So I've been a faithful fan of Powertracks Pro Audio since... well, Jesus, 1997/1998, when I decided I wanted nothing more than to sit in front of a computer and record full albums by myself.

Well, I've been doing that ever since, with some decent successes (was courted by Warner Bros. in 2001 for a deal before the negotiations fell through) and with the last two versions of Powertracks for Windows I've spent more time being pissed off and disappointed at the software than I've been recording on it.

First of all, %90 of the latest version's "feature set" is what most of us would call FIXES. Now, if you remember clearly, the last version of Powertracks had NO PATCHES. I had crashes, issues with every possible VST in the planet, audio skipping, driver resets, you name it, and constantly checked the site for a patch. NONE. No patches.

They put out a new version of Powertracks and it's patches for tons of the problems that were wrong with the previous version. Basically, outside of a few new actual features and some mostly cosmetic changes, it felt like they sat on every bug and issue fix from the previous version, kept in any patch that would be released and just put those in a new version, you know, months/years later. I couldn't be more disappointed.

If all I wanted was cheap sounding 1998 grade karaoke midi tracks I would be at home, but unfortunately loading most VSTs will bring me some form of slowdown, crash, etc, and recording all my bass, guitar, vocal parts as wav tracks will be fine until I start adding any DX effects to them. Mind you, I can load them in Protools or nuendo without issue (yes I had to bring in the evil beasts to get work done). Only Powertracks has been crashing with them on. I've managed to still get a bunch of songs done this way, but having to restart pro tools every 10 minutes is wearing my soul thin.

Chalk it up to WINDOWS 7/Vista or any Windows version that isn't XP, but the last two Powertracks have just crapped the bed for me so many times that I don't even know what to do anymore.

Can we please make sure we get some regular patches for this new version? I'd hate to stop buying and supporting software that I've learned inside out for over a decade now. I feel like knowing this software inside and out will be wasted if I have to completely jump ship, and the way this is going I may have no choice.

For the record, I have a Creative Soundblaster X-FI Platinum on Windows 7 and have also added an M-Audio MobilePre to my setup just so I could use a cheaper version of ProTools.