# Recording using Windows XP vs. Windows 7



## ZackP3750 (Jan 14, 2011)

Since I started playing 7s recently, I've been coming up with riffs left and right that I've wanted to start recording. I have Sonar 7 on a Vista desktop right now, the only recordings I do are through GuitarPort software. For some reason Vista hasn't shit the bed on me on the desktop, and it's actually been fairly reliable, but I wouldn't hesitate to downgrade to XP for better performance. I want to record on my laptop as well, which is currently running Windows 7. I could take or leave 7, its graphically cool but the audio is constantly dropping out when I run GuitarPort through it.


So the question is, would it be worth it to downgrade to Windows XP from Windows 7 to get better performance for recording? Does anyone still run XP for recording?


----------



## TimSE (Feb 27, 2011)

*this was the only related search result i could find so il bump this instead of starting a new thread on it.*

I recently upgraded to windows 7 and after 2 days i will be going back to XP without any hesitation. 
the best way to describe Win7 (for recording perposes) is a Ferrari with a Lawnmoawer engine.
Iv had teh same PC for a good few years now and cetainly isnt the best speced pc ever but its never slowed down and has always done what i have needed and all i ever use it for is band recordings.
i couldnt even get all my plugins to install in win7. and although cubase itself runs fine, it simply DOES NOT handle ASIO interface drivers. massive microsoft fail on this one. Iv been doing some online hunting for answers and alot of people cannt get their audio interfaces to run properly.
They all have global latencey and so do I. only the click is onbeat. 
although my Alesis i/o2 interface does work fine for playback (It still does have massive latencey problems however).
My main interface is crackeling and skips all over the shop! and this should only happen when your CPU is being pushed too hard which is not the case. CPU usage will remain steady at about 40% for me and nothing will stop the crackles. 

My Top Gear Top Tip: Recording PCs need to stay away from Windows 7


----------



## Borges (Feb 27, 2011)

Yeah Win 7 is pretty fail especially for drivers.


----------



## Gemmeadia (Feb 27, 2011)

^ yeah, 7 is not so great for recording. For me, recording with a pod x3 is tough because once in awhile it will cut out all sound and the only way to get it back, even through my laptop speakers is to manually shut down. If i was building a computer for only recording, i would go with XP for sure.


----------



## Borges (Feb 27, 2011)

Gemmeadia said:


> ^ yeah, 7 is not so great for recording. For me, recording with a pod x3 is tough because once in awhile it will cut out all sound and the only way to get it back, even through my laptop speakers is to manually shut down. If i was building a computer for only recording, i would go with XP for sure.


 Yes yes I have that problem, annoying as hell. There are even many drivers that have been released since win 7 for the X3 but there hasn't been one that has fixed that yet. 

They DID fix the blue screen of death every 5-10 minutes which is nice though. But still, everything is highly unsupported.


----------



## wjm123 (Feb 27, 2011)

Glad I'm not the only one with the problems with the X3 Live. Mine still drops out even after the hardware fix, sometimes I have to restart the whole computer to get connectivity back.

EDIT: Also my old desktop had XP and it never drop out a single time.


----------



## Borges (Feb 27, 2011)

wjm123 said:


> Glad I'm not the only one with the problems with the X3 Live. Mine still drops out even after the hardware fix, sometimes I have to restart the whole computer to get connectivity back.
> 
> EDIT: Also my old desktop had XP and it never drop out a single time.


Yep mine does too. But mine used to just blue screen of death every 5-10 minutes when I first got 7 :\.


----------



## KingAenarion (Feb 28, 2011)

Borges said:


> Yeah Win 7 is pretty fail especially for drivers.



Ahhh... Windows doesn't write the drivers for 3rd party Hardware, the manufacturers do that...

Windows 7 works fine for what 99% of the population use it for  Internet Word. Hell... a lot of the time you don't even have to install drivers for the hardware in the computer like Graphics cards because Windows Recognizes it.


