For those of you who have been following my ongoing problems with Cubase and various computers, here is some new information:

Summary:
Converted to Cubase/32 & Tascam US-428 from Cakewalk (all PC). Started on my IBM Laptop, everything worked great. Transferred over to a PIII 500 that I had "laying around", and the Cubase song that I had previously recorded w/ the laptop wouldn't play. But all my Cakewalk songs played fine within Cakewalk. I decided that the computer may not have been powerful enough or had some "incompatibility" with Cubase and/or the 428, so I decided to build a new more powerful one from scratch. Unfortunately, the new computer sounded the same as the old computer...Grrrrrr.

Based on some recommendations from this forum, I went ahead and started a new project, and although I haven't had a lot of time to record a full song, it appears to be working quite well with a total of 5 tracks recorded (as of this morning!).

A new suggestion was to take the "bad" song, and try importing the individual WAV files into a new song, and see if that fixed the problem. Well, as it turns out, this is "easier said than done". None of the original start and stop points are included when you import, and there are several takes of different parts, etc. I have gone back to the original "bad" song, weeded out the unused takes, noted certain start/stop times, etc.

It has been a lot of work, but it appears to be working. The hardest part has been to line up each part correctly. "Nudging" parts around, etc.

Well, I have so far imported and positioned about 10 of the 17 tracks total, and everything sounds "fine"...well...kind of. There is not distortion or "popping" or "clicking", but it just doesn't sound as "robust" when I import. It loses "something" with the import/export. I tried doing the import into the Audio Pool as Opus suggested, but since the drums are looped, they didn't show up, and several other problems with segments that just wouldn't line up, so I went back to the original "bad" song, and soloed individual tracks, then exported them. I turned off all effects, and set the faders at 0 dB.

One interesting note. When I open the Audio Pool in the old song (bad), each individual WAV sounds like crud when I play them from within the Audio Pool...horrible...distorted, etc. Hmmmm.

Bottom line:

1) Cubase and the computer work fine. The problem all along was some corruption in the file. Since this was my one and only project in Cubase, I had nothing to compare it to.

2) My "old" PIII 500 was probably fine, but what they heck...I got a brand new awesome computer out if the deal! :)

3) My first song is history! I have decided to say "screw it" and just re-record the whole damn thing. It is turning out to be too much work and effort to resurect it, and it just doesn't have the same feel as it did as part of the original recording. I do have a mastered stereo file already, so all is not lost, I just had a few more changes that I wanted to make after listening to the master for a week or so...oh well...I'm just gonna start over again now that I know that Cubase and my computer are OK.

4) Opus and llornkcor Rock! Thanks guys for all your help and patience. I know I have been a pain, but this has been a frustrating two weeks for me...all troubleshooting and no music! :(

It is time to move forward, and get back to my songs again! :D Chalk this one up to a lesson learned...

DH