Thanks to everyone, but BOY do I feel like a complete and total DUMBA$$ !!

Without seeing my fairly complex Rube Goldberg setup, this won't tell you much. In simplest terms, I have a multi-speaker switch box between the PC's line-in and line-out and the 18i8 to select various speakers as well as listening to the 18i8 line/monitor out's directly to those speakers (sans PC for other reasons).

When I cloned the Win 10 drive and then upgraded it to Win 11 for SOME UNKNOWN reason the Realtek's line-in PLAYBACK volume got set to zero (that control is somewhat hidden and turning it up in the Windows "sound" settings does nothing), effectively cutting the input off form the 18i8, FX3, FM9, etc. After closing and upgrading, other settings and parameters stayed where they were set in Windows 10 so I have no idea what this happened.

That particular parameter seems to be exclusively controlled in the motherboard's audio control window (ASUS Republic of Gamers "Supreme FX" audio control window) NOT in the Windows 11 line-level settings. Yes, I know that means nothing to you unless you have a ASUS ROG MoBo.

In any case, thanks for bearing with me as I fumble through life (time for a scotch and a cigar)

Thanks again.
Larry

Win10Pro,i9,64GB,2TBSSD+20TBHDDs,1080TI,BIAB'24,Scarlett18i8,Montage7,Fusion 8HD,QS8,Integra7,XV5080,QSR,SC-8850,SPLAT,FL21&others,Komp.14,IK suite&others, just a guitar player-AXE FX III &FM9T, FishmanTP, MIDIGuitar2, GK2/3'sw/GI20