XP or 98?

3DBuddah wrote on 2/27/2002, 7:39 PM
Currently im running a P III 500mhz with a Omni I/O card(delta 66) by M-Audio and using Vegas to do all my recording and mixing, then Sound Forge for mastering. I'm having a lot of problems with crackling/popping on recording and playback, as well as gaps in the audio. Im working right now on setting up a new computer for my studio, but wanted opinions on operating systems, and RAM types. I wanted to know if, for audio only, there is a difference in proformance between the new faster RAM(ddram or whatever) or the standard stuff. I'm looking into a Pentium IV 1.6 GHz, with 80 Gb. 7200 rpm drive, and probably 256k(mabye more) Ram. I am setting up the computer purely for audio, and nothing else. I've heard that 98 is the best, and there are a lot of problems with win 2K that i've seen on forums, but I was wondering if anyone had problems with XP.
Thanx
3DBuddah

Comments

RobRockTheHouse wrote on 2/27/2002, 7:45 PM
im currently using Vegas with a Delta 44 sound card. Im running WIN2K and seems to be working just fine. As far as the cracking and popping, try this, I had this problem too with my other pc. Record a track and render to an mp3. Burn the track on cd and play back. If there is no cracking, I would probably want to reinstall the driver for your sound card or contact Delta for an update. They can be reached at www.midiman.com I did that and it seemed to work.


Best of luck!

Rob "Rock The House"
Chicago
Chienworks wrote on 2/27/2002, 9:36 PM
You'll get nothing but votes for 98SE from me. I've been using it for years and it "just plain works". So far, the only limitation i've seen that really makes any difference is that it only supports FAT instead of NTFS, so that means that you'll be limited to 4GB files. If you're only working with audio, that's not going to be a problem. Even with video, Sonic Foundry's video capture & print to tape tools seemlessly split and join 4GB files, so it's still not a problem.

I find 2K, ME, & XP's interface to be annoyingly clunky. It's almost like the OS is trying to decide what it thinks i want to do, rather than letting me just do what i want. I'm also very leary of all the registration, security, & privacy issues i've been hearing about and reading about with XP. As one of my favorite columnists put it, "I want an OS that runs my computer, not my life."
tserface wrote on 2/28/2002, 12:09 AM
I used 98 and ME for a long time, but I recently upgraded my home computer to XP and I wouldn't go back. I used to have all kinds of problems with VV and capture in particular, but I have zero problems these days. I'm not bashing 98, but for what I've been doing XP runs a ton quicker and I never have to reboot any more.

My 2 pesos...

Tom
billybk wrote on 2/28/2002, 7:36 AM
If you have the driver support, XP is your best bet. I have used all the previous MS DOS based OS's (Win95,98,WinME) and if you want stability and performance, XP wins hands down. XP, IMHO, is the best multi-media OS, Microsoft has ever released. I've been using XP with all my Sonic Foundry apps since the RC1 beta was released last summer. I happen to have the Pro version now, but if you don't need extensive networking capabilities and dual CPU support, the XP Home Edition will work just fine. Just be sure to install in "Standard PC" mode or you will be faced with "ACPI"
issues, which will force all your hardware onto one IRQ (IRQ 9). Audio cards do not like to share IRQ's and will lead to crackling in your audio. I have the Delta 66 with the latest .26 WDM drivers working flawlessly in XP. The only thing I don't like
about XP is it's default interface, but it is easy to change to the "Classic Windows" look, which is one of the first things I changed and you will feel right at home. You might as well get XP now because most, if not all future Windows software development will be geared towards XP.

Billy Buck

wvg wrote on 2/28/2002, 3:28 PM
XP is far better then WIN98. JUST MY OPINION. Just its stability alone is worth upgrading. No more blue screens, no lock ups, no problems. Period. Again MY EXPERIENCE which spans over twenty years. I was/am impressed Microsoft finally got a OS right. Contract to what some think, XP is far more configurable then ANY previous version of Windows.
Rahl wrote on 2/28/2002, 4:11 PM
I have WinXp Pro (get this one if you are interested in XP), and everything works great. But there's still lockup bugs once in awhile. But it's better than what I had before, which was WinMe. Me was just a program created for blue screens. I swear I got blue screens on that OS once every hour or so.

Anyway, XP Pro is the way to go. It's not as expensive as Win2k and it's great. Make sure you run the compatibility test before though to see if your hardware is supported though.

-André Barriault