Win XP or Win 98SE??

[gordholio]

Hi:

I'm building a computer (P4 1.6, 40 GB hard drive, 256 MB RAM) dedicated for audio recording (our R&R band, me on guitar, etc.). My question is: I have a version of Windows 98SE that I can install, or I can spend $150.00 (CDN) and buy Win XP. Is there any reason I need to spend the money on XP when I could use 98SE for free?

Thank you!!

gordo

[Badger]

150 cd? THats what, 12 bucks american or so right?

Seriously, XP is worth the money if you can afford it. Much more stable than 98se.

[dachay2tnr]

I assume that since you posted this in the Cakewalk forum, that you are running Sonar.

What sound card will you be using in the computer?

In general, if you have a sound card with WDM drivers, you will find better performance and better stability with Win 2000 or Win XP. WDM drivers generally won't play nice under Win 98.

[James Argo]

If I were you, I'll use win 2000 instead XP. Or stick myself with my 98SE.

XP is realy damn good, but still lack of suport. I'm gonna wait until this mid year to see some significan suport development for XP before I use it.




BTW, dachay2tnr, wadya think about Win ME ?

[RWhite]

Dach is right.

If on the other hand, you are still using Pro Audio (like me) then you need to stick with Win98SE.

[heinz]

Pro Audio 9 ran flawlessly for me under Win XP Pro.

Win ME is a complete train wreck, run away.

[Goat]

I'm running pa 9 on win ME on a p2 400 640ram sound card is a yammie and an Aardvark q10. I have recorded 8 tracks at once with no problems Have now 15 on one song. No problems until I started adding effects like compression, reverb etc.


Goat

[James Argo]

Goat wrote

I'm running pa 9 on win ME on a p2 400 640ram sound card is a yammie and an Aardvark q10. I have recorded 8 tracks at once with no problems Have now 15 on one song. No problems until I started adding effects like compression, reverb etc.

he must spell the right hocus pocus...

[Goat]

Sooooo Sorry
Yamaha

[Badger]

Originally posted by James Argo
If I were you, I'll use win 2000 instead XP. Or stick myself with my 98SE.

XP is realy damn good, but still lack of suport. I'm gonna wait until this mid year to see some significan suport development for XP before I use it.




BTW, dachay2tnr, wadya think about Win ME ?

XP is fine, just check and make sure there are drivers for all the hardware you use. Most stuff already has it.

ME is a good OS when it works. I have always been able to make it work fine, but I know plenty of people who have had nothing but trouble with it. if you are good at tweaking, go for it, if not, dont.

[dachay2tnr]

I've used Win ME since I setup my first DAW about 2 years ago. I used it first with CW PA9, and for the past year with Sonar. It has worked pretty much flawlessly for me.

HOWEVER, I do nearly 100% audio recording (very little midi) and I can tolerate fairly high latencies, since I monitor through my hardware.

I have never been able to get Win ME to work properly with the WDM drivers for my Delta 1010 - so I continue to use MME drivers.

Bottom line is Win ME is working fine for me, but YMMV. I will likely switch to one of the NT platforms (2000 or XP) at some point, but I feel no pressing need to hurry. As I said earlier, though, if you want to use WDM drivers and work with sub-10ms latencies, you are probably best advised to go with 2000 or XP.

[Fab4ever]

Dachay,

So you use the MME drivers? I have Win 98SE and am a PA9 user. I have Sonar now, but I haven't even installed it yet cause I'm afraid it won't work as well as PA9 with the MME drivers. I am half convinced to shell out the C-note for the XP upgrade...

But I, like you, use mostly audio rather than midi. Do you think I'll mess things up by running Sonar on 98 with the MME drivers?

Thanks.

Fab

[dachay2tnr]

Sonar will run fine with MME drivers. You just won't get the low latencies achievable with Sonar and WDM drivers. (The good news, however, is that you shouldn't get any worse latency than you presently get with PA9.)

What sound card are you using and what version of Sonar? If you have version 1.0, make sure you download the upgrades from the Cakewalk web site. You will need both 1.02 and 1.3.1, You can't upgrade directly to 1.3.1, so you need to install 1.02 first. If you have Sonar version 2.0, you can ignore all of this.

You actually don't know what you've been missing by not installing Sonar. You are absolutely gonna love the interface. It will take a little bit of getting used to - and you'll probably miss the Audio View for the first week or so - but after a month or so, you will look at PA9 like it's the equivalent of DOS.

If you are still gun shy, Sonar will co-exist with PA9, so you can leave PA9 installed on your computer while you play around with Sonar. The downside, however, is that Cakewalk changed the file system with version 1.3.1, therefore, you can not use PA9 to open any project that has been saved in 1.3.1.

[Fab4ever]

That's awesome news - thanks for the encoragement.

I have a Delta 44. I'm thinking about a 66 - for the s/pdf.

So, if I decide later to change to Win XP, I can just install the new drivers for use with Sonar - right?

Thanks again for your answers. I really appreciate it.

Fab