Surface Pro for running - Sampletank, Pianoteq etc etc

[keys_au1]

Thanks heaps for that detailed reply!
If I may ask assistance with this...
I am getting many random pops and crackles. I have tried both WASAPI and external audio interfaces using ASIO. Have tried ASIO4ALL....makes no difference. Tried even 512 no difference. Mine is the Pro 8 with I7 3ghz, 16 ram.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

You likely have a lot of things going on to streamline still especially when using the Surface Pro devices.

- Many suggest staying Windows 10 for a while longer, perhaps even until well into Win 12+.
Still that requires streamlining the W10 OS for production (cut out any and all BS/bloat).

- remove plugins you simply will never use
- Use interfaces with known, well coded drivers (instead of ASIO4ALL, etc)
- Plot and plan your USB bus controllers and setup.
* Interesting note: those with older yet decent Firewire devices might want to reconsider dumping them as FireWire uses (streaming, bi-directional) data transfers via its own chipset that can ease the processing burden. Some of these older FW devices have mediocre pres though which is a factor.
** Of course (quality/modern) USB-3+ interfaces out today can be setup to work well (if their dev team cares that is so choose wisely).
- Multiple SSDs and daw setup care is necessary. Have an OS and apps drive, a temp/render drive, and additional drives to meet storage needs.
This is asking a lot of the Surface Pro USB controller. Do consider a Surface Pro hub.

- If Win 11 already here's a decent guide to streamlining your system.

Brilliant!! Thanks heaps

[IBarch]

Re pops and crackles, it depends a little on what you are doing, what VSTs you are using, how many tracks, how many effects. Serum 2 can bring a mightly laptop to its knees for example.

For playing a few instruments on some reasonably demanding plugins like Zenology and Omnisphere, my Surface Pro 7 manages easily, so the 8 should too.

Firstly Win 11 runs fine. There is no reason to stick to Win 10. I've used win 11 since it first came out.

You do need to use an ASIO driver. You say you've tried. What sample rate and buffer size? Did you try with a 512k buffer at 44.1 or 48 KHz? Push the buffer too low or sample rate too high can cause issues. You don't have to have an audio interface any more. The Steinberg universal ASIO driver is good enough and will do the job with the Surface Pros onboard sound card. An interface will help, particularly with better audio latency but it's not essential. Do not waste time on Asio4All, it's worthless here.

You will likely need to run plugged in. On battery it will cause pops and crackles. Microsoft power saving is way too aggressive and can't be edited, it got locked down in a firmware update a few years back.

Ensure all anti virus, one drive sync and other non essential software is not running. Try running in flight mode, see if that helps.

And absolutely watch the Molton music YouTube videos, he is the expert. Disabling power save on us hubs and devices is essential. He shows how. Unfortunately the advice on power management plans and ultimate power mode are no longer relevant - as per the firmware update mentioned above. But the rest is really useful.

You should be able to solve your issues. Watch the videos, do the configuration, stop unnecessary software and it should come good.

I would not worry about running latencymon yet. Not till you have done the above. There's no significant dcp latency issues on Surface pros,
there's no nvidia graphics drivers, no other troublesome drivers that come with it. I've never had any dcp latency problems on mine.

And no, a Surface dock not required. The usb is not under any stress. The CPU performance will exhaust long before the bandwidth on USB can be fully utilised. A dock won't make a difference to that.

[keys_au1]

Re pops and crackles, it depends a little on what you are doing, what VSTs you are using, how many tracks, how many effects. Serum 2 can bring a mightly laptop to its knees for example.

For playing a few instruments on some reasonably demanding plugins like Zenology and Omnisphere, my Surface Pro 7 manages easily, so the 8 should too.

Firstly Win 11 runs fine. There is no reason to stick to Win 10. I've used win 11 since it first came out.

You do need to use an ASIO driver. You say you've tried. What sample rate and buffer size? Did you try with a 512k buffer at 44.1 or 48 KHz? Push the buffer too low or sample rate too high can cause issues. You don't have to have an audio interface any more. The Steinberg universal ASIO driver is good enough and will do the job with the Surface Pros onboard sound card. An interface will help, particularly with better audio latency but it's not essential. Do not waste time on Asio4All, it's worthless here.

You will likely need to run plugged in. On battery it will cause pops and crackles. Microsoft power saving is way too aggressive and can't be edited, it got locked down in a firmware update a few years back.

Ensure all anti virus, one drive sync and other non essential software is not running. Try running in flight mode, see if that helps.

And absolutely watch the Molton music YouTube videos, he is the expert. Disabling power save on us hubs and devices is essential. He shows how. Unfortunately the advice on power management plans and ultimate power mode are no longer relevant - as per the firmware update mentioned above. But the rest is really useful.

You should be able to solve your issues. Watch the videos, do the configuration, stop unnecessary software and it should come good.

I would not worry about running latencymon yet. Not till you have done the above. There's no significant dcp latency issues on Surface pros,
there's no nvidia graphics drivers, no other troublesome drivers that come with it. I've never had any dcp latency problems on mine.

And no, a Surface dock not required. The usb is not under any stress. The CPU performance will exhaust long before the bandwidth on USB can be fully utilised. A dock won't make a difference to that.

Sweet, thanks! More good info. Appreciate the name drop on YT, will check that out!