It's not such a big deal as I can usually find a way around most things, I merely wondered if anybody here had any cunning strategies that I hadn't tried
I've always been on the prowl for different techniques people use or have used, even the ones that are generally shat upon {"never copy a guitar track, play the part twice !"} and I'll try pretty much anything at least once. Almost everything
can work. And if it doesn't work, well, that's the price of an education.
It's true that I'd love to upgrade the whole system completely someday, but what with family and life and so on, a new bells and whistles DAW is a fair way down the list of priorities to be honest, especially when the system I already have is mostly working just fine
There are so many different reasons and combinations of reasons why someone elects to stay with what they have.
For years, I was perfectly happy with my 8 track portastudio....until I wasn't. I could've gone digital back in 2001 or maybe even before that, but I just wasn't interested. But once I was, I tried to get my head around a computer based DAW and it was only when I heard about standalones that I figured that these represented the kind of half way house between computer technology and portastudio ease. Sure, there was still a learning curve, but nevertheless, it really was like being fused simultaneously in two worlds and 17 years on from my first standalone DAW, I'm still with it {well, the second one actually. I have the 8 track version of the first one}. In fact, I bought 3 back up units of the elderly and ancient Akai because I decided that this is the machine I aim to be doing my stuff on till I shed this mortal coil. I'm a hobbyist, I'm not doing this for a living and I'm under no commercial constraint. Now, I'm not so rigid as to rule out the possibility of going the computer route one day, but with my Akai, I know how to get out of it what I want and I'm not really interested in wonderful upgrades. I guess if push came to shove I could get the 16 or even 24 track version {mine are 12 track with an additional 238 virtual tracks}, but there's really just one overriding reason I use it, though it came out in 2000 and was obsolete by 2002 ~
I like it.
It runs on XP, which is the last decent/reliable version of Windows,
Whereas the computer DAW I use to house all my virtual instruments {whichever Cubase was current in 2009; I think it was "Elements", the student cut down version} is on XP. Most of my VSTis were bought between 2004-2006 and ran on XP. The 5 or 6 I've acquired since then were able to run on XP. In fact I specifically looked at that as a requirement. And the funny thing is that even though they're all so
Ooooolllldddd, except for the trumpet in most cases, they all sound exactly what they're supposed to sound like ~ the instruments that bear their names.
I don't know if XP was more stable than LP or GP, all I know is that it does the job and has been doing so for 18 years.
I really am a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it ~ unless it no longer serves its purpose" kind of person, for the most part.