Microsound used for National Symphony Orchestra

[clawson]

This is just to let everyone know that the National Symphony Orchestra concert series now being broadcast by many public radio stations and commercial classical music stations around the U.S. is very nearly an "All-MTU" production. For the last year or so, the performances have been recorded straight to 24-bit Microeditor projects via a dCS 904 converter. All music editing, element production, final mixing and data reduction to 16-bit CDs for distribution have been accomplished entirely in the digital domain within Microeditor. Only older concert material (dating from before I received my portable MTU system) has been loaded into Microeditor from (mostly 24-bit) DATs.

The sonic results of keeping everything within Microeditor have been exceptional. Even those folks without "golden ears" have been able to tell the difference between the 24-bit material recorded straight to MTU and all other sources used for production--without any prompting from me!

Dave, I congratulate you and your team once again for the painstaking care that you have taken in your hardware design and software coding. We classical music people appreciate the difference that it makes!

All the best,

Chas.

--
Charles Lawson
Senior Recording & Production Engineer
WETA Radio & Television
Washington, DC

[geezer]

---Just wanted to "pile on" a bit on this one:

I had the pleasure of recording, in my fumbling and feeble way, my first 24 bit session for Charles of the NSO a couple of years ago while he was taking a rare and well-deserved vacation. His early commitment to 24bit allowed me to have an amazing audio experience.

Perhaps the most stunning part of this experience for me came when I converted the 24bit files--entirely in MTU--to 16bits and burned a CD....The math used in MicroEditor to make this conversion is impeccable, and the beauty of the 24bit world was conveyed in a very palpable way to the CD format! Anyone who heard this was convinced immediately!

Thank you both for this revelatory experience!

[geezer]

While the CD I burned in the thread above was strictly for personal audition and experimentation (No copies distributed, Charles!), I've been doing a lot of DVD work in the last year and a half, with CDs recently as spinoff product.

DVDs are native 24bit, and all of my surround and stereo mixes for these have been 24bit since day one. They have also been almosty exclusively at 48k sampling rate, which is the native rate for digital video.....This has raised some interesting questions when it comes time to produce a CD at 16bit/44.1.

Since I can't stay all-digital at 48k and use the internal MTU math to dither down, I've chosen to do an external analog conversion/mastering and dithering pass all at once. This has worked well, but probably only because I'm doing all of my editing at 24bit in MTU first.....This is incredibly important, and was really noticable sonically in the final product. (Most recent: "Kenny Rankin- Haven't We Met?" Image Entertainment) MTU's editing quality is noticably better than anything I have used or see available on the market, and, without buying some esoteric custom-built 72bit mastering system, I am unlikely to find anything else that sounds as good.

So, I guess my point is this: It is important to stay digital for as much of the process as you can, and it is important to try to do all of your 24bit work in MTU if you can....It really makes a difference.

---------

THE 24BIT SURROUND FUTURE AND MTU:

----All of the DVD work I am doing is ultimately in 5.1 surround and 24bit.....Because MTU does not have a 6channel digital I/O mechanism, this has created some highly problematic situations for me.

I have been toying with Nuendo, and should have a functional Nuendo setup with RME I/O shortly. I can tell, however, that I am NEVER going to be satisfied with any other program to do the bulk of the work I can do with MicroEditor. On the other hand, Nuendo does talk to the MX2424 and Avid and ProTools, which, of course MTU will never do.....Is there a solution? I think I'm starting to see one, based on Charles' discovery that MTU files are standard 32bit IEE, and can be imported and exported with Cool Edit:

File sharing is the key. As long as the various programs can read the files, then using whichever program you need as a "way station" (weigh? station) while working on them should work as long as you keep them in the 32bit format....This involves no digital, real-time transfers and the subsequent potential clocking and syncing errors between tracks, and should work as long as the time code lock can be maintained in the program that will ultimately spit the product out to tape.

