[dead] Which OS do you use for your DAW?

I just use a washboard

I unsing Win Vista x64 with Ableton Live Suite 8... It works Perfekt for me... No Problems...

ok, to make things short....win xp 32 bit still the best choice if you are poor, otherwise osx could be nice too...linux still too complicated to setup all the wine emulated host and plugins...but the day will come soon for linux and audio...latency here on win xp is amazing...i can work at 1 ms latency at 48 khz with my esi julia and the new julia pci express will get maybe 0,5 ms.....xp would be allright if I dont have this massive ahci problem now with my q9550..maybe its c3 and c4 powermanagment that are now makin trouble under win xp....i think xp 64 isnt a choice cause you need XP software and drivers...no vista appz or drivers on win xp 64...virtualisation of course is too slow I guess...there are still timing problems with virtual machines....some one above said that you can only run 64 bit apps under windows7 64bit...i think you can also use apps in 32 bit legacy mode, thats not efficient, but should work...i guess...hope its no problem too to run 32 bit vst plugins in 64 bit host...

Mac Pro 8 core,Mac Book pro,
Logic Pro 9,Ableton Live 8

run Leopard 10.5.8


Amazing...OSX is best For Making music.

Hi, Think this thread is so repetitive... LOL BUT :

I think there's not a question like this or this but it's concern the user and and money

_ if you have not money GO with Windows (Less Expansive)
_ Have Money Go to MAC


_ Have experience on Computer, you can go to windows IF you know based image disc strategy, so if yes you resolve most of the problem with windows, if you know how speed up and lighter the core system it's better
_ Have no experience on Computer, MAC is better, it's easy... more than Windows globally... BUT as i'm paranoid and comes from Windows, i use Image disc Backup Strategy also, and i have never problem...

Hope it helped

I have a quad core dual boot system running:

Mac OSX 10.5.8 Hackintosh with ProTools 8,Cubase 4,Guitar Rig 4, Record and Reason. Also running a UAD1 card and a UAD2 card.

Win XP SP3 Running the same .... ( a backup ... just in case )

The Hackintosh is still experimental and other than a lot of reading/tweaking to get it working it runs flawlessly.

I have another dual core with win 7 32, for "reasearch" ...

@head

I've planned trying hackintosh Mac OS X. Can you share resources to tweak it in order to run audio apps? At least a good tutorial, whatever site with good info to start.

Thanks in advance.

I also have asus P5E3 Premium and Q9550 (wanted the extreme but couldnt afford it ) 1600bus,1600mhz memory 4 gigs. 2terabites win Vista/ 1 terabite win7...both 64 bit. I burned out my 3870 ati and replaced with 5770 .It only crashed when I installed drivers for that video card from asus. After I installed Ati only drivers and it's perfect. I have the 2 terabites almost filled with programs of all sorts and win vista takes longer to boot but works fine, Win 7 boots a lot faster but maybe it will also slow down when I install all programs. I run all studios .Sonar,cubase,Studio one,Nuendo,Ableton,Samplitude,more,about hundred games,3d programs such as Maya and Softimage,all adobeetc...etc...The only problem is I can not use rewire on 64 bit studios but I installed both 32 and 64 bit so I can still use rewire on 32bit such as sonar.Now if I can make my machine stable enough with all that crap which hardly anybody would have then you know that if you have the right hardware for your system then you do not need to cry. Actually Windows 7 should run with corei7 socket 1366 and such with video card supporting dx11. If you buy a processor throw your heat sink and fan out and buy yourself a decent one for at least a hundred dollars and you will be surprised how much more stable a system can run with just a good cpu heatsink. I do have more machines with xp 32 that I like too .But all my machines are 64 bit.Only the os is 32 the reason is because of third party software uncapabilities and not the systems.

???

What exactly do u mean by OPTIMIZED...

as far as i am concerned NO OS is OPTIMIZED as such ...

some of you guys still whine about latency .... which i find funny ....

i haven't had to worry about that for last 5 years .... i mean all common mixing consoles nowadays come with 0 latency support ...

as well as soundcards for example I have close to 0 latency already... i mean anything down from 3 ms is impossible to hear at all and i have something like 0.3 ms latency which can be killed if you use zero latency when recordingh so all this talk about OS optimization for audio shows that you really don't know what you are talking about .... :)



same here - have to manually shut down now and again but only because that is kind of a habit not necessity. Longest i have had system up running is for 90 days ... almost 3 months ....



