Handy Tip: Turn off Windows XP sounds in studio monitors.

[RawDepth]

If you use your Windows XP computer as a recording DAW and nothing else, you can turn off the Windows sounds. (Those annoying clicks and chimes when clicking on icons.) This works if Windows sends audio to the same sound card that your recording software uses.

1. Go to Windows Control Panel.
2. Click on “Sounds and Audio Devices”. (speaker icon)
3. Click the upper tab that says “Sounds”.
4. Set Sound Scheme to “No Sounds”

EDIT: This does not disable your sound card, it only tells Windows to stop sending its sound effects to the sound card. Your audio software will continue to send audio to the card.

You can turn this feature back on anytime you wish.

Enjoy!
RawDepth

 

[JMarcomb]

yeah.. thats a good one

also make sure that only essential services are running on your machine. http://pcs.suite101.com/article.cfm/index_of_services

i even turn off my network card on my recording partition to save CPU cycles from being interrupted

 

[MadAudio]

It's a good idea to do this anyway. Some system sounds can cause some interfaces to change their default sample-rate/bit-depth. Not good when you think you're recording 44.1/24 only to find it's changed to something less.