my 3 cents worth
I don't know if anything is going to work under Win 7 for a while, everywhere I look people are having nothing but problems trying to record audio in Win 7, even worse than Vista.. I just happen to stumble on the White Paper M$ issued for Win 7 drivers, especially for Firewire and it seems they have changed all the rules, supposedly they found a much better way to make things work; but then they said that about Vista too.
I bought
the Alesis Multimix 8 Firewire last year thinking I could finally get to record more than one track at a time, but my old computer it turned out was too slow, so I got a new one, not knowing any better I got a 64 bit dual core, and it had Vista installed and of course it wouldn't work, non functioning driver issues, then I did the Win 7 upgrade because it wasn't supposed to have driver problems, and it all just got a lot worse.
Took me months to figure out that the lager problem isn't Windows but that the hardware guys are not writing the new working drivers, which to me is stupid on their part since the only thing you can buy now is multi-core 64 bit systems running Win 7; unless you can afford a MAC.
I would suggest that anyone with an XP system that works keep it until they new drivers arrive and are proven to really work for your particular hardware in your computer model and Windows version.
For now I'm stuck with a mixer that's a paper weight desk ornament, Alesis decided to just pull the mixer off the market instead of fixing the driver problem. Their last communication to me said it could take them a year before they get around to fixing the Vista driver problem [Are drivers really that hard to write I keep wondering] and then told me that only a stupid person would get Win 7, not very encouraging words. They also refused to extend the warranty until I do get to use it, or even give me a refund because I can't use it. I'm guessing they don't want any new customers, or old ones to buy new computers.
So for now I'm stuck trying to find a good used 32 bit with XP pro I could afford, after wasting all that money on the new stuff not much is left, since no one seems to be selling new ones anymore.
I even thought about going to Linux, there is a new version just for recording called Linux Studio, but that still leaves me with the no drivers problem. I might have to go back to school to learn how to write my own drivers if I ever want to use the mixer with the new computer.
I currently have an M-Audio FireWire Solo, which worked fine until I built a new PC and moved to Windows 7. I'd rather not go back to XP, and I'm fed up with M-Audio ignoring customer complaints that their Win 7 64-bit drivers end up producing a serious number of clicks, pops, etc.
Are there any companies out there making a similar audio interface that's known to work well with Win 7 64-bit? FireWire or USB2, I don't care, just looking for the ability to handle two mics with minimum latency and consistent usability.