You sometimes just have to fiddle with some hardware... and would have to do that whether it was Windows7, XP or OSX


----------



## drmosh (Feb 28, 2011)

I've had no problems whatsoever with windows 7 for recording, I was worried about it but I got all my interface drivers (tascam fw1884m), ASIO (via the tascam), everything (motor faders et al, axe-fx stuff, outboard midi gear) to work perfectly fine and it's a heck of a lot faster and stabler than windows XP.

As for the ASIO problems, oftentimes it's down to the firewire drivers that windows chooses based on the connected motherboard/firewire card. So choose legacy firewire drivers for your firewire port and everything should be dandy.


----------



## ZackP3750 (Feb 28, 2011)

Holy shit guys, didn't think this one would be revived! Haha, thanks for everyone's input. When I say I want to do some recording, I really mean basic stuff (literally GuitarPort -> DAW). I'm not skilled enough to program drums like the djent kings, and being in my last semester of college doesn't afford me much time to learn, but I still plan on recording some guitar riffs just to get them down. 


I'm also considering getting a new hard drive for my desktop. Right now I have an IDE-cable hard drive, but am thinking about jumping to SATA. Does hard drive speed play into recording? I know SATA hard drives are quite a bit faster than IDE, but would that impact recording (ie latency issues)?


----------



## KoenDercksen (Feb 28, 2011)

That won't help you with latency issues... That's all processor/RAM related.

A faster harddrive will just make programs load faster, load up samples faster etc.


----------



## C2Aye (Feb 28, 2011)

I run Windows 7 with no issues. The only problems I've ever had are hardware related which is understandable on a 3-4 year old laptop that can't handle a million vst's running at once.

I don't use an interface, so I wouldn't know anything on that front.


----------



## Konfyouzd (Feb 28, 2011)

So what you guys are saying is that I should reconsider that upgrade I was recently considering...?


----------



## KoenDercksen (Feb 28, 2011)

Konfyouzd said:


> So what you guys are saying is that I should reconsider that upgrade I was recently considering...?



 Seems like it huh? 

I'm still thinking of getting Windows 7 64bit Pro though for my new PC.


----------



## Konfyouzd (Feb 28, 2011)

KoenDercksen said:


> Seems like it huh?
> 
> I'm still thinking of getting Windows 7 64bit Pro though for my new PC.


 

Yea that's what I was thinking... See I had a PC and a laptop at one point (by one point i mean like 2 weeks ago) and they were both running XP. I enjoyed that all my music related hardware installed fine on XP and for my laptop I just enjoyed the familiarity of XP and not being asked "ARE YOU SURE?!" ten thousand times (although Win7 seems to be better about that than Vista)... Well my desktop crashed and I have 4GB of RAM but XP can only see like 2.5GB of it so I thought why not upgrade to Win64?

Maybe I should wait til I can get my hands on another desktop and install Win7 on my laptop...


----------



## KingAenarion (Feb 28, 2011)

KoenDercksen said:


> That won't help you with latency issues... That's all processor/RAM related.
> 
> A faster harddrive will just make programs load faster, load up samples faster etc.



Not true... remember that most DAWs, once you've recorded a file will write the file from RAM to the HDD... if they're still doing this while you've started recording again...

Also paging files if you don't have enough RAM..



But honestly if you're using IDE HDDs... then yes... XP...

And for simple recording, if you already have a copy of XP lying around it should be fine


----------



## Xarn (Feb 28, 2011)

If you got a new, fairly decent PC with atleast 4 GB of RAM there's no way in hell you should install Windows XP on said computer, I used to run both XP and Win7 32-bit on my desktop computer that I use for all recordings and lets just say it was a nightmare, less than 3 GB of ram for recording with lots of VSTs running is not something I recommend at all, got real frustrating with the amount of times Cubase crashed.

Now running Win7 64-bit and everything flows perfectly, never had a driver issue since I checked the compatibility with everything I use before installing.