The questions:
--While it is clear that Cool Edit (and probably Nuendo) can read MTU files, will MTU be able to read the files from the other program if they are in the 32bit IEE format? Is there any kind of file header or naming trick needed to do this?

---The Broadcast.wav format has become the defacto PC format for MX2424, Nuendo and, I believe, the PC version of ProTools. It is my understanding that this is nothing more than a .wav file with a time-stamping mechanism built in. Does anyone understand how this works? What is the possibility of of MTU reading the time stamp? Will opening a Broadcast.wav file in MTU alter the time stamp? Is there any impediment to opening a 24bit Broadcast.wav file in MTU?

---Barring use of a Broadcast.wav time stamp, are there any other ideas for maintianing sample-accurate lock to time code locations when file sharing?

Knowing the file conversion capabilities of Nuendo and Cool Edit, it seems highly likely that file sharing will work once I know the answers to the above questions and can figure out the "to-from directional protocols" with the different systems. I'm still 2 to 3 weeks away from being able to devote any serious time to testing, and would love feedback from anyone out there who can answer some of these questions.

It also seems to me that this path (i.e.- understanding file sharing and interactivity) is the only route available for "saving" MicroEditor as a competitive, modern product in the marketplace. I would think this would merit some serious attention on the part of the MTU staff, and would seem, in my opinion, to be an elegant and relatively inexpensive solution to the whole multitrack, native and plugin problem that has been plaguing marketing for MicroEditor for the last few years.....I don't see any other programs that are developing into the incredible, high powered editor that MTU has, but I also don't see any other way for MTU to avail itself of the multitrack and plug-in features that are out there.

What does everyone else think?

[Rich LePage]

I strongly agree with these comments. I think it would
breathe new life into Medit if we could support file
exchange and also save in broadcast WAV formats.

In fact it might be a way to re-introduce Medit on its
strengths as an editor if it could allow working back
and forth within other environments. This is something
MTU definitely should spend time looking into, I think.

[clawson]

Hi, guys.

I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to get back here.

First, let me state that Jim (a.k.a "Geezer") is being entirely too modest! On the occasion that he graciously filled in for me at the Kennedy Center, he turned out a marvelous, luscious recording that (consarn it!) was not selected by Leonard Slatkin as repertoire that he wanted to include in this season's broadcasts. (Perhaps it will wind up in a future season...)

RE: file exchange...

Yes, I am in whole-hearted agreement that we can squeeze some more life out of Microeditor this way. It's easy enough within CoolEdit 2000 to strip away extraneous header information so that ME will read most any files. If that doesn't work, there are some header-stripping utilities available to do the same thing. Putting the headers back, if required by another system, *may* be more problematic but I haven't thoroughly researched the question as yet. If I can't find the software utilities that I want, I may have to write them. (I've been dusting off my programming training in order to prepare for attacking these looming problems. Curse that need for sleep!) I'll post some more details as I discover things. It's a lot easier for me to do this while the NSO is on tour.

Jim, please do fill us in on your success with Nuendo. We're all eyeing the multitrack necessity and I appreciate you being willing to share your discoveries with us.

Gotta get back to production now. More soon...

Chas.

--
Charles Lawson
Senior Recording/Production Engineer
WETA Radio & Television, Washington, DC

[geezer]

---I don't yet have any direct Nuendo experience (I'm still toying with a new computer configuration and recovering from a slow money period), but 2 colleagues have given me a little insight that might be useful:

1. Billy Wolf, a long-time folk/bluegrass guru (check out the latest Seldom Scene album) and respected mastering engineer, was talking with me a while back and said that his experiences with Nuendo were positive, but that he realized that he had to convert files to 32bit before mixing them etc. for the sound to keep from being degraded....He says that the program does not do this automatically. Billy would be a very good person to talk tech with about Nuendo, and he's only one exit away from you, Chas.

