Request for Log of Vista Compatibility

[Drew Buchan]

Would the moderators consider establishing a "sticky" log of Vista compatibility for software and hardware.

Perhaps one large table of information for the DAWs, Audio Interface, Controller ....
Fields may contain information such as ...
Existing SW / Drivers Compatible - Yes / No / Unknown
Existing SW / Drivers Compatible - Version Numbers
Vista Compatible SW / Drivers planned - Yes / No / Unknown
Vista Compatible SW / Drivers planned - due date


Not sure how it would be completed; should forum members should just post findings and moderators update table?


Any other suggestions ?

[Richard Berg]

I'd suggest using (and contributing to!) existing sites like NTCompatible. On something as important as this, better to collaborate will the entire Windows community than just Northern Sounds readers.

[Houston Haynes]

I saw on the Propellerheads site (http://www.propellerheads.se/remote.cfm?sID=dynamo&menu=/home/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_menu&page=/news/newspages/index.cfm?fuseaction=get_article&article=vistastatement) that they've announced compatibility with Vista. I'm sure that other vendors will do the same in fairly short order.

To me, the real lynchpin is hardware drivers for audio interfaces.

[Richard Berg]

Agreed, hardware is the most important piece of the puzzle. Doesn't look like NTCompatible is doing a very good job with the Vista transition, unfortunately. Too bad; they were the best source on the web during the Win95/98 -> Win2k move.

Emu still lists Vista drivers (http://ask.americas.creative.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=ww_english_add,U={B8F60310-DA4F-11D3-94F4-00500463020E},Company={CEAE216D-8719-4C00-AC9F-03BC258F7B70},d=1130251443648,VARSET=ws:http://us.creative.com,case=14186) as "TBA." Not even a guess at a date. I've hated Creative's engineering practices for a long time, and only bought the 1212M because it was an amazingly good deal 3 years ago; the time may have arrived to kick them to the curb (again).

Except their competitors aren't much better. M-Audio (http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.faq&ID=2b9102ba8e228823582720fb3beba029) has zero info and even tells you not to bother them about it. Echo (http://www.echoaudio.com/Support/FAQ.php#11) won't talk dates either. RME (http://www.rme-audio.com/english/download/drivers.htm) has drivers for their latest (FireWire) interface but not for any of their PCI sourcecards.

[Richard Berg]

Yup, the only people who currently have Vista drivers for their entire product line (http://www.motu.com/newsitems/vista-drivers-shipping) is MOTU. Kind of ironic, considering how Mac-centric they are.

Unfortunately [for my wallet], as I was browsing their website in search of info for this thread, I came upon the UltraLite (http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/ultralite/). Sexy...I think I'm in love.

[Olivier]

Hi,

do you know if the Motu cards have this feature :

Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI)

The new Sonar 6 update will be able to use this new API.

[Richard Berg]

I don't know, but I will find out soon -- I ordered an UltraLite yesterday :)

My guess is "yes". It would be very difficult for a pro audio driver that targets the old API to work correctly on Vista (which is why all the other companies are taking forever; they can't just repackage their old drivers with a new manifest like they could from 2000->XP or XP->2003).

[Leaf]

I don't know, but I will find out soon -- I ordered an UltraLite yesterday :)

My guess is "yes". It would be very difficult for a pro audio driver that targets the old API to work correctly on Vista (which is why all the other companies are taking forever; they can't just repackage their old drivers with a new manifest like they could from 2000->XP or XP->2003).

Can you tell us the price? Motu makes it imposible to find the prices on their website.


------------------------------------------


I don't have a DAW, but running Finale 2007b on a Vista Beta. I prematurely reported on another thread that works great on Vista. The sound driver which is a beta for Vista from Realtek audio for 880 and 882is working fine, but Finale isn't.

On XP I was able to get it to run well on my computer which has only 1 gig ram. It originally would have pops and static and sometime dropouts when i loaded plenty of instruments, but i was able to get rid of those problems by making startup only load the minimal programs needed, and by turned off all automatic updating so nothing would be running in the background. I would still have problems if i used Finale while connected to internet, but none if I disconnected.

