[LAU] Pro Audio? OT rant.

As a newcomer to the "Pro Audio" industry and a long time *nix user (somewhat mitigating this outburst here) I must say I'm not impressed. I've spent thousands recently and found suppliers either just don't 'know' the products they sell, or purposely misrepresent them. In one instance it took nearly a month to obtain a refund! For RME products; the 'bundled' word seems to be the one to watch out for. If it's a Multiface II bundled with a card, then double check. Same for UCX bundled with remote controller. I'd be getting on with building a new rack right now, but I've just received half a pair of brackets from a UK supplier and there's hardly anything more useless than half a pair of rack brackets. Grr. Why must I have so many microphone inputs? I'm a solo poet/musician with one mic. and enough places to plug it in to sink a battleship. Synth manufacturers: Why no ADAT out? But what really annoys me are the presumptions I had about my best synthesiser/drum machine's MIDI capabilities. You'd probably similarly presume an state-of-the-art instrument designed by Dave Smith and Roger Linn would be spot on in the MIDI dept, but it isn't. Six stereo 'voice' outs, but FIXED PITCH! To be fair(er) the OS is still in development... I don't resent Dave Smith getting a Technical Grammy though. Not at all. I've been having fun with MIDI for an awful long time. http://www.factmag.com/2012/12/13/dave-smith-father-of-midi-to-receive-spec… -- John. (Definitely feeling better for having shared my frustration.)