Interface compatibility problem?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dainbramage
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dainbramage

dainbramage

Well-known member
I've got a HP laptop with the following specs:

- AMD Phenom(tm) II P960 Quad-Core Processor 1.8GHz
- 8GB RAM
- Running on Windows 7 64bit

I was wondering if this is enough for a decent audio interface. The thing is, connecting my Zoom H4n as an interface did not work well. My computer started lagging extremely and the sound was barely audible apart from a gross distortion. After some googling I found that it was because of the AMD-thing. Will I have the same problem with other interfaces? Did I get the wrong computer? :(
 
I dislike hp alot myself but that's cause I bought one from staples long ago. Bad plan. I now use Dell studio laptop with win 7 64 bit and 6 gb of ram. Research hazards of windows RPC. (remote procedure call) there is a free program that will detect windows interrupting your asio stream. Sometime disabling network cards etc while recording helps. It saved me a lot of frustration. Had same problem with zoom h2 my laptop and cubase LE AND CUBASE AI 5. I have the steinberg ci2 interface now and love it. Made with yamaha and the asio drivers are decent. Still have to disable my wifi and LAN card though. If I can find the program I used will send a link.

(edit) have looked all over online and cannot find the program I discussed. Will see later if I still have the exe on my home computer.
This doesn't tell you what piece of hardware or software is interrupting your signal, but gives you a graphical layout of when the interruptions come.
So as you disabled pieces of hardware like network cards, or perhaps optical drives...you see this red bar go away. Then you know its safe to record without glitches an interruptions. I will say the ZOOM drivers...don't seem very good. You could try ASIO 4 all.
Also some of these programs have problems with dual-core processors/quadcore processors. There is some where in Windows, I don't recall where you address each core of the processor, and can increase the priority level or disable the other cores for a specific program so its not juggling them.

I hope this has helped give you a place to start searching. It's so frustrating.
 
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Well it's going to depend entirely on the interface you want to use, and the recording software you want to use it with.
It's definitely worth checking manufacturers' compatibility charts which you can usually find on their websites. They will cover everything from operating systems to motherboards. Most of the time, they will infuriatingly short of tried, tested and ok'd hardware, but that's what you get.

Don't worry, you're not the only one. I'm sure a significant proportion of people on this forum have bought gear before checking it is compatible with whatever they want to use with it. I know I have!

Btw, no firewire isn't the end of the world at all. usb 2 should be reliable enough for most non-massive track counts.

Here's a few more ideas for you on recording interfaces which may help.
 
What hardware/software do you already have or intend to acquire?
 
m.g. eddie said:
What hardware/software do you already have or intend to acquire?
Click to expand...

Thank you all for great responses.

Right now I'm using the Zoom H4n with no software. I'm thinking about aquiring a Focusrite Saffire interface, one or two XTA C2 compressors and an ART DPS-II pre-amp.
 
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