[NDiener]

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna try one last manuvere of desperation: I"m going to seek help from Microsoft, Soundblaster, Dell, and Steinberg. Doubt I'll get anything worthwhile (if i get anything at all), but it's worth a shot. Then I've been in intense negotiations with my girlfriend's mom.... She might give me her old desktop so I can have a dedicated music machine. That, coupled with an external hard drive to save the audio files should be more than enough for my needs. But I'm still looking for a program that will let me record MIDI on my laptop for live performances... Does Reason work well with Vista? or is Vista just a piece of crap wrapped in poo to make it look good?