2. Bill Plummer, my mixing/recording/production partner for all of the DVDs I've been working on, has his Nuendo rig up and running. He tried a full mix on one of the St. Lucia recordings we're working on (Clark Terry or Eric Benet...don't remember which he said)(somewhere between 24 and 48 tracks of 24bit material) and was very displeased with the results....felt it was compressed sounding. When he dumped the tracks out of his computer into his digital mixer (in his case, the DA7) everything opened up again....Now, I should say that he did not heed my advice from Billy about converting everything to 32bit files, so I don't know that he would have felt the same had he done this....He does like Nuendo, and contemplates using it to create "stems" to cut down on the number of tracks fro the final mix.

I am taking both of these comments to mean that my intended use of Nuendo, which is pretty limited, is probably correct, and sort of follows what a lot of people are doing with Pro Tools: They are using it for track fixing and processing, then feeding it out at unity to their console of choice for the mix...I am looking at it in the same general way....I still like mixing on a mixer, and, as long as I stay in the digital domain, I haven't been able to find anything wrong with the mixer I'm using (02R). Since I'm set up for 64plus tracks of mixing, I'm not as worried about stems.

I have spent a little time looking at my partner's rig, and it seems very useful and intuitive for a lot of multitrack functions....Scrolling waveforms, good nondestructive editing, easy access to plug-ins, etc.....But I still only see it as an adjunct to the other tools, probably more for its auto-conform/OMF capabilities than anything else, and nothing, including Nuendo, is getting me excited about editing away from MicroEditor.

Therfore: FILE SHARING, FILE SHARING!

This is where everything is headed, and I'm probably more interested in loading files back and forth from the MX2424 then from Nuendo.

Could someone from MTU think about and address the several questions I raised a couple of replies up from this one? This is serious stuff, and I don't think it's necessarily that hard to address for someone who is better with code than I am.

[Gary Boggess]

Hello Dave and Brian and all,

My question is:
I bought two MicroSound d/a converters on Ebay and they are in the smaller packaged boxes (about 7" X 2.75" X 10" size) Both seem in great shape.
The date on the inside circuit board is 1989.
I am writing to ask if these are compatible with the Krystal PCI card... via the DSP cable????????
Please make your response to my email: MIDIandSFX@aol.com

I've tried calling a number of times... keep getting the "you have reached the a-billing office" etc....

I bought (2) compatible computers as backups, one a 550MHZ for Microsync, and the other a 2.8GB clone of my newer system. And I bought (2) used Krystal PCI cards. My (2) original MicroSound systems are still working great.
With a couple hard drives, new WIN XP installs and RAM, I would have FOUR working MicroSound systems. And if the d/a converters work out it would be great.

A film I posted "Loren Cass" premiered at the Palms Casino in June 2007 at the CineFestival, in August 2007 at the Lecarno Film Festival in Switzerland. It got a great review in July's Variety and I was told many film people in Europe were impressed with the film's soundtrack = audio post work.
Go figure. I tell you... it's the MicroEditor. Editing sound for picture with my 3/4" video deck was a breeze, accurate, effiecient, fast, reliable and the end result was stellar. I still say... MTU was on the right track.

I'm probably one of the only studios left in the world who refuses to abandon MicroSound. I still love using it, and have found a way around every obstacle "progress" has thrown at it!!! I developed a protcol where ALL segments get ousted to .wav files. Firstly, its safer... and easier to backup files. Secondly, I then use Sound Forge to process the files with WAVES plugins and a zilliion other VST & Directx plugins. For reverbs, or ambience effects like delay or flangers and the like, I use ME's directx interface to access Sony's Acoustic Mirror program for KILLER reverb impulses I've collected of digital reverbs like the Lexicon's, and real ambient halls.
My clients are thrilled at the results. Many of my customers use Logic, Protools, Sonar, Cubase, and other software DAWs... but they are FLOORED when they see what I can do with the MicroSound.

