SPLAT including Rapture Pro, Dimension Pro, and Rapture, and every Expansion Pack ever released by Cakewalk and add ons purchased directly from Digital Sound Factory, and you would still need to have the same 3rd party plugins installed. Always send projects as dry "Stem" or "Group" channel mixes and export projects from the "Buss", and you can send any desired FX to other Buss(es) from the related channel's Aux. send for mixing in parallel processing if you desire. Follow these simple rules, and you can collaborate successfully with anyone, anywhere,, using any plugins on DAW running on any platform.

Right click on the track region where you applied your Melodyne edits and select "Bounce to Clips". This will shut down Melodyne and save your Melodyne Region edits and embed them into simple audio tracks. .

@oskald The solution for Bandlab is easy, don't "Follow" anyone who likes to put out 20 versions of the same song every and upload 2 or 3 new songs day and they won't show up on your feed. That makes it very difficult to find any artist in particular or even track your own songs. Yes I learned that the hard way by making all my song project uploads Forkable, as fun as it is it gets over whelming and all too easy to get lost when 10 to 20 fellow Bandlab members want to collaborate and jam with you and constantly change and want you to listen and follow all the changes and suggestions they make as they go along. Also by starting start a "Band" on Bandlab you can share unpublished Forkable projects privately with in the select members of the band who WON'T publish 20 versions per day full of curse words. This forum IS CHAOTIC as all forums are by nature, there is no easy solution as are Internet Trolls lurking around waiting for the chance to pounce on anyone writes anything they disagree with or understand, and often times will pounce as would a "Wolf Pack" of like minded Trolls. But I've discovered a wonderful new tool for "blocking" any member who throws the thread conversation off track. This isn't going to stop Chaos from happening, it just makes finding real solutions easier from trusted members who actually want to help.

Thank you Midiboy, you have just cleared up a LOT of misunderstanding at least for me who is still running 1803 who unfortunately for business has to use iCloud and Avid cloud server because, for business purposes, like it or not, I HAVE to use Pro Tools and a Mac. That's not a choice or even a problem, it's a CONDITION! Using Windows 10 Pro, I had deferred updating to 1809 for 3 months which is coming up in February. And if I don't see any reports of these problems being solved, as much as I don't like to fall behind in any updates, I will defer it again. I'm thinking 1809's new found ability to "Hide" updates users "think" they don't want actually translates well into any users having the ability to refuse any updates they "need". The legalese language is very vague and stays in the center of the gray area of understanding, partly to appease a balance of understanding between the control freaks who think they can only survive by having complete control over their computer, and those of us who understand it's not even possible for anyone to have complete control over anything. And I hope nobody here takes offence, but I'll get my progress reports from the Windows Insider Program and NOT the Cakewalk/Bandlab User Forums where confusion on such matters reigns supreme when conversations get so far off topic they split off into multiple totally irrelevant conversations (like this) it get hard to tell who's trying to be helpful and who's just going for "YOU ARE WRONG" and "I AM RIGHT" kind of pissing contest that has nothing to do with the original problem. Which I believe was concerning sever latency between hitting the space bar to start "playback" and waiting for playback to start a couple seconds later, or several hundred msecs later if you prefer, as the proper terminology for describing latency is always measured in, and then all of a sudden the solution for suggesting and brand new Presonus Quantum Thunderbolt 3 interface, which is actually a Thunderbolt 2 interface, but is suggested to require a Thunderbolt 3 interface that is capable of porting to a USBc port is the easiest solution? Well ya know what? Apple will sell you an adapter cable for $29 (us) that will allow you to plug the Presonus Quantum into an existing Firewire port, THAT'S what. And if @Starship Krupa already gets down to 2msec with his ancient outdated Focusrite's and the Quantum can't do better thru the same Firewire port then it's a piece of junk. I'm sorry, but that's just gut busting hilarious to me, and that forces my sense of humor to shift into overdrive. And then when it was implied that I was an amateur who doesn't have a FAQ'in CLUE as to what I'm talking about "DON'T LISTEN TO THAT IDIOT STEEV", that just pushed my sense of humor into "Turbo Boost" and I decided to have some fun with my attackers, being the conversation was already derailed, rape is inevitable so I might as well lie back and enjoy the smackdown and smack back at my earliest convenience. 1/2" = 2/4" = 4/8's of an inch, each measurement is of equal value, and it's get's even more confusing when converting to metrics. And when I was talking about sharing files to collaborate between a Windows computer and a Mac, I was referring to the entire "Apple Mac Environment" which includes iPhones and iPad devices.

