things are back to "normal", now. i'm just not sure that's for the best, quite yet.

returning back to the initial script actually created the following flow:

1) install windows - with streamci.dll & the clock in place
2) install the m-audio drivers & other basic drivers. reboot.
3) install tons of software & the mixer & line6 drivers. reboot.
4) on the reboot, streamci is run as a dll. then the script runs: which deletes streamci.dll and breaks the clock.

when it came back up, something familiar happened that i hadn't seen in a while: it took a very long time to load cubase. i can see now that this is a consequence of breaking the clock. but, only the streaming server needed to be reinstalled. the other two appear to be unused by any of the cards. i was certain about that one, and less certain about the other two.

my hypothesis is that what i want to happen is for the drivers to install properly, and then i want to break the clock and reinstall it in such a way that the drivers aren't directly connected to it. that would make sense if i was essentially getting a conflict between the clock in the mixer and the clock in software. i don't want these synced. i think that breaking it and reinstalling it essentially unsyncs them.

so, it's stable. i'm quite confident that this is the setup that i've had over the last year and a bit - that is, this is workable and i'm not worried about it breaking.

but in the course of playing with a hundred things, i think i managed to make it sound a little better. and, now i'm wondering if i can't find a way to get back there.

what i'm going to want to do is test it against other cards. what i want is not the "best" sounding output but the most accurate sounding output. the bass sounds great, and the highs are stable but they seem a little weaker than they were at points, previously. but, is it the case that i was exaggerating the highs (and just like that better) or is the case that i'm still a little flat?

obviously, i can't expect everything to sound identical. but, the laptop is still the flattest source, and the best comparison i have.

should i be convinced that the tracks are clean, i can get back to mixing. if i'm not convinced, i'll have to take a look at possible approaches to aligning the output on the card. and then lock that down into the script.

the laptop is not quite able to produce the same bottom end, but i am legitimately happy with these mixes. it'd be really nice if i could just move on already. soon, hopefully....