Vista Anyone?

[kurtkreimier]

Does anybody out ther have any experience with Windows Vista? I am contemplating a new machine as my current one is running out of gas. I will be running Cakewalk Sonar 6 (Producer) with SampleTank, East/West Symphonic, Edirol Super Quartet, etc.. Cakewalk seems to be talking it up on there page but there may be some issues with dual core as opposed to quad core. I will be checking my soft synth company pages but would be interested in hearing anybody's experiences.Thanks,Kurt

[edteja]

It seems that some of the related stuff still doesn't work on Vista, so proceed with caution. The last time I checked, Cakewalk was suggesting that while SONAR 6 works on Vista it was exactly 100% and a friend running SONAR 6 producer on Vista was having a number of crashes last week. He wasn't sure it was a Vista issue, but he is getting a new computer with XP anyway.

[slideboardouts]

I don't have experience doing audio with it, but from what I've seen and heard I would stay away from Vista. My girlfriend's father bought a computer with a dual core, 1 gig of ram, and Vista pre installed. Its the slowest new computer I've ever used. With just the operating system running it uses about 40% of the computers resources according to Vista's own "gadget" that shows you your CPU usage. Not exactly ideal for work with DAWs and VST plug-ins. My girlfriend has said that it constantly crashes, can take up to 15 minutes to turn on, and that it just plain sucks. She is not a mac person or anything and she just performs routine tasks on the computer like checking email, uploading pictures, word processing etc.I work for a small business and our company refuses to switch to Vista from XP. My father works for a state government organization and they refuse to switch to Vista from XP. After a long time windows user for everything, I switched to using a Mac largely because of Vista.I would either get a mac or stick with XP. I don't trust Vista. -Steve

[kurtkreimier]

Thanks Traveling Ed and Slideboardouts!!! Looks like Vista is 0 and 2. I will definitely be going PC but it looks like maybe I should stick with XP. Maybe I will check out some of those custom build shops I see mentioned on some of the other threads here. I have always gone Gateway to this point. I have had 2 since 1997. I have also thought about just doing a RAM upgrade but I hear so much about the dual and quad core machines performance I thought I might just go ahead a purchase one. Still more homework to do. Anybody else out there with some comments?Thanks,Kurt

[marcblack30]

In recearch to by a new computer and deciding between XP and Vista, I went with XP. I did find some info on optimizing Vista for a DAW. It looks like it takes Vista down to the basics.Hope this is helpful.http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/ts/ ... ll%20error

[edteja]

I have a dual core system with XP running SONAR 6 Studio and I am quite happy with it. the only glcitches so far have been operator error. One advantage of the custom systems is that you get them without a lot of the consumer trash that runs in background on a regular system. Of couse you could do that yourself, but I'd rather be recording tunes.

[kouly]

On a side note you should remember that if you have a copy of XP you could install it on a new Mac. Just a thought.

[milfus]

Its not so much glitches, but vistas kernnel itself is less efficient than xp, it will run a bit slower, maybe like 25% if you arent going to miss the functionality I wouldn't worry about it too much, or if there is a feature you like in vista, but microsoft stated they will support xp till 2014, so im riding it out

[gerrel]

Actually Kurt. I have Vista on my computer. With reason 3.0 and sonar 6 xl home studio as well. And my songs come out great. My computer is fast as well. I don't know why people say its slow. Its not. Its actually better and there making it so that you cant upgrade to vista you have to have it already in the computer. I have had the vista program for seven months and made five songs full with vocals and everything which I will be loading up on Taxi soon. I'm just doing a few touch ups in the mastering. But its all smooth and good for me. AS far as 40% computer usage thing. That depends on the programs you use. I have some big programs on my computer and vista is huge! There is still so much space to load up big software. Only thing I must warn you about. You cant get Pro Tools or Avox vocal program for it yet. There still making it. AS far as xp...its over five years old. Everyone is upgrading to vista so like it or not. It will be a vista world soon! So your doing a good thing upgrading. Those who don't just don't want to buy a new software package. Good luck!

[davewalton]

Hi Kurt,I just went through this and had a go/no-go decision to make with Vista. Programs usually run fine, it's things like drivers (for your audio card, for example) that have problems if they're not re-written to be "Vista specific" (also, internal things like ReWire may need Vista specific installation programs like Reason did). So the first thing I checked was if Vista audio drivers were available for my audio card (M-Audio Delta 2496). They were available and since I was building a brand new PC and would certainly upgrade to Vista someday, I decided to go with a clean install of Vista from the get-go rather than a potentially sloppy upgrade over an existing XP system later. Everything works fine and I have no complaints either with speed or compatibility. Recently we bought a new Dell computer for our daughter. The interface is sluggish with 1GB of RAM so I would highly recommend a minimum of 2GB. I have more than 2GB, a fast processor and it flies.I'll point out that I went with Vista because my situation was such that I had to make that decision and I preferred a clean install now with a new machine rather than upgrading later over an older system. Even though everything works great, etc, I definitly wouldn't be using Vista at this point just to do it. I can't see any value to that but if you're getting a new machine and there's drivers available for your hardware, it might be easier in the long run to take the plunge now.One thing I don't like about Vista is the UAC (user account controls) which, like the commercial, is a software version of a CIA security guy with sunglasses that demands that you approve, re-approve, OK, and re-OK every single thing that you try to do. It also sometimes just keeps you from doing things you need to do, regardless of if you want to do them. UAC can be disabled but I haven't yet until I know more about the potential and unknown consequences. UAC actually kept me down for nearly a week where I could install but not update or register my Spectrasonics software because my little UAC security guy software moron apparently thought it best that I not do that. That was Christmas week where Spectrasonics tech support was closed for the Holidays, etc. Ultimately it boiled down to a generic solution that solves most installation/registration problems, running the upgrade and registration software in "run as administrator" mode, to bypass Mr UAC Security Goof. My only real suggestion is to not do anything new during a Holiday or weekend unless you're forced into it through circumstances or whatever. Make sure that you have access to tech support. As "luck" would have it, the support section of Spectrasonics site was down for a couple days and since they were closed for the Holidays, I couldn't even get online access for FAQ's and such (which they didn't have an online solution for anyway). As Rosanna Rosanna Danna used to say "It's always something!". Dave