I don't know if it's still important, and, I'm sorry I can't describe it precisely, but there was some discussion about how, if left to it's auto-install defaults, XP will share IRQ's in a way that is less than optimum for Vegas. There is a step during the install process where you choose to override that default. It's been so long (thankfully) since I had to install XP that I no longer remember the terminology, but, I'm certain someone here will remember and help me out. I think it's something like configuring for a "standard PC" or something like that.

Sorry to be so vague. I am counting on someone to fill in the blanks for me, here.

Caruso

Yes, when installing XP, or W2K for that matter on a desktop PC, it is always a good idea to install in "Standard PC", to avoid the infamous default "ACPI" mode, which will assign all of your hardware devices to IRQ #9. Most audio cards do not like to share IRQ's and will exhibit the ubiquitus, snap,crackle,pop(Rice Crispies) syndrome when playing back audio. Early on in the install process, you will prompted to press F6. Immediately press F5,(you only have a few seconds so be on the alert), then in the ensuing dialog box you will be able to scroll and choose the "Standard PC" option. There is any excellent website that is geared toward setting up and optimizing XP for music/audio @ http://www.musicxp.net/


HTH,

Billy Buck

Good advice bagging ACPI install (hit "F5" when asked for thrid party drivers - all DAW owners should install without ACPI)...but this doesn't guarantee crackle/pop free audio.
Many other factors contribute.

Chipsets, driver incompatibilities (eg - maudio, SBlive owners), BIOS settings, HD,...all the way to the power supply.

Best route is to research teh apps and cards you want, and you'll find yourself gravitating towards Intel I'll bet.

JoeD

<<Best route is to research teh apps and cards you want, and you'll find yourself gravitating towards Intel I'll bet.>>
JoeD

Thanks JoeD. I doubt I'd go with Intel tho. There's absolutely nothing installed that should be problematic. I really did my homework on this. The system worked great with 98SE and and *should* be stable with XP. And its clear from the research I've done that the newer AMD CPUs are the preferred choice of many professional DAW users and undoubtedly offer more bang for buck. I'm sure Intel would be fine but it doesn't make any sense to this just so I can try to get XP to work. I upgraded to XP because of an older system drive failure and since I had to reinstall everything, it seemed like a good idea at the time . . .which of course was in hindsight a dumb decision! I'll have lost at least 4 days of studio time because of this fiasco. One lesson I hope I've learned from this is to NEVER install anything new into the system unless I've got adequate time (a week or two) to deal with all the potential problems that may result. I'm an old hardware head, so it was never a problem to patch or try new things experimentially. I absolutely love the infinite possibilities that are available on a DAW but this compatibility/stability issue makes me crazy!! Thanks for putting up with my rant. ;-)

drbam

<<< And its clear from the research I've done that the newer AMD CPUs are the preferred choice of many professional DAW users and undoubtedly offer more bang for buck.>>>
<<Oh ..."professional" DAW use.
Uhhh....ok.
you sure you're "clear" on that info?>>

I'm as clear as I can be from the research I've done during the past 9 months or so on this, which has involved extensive searching the net for articles, reviews, forums and other tech stuff, combined with as much personal discussion as I could obtain from folks I respect and know a lot more than I do about this stuff. Obviously I don't have the final word or perhaps even the correct information and I didn't mean to infer that I did. I qualified my statement with "its clear from the research I've done . . ." That being said, I appreciate your original response regarding AMD's apparent inferiority to Intel and will consider it as I'm trying to sort this crap out. All I'm doing is trying to find some answers from folks who have more experience and knowlege than I. You may indeed be correct . . .and obviously from the perspective of your personal experience and research, you are.

<<Drink horsey...DRINK God*&(*(& !!>>

I don't have a clue what you're saying here. . .

drbam

Nope, what I'm saying is that the ratio of DAW issues with an AMD based vs. an Intel based falls towards AMD based.

You do what you want to of course.

JoeD

'I upgraded to XP because of an older system drive failure and since I had to reinstall everything, it seemed like a good idea at the time . . .which of course was in hindsight a dumb decision!'

Drbam: Why do you consider yours a 'dumb decision?' I'm a professional musician (not a professional audio engineer or the like) and rely on Vegas' audio capability for many dollar saving tasks. I made the migration about which you speak with nary a hiccup, and, I,admittedly, just jumped into it, my research being limited to reading the 'boxtop' in the store.

Other than the fact that xp won't run some of my older programs (had to replace my version of Nero, for example, or continue to dual boot into 98SE), it has proven to be the most stable of any win os I've ever used.