OK... those "other" programs can import VST & DX plugins live right? Right.
But my clients have reported that many times past, they'd go back to the studio for a remix only to find out that their EFFECTS are missing, presets MISSING and their entire MIX IS A WASTED MESS. They way I use MicroSound, all of the EFFECTS ARE RECORDED AS .WAV FILES... so hence....
NO ONE THING GETS LOST EVER. Their in the folder. I can change the plugins and whatever... and their MIX stays locked. Believe it or not... my clients see that as a MAJOR BENEFIT. I would suppose the other systems "could" do that too... but, their users would likely consider it a pain. Sometimes, the obvious is obscured over by "progress."

Many of my clients leave the studio amazed at how much faster I can edit and mix compared to ProToys sessions they've had. But it's 2007 and although I do hear the noise in the jungle, as the restless natives are screaming: "buy ProToys... buy ProToys... buy ProToys... buy ProToys!!!" And alas.... I may have to surrender some day... but I'm bound and determined to have (4) working MICROSOUND SYSTEMS for every (1) ProToy I own!!!!!!! BeDang it!

Long live MicroEditor... the best DAW system ever.

[geezer]

Well, I'm glad things are working for you, but shortly after I posted on this thread above, I started another one that indicated some limitations I was having with Microsound when I wanted to work entirely in 24 bit......You know, I assume, that when you "save as .wav" in Microsound, you are saving as 16 bit, because that is all there was in .wav when the code was written.

I am happy that you are able to use the Direct X software in MTU, because I paid for it and could never get it to work, and received no support for it, despite my long time as a cheeleader and beta tester.

I will say that I was satisfied with all my projects that involved a final, straight 16bit master....The problem arose when I began comparing all my available methods of converting from 24bit to 16, and when I began examining all the available ways to export and import 24 bit files from MTU and back into MTU. The company also never responded to my interest in defining the files in such a way as to use the Broadcast Wave standard for import and export.

Before I began what became a very long and involved comparison of different file dithering methods and different software editing packages, I held MTUs non-dithering math as the pinnacle of converting 24 bits to 16 bit files for CD....and, indeed, it held up really well through a lot of the research process as the standard to which I compared everything else.......In the end, however, I found other methodology (using some very specific dithering inside of very specific software) to be superior in maintaining the depth, color and stereo soundstage of the original 24bit files.

Since I could not use the DirectX function in Microsound and could not readily import and export files to other software, I also felt I had to find new software, if that were indeed possible. I did find some things that were suitable and usable for some parts of my business, but which definitely did not sound as good, at least in their early iteration.....I ended up finding one product (and I'm sure there are plenty of others out there now) which did sound as good, if not better, and which ultimately wound up being even faster to use and more flexible: Wavelab. Once I figured out how to use it, the interface was remarkably similar in some ways to MTU's (even uses some of the same hot keys), and easier to organize.

.....As a result, I have a couple of MTU systems (one including the 4 channel converters and I/O, if needed) that have been sitting on the shelf unused for several years. They are available for sale for any dedicated users.....These converters are all only 16bit, though........There are plenty of good quality 24bit converters out there now that should interface fine with the Krystal, but mine are available, too...

direct contact: mudsmith@earthlink.net

[Gary Boggess]

Originally Posted by geezer

Well, I'm glad things are working for you, but shortly after I posted on this thread above, I started another one that indicated some limitations I was having with Microsound when I wanted to work entirely in 24 bit......You know, I assume, that when you "save as .wav" in Microsound, you are saving as 16 bit, because that is all there was in .wav when the code was written.

I am happy that you are able to use the Direct X software in MTU, because I paid for it and could never get it to work, and received no support for it, despite my long time as a cheeleader and beta tester.

I will say that I was satisfied with all my projects that involved a final, straight 16bit master....The problem arose when I began comparing all my available methods of converting from 24bit to 16, and when I began examining all the available ways to export and import 24 bit files from MTU and back into MTU. The company also never responded to my interest in defining the files in such a way as to use the Broadcast Wave standard for import and export.