The only reason you should run XP is in case you have an issue with driver compatibility or a old computer, a decent laptop nowadays can run win 7 smoothly.


----------



## Konfyouzd (Feb 28, 2011)

Xarn said:


> If you got a new, fairly decent PC with atleast 4 GB of RAM there's no way in hell you should install Windows XP on said computer, I used to run both XP and Win7 32-bit on my desktop computer that I use for all recordings and lets just say it was a nightmare, less than 3 GB of ram for recording with lots of VSTs running is not something I recommend at all, got real frustrating with the amount of times Cubase crashed.
> 
> Now running Win7 64-bit and everything flows perfectly, never had a driver issue since I checked the compatibility with everything I use before installing.
> 
> The only reason you should run XP is in case you have an issue with driver compatibility or a old computer, a decent laptop nowadays can run win 7 smoothly.


 
Mind if I ask your setup? Mine is relatively simple compared to what I've seen on here and that may mean that a lot of the Win7 horror stories I hear aren't even applicable to my situation.

My setup:

-Ableton Live 8
-M-Audio Fast Track Pro
-That's it... 

EDIT: I don't run any plugins (none that don't run by default); I'm not quite the recording guru just yet...


----------



## ZackP3750 (Feb 28, 2011)

Thanks for all the feedback guys, it is greatly appreciated. Sounds like I'll be getting more RAM for the desktop and leaving my OS alone


----------



## ArrowHead (Feb 28, 2011)

Also, keep in mind that when having issues getting your plugins to load in win 7:

Make sure you have plugins that can run in 64 bit. Some were made for 32, and in making the switch to a 64 bit version of windows they won't make it over. There are some workarounds I've seen, but it reminds me too much of back in the days of the old "VST wrapper" I used to need to run in any DAW other than Steinberg. It would work, but every so often it would crash and take your whole project with it, Not good.


----------



## Konfyouzd (Feb 28, 2011)

**Deleted post**

Misunderstanding...


----------



## Fred (Feb 28, 2011)

Konfyouzd said:


> Mind if I ask your setup? Mine is relatively simple compared to what I've seen on here and that may mean that a lot of the Win7 horror stories I hear aren't even applicable to my situation.
> 
> My setup:
> 
> ...



Just to jump in here, I run Ableton Live 8(.1.5) on Windows 7 Professional (32 bit) without the slightest hint of a problem. I have also run it on XP Pro and Vista Business without the slightest hint of a problem.

My recording setup is Ableton and an Edirol UA25, and then a shedload of VSTs and the like. Ie; it's vastly similar to yours, albeit with significantly more plugins. On Win7 I'm running 4GB RAM on a 2.1GHz processor. Same story when I was running it on Vista, and I think on XP its roughly similar.

Basic gist of this: whether by sheer good luck or not, I have absolutely no problems recording with Windows 7. I've turned off Aero (as I did on Vista), but only because I really don't see the point in it, and otherwise I've made no other alterations to the OS. Latency is fine, and I've never experienced any dropouts or similar. The only crash I can remember having is when I first installed SD2.0 and tried to completely load a ridiculously oversized kit - using the cache option instead it runs extremely smoothly.


----------



## Konfyouzd (Feb 28, 2011)

Fred said:


> Just to jump in here, I run Ableton Live 8(.1.5) on Windows 7 Professional (32 bit) without the slightest hint of a problem. I have also run it on XP Pro and Vista Business without the slightest hint of a problem.
> 
> My recording setup is Ableton and an Edirol UA25, and then a shedload of VSTs and the like. Ie; it's vastly similar to yours, albeit with significantly more plugins. On Win7 I'm running 4GB RAM on a 2.1GHz processor. Same story when I was running it on Vista, and I think on XP its roughly similar.
> 
> Basic gist of this: whether by sheer good luck or not, I have absolutely no problems recording with Windows 7. I've turned off Aero (as I did on Vista), but only because I really don't see the point in it, and otherwise I've made no other alterations to the OS. Latency is fine, and I've never experienced any dropouts or similar. The only crash I can remember having is when I first installed SD2.0 and tried to completely load a ridiculously oversized kit - using the cache option instead it runs extremely smoothly.