@Starship Krupa said My system has settled down since I first pulled an older nVidia GPU that I suspect of having drivers that were too old for Windows 10, and second, turning off Defender's realtime scanning. I want to find an inexpensive replacement for the nVidia, because now the graphics look like poo. Unfortunately, graphics cards are all about 3-D performance and pay no mind to 2-D performance, which is what I am most interested in. I figure the humblest $30 card should be fine for my aging Optiplex, but I don't know what to get. Ever use www.pricewatch.com to search for the best deals available? It's especially good for searching for new parts and peripherals for matching up aging computers. I found several very good super cheap deals in both PCI and PCIe 16x formats. Most impressive for immediate purchase AMD FirePro V3900 actually packs a decent amount whoop for $25 with free shipping from AccendTech. AMD FirePro V3900 1GB DDR3 DVI DisplayPort PCI-Express Graphics Video Card manufactured by ATI. I believe this V3900 is selling for 10x less then I paid for it back in the day when it was new tech. Requires PCIe 16x slot.. If you don't have a PCIe 16x slot, skip down to Requires PCI slot This was a very decent entry level video editing card back in the day, certainly not anymore with computers with newer PCIe 16x v3 spec, but for older aging machines it's VERY HIGH TECH! And it still can outperform any onboard video chips and renders video at least 5x-10x faster. I actually owned and installed a V3900 as an upgrade from an nVidea that shipped with it, specifically for video editing with Sony Vegas Pro 4 with my 2012 Dell Opiplex which was upgraded from Windows Vista to Win 7 to Win 10 and still being used today by Niece Emily. Even today I still use the newer, bigger, stronger FirePro V5900, which is now obsolete since AMD's new Rysen tech came out, but still widely available, but only about $50 less then I paid for it when it was new tech.. But that's still a couple hundred dollars more then you want to spend, and if you don't have PCIe 16 v3 support which I'm thinking maybe doubtful, you wouldn't even have the extra bandwidth be able tell the difference between a V3900 vs. V5900. I also believe that ALL of the obsolete FirePro V series accelerated graphics card run the same "Legacy Drivers" that are Digitally Signed and Certified for Windows 10 I believe this V3900 is selling for 10x less then I paid for it back in the day when it was new tech. Capable of 1080 p HD, has it's own Accelerated Graphics GPU with 1 GB of it's own memory should be more then enough for good 2D and 3D rendering without even have to ration and share system memory or rely on using up CPU power (cycles) at all. It will allow for extra CPU bandwidth that can be used for your DAW. Requires PCI slot You're screwed, I couldn't find ANY PCI video cards that are supported by Windows 10, but I did find a PreSonus Studio 2|6 USB 2x4 USB Audio Interface with 2 XMAX-L Preamps for only $175 which is only about $5O LESS then a comparable Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 and both WILL work on your computer without having to buy a whole new freak'in special ASUS motherboard!! Now that's about right for audio interfaces you never had any intentions of buying. Sorry, I just couldn't resist🤣😣😜🤑

