In 1996, not long before I opened the doors at Jackpot! Recording Studio, I had to decide what format we would track to. I had been using a Tascam 8-track tape deck for the previous couple of years in my Portland basement, but it was becoming quite limiting. Digital recording, via the Alesis ADAT and Tascam D88/38, were common choices for smaller studios back then, but I'd heard horror stories of these machines failing or not synchronizing. Additionally, and equally concerning, I'd also heard some less-than-stellar albums done on them. (Looking back, I don't think it was all the ADAT's fault!) I knew that linear tape capture of digital information would soon be superseded by hard disk recording; I'd even briefly used John Baccigaluppi's Digidesign Sound Tools four years earlier, with its $2000 600 MB drive. Pro Tools (renamed from Sound Tools) was available in 1996, but still very expensive, and I knew the technology (16-bit?!) would be changing rapidly. I could envision easy editing and high track counts down the road, but not yet for me.