 
Ok... I'm much less worried about going forward with this upgrade then... I really wanna use my damn RAM 

Thanks for sharing, man!


----------



## Xarn (Feb 28, 2011)

Konfyouzd said:


> Mind if I ask your setup? Mine is relatively simple compared to what I've seen on here and that may mean that a lot of the Win7 horror stories I hear aren't even applicable to my situation.
> 
> My setup:
> 
> ...



Well my setup if you mean recording gear isn't impressive either.

I run a Pod XT for guitars/bass into a M-Audio Fast Track Pro like yourself. Maybe I throw a few vsts, like Recabinet for the guitar/bass tracks, some compressors, eqs etc. My main concern with XP/32bit win7 was actually with Superior Drummer, I use Metal Foundry for my programmed drums and Cubase would crash everytime I loaded one of those huge presets that take up 2 GB of memory. Eventually after I switched to 64-bit those problems disappeared.

I bought my computer a little more than 1,5 year ago so it's farily new and decent, but not exactly a monster PC.


----------



## Plankis (Feb 28, 2011)

Xarn said:


> My main concern with XP/32bit win7 was actually with Superior Drummer, I use Metal Foundry for my programmed drums and Cubase would crash everytime I loaded one of those huge presets that take up 2 GB of memory.


Why load the whole kit? Cache is the best button on that vsti, loads only the samples that's being played.

I have never had a problem with win7 either. It has worked wonderful for me, love it.


----------



## ghostred7 (Feb 28, 2011)

Ultimately boils down to the recording software. If you've got a 64bit processor, 4GB+ RAM, and 64bit recording software, it should scream in Win 7. Like Fred and others, I've had zero problems with Win 7...and lemme put this disclaimer out there: I HATE WINDOWS!!! That being said and running a side gig as a freelance video person (music, weddings, whatever), I needed to run Win b/c I couldn't afford a Mac AND the Adobe Master Collection CS5.

For recording software, I go a weird route....I use Sonar for the basic tracks and such and then export them in lossless quality to an aiff, wav, or something similar and then use Adobe Soundbooth to master in. Soundbooth has a substantial amount of FX built in...AND....should I do anything that would end up on video....i could do up to 7.1 surround.


----------



## Gemmeadia (Feb 28, 2011)

BTW, i really like Windows 7 and love it on my laptop.. but like this thread is saying, i would go for XP for strictly recording purposes. I would get bored with it otherwise though


----------



## Taylor2 (Feb 28, 2011)

As someone who records on a daily basis with 50+ tracks and many plugins, I have to say that Windows 7 (ultimate 64-bit) is by FAR the most reliable and stable OS I've used.
Period.


----------



## bubingaisgod (Sep 27, 2012)

ZackP3750 said:


> Holy shit guys, didn't think this one would be revived! Haha, thanks for everyone's input. When I say I want to do some recording, I really mean basic stuff (literally GuitarPort -> DAW). I'm not skilled enough to program drums like the djent kings, and being in my last semester of college doesn't afford me much time to learn, but I still plan on recording some guitar riffs just to get them down.
> 
> 
> I'm also considering getting a new hard drive for my desktop. Right now I have an IDE-cable hard drive, but am thinking about jumping to SATA. Does hard drive speed play into recording? I know SATA hard drives are quite a bit faster than IDE, but would that impact recording (ie latency issues)?




Sounds like the key word here is IDE Hard drive. That will certainly cause cracks and pops, and latency, especially when playing back tracks while recording to the click. I record over a hundred tracks sometimes on Windows 7 with my RME Fireface UFX, and have had no issues whatsoever. A firewire card with a Texas Instruments chipset is also needed to record on Windows 7 PCs.


