Recording - September 2011 - 18

Overall I’m pretty satisfied with Windows 7. But I also found a few quirks that felt like a step backward in the way I use a DAW. Quirks in Windows 7 Run as Administrator – Even if you have administrator rights on your account, some programs won’t install right or run right without an extra menu pick to “run as administrator”. This caught me on a few setup routines, and in trying to register the Dimension Pro soft synth in SONAR X1. Unable to Delete System Files – I like to keep the system clean from old software or the occasional trial version. Quite often the “uninstall” routine will leave artifacts behind. That hasn’t changed in Windows 7. Previously I was in the habit of searching for artifacts and deleting them. But Windows 7 won’t allow the deletion of “system” files (unless you go into command mode and use a couple of lengthy commands to change the security level on each individual file—too much hassle in my opinion). Windows Media Center – WMC is a cool way to organize and access your media files, but it has been known to interfere with some DAW software. Still, I couldn’t resist trying it in Windows 7. But as soon as I enabled it, I began having frequent lockups with soft synths in SONAR X1, crashing the project without even a recovery file. I disabled WMC, and the lock-ups stopped. Windows Media Player – I like using Microsoft native utilities like Media Player, so I don’t have to load third-party audio applications which can introduce more drivers, and more problems. It was disappointing that WMP in Windows 7 lacked some of the features that I relied on in previous versions. TAG editor – Gone is the useful TAG editor, which let you tag dozens of files at once. I did find a free third-party plug-in called “TAG Editor Plus”, which at least allows you to tag files one at a time. Recently Added Items – Also gone is “Recently Added Items” from the Navigation pane. I had used this on a daily basis to locate and manage new music files—to add them to a playlist, or burn list, or an MP3 sync list. Now it takes extra steps to find those new files. View Burn Status – Last, when burning a CD, the old WMP automatically displayed the burn status. I found this pretty handy when I needed to burn a CD in a hurry, which is at least once a week. Now I have to choose “View Burn Status” from a menu. OK, not a huge problem, but still felt like a step backward to me. Windows tweaks for DAWs Some reports say you can easily run DAW software with absolutely no tweaking of Windows 7. Other users say you must tweak Windows 7 to disable all the GUI eye candy, extra audio features, power features, and more. Who to believe? In the end, believe what works for you! Every workstation is a unique combination of PC hardware, audio interface and DAW software. If you feel the need to tweak, you can find lots of websites with advice on recommended settings. At least keep a record of changes you make and the date changed, so you can revert back to original settings. Below are some of the most common Windows 7 tweaks for audio. If you’re not sure how to get to these settings, try simply typing the name of the setting below into the Windows 7 Search bar. Windows 7 Search is a handy shortcut to all sorts of settings, bypassing all the layers of nested Windows menus.
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RECORDING SEPTEMBER 2011

Change 1394 OCHI Host Controller (ie. FireWire) Driver to Legacy – The Windows 7 FireWire driver is designed to be compatible with newer and emerging FireWire devices. But many audio devices still use the old FireWire standard. This was required for my TASCAM audio interface, to eliminate dropouts and freezes. Use Device Manager to “update” the driver to the OCHI Legacy driver. Choose “Browse for driver software on your computer”, and then choose “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer”. User Account Control Settings – Set it to Never Modify in order to disable this. Otherwise UAC can interfere with installing or running some programs including some DAW software and softsynths. Power Options – Set for high performance. This prevents the system from managing the power of your components during audio operation. Change System Sounds – Set to no sounds. This prevents the system from playing canned Windows sounds which could interfere with your audio operation. Device Manager: IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers – Enable DMA on each channel. This may improve the data transfer rate with your hard drives. Open the properties on each one, click Advanced Settings tab, and check Enable DMA (if there’s a checkbox, this may not appear on every controller). Device Manager: Disk Drives > Properties > Policies – Disable Disk Caching on each drive. At the risk of losing some data during a power interruption, disabling caching can improve throughput on your drives. My testing showed little difference, so I disabled it only on the drive that stores samples. Data loss isn’t an issue because the samples are unchanged once loaded, unless I’m saving a new sample, which I rarely do. Advanced System Settings > Performance Settings > Advanced Tab – Set processor scheduling to background services. This is because Windows may treat the driver for your audio interface as a background service. Advanced System Settings > Performance Settings > Visual Effects Tab – You may improve performance by customizing your visual settings. Uncheck any visual effects that you can live without. Aero Theme – Test Your PC Using a non-Aero Theme. Aero is the slick-looking user interface that provides window transparency and other features. There’s been much debate on DAW forums as to whether a DAW will run better with Aero enabled or disabled. Test with your DAW to determine whether to leave it on or off. On mine, it made no difference, so I left it enabled. Disable Search Indexing – Computer Management > Services and Applications > Services > – scroll down to the Windows Search service and disable it. If you don’t, indexing will run constantly in the background using more RAM. It’s only helpful if you’re doing a lot of searches on your PC. Note that following these instructions will only disable the Indexing function, not Windows Search itself. Windows Search can be very useful. Device Installation Settings – set to Never Install Driver Software from Windows Update. Do this if you want to prevent Windows from overwriting audio drivers with newer drivers. Once audio is working well, I’d rather have control over what updates get installed. Just be aware that you’ll have to manually review all your PC driver updates from now on.

Recording - September 2011

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