I wrote: >>Hmmm, CPU-hungry but stable? Is that a good trade-off (just >>speculating)? My guess is that Digidesign is far more interested >>in stability than getting zillions of plugins on an underpowered >>computer. thomasw@... responds: >Instability is caused by software / audio driver / audio HW >interactions and incompatabilities. High plug-in counts do not >cause instabilities, but may be more likely to reveal such weakness. >The only effect of high plug-in counts, or heavy CPU load, on a >stable system is that it will become less responsive - slower to >respond to mouse, draw the screen, and audio buffers may need >to be larger for a higher latency. Yes, you're right. I should have been more clear. A high plugin count doesn't in and of itself guarantee instability, but if the programmers dedicated too much time to making the DSP streaming efficient , and not enough time making the program stable, then this is bad (in my book). The concept of stability doesn't market well (or look good on a colourful ad in a magazine). However, "tons of plugins" will attract far more people unfortunately. Even Digidesign doesn't put "STABILITY" in their advertising; that's really a word-of-mouth thing and something that is shouted from the rooftops in retail stores when convincing somebody to buy a PT rig instead of a cheaper system for their pro or semi-pro facility. f-erenc "Without chemicals, he points"