BTW -- I don't know exactly what your purpose will be, but a word here may be apropos:

If I was still on call to sit Studio Sessions, I would want HARDWARE solutions. Simply more robust, much faster (imagine an entire orchestra being paid to sit and wait while you have to reboot a Windows PC...) and more reliable.

But for use at home, whether recording or using my MIDI guitar to transcribe for teaching and publishing work, etc, software would not present that kind of issue. For me these days, a reboot or the time taken to figure out what went weird today is just a matter of takin' a likely needed coffee break, right? (Its gotten to the point where if the wifey sees me emerge from my little office and start messing with the coffeemaker and its not first thing in the AM, she gets that look of concern and asks what's wrong with the computers now...)

Think it out, make a plan that makes sense for you,


--Mac