no. it ended up fading again...

i'm down to my last reinstall. i'm going to not reinstall the clock at all this time. if this doesn't work, i'll be forced to conclude i have broken hardware.

i'll at least now have time to save up. i'll have to think carefully about whether or not i decide i want to mix on the m-audio card in the mean time.

well...the last, final check will need to be an install on a vanilla xp. but, it would make no sense to think that would work. it's just a final confirmation.

the fade ultimately sounds like some kind of limiter that kicks in around 5000 hz, and makes the end result sound very compressed. i can't mix around this.