Win7 vs. Win8.1 pro as music creation os

[phreaque]

Hello folks
Being using the trusty windows 7 without a significant problem. I turned my head lately to windows 8.1 pro which I installed on my laptop. It is not that disappointing. In fact it is smooth, running easily and boot quicker. The problem is with Ableton live it gives a lot of crackles. Although the interface im using is rme babyface, the cpu is i7 5210u.
What is your experience with windows 8.1. Should I consider installing it on my desktop daw? Or better to stick with that trusty win7
Thanks

[pljones]

I had Win7 on my old AMD machine and have Win8 upgraded to Win8.1 on my new AMD machine. No problems here with the OS (it's pretty much the same as far as I can tell as I never see whatever it was MS added in Win8 and Win8.1). Mine is a clean and careful install, tuned for audio work, as was my Win7 install. I'm using the same Echo AudioFire4 for MIDI and Audio as I was on Win7, though the firewire interface got changed. I did have to swap a few things around to avoid any IRQ clashes, though I don't know if that would have caused problems (and it's very motherboard/chipset dependent).

[UltimateOutsider]

What is your experience with windows 8.1. Should I consider installing it on my desktop daw? Or better to stick with that trusty win7

If you really like what Windows 8.1 has to offer, in terms of the UI and user experience, you'll probably be fine- especially with an RME interface because their drivers are excellent.

The OS boots quicker than Win 7 and it can launch apps quicker, but your day-to-day music-making experience will be pretty much the same assuming your drivers are up-to-snuff- which again shouldn't be an issue with an RME interface. I've used my RME FireFace UFX (as a USB device) on Windows 8.1 and it works just as well as on Win 7.

I've actually had to replace Windows 8 with Windows 7 on three computers that shipped with Win 8/8.1 pre-installed because of incompatibility with various older applications, games, or devices we own, but none of those issues were music related.

[Passing Bye]

Check out this awesome script for optimization if you end up with 8

http://www.computeraudiodesign.com/CAD% ... 20V2_6.zip

[b4serenity]

looks cool. I'd like to try a script for W7...just to see.

[Paschalis I.]

I am not sure about the compatibility of the plugins if I move to windows 8.

Since you can't find a huge difference between the 2 versions, I'll stay to the
"don't fix what's not broken" mindset hehe

[MadAnthony81]

The area is in your computer chip or in your latency setting in your Audio Interface.

Try adjusting your audio interface settings via Preferences within Ableton.

Your computer chip should be just fine though. It is quite fast.

Windows 8 is fast on latency but for myself i prefer Windows 7.

[phreaque]

I am not sure about the compatibility of the plugins if I move to windows 8.

Since you can't find a huge difference between the 2 versions, I'll stay to the
"don't fix what's not broken" mindset hehe

Yes mate this is what I'm thinking about, better to stick with the sturdy reliable good old pal Win7..
BTW, do any of you know how to make the DAW to jump start directly to the application (like Live)? without seeing Windows/Microsoft waiting screens? I know how to put the application in startup menu so it starts automatically after booting.

[ntom]

Windows (more precisely, Microsoft) has ALWAYS supported legacy - which, if you didn't know this, is why the next version of Windows is called Win10 and they just skipped 9 altogether. They did that for legacy reasons. But, that is a different story.

Win8 is something that should be loved more, but I totally understand why people hate - since I used to be one of those people. 8 suffers from Microsoft trying too hard to appeal to the "casual consumer" and touch devices, with the default settings starting you on the "Live Tiles" home screen, rather than your desktop (fortunately the 8.1 patch allows you to change the settings to fix it so that your computer launches by default to the Desktop)
8 probably made a fairly large change to the familiar Windows GUI we have lived with since XP, and so it's tough having to learn or relearn a few features.

But, here's why you should love it.
You already understand how stable Win7 is, right? Now imagine it operating 20% BETTER. The bright side about Win8 being developed with touch screen and small devices in mind is that it absolutely MUST perform optimally for more anemic hardware, and this shows.
Win8 will launch like you are booting off an SSD if you are using an HDD, and if you're booting off an SSD..well..hell, you'll barely have time to blink before it boots (might be a slight exaggeration)
Win8 is even more stable than Win7 and it operates smoother and faster. That means that since the OS is taking less system resources to operate, that leaves more resources for your music creation.

On the other hand, you could wait until Win10 - which, for the first year, will be free to all users (even users with "illegitimate" copies - stated in an official press release by MS) While right now we only have speculation as far as how it will perform, here are a few key things to consider:
MS wants the same version of Win10 to be able to operate on all devices.
MS wants Win10 to be able to operate on Raspberry Pi [v2] (if you didn't know, a R Pi is a micro computer smaller than most modern phones)
MS WILL be intergrating their AI, Cortana with Win10 - potentially this could be a bit invasive and is probably a glaring negative on this version so far.
MS will return the Star menu to normal - as well as make the start menu a hybrid between the original start menu and the live-tiles seen in Win8.
MS has done numerous performance and operation adjustments, and native support for 4k resolutions and up (as in, it will have better text scaling for higher resolutions, since as of right now, scaling Win8 to 4k or higher resolutions will result in teeny-tiny text)

Hopefully that helped.

[dsan@mail.com]

The area is in your computer chip or in your latency setting in your Audio Interface.