----------



## Frank_Domine (Sep 30, 2012)

Gemmeadia said:


> ^ yeah, 7 is not so great for recording. For me, recording with a pod x3 is tough because once in awhile it will cut out all sound and the only way to get it back, even through my laptop speakers is to manually shut down. If i was building a computer for only recording, i would go with XP for sure.



Same problem, bud


----------



## DGKarehere (Sep 30, 2012)

I certainly prefer windows 7 to windows xp. Never had any problems with it


----------



## philoking (Sep 30, 2012)

As an employee of Microsoft I just want to say you guys suck. (Kidding) Let it go. Put the XP down. Step away from the XP. It's time. I am happy to provide free grief counseling to anyone experiencing separation anxiety.


----------



## Frank_Domine (Sep 30, 2012)

philoking said:


> I am happy to provide free grief counseling to anyone experiencing separation anxiety.



hahaha


----------



## bubingaisgod (Oct 1, 2012)

philoking said:


> As an employee of Microsoft I just want to say you guys suck. (Kidding) Let it go. Put the XP down. Step away from the XP. It's time. I am happy to provide free grief counseling to anyone experiencing separation anxiety.




In all seriousness, if you have any tips on configuration of Windows 7 64-Bit, to gear it more towards audio recording, that might help a great deal of people here. 

One issue I hear a lot about and randomly happens to me as well, is unexpected software monitoring latency. As in, I'm recording for several hours, and then out of nowhere, I will start getting 100-200ms latency through the SOFTWARE monitoring in my DAW. 

Using DPC Latency Checker, it seems that call instructions for the USB bus, and the network drivers are randomly interfering with the processing of real time audio. 

I found that restarting the computer will "reset the clock", but in all seriousness, when I have paying customers coming in, guess what OS I use? Ding! Windows XP SP3 motherfather!! That damn OS still supports most modern recording hardware, and although it's 32-Bit and only supports 3GB of RAM, I have 8GB installed using a 5GB RAMDisk, in which I point my temp directories and VST plug-ins. 

It's not that Windows 7 is unstable or bad for recording, quite the opposite. The main issue is that paying studio customers will quickly label you an amateur if you show even the slightest technical mishap in front of them. An unexplained latency issue is sure to keep your client list emptyyy!


----------



## KingAenarion (Oct 1, 2012)

bubingaisgod said:


> In all seriousness, if you have any tips on configuration of Windows 7 64-Bit, to gear it more towards audio recording, that might help a great deal of people here.
> 
> One issue I hear a lot about and randomly happens to me as well, is unexpected software monitoring latency. As in, I'm recording for several hours, and then out of nowhere, I will start getting 100-200ms latency through the SOFTWARE monitoring in my DAW.
> 
> ...



The only issues I have had with Windows 7 are user errors. Never had that latency issue with Pro Tools, Ableton or what is currently my main DAW, Studio One. The only times I have ever had problems was when software or drivers were not updated.

Also if you have a slight technical issue when you have a client, you don't charge them for the time. Simple... unless you're running a multi-room professional studio with On-site AVID sameday support and multiple redundancies (like you would in a TV post production studio) musicians will usually I have found be quite accommodating as they are used to technical issues.


----------



## philoking (Oct 1, 2012)

bubingaisgod said:


> It's not that Windows 7 is unstable or bad for recording, quite the opposite. The main issue is that paying studio customers will quickly label you an amateur if you show even the slightest technical mishap in front of them. An unexplained latency issue is sure to keep your client list emptyyy!



Yea, I don't know that much about configuring it honestly, I use a Mac.  We have an internal mailing alias full of happing Win7 recorders though.


----------



## WhiteWalls (Oct 2, 2012)

I have XP on my home computer and 7 on my laptop, right now I don't really see any difference between the two, but there certainly was a (pretty long) period of time when recording with windows 7 was impossible because of asio/driver issues, bugs, etc.

Now that 7 has been out for a while it seems that many of the issues have been fixed


----------



## Larcher (Oct 2, 2012)

dat necro bump


----------

