Thread: New vista build, clicks and pops, :(

I think Vista is a bloated resource hog in DAW systems and my attempts in using it were frustrating. Perhaps I got annoyed without fully exploring all potential answers but I set up a dual boot system XP/ Vista and use a very stripped down version of XP when recording and have been very happy. This may or may not be the best solution but Vista was pretty new at that point and maybe it has improved.
Here is a link to dual booting (but it requires a XP registered install package)
apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed _first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

I have heard 99% bad things about Vista and pro, semi-pro, and hobbyist audio.

Unsupported hardware, flaky drivers, and the OP's problems are just a few of the things I have read about.

I am waiting out Vista's reign of terror, and I will go dual boot with Linux and whatever Micro$oft does for the next OS.

While I use Vista Ultimate 32bit SP1 on four machines without any problem, it is a bit of a pig. My beta testing of Win7 is much more pleasant. If one can wait for Win7 then do so.

Vista prior to SP1 sucked big ostrich eggs. It was more broken than not. Post SP1 Vista is quite manageable. It is the same way for any new MS os. Some drivers were definitely slow in coming but most vendors have come up to speed even with the initial handicap.

Did you change your mobo at the same time you changed processors? Probably so but I don't like to assume. Have you checked the latency of your mobo and setup? That seems at least as likely a culprit as Vista. Also, each of my different laptops exhibits different latency patterns even when they were all XP Pro. It just seems the nature of the beast with mobo's.

I also have an Onyx 1640 that I occasionally use and track 16 channels at 88.2. I don't generally have artifacts in the tracks so it definitely can be done. As per the first reply, stay off the internet and disable all network cards.

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/supertweaks.htm

I think you probably just need to keep tweaking till you sort it out; it's not necesarly Vista's fault, in spite of what many will tell you otherwise. (I had no idea Mackie FINALLY released a vista driver! I'm going to go download that next...) There's always a lot of trial and error with new OS's, esp with how much hostility and fear that's surrouned Vista. So many don't even want to TOUCH it, so there's a lot less overall info out there.

Try turning off resources that you know you don't need; Run task manager in the background and watch the CPU activity, look for spyware, and as everyone else has already said: Get off the web, turn off stuf that shouldn't be running, etc. (even pending updates can drive you bonkers.) Ditto for screen savers, automatic updates, etc. etc. (Make sure norton AV is OFF as well.)

There's also security persmissions with HD access and Vista, you must make sure that you have allowed "everyone" for all functions in the setup menus. Sometimes, Vista can inadvertantly halt you or slow down background processes if it "THINKS" there's a security risk.

I'm using Vista SP1 on four (out of seven) PC's here; Three are native pre-installs, one was a clean install on an older machine. All work well; but I too have removed all the bloatware and unecessary bells & whistles. One HAS to be paying attention though, for updates and work-arounds. (My other three machines are XP SP3, so everything seems to network and play together nicely, but again, it was a struggle at first.)

Three of these machines are for audio & video editing, and they're fine. The fourth is my "office" machine.

I'm also using a variety of digital audio interfaces, incluing the Mackie Onyx line, (with the originsal XP drivers) for several versions of their mixers, depending on the machine & the sitution. Again, they all work just fine, but not without a lot of TLC when using Vista. (That may change after I download the newer Vista driver).

If I can be of any help with your Vista issues, drop me a note offline here, and I'll let you know what I know, such as it is... :-?

Quote:
Make sure norton AV is uninstalled ten times over and set fire to the box as well.

Fix'd that for ya ;)

Amen on the Norton comment. It's a dark evil harrigan of a program fit for the offspring of Grendel's mother.

On a brighter note:
Joe, some folks have had minor issues installing the new Mackie Onyx driver over the top of the previous one. The route I took worked pretty well. I ran the original driver install program which detected a driver in place. It asks to remove that driver which I allow and then I cancel installation of a new driver. Now I install the updated Onyx driver per the instructions and everything works peachy.

As a side note, on Win7 the Mackie driver is known not to work. I was able to force feed it and get it to record in but not to send audio out. M-Audio FW series products seem to function fully as well as the RME FF.

You misunderstand me. I really have not had any problems at all with Vista Ultimate SP1. Any latency issue I had was with the mobo which updated bios fixed. I would definitely go for a new 1394 card with a TI chipset.

IMHO the best route is audio in through firewire and saved data out through usb sata/ide or through a separate internal bus. If you have onboard graphics then that could be an issue as well but not definitively. I'm not real big on jump drives for saving audio data in real time.

The latency setting in the bios is for you RAM. Don't mess with it unless you absolutely know what you are doing.

I assume you've set priority to background services?

What do you have your buffers set at? You "should" be able to go as low as 64 samples but 128-256 samples is not bad either. It's a difference of 5-10 ms. Hardly noticeable.

Originally Posted by Terrapin

Also I read something about being able to set the priority for devices to have access to the bus?

You're talking about IRQ. The higher the IRQ, the higher the priority. You should be able to set this manually in your bios. Make sure that your graphics adapter and your firewire card are not sharing the same IRQ.

Originally Posted by Terrapin

Does anyone think that this could be a problem in Bios? I did notice a latency setting, currently set at 64? I'm not really familair with this.

Didn't I answer this question already?

What's wrong Terrapin? Not liking the answers I'm giving? Why don't you go on and repost that? :roll: