Well, I'm beginning to see what Scott said earlier (Pandoras Box), this is truly an open ended subject with endless combinations. It seems many of you and others I have read about in the home recording arena prefer to record directly into your computers via sound card, and then the variations abound. Some mix/edit/master all within a specific software. Others record, lets say with cakewalk, then mix and edit/master with sound forge. Still others record into sound forge or cakewalk and then send the rough data to a mixer to mix down, then in some cases back to the computer for a final scrub. It appears that some software is better at mastering and mixing than others, yet some are better for recording at times. Great Scott...my mind is a blur....but strangley enough, this appears to make sense....I guess it's alot like flying fighters, we all will fly the same mission, but utilize different computer modes and heads up display settings to optimize the way our individual brains analyze the data. everyone 's brain takes a different path to draw the same conclusions, in our world, the conclusion is the music on the CD. Thanks for all your inputs and ideas. If there are any last words, please send em my way. If not, I'll see you all on another thread. B2