and, in the list of never ending gear anomalies: i seem to have picked up a driver conflict somewhere.

this could not have been the original problem because disabling everything except the mixer has not modified what nulls with what. the new outputs all null, and they don't null with the outputs from the broken mixer. it must be unique to the new install.

that also indicates that the driver conflict is only occurring on play back, not on rendering.

the good news is that i am seriously confident that disabling these other devices has finally given me consistency - i'm getting a clarity in the mixes that i haven't heard since i reinstalled. the mixes finally sound "good" again. and, it's holding.

so, what i'm going to have to do tomorrow is a lot of listening to determine where the conflict is. but about the only thing that makes any sense to me is that it's over the creative wdm. and disabling that is of no loss to me, as i only use the old soundblaster for infrequent midi purposes.

yes, this is frustrating. and annoying. but the clarity i finally got in the wee hours of the morning is a bright light at the end of the tunnel.