Any Vista Users out there?

[dabresk]

I have recently upgraded my system to Windows Vista (I did this on a seperate hard drive, keeping my old XP system just to play it safe). Well, my Echo Gina24 sound card just will not work with Vista. Had to up my video card as well. Overall, Vista works good.Reason and Cubase are fine as well as my VSTi's.Soooooo..........I need ideas for a new sound card (or usb sound device...don't have firewire, but I guess I could get a card). Having a light pipe input would be a plus, but not necessary (for my Alesis QS8). I need a pair of stereo inputs for the analog stuff coming out of my board. i saw the lexicon Lambda. Seems to fit the bill, but I would like your opinions.What specs should i be looking for?Running an HP xw4100 Workstation, 3.2GHZ with 3GIG RAM (and a ton of storage).ThanksBresky

[davekershaw]

Hi Bresky.I just upgraded to Vista and it seems fine.My new HP computer came with it pre-installed, but I took it off as so many peopleadvised against using it for recording, and installed XP.As the computer was designed for use with Vista, I found things like the Sata drive weren't supprted by XP, so it wasn't being used to it's full potential.I reloaded Vista and disabled everything that wasn't necessary. This liink was very useful: http://www.audioforums.com/windows-vist ... ation.phpI use the Presonus Firebox, which is a great piece of kit. Very well designed, and solid performance.http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail ... =4Presonus recently released the drivers for Vista, so that was another reason for giving Vista a try. It is firewire though, but as cards are so cheap now, I'd recommend it.Hope this helps.Cheers,Dave.

[vermeer]

For a rather sobering update of the Vista driver situation, check out this pots on the CreateDigitalMusic blog:http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/05/1 ... ivers/They did a followup more recently and I like the conclusion: Quote:Peter: What about the perception among some users that Vista is slower than XP? (I even saw this repeated, without explanation, but John Dvorak at PC Magazine — not that Dvorak isn’t known for hyperbolae.) We’ve heard some users who are very positive, and I can’t personally detect a difference (outside gaming compatibility issues). Is Vista close to XP in terms of performance? Noel: On a 2GB system Vista would largely perform on par with XP provided you have drivers that play well with Vista. With lower memory, the larger footprint takes its toll and you might see slower performance overall than with XP. The low latency performance issue however, is still an issue irrespective of memory and CPU capabilities.http://createdigitalmusic.com/2008/01/16....cto/#more-2 875The problem is that Microsoft could not improve security and allow the "direct to the metal" approach required for real-time audio. So they created this new driver model (WDM - Windows Driver Model), which is slowly being adopted by audio card vendors.This is why I tick to Mac...;D- Vermeer -

[davekershaw]

Update on previous post.I'm going back to XP!!!What seemed OK initially is turning out the opposite.I started to remix some tracks that had quite a few effects - more than I had tried to date with Vista, and got a lot of drop outs, which I can only put down to Vistas heavier load on the cpu.I didn't have this problem with XP.Also been trying to add two monitors via a new Nvidia card, andagain had problems with crackiling sound. On checking with Presonus regarding any problems with the Firebox and Nvidia cards, they say they don't normally cause any problems, so again it seems a Vista problem.Vista seems a fine system for general home use, but, as many people have warned, it does not seem sutable for recording.

[vermeer]

Dave,Sorry that you had these problems with Vista. What's really sad about Vista is that it takes 2x or 3x of ram to do the same thing as XP. On the link I posted above, they interview the R&D head at Cakewalk. You can read in the first interview, he is really upbeat about Vista and how they worked with Microsoft to make things better. By the second interview, one year later, they are basically throwing their hands and stop short of recommending that people downgrade to XP Meanwhile, my 2002 Mac G4 with OS-X 4.9 is still going strong, running the latest software, recording & playing audio in real time. Best choice I ever made - Vermeer -

[slideboardouts]

Quote:Meanwhile, my 2002 Mac G4 with OS-X 4.9 is still going strong, running the latest software, recording & playing audio in real time. Best choice I ever made - Vermeer -I "switched" to macs last year and this was part of the reason. While my buddies macs didn't really run faster than my windows PC's at first, they did do more for a longer period of time without losing as much performance as I was on windows. The macs just seemed to keep tickin'.Vista was another reason. I absolutely hate that OS and wasn't about to invest the next 5-10 years of my computing life to that resource hog.The other was the spyware/virus situation.I still use my windows box from time to time but I definitely like my mac more -Steve

[vermeer]

slideboardouts,In the old days, Macs were always more expensive, but I've done a lot of work on a 500$ MacMini and quite frankly, this is one of the sweetest system I ever used. Comes loaded with free software like GarageBand (no crapware) and rock solid audio/midi drivers. There's really no excuse now...;DVermeer

[davekershaw]

Yep, I'm off for a Mac next time!Could be sooner than later.Meanwhile XP is back on and working fine.

[ciskokidd]

I tried Vista and although my system worked well for a few months, it just started acting up and doing wierd things with the audio, so since I had already set my box up as a dual boot, I just ported all of my stuff back to XP and find that it works so much better.I do my web surfing and office stuff on Vista, but at this point it sucks for audio apps. I've often been tempted to go MAC and probably will in the next upgrade.Cisco

[davekershaw]

Similar findings to me Cisco.I've had several people tell me they like Vista, but they are all using it for general home use, and not music production.I saw the latest iMac OS "tiger" yesterday with2.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, 4MB Cache 1GB Memory 250GB Hard Disk 20'' Widescreen Aluminium display all for £799 - I suppose around $US1600,only £200 more than I paid for my HP pc, and very stylish too.Wish I'd hung on a few months!