No problems losing audio timing with Cubase Audio XT
but I'm still cheesed off (exceedingly) with Steinberg.
I bought XT essentially so that I could monitor the input
level. When I phoned Steinberg at Harman Audio to find
out what they thought of the Pinnacle, they said there
was no point in having XT unless I bought something
like an Audiomedia III. £799 spent, I thought this isn't
bad except for the fact that to use the FX send and
returns, you either have to unplug the analogue in/outs
and plug them into an external FX processor or purchase
an extremely expensive SP/DIF compatible thing. Enter
my well meaning music shop manager. "Buy Wavelab
1.5, and your audio stays in the digital domain for a
quarter of the price (£325)." "Excellent," I said and off I
went.
Now it turns out that because the AMIII has special
drivers not recognized by Windows, Wavelab, even with the pointless half-duplex Windows wave driver
available from Digidesign/Avid, cannot use the card
while XT is running. To process audio recorded in XT,
you have to close it down and launch Wavelab. Why?
When I phoned Steinberg, they said, "Install the
AMIII_DSP.DLL driver in the Windows system directory."
I told them that this was not a Windows compatible driver
to which they replied, "Install the AMIII etc" as if they
knew what I was talking about. Today, I phoned to ask
if the new Korg 12/12 would work, i.e., is there any point
in owning XT with this card and if so does it use windows
drivers in XT as well as Wavelab 1.5. "Yes" they said so
I phoned Korg. The friendly and helpful lady wasn't that
sure but thought that the card was only compatible with
the Mac platform as she understood the question about
Windows to mean I had a PC. Why didn't Steinberg
mention this. Perhaps they don't have a clue.
Anyway, the upshot is that I've spent £700 on XT, £699
on the AMIII and £325 on Wavelab 1.5 at least one of
which appears to have been a waste of money. The
only way that I can see to cut my losses is to get rid of
the AMIII and replace it with a Windows driven card. I
can't seem to find the site but I seem to remember
reading that the Terratec EWS64 XT card is on
Steinberg's XT recommended list; perhaps someone
could confirm or recommend an alternative.
One last thing. Since VST will be available for the PC
in August, I asked the aforementioned Steinberg rep
whether Wavelab would become obsolete. He replied,
"Although VST is essentially an effects rack with
plug-ins like Wavelab, Wavelab 1.5 will do a better job."
So, what's the point in VST?