Excuse me Michael, but I can only feel these remarks to be yet another series of conflations that does nothing more then hijack the conversation of this thread. At times for dealing with conflations, instead of getting offended by pretentious remarks from those who don't know me try to insinuate who and what I am, my sense of humor automatically kicks in, and I merely become rather factious to any and all that think that they are so smart they can assume that they are smarter then me. So you might want to be care assuming who and what I am, as I've been known to be a rather quick witted "Sharp Tonged Devil" when zeroing in picking on Internet Trolls out of their respective Internet Troll Dens. Ganging up on me like a pack of wolves ain't gonna work. So please be careful, and lets be friends, because I'm not an angry guy, but I am a comedian, and anyone here wants to have a "War of Wits" please come armed, or just do it on Facebook or Twitter where it belongs because it has no place on a technical forum such as this where pissing contests only distract from real solutions. I already knew thing type of crappola was going to kick into overdrive once the old Cakewalk forum got locked out, LoL. OK that being said, I'm not pushing Focusrite down anyone's throat, I thought it relevant to the conversation as a reasonably priced alternative upgrade in case a solution isn't found by @Starship Krupa that I know for a fact works quite excellently with any and all Cakewalk DAWs. I do NOT, nor do you and your buddy pushing Presonus Quantum know if it is a reasonable solution that will even WORK. I do know it certainly is NOT reasonable or even relevant if you have to buy a whole new rather pricey computer/workstation to diagnose for a solution to the original conversation. Never mind the fact that Presonus themselves clearly states the Quantum is a "Semi Professional" line, "Optimized" for Studio One 4, and as such gives absolutely no latency specs anywhere in their documentation. Suffice to say, Cakewalk isn't mentioned anywhere as a supported DAW either, and as a professional, YOU should know that it is not safe to assume it is. And I do know exactly why professionals use MOTU and Apogee, and UAD as I have used them for decades on my MAC, as they work quite well with the industry standard, but very picky PRO TOOLS HD! But of course, you and Jim, being the highly successful professionals you claim to be should already know that, Right?? But do you know that the real beauty of power of using SONAR and Cakewalk by Bandlab as always been you do NOT have to spend 10's of 1000's of dollars on boutique equipment to make it work well enough to record great sounding music and achieve professional results? And how great do they sound through a very skinny Focusrite Scarlett that sacrifices all the extra bells and whistles for affordability? Well that completely depends on your skill set and or your ears, a REAL professional can get the cheapest Scarlett to sound a fat as Phat can sound with ANY DAW including the very, very picky pickyunest of them all PRO TOOLS, and THAT'S a well documented FACT! In fact Scarletts even ship with a free fully licensed, fully functional version of "Pro Tools First" with a full year of full AVID support for free. FULLY functional, but only limited to 16 tracks. Does the Presonus Quantum even have support for Pro Tools? I don't know, I DO NOT CARE because I won't be buying any new Thunderbolt interfaces anytime soon and NEVER for any Windows computers, but as to date, I SERIOUSLY DOUBT IT because Avid doesn't jump on supporting anything, especially prosumer competition, and if it can't pass the rigorous Avid testing it never will. And can you guess what kind of audio interface I use for Pro Tools on my Mac? Hint, it's not a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, it costs 4x as much, isn't really any better, and,, ummm, but...………... There are several REASONS why the Focusrite Scarlett is the World's Best Selling audio interface. And one of my favorites is, everyone I know who wasn't happy with there Presonus AudioBox ended up with one and was ultimately happy. Everyone I know who wasn't happy with the limitations of affordable channel counts of their Apogees where all ULTIMATELY DELIGHTED at the cost, sound quality, and performance of the Scarlett 18i20 gen 2, and THEY WILL NEVER LOOK BACK! And THAT being said, anyone who does not what to hear my generously detailed advice and witty sense of humor is free to BLOCK me from your forum feed.

AH so I'm guessing that these are concessions admitting that I wasn't 100% wrong about saying that " YOU DO NOT HAVE A CHOICE AND ARE GOING TO HAVE TO UPDATE WINDOWS 10 WHETHER YOU WANT TO OR NOT". Your only choices are whether you want to choose to do it "manually" or "automatically", Windows is STILL going to place your updates in a "Temp" file on your hard drive or SSD and it will stay there until you choose to install it. LoL. And yes, I have Windows Update set to tell me there are updates waiting for me to install, and it doesn't mention they are already sitting in a Temp File and always asks me if I'm ready to install them. Never ONCE has Windows Update stolen my identity, pass on a subliminal message to try to program me into killing my parents or go rogue and shoot up a school yard. It rarely gets in my way, so rare I can't remember the last time it did because I always leave my computers running "While I'm Sleeping" for Microsoft's famous "Patch Tuesday" cycles which they have been running for years now. , And when I wake up, I reboot my computers, whether the tell me to or not, and go have breakfast. Sometimes on occasion an update will fail, but that will never stop my computer working properly so it's really no concern to me. By the time I wake up and I'm done with breakfast my entire studio network is up and running and ready for business. And while all Ya'all who like to pore over small print contract agreements and fret over your cunning abilities to stopping Windows from FIXING and updating ALL BY ITSELF, know this, that's telemetry in action, and...………………….... STEEV is too busy running Delirium Studio, from office tasks to producing and making MUSIC to give a FAQ about fretting about having complete control over BS like this. And I don't chase after Unicorns either. I would also like to say right off the top that that I AM NOT a COMPUTER GENIOUS. I'm just a guy who can solve all my computer problems by recognizing the difference between "Problems" and "Conditions". And if I'm lucky enough to realize the differences quickly enough, I can find the time for my hobby, which is to actually work and jam and keep my chops and create my own music projects! :o))))))))))) YES!!! And maybe, if I can figure out how to do it right (enough), I'll even have time for some real fun like post, share, and collaborate with like minded music artists on Bandlab.com. YEAAA!! And I'm very serious about finding the time to have fun, and more times then not it can be as illusive as that Unicorn all Ya'Yawl computer genius control freaks be chasing and thinking you are going to catch by out smarting Microsoft and swapping out audio interfaces every year.. 🤣