Try adjusting your audio interface settings via Preferences within Ableton.

Your computer chip should be just fine though. It is quite fast.

Windows 8 is fast on latency but for myself i prefer Windows 7.

To expand on MadAnthony's suggestions;

I ran across several articles that suggest making sure the DAW's buffer match exactly those of the sound module. After applying the suggestions made in these articles I can say a lot of my problems have gone away. No more crackles, no more Live crashing, a lot more having fun

So if you have set the babyface to, say, 256 sample rate, be sure Live is also set at 256 sample rate.

Your specific sound car/sound module should give instructions on how to set your rates - in other words, a GUI for setting the rates - and with most you would do this before opening any software that will use the module. Be sure to restart both the sound module and the computer before continuing.

Also, be aware your sample rates should be in multiples of 64 (64, 128, 256, etc.). As you climb in sample rate you experience more latency but drop outs are less. Most times a rate of 256 will be a good level to achieve no crackles and such and a decent workable latency.

Then open the DAW and set the rates inside it, again, matching the rate you set your module. It may be helpful to then restart the DAW.

Bottom line, the crackles you experience are more likely, than not, a mismatch in sample rate or too low a sample rate. Bump them BOTH up (sound card and DAW), using the described method, until the crackles disappear.

HTH

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[phreaque]

The area is in your computer chip or in your latency setting in your Audio Interface.

Try adjusting your audio interface settings via Preferences within Ableton.

Your computer chip should be just fine though. It is quite fast.

Windows 8 is fast on latency but for myself i prefer Windows 7.

To expand on MadAnthony's suggestions;

I ran across several articles that suggest making sure the DAW's buffer match exactly those of the sound module. After applying the suggestions made in these articles I can say a lot of my problems have gone away. No more crackles, no more Live crashing, a lot more having fun

So if you have set the babyface to, say, 256 sample rate, be sure Live is also set at 256 sample rate.

Your specific sound car/sound module should give instructions on how to set your rates - in other words, a GUI for setting the rates - and with most you would do this before opening any software that will use the module. Be sure to restart both the sound module and the computer before continuing.

Also, be aware your sample rates should be in multiples of 64 (64, 128, 256, etc.). As you climb in sample rate you experience more latency but drop outs are less. Most times a rate of 256 will be a good level to achieve no crackles and such and a decent workable latency.

Then open the DAW and set the rates inside it, again, matching the rate you set your module. It may be helpful to then restart the DAW.

Bottom line, the crackles you experience are more likely, than not, a mismatch in sample rate or too low a sample rate. Bump them BOTH up (sound card and DAW), using the described method, until the crackles disappear.

HTH

Happy Musiking!
dsan

Thanks so much for your generous input I sorted out the clicking issue, indeed it was sample rate mismatching, poor little babyface was hard working to unify be clocking

Struggling my all time since 2005 to achieve lower latency in my several daws, I just need to reach the lowest round trip.. Interestingly for my desktop daw I use Steinberg UR824 and compared to Babyface, they almost have the same price tag, but the former give much more stable performance and lower latency. I tried to hook it into my laptop and still giving the same trusty performance.
I wonder what's the reason, something with their drivers coding?

[mfb]

Just a bit of a correction to dsan@mail.com post (expanding on MadAnthony's suggestions):

Also, be aware your sample rates should be in multiples of 64 (64, 128, 256, etc.). As you climb in sample rate you experience more latency but drop outs are less. Most times a rate of 256 will be a good level to achieve no crackles and such and a decent workable latency.

What Dsan presumably means here is the buffer size (in samples) not the sample rate. Sample rate works the other way, if you increase the sample rate you get *lower* latency. The latency is basically the buffer size divided by the sample rate, so a smaller buffer or a higher sample rate gives you low latency. Typical sample rates are 44.1, 48, 96 etc kHz.

[dsan@mail.com]

Yes, mfb, you are correct in that I did mean buffer size. Apologies to the community for the mis-direction.

TBH, I generally re-read my posts before submitting and I thought I had caught the error and made the correction. Obviously not.

Could have been a senior moment I suppose
But I'm having one of those now and can't be sure about then

Thanks for bringing this to attention

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[mfb]

Just a bit of a correction to dsan@mail.com post (expanding on MadAnthony's suggestions):

Also, be aware your sample rates should be in multiples of 64 (64, 128, 256, etc.). As you climb in sample rate you experience more latency but drop outs are less. Most times a rate of 256 will be a good level to achieve no crackles and such and a decent workable latency.

What Dsan presumably means here is the buffer size (in samples) not the sample rate. Sample rate works the other way, if you increase the sample rate you get *lower* latency. The latency is basically the buffer size divided by the sample rate, so a smaller buffer or a higher sample rate gives you low latency. Typical sample rates are 44.1, 48, 96 etc kHz.

I'm having my own senior moment - in what I posted yesterday I had it exactly backwards, I've edited the post now, so it says, correctly, that small buffer size and high sample rate gives you low latency

[Akanishta]

When I was comparing the two last year, I read a lot of reviews saying Windows 8.1 is roughly 20% more efficient at processing audio over Windows 7. I've tried pushing the system as hard as I can and I have one session with nearly 300 plugins and 40 audio tracks and a dozen subs and it's not even close to slowing down.