Before I began what became a very long and involved comparison of different file dithering methods and different software editing packages, I held MTUs non-dithering math as the pinnacle of converting 24 bits to 16 bit files for CD....and, indeed, it held up really well through a lot of the research process as the standard to which I compared everything else.......In the end, however, I found other methodology (using some very specific dithering inside of very specific software) to be superior in maintaining the depth, color and stereo soundstage of the original 24bit files.

Since I could not use the DirectX function in Microsound and could not readily import and export files to other software, I also felt I had to find new software, if that were indeed possible. I did find some things that were suitable and usable for some parts of my business, but which definitely did not sound as good, at least in their early iteration.....I ended up finding one product (and I'm sure there are plenty of others out there now) which did sound as good, if not better, and which ultimately wound up being even faster to use and more flexible: Wavelab. Once I figured out how to use it, the interface was remarkably similar in some ways to MTU's (even uses some of the same hot keys), and easier to organize.

..As a result, I have a couple of MTU systems (one including the 4 channel converters and I/O, if needed) that have been sitting on the shelf unused for several years. They are available for sale for any dedicated users.....These converters are all only 16bit, though........There are plenty of good quality 24bit converters out there now that should interface fine with the Krystal, but mine are available, too...

direct contact: mudsmith@earthlink.net

Good post! I have Wavelab 4.0, and I agree... it's pretty good... and you've made me look at it again because, I'm wondering... hmmm... you know... I never used it for ANYTHING except importing CD tracks!! !!!!!

What I like THE MOST about ME (MicroEditor) ... is the editorial inferface. Especially when used in the process of film audio post. But it's also a fantastic editor for music. I've tried other systems at other studios and I'm always eager to come home to MicroSound's sheer editorial PEACE and safety. I know I don't feel that way because I'm just used to it. I feel that way because it's just a great way to edit sound... any sound. I see all the bells and whistles on the other systems. But to me, editing and mixing is what ME does best. The effects are best done elsewhere... as I myself, rely on SoundForge for at least 50% of my vocal and special processing when I need to get specific. And for mastering... SoundForge is 100% the workhorse of choice.

Yes... I've found some of the options on MicroSound to be somewhat an obstacle course as compared to other programs. I will admit that I have found the entire 24bit deal a bit frustrating. I tried a few projects that way and as far as I'm concerned... it just isn't worth the trouble it causes. None of my clients want anything in 24 bit. When working on film... I worked 44.1 @16 bit. Why? Because while I'm importing hundreds of sound effects off of Sound Ideas and other libraries I can IMPORT right off the CD discs (via WAVELAB) into a folder, and import into MicroEditor without having to dither/convert Jack **it!

And as far as music. I've made my remarks at the Academy I often speak at. The labels can hardly sell a CD anymore. More and more music is selling to I-pods or free with all the online piracy schemes. So why bother with 24 bit... and then have to worry about dithering errors and degrading conversions to MP3's? I don't.

Firstly, my clientel moan and cry about every charge I write them... and they DO NOT want to pay the $25 I charge to BACKUP their projects to DVD's now. If I were burning 24bit, I have to add another $25 to cover my time burning twice the data... and then there's the time dithering to 16bit so they can have a couple copies to play for their girlfriends. Baloney!! I'm in agreement with Dave Cox... it's like "writing checks our ears can't cash." Yeah... I know... 24bit is better... cleaner... and it's HD. But the consumer will NEVER hear it! I have a $95,000 acoustically designed control room, with mirror image walls, floating walls and RTA flat response... and guess what?... the end user will never hear what I'm producing at 16bit 44.1Khz either!!!!

I'm happy with 16bit @44.1. It's more than 98% of the musicians I've ever worked with need, want or appreciate... and I'm talking about people who 15 years ago, didn't know what Dolby B or C or HXpro was when I asked which they preferred. I'd always get a big BLANK STARE that said... err what hugh?????

