I was under the impression that the only drawback to Cubase Studio 4 from regular Cubase was the ability to treat outboard effects and instruments just like the plug ins. It should definitely be specified that you cannot put effects on the track as you record or that you cannot apply effects to a track permanently without having to do a mixdown which is a big enough deal it should have been made more obvious, I seriously would have either went for different software or saved up till I had enough for real Cubase 4. It makes me also wonder what other tricks and tools I am not gonna be able to use when I need them. I bought the Cubase power book and studied it and these issues were not mentioned there either. I figured if you pay that much for a single disc, a dongle and a "pamphlet" of information it should atleast be able to do all the things available on a basic multitrack system. Don't get me wrong, from what I've read Cubase 4 is great, but I expected Cubase studio to be atleast almost as good. I just wish I would have got the real thing and not opted for the studio version, and I do think that the comparison chart is a little misleading and or not very useful when it comes down to details. Important enough details that it would make the difference between being happy with it or not. All that is beside the point now anyway, I don't have enough in my recording budget to upgrade at this time, not to mention I won't even get the hard copy manual that comes with Cubase 4. Disappointed