yeah, the workstation powering the pro tools system has to be pretty powerful and dedicated to solely audio production. as for mixing down in and converting in real time.. thats the only way that the program does it. unless there's some hidden export feature that i dont know about. if there is one, anybody let me know. but as for now, there's only the real time "bounce" feature that plays the song in real time with all the tracks mixed at their levels and with all plugins active and running.