Hi funkifized,

I totally agree with you that half an hour to generate one song is unrealistic.

Your computer specs correspond to the minimum hardware requirements listed for 2010.5 (and presumably 2011, although with the new stretching routine, a little more "grunt" might be needed). In fact, I believe that the computer that Peter Gannon road tests the programs on does not have all that much more horsepower than yours.

How much hard disk space do you have free? I have read a few emails on these forums where very slow song generation was the result of insufficient hard drive space. I'm guessing here but allowing for (a) Windows Virtual RAM, (b) sufficient room for generating a song and (c)keeping undo files on hand, 4 GB of free space (minimum) would probably be needed.

When you go to bed tonight, it might pay to put the disk fragmentation program on (under the Start Menu >> Accessories >> System Tools) and let it churn away during the night (this is what I do every couple of weeks).

As Pat has said, Mac is the man who know all this. Hopefully he will see this thread and respond.

Regards,
Noel