Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Sorry, it's been a few months since I've been in touch.  But what a few months it has been!

First, my studio PC died suddenly.  It had lived a long and prosperous life, but I was waiting a little longer to replace it.  I waited too long...
Luckily I save my data to a second hard drive (VERY IMPORTANT TO DO!!!).  This kept my musical projects saved safely, when the primary drive died and locked away everything on it.  Unfortunately, this included my collection of music from everyone other than myself.  All my MP3s were killed!
Since I'm a paranoid geek, I planned ahead and backed up everything on another external drive.  So imagine my surprise when that drive died as well, while copying my music collection onto another computer!  It got from Abba to Prince before failing.
So lost is my discography of Rolling Stones, Roxy Music, Stereophonics, Yazoo... you get the picture. 

Luckily I still had most of them tucked away as DVDs in the basement.  For the rest, I downloaded bit-torrents.  While I usually avoid downloading torrents (i prefer to pay the artists for their work), since I had actually purchased these on DVD, i think i've covered my obligation...

At this point, I should have been ready to just replace my studio PC and get back to writing and recording, right?  Wrong.  Since my studio PC was on Windows XP (and had not been online in 6 years), I also have to replace my IO Interface and recording software (Sonar DAW). 

I checked out my options, and priced out the best products to suit my revamped, basement home studio.

Suddenly, my wife and I decided to buy a condo and move out of our rented townhouse!  Luckily, I hadn't yet bought all the new gear for my studio.  Since now I won't have a studio per se... 
The new studio setup will be a  Windows 8- based 17" laptop, a Focusrite IO Interface, and headphones.  As for software, I'll be upgrading to Sonar Platinum.  I've been a big fan of Cakewalk/ Sonar since dipping my toe into PC-based recording in 2003, with their HomeStudio line of DAWs.  Platinum will require a learning curve, as there have been 3 major releases in between my Producer 8.5 and the newest Platinum.  That'll take some time to get used to, but I'm sure it will be worthwhile - from what I've seen this upgrade should really streamline my processes.  And hopefully ease the transition from a dual-monitor PC with lovely (speaker) monitors to one laptop screen and headphones....

Stay tuned, I'm still here! 
I swear...