Author Topic: Vista OS (Read 5873 times)

Gramarye · « **on:** May 07, 2007, 09:00:35 pm »

Hadn't found any info on how well the synths behave under Vista. Since I've been running XP Media Center (NOT recommended by nearly EVERY music-related software manufacturer) I'd heard that Vista is much more music-production friendly and thought I might give it a try. I realise hardware drivers are going to be difficult to obtain for some of my midi controllers, mixers, etc. but I would like to know if Arturia products are Vista-friendly and if they need to be re-installed after a XP-to-Vista upgrade.

Any thoughts and/or advice are greatly appreciated.

Peace,

Dave

Sweep · « **Reply #1 on:** May 08, 2007, 11:45:38 am »

On one of the Korg newsgroups there was a guy who used to work for Microsoft and had experience with Vista. He warned people not to change to Vista.

I'd be inclined to wait for a while anyway while they fix the usual endless Microsoft bugs.

I'm using XP Professional, which works ok for the software I'm using. It's shoddy, irritating and unprofessional, but it does work, so it may be better than the Media Center version, from what you've said - though I've never heard of that one before.

You'd think one called Media Center would be more suitable, but since they call the shoddy piece of makeshift code I'm using `professional' it obviously doesn't mean a lot when they label something.

Microsoft intend to make all new PCs Vista only by the end of the year or the beginning of next year.

What problems are you having with Media Center? It may be that a different version of XP would be more suitable if it turns out Professional or whatever can handle stuff that Media Center can't.

Gramarye · « **Reply #2 on:** May 08, 2007, 02:08:57 pm »

Greetings, Sweep !

"And this is the list of stuff that is not compatible with MCE:

• Digidesign Pro Tools (all versions).
• All M-Audio software and hardware.
• All Steinberg software.
• Cakewalk SONAR (all versions).
• The iLok.
• Syncrosoft USB dongles.
• Focusrite interfaces.
• Lexicon Omega/Alpha/Lambda.
• Edirol interfaces.
• Alesis USB and Firewire mixers.
• All MOTU hardware and software.
• All E-MU hardware and software.
• Native Instruments software.
• Waves software.
• Mackie Spike. Tracktion has been known to work, but is not guaranteed.
• Novation X-Station series.
• TC Eletric PowerCore series.
• Universal Audio UAD-1 cards.
• All RME hardware.
• All PreSonus hardware.
• All TASCAM software and hardware.
• Blue Snowball and Samson C01 USB Microphones."

This is a quote taken from a Native Instruments forum in response to a compatability list question. I believe this list originated at Sweetwater's tech support (not certain), but this and numerous other forum posts I've seen, as well as notifications of incompatibility from manufacturers themselves (G-Force for one) have led me to believe that I've been quite LUCKY in running a lot of my stuff under MCE.

By the way, thanks for the response - I had the above on clipboard and didn't want to lose it before I got it into the body of this post. Anyway, I run Pro Tools, Cubase, M-Audio hardware AND software, Sonar, iLock and Syncrosoft dongles, E-MU X-board and ProteusX, all Native Instrument software, plus Kore (when it works), Tracktion 2, X-Station 25, and Tascam US224, GigaStudio and GVI as well as less 'popular' plug-ins and hardware. So.......that pretty well shoots the crap out of the 'list'. I run XP Pro on the laptop but any problems I've had seem to be equally distributed amongst the desktop (running MCE) and the laptop, so I've not been able to pinpoint any exclusive crashes to a particular OS. Also, I tend to overburden, so a share of the problems I have are of my own devise.

My concern with the Vista upgrade is perhaps using up licensing 'bids' to find the software won't work, hence my question about Vista behaviour. I'm trying to find out about as many products I own as I can before taking the 'exploratory plunge' into Microsoft's latest and greatest. Personally, I wish all the stuff ran on DOS - at least things were 'fixable' in the old days.

Thanks again for your reply. I'll probably hold off on the upgrade until I feel overly experimental and have a few days off to curse and spit!

Peace,

Dave

Sweep · « **Reply #3 on:** May 09, 2007, 12:09:53 am »

That's a pretty amazing list.

To say the least.

Since I posted this morning I found this on a Roland site:

http://forums.rolandclan.info/?action=show_thread&thread=18111&fid=4&page=1

I wasn't able to come back here and post the link as this site's been unavailable quite a bit today (and several times recently, in fact).

The Roland site discussion may throw a bit more light on what Vista is supposed to do - even if it isn't doing it.

As I said on another thread recently, I think softsynths would be the future if the operating system writers weren't so unreliable.

I'm currently planning to buy another PC with Windows XP to duplicate my existing system and then use hard drive copies to make sure I can continue to run the stuff I'm running now. That's insurance against changes in operating system (the so-called `upgrades') and also problems if Arturia or other companies go out of business and my installation disks become faulty. Then I'll probably buy a Mac for the next generation of software.

In your position I'd be inclined to find someone with Vista and make an arrangement to install and test your software. Or do the same with Windows XP in a non Media Center version.

It's nice to speak to someone who appreciates DOS. DOS 3.3 with a 4DOS enhancement wiped the floor with DOS4, 5, and 6, and most of the operations were so much more straightforward than with Windows. I still drop into DOS regularly from XP. Although Microsoft crippled it after Windows 95 it still works well with 4DOS. And I still use WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS as my main word processor.

omissis · « **Reply #4 on:** May 11, 2007, 11:07:57 am »

CS80V 1.6 works flawless on Vista.

Gramarye · « **Reply #5 on:** May 11, 2007, 01:39:41 pm »

Greets, Sweep !
Took me a while to get back - I just got AudioWarrior's Kreator and I've been playing with it trying to figure out Halion. Thanks for the thread link to Roland's forum - more reason to doubt whether the upgrade is a wise idea at this time......
Yes, I long for the DOS days, back when Lotus 1-2-3 fit completely on a 360K floppy and another 360K to save your work to. Now it's all about code-bloat and pretty pictures and being led like a third-grader through menu after menu, ad nauseum, when a simple batch file used to cure everything.
HOWEVER....our music was bleep and blip saved in .mod files that had the acoustic quality of the 1960's portable transistor radio with a cracked speaker cone. Soooooo...I guess I'm o.k. with current technology if the trade-off for unreliable OS's are exemplified by these virtual synths. Of course, unreliable OS's aren't anything new - did you ever deal with IBM's OS/2..."Warp"? Oxymoron.
I'm waiting for Arturia to offer a customer-appreciation deal on J8 so that I can complete my collection. Even better if they'd give 'trade-in' allowance on Origin!!

Max - thanks for your response and input on the CS80v (my personal favorite!). I'm beginning to feel that I'll hold off on upgrading until at least the first service pack rolls out though, just to be on the safe side.

Hope y'all have a great weekend !

Peace,

Dave

Sweep · « **Reply #6 on:** May 11, 2007, 04:59:28 pm »

Yes, I did deal with OS/2 Warp. I won a copy, and after looking at the manual to see what it was like I formatted the disks, which gave me about 30 free floppies. I think that was the best way to deal with it.

If only we could have the power of today's computers to run things like the Arturia software, without all the wastage with badly written and long-winded non-operating systems.