yes what i really meant was id rather have a bluescreen than that stupid orb just freezing and not doing anything... My win7 recovers from a crash much quicker than macos leopard where you wait and wait, then reboot and it is still not working ... kinda pointless, isn't it...
Yeah viruses - what i meant was MS have learnt to DEAL with these problems quite effectively- apple has this journey ahead of them .... look what happened when somebody slipped a trojan in ILIfe ... everybody went bonkers ....
and the third point you illustrated yourself ... MacOS could be utter garbage .... but douchy fanboys with emo haircuts will still say they like it - because Apple ad campaign told them that to be an indivudual you have to do like apple says .... otherwise you are not "COOL". Truth is all oses are SHIT .... you sit by that computer all ur life and what you get in return is heart disease and all your lifes work can be deleted in 10 seconds .... so fuck that. I 'm gonna play some pure music and show a BIG FUCK to my computer .... (look i am doing it now )

Weird that Mac Users always have to state that OSX is the best for music. (maybe a complex)

Me: Win7 32bit Thinstall (600MB) , went back to Cubase since the 5.1 Air release, no problems, happy !
Will probably buy me a 24inch iMac next year (I travel a lot, so one case less for me), but will stick to the Win7 thinstall on that machine too.

If makes me burst into laugh when I read "WIN is for the poor and "something else" (lose?) is for the rich" type of comments.

1 Just read in the latest CM issue, established and renowned producer Phonat said in the interview, the first thing he did after buying Macbook is wiping MACOS off of it and installing WinXP. Did he do it bcoz he is poor?

2 If someone thinks "OK, so since I have loads of cash I'll buy a MAC" and then visits warez sites, what does that tell about the persons intelligence and intentions? Personally I would rather pay audio app devs that Mr Jobs or Gates.

3 You know what else makes me laugh even more? when I see some of such "elite" users posting in forums "Does this have a MAC OS version?" "Will it rum on MAC?" "When will AiR be releasing it for OSxyz!!!" and then get heartbroken by the obvious answer. I'd rather like to be spoiled for choices, thanks.

4 Ask anyone who actually visits studios. More and more mid sized adn even big studios are using Win PC now, and not just for the front office receptionist's or administrative desks. Hell there clearly is a mass migration season going on it seems.

LOL
You are so right. Best thing I have read for months.

Playing music and performing is the most important thing as you point out. Os's and DAWs just allow us to capture that moment and they all achieve this one way or another. Good marketing and personal investment makes us "think" one platform is better than another.

I'm off for a walk :)

I used XP with Samplitude for a long time. Something crashed everytime but it was fun to work with Windows aside from the "driver-thing". I tried Linux too, (Kubuntu/Ubuntu) but I think its not fully developed yet. If I will have a Linuxsystem again I would prefer Harrison Mixbus. But I use a Mac with Logic since 2008 and I'm very happy with it. Now i dont want anything else. :)

I have 2 questions .
1) Have I to have Windows 7 home premium or it has to be ONLY Windows 7 Ultimate ?
2) Do you have legal Windows 7 or not ?

@Xupito and anyone else that wants to try it ... all you need to know about building a hackintosh is at the insanelymac site.

It's not easy though and requires a lot of reading and patience.

Mine has been running stable for about 3 months now ...

I use Windows Vista.
Sure, Vista ain't the best, but it's enough to me.
I can run Ableton, FL Studio, Cubase and lots of heavy VSTi's, simultaneously, very smooth.

Setup:

Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP2
Intel Core2 Duo E7300 @ 2.66 Hz
4 Gb RAM
ATI HD 4650
3x 500Gb Internal Harddrives + 1,5 Tb external storage
*STANDARD 7.1 SOUNDCARD* :o
And a 23" Samsung screen running @ 1920x1080

And btw yes, I'm going to upgrade the soundcard...

I'm maybe going to upgrade to W7, but I'll first try it on our studio computer (the above specs is for my home...).
Heard alot about W7. Is it as good as it seems (in comparison to Vista)?

to theMAN:


With "Optimized" I'm talking about an OS task scheduler that allows audio applications and audio/midi drivers to take priority over other system processes in a way that
A) Audio won't start stuttering at both high polyphony and low latency and
B) The system is still able to handle important tasks like disk I/O etc.


Oh yes, I would say that MacOSX is far more optimized for audio than Windows is.
Have you ever worked on OSX with Logic, for example?
Many audio interfaces (especially USB interfaces) run fine under OSX, while
they give you much trouble under Windows.
Even with today's fast Intel's, please show me a USB audio interface UNDER WINDOWS with a total latency of below 5ms at CPU load higher than 70% (YES, THIS makes the difference), input and output latency added.
I'd buy that immediately!
BTW, I've compared 7 USB and 2 PCI interfaces under XP/SP2/32bit and ASIO4ALL v2.9 a few months ago, and while PCI is quite easy to get low latency on, USB is a lot more difficult in this regard.
What I didn't expect at all is that the (usually somewhat troublesome) Alesis i/o2 had the lowest latency of all! Also, what I didn't expect, is that the E-MU 0404 USB, which has the best audio quality, also was the one with highest latency and most CPU-hungry drivers.


