[bino_5150]

As far as audio quality being horrendous in AA, I think this may be a case of user error... If I load the same exact wave file in AA, PT, Sonar, whatever... it should sound exactly the same. It's not like the difference in an Alesis 3630 and an SSL G series compressor, where there is a distinct difference in the sound. Actually, it will sound better in AA because I'm not limited to Digi's crappy hardware.

As far as that goes, I work in 32 bit in AA, which is a very noticeable improvement in my mixing process, so I don't know how you figure AA as a DAW "sounds bad"...

Also, I've heard it mentioned here that someone is having issues with their limiter having settings "locked out"? I have not experienced this. I can set my limiter however I wish, be it the stock limiter, L1, L2, L3 Izotope, or any other limiter that I use. Neither Adobe or Syntrillium sabotaged my plugins. Maybe you have a conflict in your settings? What exactly is it doing to you?

Also,I find that a lot of the stock plugins in AA are actually pretty good, including the Dynamics Processor, which is a lot more flexible than say the C1 Waves, with a virtually identical sound. The Izotope multiband compressor that comes with AA for some reason actually sounds better than it's Ozone counterpart, though a multiband compressor isn't something that I use that often. But like I stated earlier, your same aftermarket plugins are available to you in AA just like PT or any other DAW, And AA has the one-up on other DAW's like PT because AA tracks and mixes in 32 bit, and the waves plugs process internally at 64 bit. Those extra 8 bits do make a difference as opposed to PT.

And yes I do agree, mastering in PT is a joke. Along with everything else in PT.

Keep in mind that CEP and AA are 2 totally different animals. Even AA2 and AA3 are totally different. AA3 is where it's at.