Sonic Foundry actively supports NT. Help me to convince MOTU to do the same! -Sound Forge - PC

Subject:Sonic Foundry actively supports NT. Help me to convince MOTU to do the same! Posted by: sreams Date:7/4/1999 2:44:00 PM Most of today's digital audio/sequencing software supports Windows NT 4.0 and even Windows2000. All the software I currently use has supported NT for quite a long time, now (Sound Forge, Cakewalk Pro Audio, Vegas, Waves NPPI and NPPII, etc.). The advantage, obviously, to NT is the ability to run multiple processors... but it also does one other quite amazing thing for digital audio that is not as well known: drive striping. With NT you can take a pair of matching drives (IDE or SCSI, doesn't matter) and stripe them as one large interleaved drive... without spending ridiculous amounts of money on a RAID system. We're talking about great increases in track throughput, here. So, obviously, NT has potential to give you far superior performance to Win95/98 when it comes to realtime processing and hard-disk throughput... so why hasn't everyone who is at all serious switched yet? Two reasons: Dual processor motherboards and the processors required to make SMP (summetrical multi-processing) happen have always been very expensive. SMP has always been aimed at the high- end network server environment. This fact is changing drastically at this very moment. Abit has just released their new $150 BP6 dual socket370 motherboard. Intel intentionally disabled SMP for all Celerons... simply because Celerons are aimed at the entry level. It is purely a marketing desicion, and Abit has worked around it. With 400MHz Celerons going for about $80 right now... we are looking at just over $300 right now for a dual 400MHz motherboard/processor combo. I just got this motherboard myself and am very, very happy with it. The second reason... and this is what I need your help with, is that there are a few straggling companies that are keeping us from making the switch. Not many would argue that Mark of the Unicorn and Event make some of the best digital audio interfaces for the money. I speak specifically of the MOTU 2408 and Event Darla/Gina/Layla. Neither of these companies have written NT drivers or have stated any intent to do so. I have a 2408 and recently had an email dialog with MOTU's support staff. When I asked about NT/2000 support they answered that they were "considering" support for it. This clearly means that they have not even begun work on drivers. I replied and asked if a petition is what it would take... and was told that any such petition would be forwarded to the engineering team. For 2408 owners, the only thing keeping us from using Windows NT and gaining the awesome performance advantages is MOTU. Almost everyone else on the software side already supports it. Don't let MOTU hold us back! I am collecting emails for a petition. Please email me (above). A blank email will be accepted as an addition, but any comments you have are GREATLY encouraged. All will be forwarded. Thanks All!

Most of today's digital audio/sequencing software supports
Windows NT 4.0 and even Windows2000. All the software I
currently use has supported NT for quite a long time, now
(Sound Forge, Cakewalk Pro Audio, Vegas, Waves NPPI and
NPPII, etc.). The advantage, obviously, to NT is the
ability to run multiple processors... but it also does one
other quite amazing thing for digital audio that is not as
well known: drive striping. With NT you can take a pair of
matching drives (IDE or SCSI, doesn't matter) and stripe
them as one large interleaved drive... without spending
ridiculous amounts of money on a RAID system. We're talking
about great increases in track throughput, here.

So, obviously, NT has potential to give you far superior
performance to Win95/98 when it comes to realtime
processing and hard-disk throughput... so why hasn't
everyone who is at all serious switched yet? Two reasons:

Dual processor motherboards and the processors required to
make SMP (summetrical multi-processing) happen have always
been very expensive. SMP has always been aimed at the high-
end network server environment. This fact is changing
drastically at this very moment. Abit has just released
their new $150 BP6 dual socket370 motherboard. Intel
intentionally disabled SMP for all Celerons... simply
because Celerons are aimed at the entry level. It is purely
a marketing desicion, and Abit has worked around it. With
400MHz Celerons going for about $80 right now... we are
looking at just over $300 right now for a dual 400MHz
motherboard/processor combo. I just got this motherboard
myself and am very, very happy with it.

The second reason... and this is what I need your help
with, is that there are a few straggling companies that are
keeping us from making the switch. Not many would argue
that Mark of the Unicorn and Event make some of the best
digital audio interfaces for the money. I speak
specifically of the MOTU 2408 and Event Darla/Gina/Layla.
Neither of these companies have written NT drivers or have
stated any intent to do so. I have a 2408 and recently had
an email dialog with MOTU's support staff. When I asked
about NT/2000 support they answered that they
were "considering" support for it. This clearly means that
they have not even begun work on drivers. I replied and
asked if a petition is what it would take... and was told
that any such petition would be forwarded to the
engineering team.

For 2408 owners, the only thing keeping us from using
Windows NT and gaining the awesome performance advantages
is MOTU. Almost everyone else on the software side already
supports it. Don't let MOTU hold us back! I am collecting
emails for a petition. Please email me (above). A blank
email will be accepted as an addition, but any comments you
have are GREATLY encouraged. All will be forwarded.

Thanks All!