#100

I’ll throw out that I bought all new Noctua fans and CPU cooler about a year ago and I must say it’s awesome. I barely even notice that it’s going and my old i7-3770k is running around ~41 C under a moderate load. The only time I hear the fan going is when it boots up and they turn on full tilt til then the BIOS takes over.

I will throw out that yeah, you’ve got to do some configuring with Windows but what can you do when the OS is designed to work on whatever you feel like installing it on in reason. I’ve never had audio problems in the desktop realm once I go through all of the Windows settings. I did have to recently back pedal to 1709 since my old Saffire 40 just wouldn’t work correctly under 1909 but works fine on this older version.

1 Like
#101

Configuring Windows is fine; I’m happy to take the time to get a system set up for my needs.

@Markus thanks! Scan looks good to me.

#102

I really wish Windows could do aggregate audio devices. Have a zoom l-12 mixer that I’d love to use for just audio inputs rather than a full audio device.

Elektron machines are great for this using over-bridge. I guess the hardware has been designed specifically for this usecase though.

Is it possible? I’ve heard reports of programs designed specifically for this purpose. Has anyone had any luck with them?

#103

ASIO4ALL can do this, I’ve never used it for that purpose though.

#104

Any good tips or sources of information on how to best configure windows for audio?

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#105

aggregate audio devices usually are a bad workflow for music making. Asio4all can do this, yes, but it might (and most likely will) go out of sync, which will then lead to clicks, dropouts.

#106

Maybe you missed it by @LLK posted this link above: Glitch Free - Cantabile - Software for Performing Musicians
Which should be exactly what you are looking for.

2 Likes
#107

I’ve been using FlexASIO over the interface included with my device since it lets me switch between ableton, vcvrack, youtube, spotify etc. Free and best audio driver I’ve used for windows.

#108

As someone already said, this is possible with asio4all. From my experience, it’s no good if you need really low latency (asio4all created a lot of issues for me at low buffer settings while my rme drivers worked without any issues at all), but if you can do direct monitoring and it’s just about recording, it’s definitely a viable way to go. Plus it’s free, so it doesn’t hurt to try it out, maybe it works in your system without issues.

#109

Yeah. I’ll have a go - can’t hurt. Thanks all.

My workflow isn’t too bad right now - the Zoom L-12 has on-board recording. I tend to just record directly onto the device and then export the WAV files into Ableton for mixing/mastering. It would be slightly more convenient to track directly in Ableton, but it’s not a deal breaker. It sounds like the sync issues could be more hassle than they’re worth.

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#110

Ableton has a great explanation of this, and how they handle multi-core setups. Multi-core CPU handling FAQ – Ableton

#111

I use Voicemeeter to handle multiple audio sources in Windows:
https://vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/potato.htm
It’s very good – easy to use and I haven’t noticed any latency issues.

2 Likes
#112

You’ve got to love how clear and detailed Live documentation can be, great ressource as well !

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#113

Speaking of scan.co.uk as it was mentioned earlier. Has anyone got any experience with this company? Reviews seem to be either that they’re terrible or amazing…

#114

Guessing you’ve already done something, but after 30 years of Mac only music making I bought an HP Z mini (Mac mini sized) new on eBay. 8 core i9 with 1 tb internal and space for another internal drive, 32gb ram. For about $1100… a huge savings over anything similar on the Mac platform. I would recommend these “workstation” grade PCs… everything is well tuned and set up and there’s no extra software installed. I was shocked to find that it is about 7x as fast as my 2016 mbp 15. I find windows 10 to be shockingly easy to deal with. I expected a sacrifice and it is not a sacrifice at all… I dare say that it might be better than OSX for audio work.

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#115

Either ditch it, or if it that seems too high risk (the built in one is fine though) see if you can exclude your plugins and samples from being checked by it every time you load a project.

#116

I’d agree with “ditch it” in 2021. Windows Defender is really good at this point, and McAfee is closer to malware with how deeply it roots into your system.

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#117

I’ve used them multiple times. Never had an issue. Usual caveats - my experience is not necessarily the norm, etc.

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#118

On the Windows OS side, the only thing that needs to be done is to make sure that when your audio program /daw is running, that you are in high performance mode. Balanced mode as the default is not enough.
There are a couple of tools out there that automatically switch your power plan according to which program is running.
Everything else is debunked, obsolete (with win10), personal preference, or even detrimental.
That is of course based on proper hardware with proper drivers.
Asio4all like aggregate devices might be convenient, but for really low latency and additional hurdle.

And for reference, I’m running on win10 20h2 pro, no tweaking, with a rme ufx+ plus ferrofish a32. 44 enabled inputs, 12 outputs at 4.01ms latency and lots of hungry plugins. :nerd_face:

2 Likes
#119

It’s not entirely obsolete in the sense that a lot of this is also software/situation dependant, and for example if you happen to have things like a discrete graphic card on a laptop, or have needs for huge live sessions that run audio through them in realtime (so typically Ableton / Bitwig sessions) on stage, there’s a still a lot to consider before making sure your session is rock solid for realtime manipulation, and it’s very helpful, yes EVEN on Windows 10, EVEN with high performance mode always turned on, to know where any kind of problem can come from.

I’ved solved a lot of tiny hickups thanks to optimizing my laptop computer that, in studio realm are completely trivial and unimportant, but in live situation on stage can be make or break for your performance.

I’ve never had to deal with anything in studio situation on the other hand, I’ve got way enough horsepower / cooling solutions, RAM and high speed SSDs that I’ve never encountered any issue that need software tweaking beyond switching high performance mode. Which is why I said earlier that building a tower PC is actually more simple than the abundance of choice let it seem actually.