Ha ha, yes, zero latency, of course, as long as you use the mixer ONLY and the PC/Mac CPU is not involved in the processing chain.
As soon as you use an amp simulator or F/X or software instruments in real time, there is no such thing as "zero latency"! This is, IMHO, dumbass marketing phrase noodling ;-)

Anyways, back to the music

I also use Windows 7 x64. Having gone through XP 32/64 and Vista 32/64, Windows 7 is by far the best OS I have seen in a VERY long time. I have had absolutly no problems with any of my software, and with its new System Image utility, if I do have an issue, I just reimage and am ready to go in about 20 minutes. The problems I have had were not OS caused by my own fault...too much internet porn I guess.

Just wish that WAVES and Wavelab supported 64 bit, but alas they are still suck in the 32bit days.

MacBookPro XP!

zero latency practically does not exist, specially when you have 20 instruments and 40 inserts hooked up, if you want zero latency, buy expensive hardware (so carry around tons of equipment, pay a lot of bills for electricity, get air conditioning for the studio in summer, work only in your studio and sell your hardware for 20% of the paid price... we had all this 10 years ago...no thanks)

PC XP

Microsoft........... like all other software developers these days............. sell shit thats half finished.

mac is gay - sold in boutiques to people who have overprices walkman phones.



https://youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA

WATCH THIS :)

@fiction

about taking priority and such ...i don't want to get too technical but you just described what happens in every OS that has been out for last 10 years ...

from what I can see you only have experience with small systems because i rarely work with usb audio interfaces these days (because - you are right - usb soundcards are meant for dudes like you that won't necessary go and try to record a whole orchestra - they are built to be portable and that is why you have some drawbacks like shit latency) ...you got to understand that all that you describe is small potatoes comparing to stuff thats used for example when you record an orchestra ... besides i have had almost all of the latest portable audio cards in the studio i work because often kids that record here bring them in to show off :) and they all work great under win7 as long as you have at least a vista driver for a 64 bit os . .. and if you talk about 32bit os - I haven't seen a card that hasn't worked on a win7 32bit machine ..... at least they all work for me when I check them out... :)

yeah if you like low latency (that doesnt really matter actually) and NEED to be super portable look for a firewire card.

and i can guarantee you that in those cases when you have a full orchestra you use ONLY zero latency and all the processing (if needed at all) is done by HARDWARE units ... NOT virtual plugin shit ... so you hear what you hear and let the computer do its thing in the bacground . . . . .(an by its thing i mean RECORD ....) you apply effects and stuff later when everything is recorded

also come on man ASIO4ALL :) isn't that an asio driver for old WIA97 soundcards ?? i don't really use that at all ... only on location shoot SOMETIMES when all else fails.

yeah .... i use logic daily with mac and i wouldn't say it is more OPTIMIZED... it is just different...

Well, i'm not gonna get into discussion here... all and all use what you prefer because i for one have no problem recording stuff on any os ... :) i make a lot of my music on a gameboy and a Sony psp ... sometimes i feel better if i have less choice in terms of what plugins I am gonna use, etc etc ... music is supposed to be fun and if someone says to me i record stuff on a cassette, i will say well done because thats cool too :)

in one word optimized my ass :)

:)

I am an old school PC user ... I hate this platform !
since I able to install the Leopard on my intel baissed PC
I am using dual boot so I can choose MAC or PC ! this is A dream come true for me !

@google:

No, Apple is gay. But the OS and Logic is nice. I got one with two handycontracts.

_hi ppl:)
_well i bitched about win7x64, just recently,
_but it always depends on what you do, like previously stated by someone on this board
_i personally use win7x64, and let me tell you i hate everything about M$, Linux ftw, but it is just _underdeveloped in music department:(
_skipped vista entirely, again i tried to make setup with win7x64, only this time i payed attention on how to setup things,
_and i hate to admit it but it actually works _good. There are various variables you need to account, like how old is your hardware and software, _manufactures new os_systems support prim. drivers for x64 system and if they function like they should.
_again, it is entirely dependent on "your hardware and software" you plan on using.
_have patience consult some "music experts", be smart and use your head.

Xp 32 , some of the old plugs I use doesn't cope well w/ 64 bits besides trouble w/ soundcard , pity , because it`s quite fast .