Vista Optimization Guide

[tech1]

After months of using the OS, weeks of research, hours of writing, and minutes of spell-checking, it's finally here:

The PC Optimization Guide for Windows Vista

This guide is very similar in style and content to the existing XP Optimization Guide, but is re-written specifically for Vista. This is the initial release, so please let us know if:
- you find any errors;
- there are additional tweaks to be added;
- any clarifications need to be made;
- it improves performance for your DAW (which, of course, is the goal!).

Our web guys are currently adding it to the resource center. It will also exist here.

Enjoy!!

[Audiodude]

Thanks! I'm stickying this.

[tech1]

FYI, it's officially in the Resource Center now.

[tech1]

So....522 people have looked at this so far. Has anyone had any success following it? Anything to add? take out? clarify? Just curious....

[traknologist]

I will try it and let you know since day one of even pressing the power button on my preloaded vista system that took half an hour to boot then crashed system has turned into extremely stable but slow system. I'm going to dive right in, be back with details in a day or so.

[kope]

No one mentioned cluster size of HDD ???

[tech1]

No, because the discussion there is a little beyond the scope of this guide. I'll see what I can do as far as incorprating something about this in another document.

[kope]

Steinberg typs
I found this is useful not only for Steinberg products, is good article for all DAW users. I will recommended this to all people which are in plan to buy new DAW system for the first time. Excellent, easy to understand, explanation what actually you need.

[LukeSUK]

Hi, I have been reading the guide to optimising Vista to be a DAW and I was wondering if I need to do the optimisation if my process usage never goes above 30-40% and my memory usage is around 900mb when I have 1.5gb?

I am using M-Audio Torq software and Xponent USB Midi controller. The problem I am having is that certain MP3 tracks (of varying bit rates) sound like the beat is clashing, almost like an echo effect. This doesn't happen all the time and seems to get worse the longer I use the system.

I am using the latest drivers and software from M-Audio website.

Do you think my problems are system performance related?

M-Audio support has advised that I need play around with the buffer/latency settings which I have done to a small extend but as my problem is intermittent it is difficult to test thoroughly.

I will appreciate any help you could give me.

Thanks

Luke

[tech1]

Well, the optimization guide is not necessary if you're getting along just fine. It's here to use as a tool to get more performance out of your computer. One thing about CPU monitoring is that it is a very slow average. It may read 40% over the course of a half-second, but when you're dealing with Gigahertz clock speeds, it's possible to have the system totally maxed for thousands of cycles, which is enough to cause audio problems but insufficient to necessarily show up in a CPU monitor.

My opinion on your issue is that's worth a shot. If it does nothing to help, you can always go back and reverse the changes.

[itsplayed]

Originally Posted by LukeSUK

Hi, I have been reading the guide to optimising Vista to be a DAW and I was wondering if I need to do the optimisation if my process usage never goes above 30-40% and my memory usage is around 900mb when I have 1.5gb?

I am using M-Audio Torq software and Xponent USB Midi controller. The problem I am having is that certain MP3 tracks (of varying bit rates) sound like the beat is clashing, almost like an echo effect. This doesn't happen all the time and seems to get worse the longer I use the system.

I am using the latest drivers and software from M-Audio website.

Do you think my problems are system performance related?

M-Audio support has advised that I need play around with the buffer/latency settings which I have done to a small extend but as my problem is intermittent it is difficult to test thoroughly.

I will appreciate any help you could give me.

Thanks

Luke

Hey luke and welcome to the forums,

You didn't mention what audio interface your running with......this is a major factor in how well your machine will perform, regardless of the OS your using.
Also, are you on a desktop or lametop(laptop)......sorry, I just had to say it.

Nevermind, I see that the Torq is also a USB audio interface......Did you completely uninstall any other audio interface device before setting up the Torq?
Do you have the Torq on it's own dedicated USB hub?

[duffman123]

VIsta Home Premium. Did the guide, marked improvement. Also did these:
1. In BIOS disable motherboard NIC. This disables Intel Viiv instruction set.
2. Disable Windows Media Center. If not streaming media content not needed. This does not effect Media Player.
3. Disable Windows sound enhancements.
4. Link my Anti-Virus/Internet protection program to start and stop with IExplorer. I have to log into my network so am not always connected.
5. Remove rarely used programs from startup. Quicktime, Acrobat reader ect.
6. in BIOS change HD settings to performance, turn off all power saving settings.

Since doing all of this my system seems to boot and run faster. Minor glitches in Adobe Audition 3 during recording and play back have vanished. Goofing around I pasted in 19 tracks frm differnet files while recording 1. No problems.

DUFF

[duffman123]

Oh yeah just using onboard sound card with factory installed driver. Sigma-Tel Cmajor.

DUFF

[djfontana]

use hijackThis! to take control of your pc on the process level. for advanced users only. if you don't know what to "fix" on the registry level, don't kill it.
good tool to monitor spyware and annoying malwares too!

hope this helps!

[eNIGMATICsquid]

If you really want to see an increase in performance, I would highly recommend you go back to using Windows XP with Service Pack 3. Through Control Panel --> System --> Advanced --> Performance Settings. Set Visual Effects to Performance and then go to the Advanced Tab and set Virtual Memory to Max on Initial/Max size (4096). This will be your best Windows environment for recording. Vista has way too much garbage running with it and still too many issues to be a good audio workstation.

I'll also refer back to this guide for other considerations for WinXP.

http://www.audioforums.com/resources...imization.html