I am a happy x1b user

I'm a happy X1b user too. The song I just put out that I've been working on since December, I did 90% of it since the 'b' patch was released. It's been working great for me except for that pesky little interleave problem, but that's easily worked around.

Crashing is one thing I never ran in to that was related to X1. It was always something with my Fast Track Ultra, and I got that resolved too by using the latest beta driver and running it off USB power. They just released an official driver for it, but I'm not going to use it because it's working perfectly now and I don't want to risk screwing it up.

Let me give you an example of how well my system is running with X1b ...

My last project (the one in my sig) was 39 tracks. 6 instances of Guitar Rig, 8 of the PX-64 strip, Sonitus on almost every track, some tracks it was on multiple times, Pro Channel enabled on every track, chorus effects, delay effects, Channel Tool, Sonitus reverb, sonitus comp, 3 synths, plus 5 buses with the Pro Channel, Sonitus EQ, Sonitus multicompressor, and I was still able to record solo's with full guitar rig effects with no noticeable latency. That is impressive imho. On an i5 with 4Gb ram with ASIO set at 128 samples and 2 HDD's ... come on, what more do you want? Oh, yeah, V-vocal on the vocal track too, not frozen or bounced.

As much as I love 8.5.3, I never would have been able to do that without freezing tracks. In the future I'll freeze tracks anyway in X1b, just for the sake of not taxing my CPU, but I really wanted to beat the daylights out of it with this project just to see if I could break it and I couldn't.

I'm more than happy.

Yes it is a lot of effects. There's even more actually because inside of Guitar Rig I used all kinds of effects and tricks. For example, there are two separate parts for the rhythm, but they both go through Guitar Rig with stereo input mode and the split component set up, stereo delays, compression, stereo phasers, and reverbs inside of Guitar Rig. For the vocals, I used the '800 Clean' preset in Guitar Rig with V-vocal compressed and EQ'd with the Pro Channel and not a hiccup! It worked flawlessly.

I use Panup's Dark Side mod. It's really nice! I haven't used Benstat's mod though.

The biggest thing that got to me with X1's initial release was, I kept getting distracted with the snap to grid changing on me and other things that would change on their own after I set them and I would have to do things multiple times. I'd forget about it and run in to a problem and I would get frustrated and stop working on a project. My attention span is easily broken when I'm distracted. With X1b I didn't run in to a single problem and once I started working, nothing interrupted my workflow and I finished Bub's Rap in probably 3 ~ 3.5 days after X1b's release. I did about 90% of it in those few days including mastering it. Really, the only original thing left from December when I started it is the bass line, 2 of the synth tracks, and the lead guitar during the last verse. The rest I did last week including resetting all levels, deleting all the FX bin effects, and starting from scratch with the mixing. I'm extremely happy with X1b. I can't wait to get started on my next project before the weather starts warming up and the wife makes me start doing chores outside and I don't have time anymore. :)

I'm glad the things that slowed me down didn't effect your workflow. I admit a big part of it was my fault because I am easily distracted and frustrated when things don't work the way I expect them to. Can't wait to hear more of your music.

Bub.