I don't mean to devalue your use and desire to work with 24bit. I'm just telling my experience with all this. I have a hard enough time keeping it profitable and efficient without adding my preferences for something that's NOT going to be appreciated anyway. And to cap it off, I'd rather invest time into the quality of the "material" and its artisic values... than worry about dithering squat. The probelm isn't the sound... it's the lack of good song writing, good concepts, decent budgets and musicianship or (in film) a dang script worth burning film on it. We're all recording clean crisp decent tracks... and for the most part... the reason why most of our productions stink is because of the talent and the writers. The other degrading factor I've been wrestling with in the last couple years is the idea that directors and musicians want the world for $69.95. And I'm not about to become the Earl Shieb of recording.

As for the FOUR channel I/O... I think I'd be interested and rather soon.... so if you want to pop me a asking price, MIDIandSFX@aol.com I'll give it thought. I have Krystal cards, so I'd need to know all was compatible. I just bought two MTU d/a converters off of Ebay for $9.95 each.

Yes... we've all encountered disappointments with MicroSound... and in the end... I still say... it's the best editorial tool I've seen... and at least for me, it has been extremely reliable. I only wish I could say the same for MicroSoft Windows XP Pro. The worst thing about all of it is Bill Gates.

www.boggessmusicandsound.com

[Rich LePage]

I agree with both of you, and us long-timers gotta keep in touch more often.
I for one also still use Medit nearly every day and find it my tool of choice for intensive editing. And we seem to do a lot of that!

Most of what we do continues as 44.1/16 bit, I've had nearly no situations where anyone has requested 24 bit audio. I never did get the Direct X part of Medit to work-- we tried many times with several versions, and it just did not work with any of the plug ins we tried it with.

Difference from Gary here is we don't use S/Forge for processing, instead Adobe Audition 2.0. It represents a pretty big re-design from 1.5, and though it sure can be a resource hog, it runs very intuitively. It's also very useful for restoration and similar work. The frequency/spectal editing parts of it often are useful in that. It's very handy too for compositing dialog music effects and then mixing to stems.

With some projects, I'll pre-edit in Medit and then build as multitrack in Audition. With others I just use it as a processing host and then take the stuff back to Medit for building etc.

Adobe is releasing Audition 3.0 which supposedly has some more improvements and hogs less resources, it will be shipping end of Oct.

I find Audition is a good host for the Waves and other Direct X and VST plug ins we use a lot - it also runs the Univ. Audio powered plugs well.

We have several 2 and 4 channel Medit systems. I only have one running on Win XP, the others all are still on Win ME or even Win98.

To accomodate the newer burners, I use MicroCD to create the master files but then Golden Hawk's CDRWIN to burn from. MicroCD always did use the Golden Hawk code, but DOS version.

However-- I think Golden Hawk may have just gone out of business! I ordered a renewal recently since they had a new Vista version of CDRWIN. The order did not process, and I tried calling them-- but the phone number is now someone else entirely not into audio! Sent several emails but no reply.

By the way, have had all sorts of trouble with MAM-A (form Mitsui) media past year or so. Where it used to be problem-free and consistent, no longer so. Though we still have hundreds of discs on hand, I doubt I'll buy more, have pretty much gone to Taiyo Yuden which seems more reliable. I check most anything leaving here on a Clover analyzer and with the MAM stuff, it's been very hit or miss. The distributor has said other clients have seen the same thing. And several replicators told me same thing too.

Gary, not sure about your tabletop modules and Krystal though I bet they would work. Scary though to try without word from MTU, since can't get the boards anymore. I think all that the rack mount did (if I remember right) was bundle the clock and I/O boards from the tabletop case into a rack mount module, with cables from the 1/8" mini jacks over to the XL's on the rack mount. I seem to remember converting one ages ago. But not certain!
I think the clock board was different from the 2 channel to the 4 channel versions too. But I hope MTU will get back to you with more definite word.