Is your post the result of problems you've run into with XP or problems you anticipate and wish to avoid? I'm a bit confused by your posts? You speak as though you've lost production time due to the switch. Is your system down . . . not performing acceptably or what? You really did your research on this, and, it appears to me that you really took a good course of action. What specific problems are you trying to address?

Just curious.

Good luck.

Caruso

<<Is your post the result of problems you've run into with XP or problems you anticipate and wish to avoid? I'm a bit confused by your posts? You speak as though you've lost production time due to the switch. Is your system down . . . not performing acceptably or what? You really did your research on this, and, it appears to me that you really took a good course of action. What specific problems are you trying to address?>>

Thanks for your response Caruso. I was referring to the old adage "if it works don't fix it" relating to my decision to try a new OS in the middle of a project which in hindsight was in my opinion a "dumb" (or "less than smart") decision. 98SE worked fine and I regret that I didn't wait to do the XP upgrade. I suppose I got seduced by all the posts that raved about XP being faster, more stable and overall a better OS which I'm sure it is once its sorted out and tweaked. You obviously are fortunate that your install worked right away. So, yes I have been in XP hell for 3 days now and I will have lost about 5 days of production time minimum (I'm a recording musician with a fairly nice project studio). Today I'm taking it back to my tech to try and sort everything out. Without getting into all the details, XP went into a crash/reboot loop that required a force crash to stop it. Booting off the CDR and all the usual strategies didn't fix it and it wouldn't allow me to reinstall. My system is a dedicated DAW, no old programs, all Sonic Foundry apps, all of the latest drivers, etc. Clean and lean. It obviously could be the new system drive but XP *appeared* to be working fine with it until I started loading the apps: Vegas 3.0a, Sound Forge 5.0f, Acid 3.0 (whatever the latest is), and the latest Echo Layla 24 driver. I'll post the results of what I find out.

Again I appreciate your supportive comments.

drbam

DRbam:
Sorry to learn of your problems . . . wish I could offer tangible assistance, but, I can't.

Please post your outcome. I'd be curious to know what you discover as the source of your problem.

Again, good luck to you.

Caruso

On the subject of DAW here is a good forum. It's for users of the Pulsar PCI audio card, but should apply in general terms for others:
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewforum.php?forum=19&1176

An excellent thread on processors and mobos is here:
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=3968&forum=19&29

A search on that forum will bring up lots of good info.

I installed WinXP Pro on my system last night, and could not find anywhere during the install to hit "F6" and then hitting "F5" to give me the option to install in "standard PC mode". Is there anyway to change it to "Standard PC mode" once XP is already installed? I installed the WDM drivers for my Echo Gina cards and Vegas seemed to work with them, although everytime I used the explorer window within Vegas to grab files, Vegas would lock up everytime, but did not lock up when I just went to the Windows explorer and dropped files into Vegas from there. I did not check to see what IRQ's my hardware was assigned too, and will probably investigate that this weekend. Vegas did playback files and I was able to assign to different outputs of the Gina once I dragged a file into Vegas, I just couldn't drag them into Vegas from the explorer window within Vegas as I mentioned.

Check out :

http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
http://www.musicxp.net/installing_tips.htm
http://www.nemesysmusic.com/support/W2k_XP_Optimize.pdf
http://www.musicxp.net/installing_tips.htm

geoff

Thanks Geoff, those really helped. I decided to reinstall after reading them, and this time I caught the "F6" option. Last time I must have been pre-occuppied, I think I was timing how long it took to install XP.....worked out to be 4 beers and a half bottle of wine.

rednroll runs ginas, what a pro!!! yet he knocks a $4500 RME setup, granted it sounds like Pipeline has his hands full but at least he's not running creative labs or echo crapola, hehe

Wow, this is funny!!!

Did you know, whenever you post something up on the internet, it sends information like your IP address along with that other information? That's why Windows will give you a warning when sending information over the internet, of "warning this information can be viewed by others". Also, when you post information to a forum (like this one) your IP address is able to be grabbed while you're uploading this information? Police use this tool all the time, when trying to track down people doing fraud over the internet, a friend of mine is a detective and has shown me some of their techniques. All you need to grab this information is the right software and to be running it on the forum where things are getting uploaded. What a coincidence, I was running this on these very forums and wouldn't you know it. Pipeline and Angelic Records have the exact same IP address. Which means either it's the same person, or two different people sitting at the same computer.

I'm always one step ahead of you pipeline, man that's got to really burn your ass when I make you look like a total idiot once again. Throws any of your credibility out the window doesn't it?