Hi, actually it is not speech recognition. I type everything; no mouse; tabs and arrows and such to manipulate. The speech software simply speaks to me what is on the screen. I don't look at a monitor, I listen to a speech synthesizer.

I actually have a website. I'm a working musician by trade, but not as fulltime as I wish I was. Check my profile for a link to the page if you are interested. There is a song download there, but it is done on a grand piano not a synthe. Actually, there are 3 songs, but 2 are corrupted somehow. Only "Amazing Grace" will work.
I noticed from your profile that you are a student. College or high school?

When I got my Xp, my dad read me the most useful elements from the manual. He was there to explain the layouts of the screens to me. I took notes on my laptop, with instructions for myself as to how to work the arrow keys. For x procedure, push down arrow twice, then right arrow, which will adjust this parameter..
Then, I scanned the entire manual and put it on a floppy so I can check any new feature I wish to learn. Then, I ask someone to explain the screen to me, and I experiment with the arrows and such to figure out how to orient myself. Once this is done, I make a new note of it on the laptop. So I do all my patch editing right from the XP. Also, this discussion board has been priceless.