This has not worked to correct the problem in Vista. I do not know if there is stuff running in the background for now that you can't turn off just because it is a beta, or if this is the way the Vista release will be. I may just need more RAM.

I'm glad I still have XP on a hard drive to use for now, because on this computer with Vista it is not currently usable.

[Richard Berg]

The UltraLite is around $500 if you shop online. (try Froogle) I paid slightly more at Guitar Center for immediate gratification and comp'd accessories.

What are you using to play sounds in Finale? The software MIDI driver? If it pops & clicks when you send it lots of complex data then obviously it's not working fine.

[howardv]

I see the RME FF400 and FF800 now claim Vista64 support. Been using a FF400 as well as a Tascam FW1884 with Win64 for about 3 months now and they work great. I picked up a spare boot drive with the plan of trying a Vista64 install to see what works.... just need to find some spare time to do it.

No mention of Vista support on the Tascam driver page, however. Would their Win64 drivers be likely to work under Vista64?

Howard


ps: Cakewalk announced Sonar v6.2 at NAMM with native Vista 32 and 64 support. Chatter in their forums says it'll be up later this week or early next.

[Leaf]

The UltraLite is around $500 if you shop online. (try Froogle) I paid slightly more at Guitar Center for immediate gratification and comp'd accessories.

What are you using to play sounds in Finale? The software MIDI driver? If it pops & clicks when you send it lots of complex data then obviously it's not working fine.
Thanks!

The drivers from Realtek that i had installed were Vista-R153, I just found out they now have Vista-R155. I'm installing it now and will post later the results.

[Richard Berg]

Vista seems to have really good built-in support for USB MIDI devices. I had a Behringer BCF2000 and an M-Audio Axiom 49 both detect & work perfectly -- on x64 no less - despite neither company offering support.

[Olivier]

Would the moderators consider establishing a "sticky" log of Vista compatibility for software and hardware.

Perhaps one large table of information for the DAWs, Audio Interface, Controller ....
Fields may contain information such as ...
Existing SW / Drivers Compatible - Yes / No / Unknown
Existing SW / Drivers Compatible - Version Numbers
Vista Compatible SW / Drivers planned - Yes / No / Unknown
Vista Compatible SW / Drivers planned - due date


Not sure how it would be completed; should forum members should just post findings and moderators update table?


Any other suggestions ?

We should add :

Vista compatible or Vista 100% supported with WaveRT drivers

To know if a driver is WaveRT compatible, open the .inf file (driver script) with a notepad and search this line :

KSCATEGORY_REALTIME="{EB115FFC-10C8-4964-831D-6DCB02E6F23F}"

If you see this line, your driver will be compatible with the new WaveRT option of Sonar6.2 update.

BUt i don't see this line in the new EWDM unified drivers of ESI.

It's a bad news.

Example of driver with the new WaveRT :

http://cmediadrivers.googlepages.com/home

[Leaf]

Thanks!

The drivers from Realtek that i had installed were Vista-R153, I just found out they now have Vista-R155. I'm installing it now and will post later the results.Working now without the static pops and cutouts, so either the new driver from realtek or the latest update from ms fixed that problem, sound is clear as a bell.

[Pando]

Some Win-XP Drivers work just fine under Vista. The trick is to install them with Windows XP compatibility mode turned on. This can be done by right-clicking on the install program, and selecting Windows XP compatility mode.

For example - when trying to install M-Audio Firewire 410 Windows XP Driver in Vista, it complains that the operating system is not correct. When compatibility mode is turned on it installs and operates just fine.

[Haydn]

Noel Borthwick of Cakewalk has posted some interesting things about WaveRT and other drivers in Vista. This is a very informative thread: http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.asp?m=963108

Jim

[Houston Haynes]

Windows Vista RTM Software Compatibility List (http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vista_RTM_Software_Compatibility_List)