> A lot of soundcards these days have what is called as "hardware > through," where the signal goes in the card and back out without going > through the CPU for processing (Sonorus, DSP Factory, plus others). The DSP Factory has dsp chips on it.It doesn't use the cpu.As a result it can do a lot of the same thing Pro Tools can- Mixing live inputs,headpnone mixes with reverb,no latency mixing. > I just don't get these "Why is Pro Tools so expensive?" and > "Why can't I do this with a $1000 card?" questions The DSP Factory does it for a $1000. (list).The obvious limitation is fixed DSP (as opposed to plugins) and software support.Not all of the functions are supported by Emagic(meters on the dynamics-keying inputs etc..)I've used PT and think its great.Is it better than the dsp factory? YEs. 10x better.Not IMHOI do think Digi is charging too much for PT.