I have one Vista machine here (just recent, 32 bit version) and I wonder if Medit will run on that -- a lot seems NOT to run. Audition 2 does run, the new version claims it will be fully compatible. (currently it runs under Vista compat mode as an XP compliant program). The UA powered stuff does run, they have new software for it. But Waves -- NOT!! And they want you to buy their update plan just to get Vista compat. when they release it. (for the bundles we have, like $200+ a year for that). Not unreasonable I guess, but I think I'll wait on that one! Izotope Ozone DOES run (and they don't require that Ilok key either, you can authorize their stuff to a USB flash drive and go from system to system with it).

I have a Digidesign 002R interface that is seldom used. To be compatible with others, we set that up some time ago with ProTools LE -- which I nearly never use, though I upgraded it to version 7. I really don't like Pro Tools and will do most anything to NOT have to use it! (Spoiled by Medit, I guess!!)
Actually, it's on an AMD WinXP system that also has Medit on it. But you can't use 'em both at same time, there's a conflict. What I do is disable to Digi DAE engine in Device Manager and then Medit runs fine. For the rare time I need the Digi, I just re-enable it. Works, though you'd think it wouldn't.

So, when Digi gets Vista drivers, I'll likely use their box as an audio interface for the Vista machine - to run Audition. Either that or I'll just strip the Vista and put XP on it.

Quite a few of the Avid (Digi, M-Audio, et all) things don't support Vista currently. I'm also considering a Presonus Firepod.


But Medit still is my prime tool of choice for most of what we do. It's so intuitive and so fast to work with, and I continue to love it.

Hope you'll both stay in touch. My direct contact by the way is
richlepage@worldnet.att.net.

Best regards,

Rich

[Gary Boggess]

I'm open for a 2nd audio software alternative... but I just can't seem to feel sure about any direction.

My response (for safety) was to buy TWO backup PC computers off of Ebay. One PC is a motherboard and CPU CLONE of the last computer MTU made for me in 2005... a 2.8Ghz Intel cpu & board. The second, is a 550Mhz backup to my existing 233Mhz PC for my Microsync-based Microsound system that I use for soley for film audio posting. I also bought (2) extra Krystal cards off Ebay. All in all I can put together TWO more systems. Two FAST MicroSound systems for audio... and two slower "older PC" systems with MicroSync for film sound work.

MicroSync...
It was a painful SLAM in the gut (it felt lower) to me when the computer industry dropped the older I/O slots used by the MicroSync card, and thus adopting only PCI. I still think that if the industry wants to do this... then fine... but do it in such a way that the users can BUY interfacing to work around it. Insure backwards compatibility!!!!! You just don't leave people screwed out of their industry, their jobs, their work methods, their hardware investments and essential tools used for literal survival! I'm not a fan of Bill Gates for this very reason. I mean... hello!!!... we're all practically unwilling subsidiaries of MicroSoft as it is!!! And I resent being slammed into total obscurity & obsolescence by the mandates they author while hiding in their "safe sanctuary of isolation" provided by their monopoly over the entire world!!!!

ThIS iS CrAzy... but it works!
My original MicroSound DAW is a slower 233Mhz computer... and it's only used for sound effects design or film audio posting in sync with video, all because it hosts the MicroSync card. (I own two.)

You will find it interesting that I use the two working MTU computers NETWORKED. So that while I'm on the SLOW 233Mhz computer with MicroSync editing film sound, I can open and process .wav files across the network using the faster 2.8Ghz computer with SoundForge using all of the cool plug-ins. IT WORKS GREAT THIS WAY! Doing so, I find there's no real impact to being on the slower computer!!! The MicroSound performs MOST functions just as fast on either computer.

RE: MicroEditor & Drirect X Plug-ins...
Both of my working systems use the MicroEditor DirectX interface fairly well. Oh yes... there's a few plugins that don't work... but most do. I have a couple plugins that will only work WITH MicroEditor (one is Oberhiem OB-tune)... so what's up with that!!!!????