Which OS for SX???

[sponge bob]

Hi everyone,
I am getting my upgrade to cubase SX, and noticed it needs to run on an OS of either Win2K, or XP.

My question is first which is better for my daw, of these 2?

And if it's XP, which version to choose? I saw an upgrade for $99 for the home version of XP, but the "Pro" version was $199.

Thanks,
Sponge Bob

[John Sayers]

The pre-release pics of Essex show it using XP.

cheers
john

[skippy]

I just did that upgrade. I went with XP Home, which was a mistake since I do a lot of network sharing (for backups and the like), and Microsoft left out a lot of the "classic Windows" networking support in Home. For that, you need pro. Most people wouldn't encounter this problem...

The XP installer is also a bit of a crock. I built a new partition using Partition Magic so that I could have a clean install and a dual-boot system without relying on the Microsoft dual-boot code. But the installer CD wouldn't boot in my SCSI CD-R drive, so I ended up doing a lot of copying by hand from boot floppies, and ended up having to do the install 3 times to get it to work-and it spooged the Microsoft osloader dual-boot stuff onto my W98SE partition anyway... It finally does work, _now_, but getting it to do so burned a whole weekend. Ahh, the things Microsoft does For Our Convenience... I could eat a handful of sand and puke a better OS, but we're stuck with them.

However, bitching about XP aside, SX looks very good indeed after a week's use. You'll want to keep a dual-boot setup with your old Cubase version around so that you can finish off projects that you started there: the import function for old Cubase songs does not appear to be very functional, and if you have done anything more than minimal editing and automation use, you won't be able to get a complete import- missing tracks, misordered segments, the works. But for starting new projects from scratch, it looks (and sounds) very good indeed. I've now got 3 projects underway in it, and the learning curve is survivable...

There were good XP drivers available for all my hardware (RME Hammerfall, Midex 8, UAD-1), so it has been working very well- stable, no crashes, good audio and MIDI performance thus far. It is *critical* that you make sure that you have all the drivers you need before you start this process, or you'll end up with a world of annoyances...

SX definitely isn't the Cubase you know now. But it is a very potent tool, and well worth looking into. The SX/XP combo allows me to get more tracks and native plugins going with lower CPU usage than W98SE/VST32 ever did...

You will also want the SX 1.01 upgrade from steinberg.net, which fixes some bugs in the initial release (yes, already). Lastly, you'll probably want to read the articles at http://linux1723.dn.net/cgi-bin/ubb/...=10&LastLogin= to get a better idea of what you're looking at.

You can do it. You probably won't enjoy th eprocess any more than I did, but you *can* do it...

[man@work]

Hi all,

It seems to me I heard that the WinXP home version did
not include support for dual processors.....maybe someone
could confirm that.

Mike

[skippy]

True- dual processor support is an XP Pro thing only. That's another thing they left out For Our Convenience in the home version. (;-). I'm trying to find an reasonably priced Home to Pro step upgrade now...

[man@work]

I just ordered my copy of SX a couple of days ago. I
haven't decided yet what OS to use. (I may end up
getting another system, the daughter is taking one
of our puters off to college). In the mean time I'll
just wait until Skippy gets all the bugs worked out!!

[skippy]

Well, I don't know how much more help I'll be. I have to upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro to get my networking stuff to work properly (backups in particular, since I back up to a Unix machine running Samba with smbtar, and XP Home won't allow the "magic" parts of the C: drive to be backed up in that way)... Argh. And Argh again.

But once I get that done, I won't be touching the damned thing again (other than critical updates and SX bugfixes). One thing I've learned working with a DAW: once it works, _don't touch it!_

Of course, I am a dinosaur. This flowchart was taped on my office door for a long time in the mid-80s, back when I used to work for somebody else:

[man@work]

Any advice/postings you do are a help to this community
Skippy!! Your presence here is much appreciated!

Now if SX on WinXP is half as stable as the Unix system
at my day job I might get more music recorded...lol

Sponge Bob.....I also hear it's best to do a fresh install with
WinXP...not just an upgrade.

Mike