Miroslav in today's market

[Anders00]

Besides the wonderful SAM stuff, only woodwinds/brass that I have is AO, so naturally I was looking for another library to layer with. Dan Dean is a bit out of my price range, so I was thinking Miroslav.

But Miroslav seems to still be full-priced! The whole Miroslav set costs as much as VSL, and both the solo instrument discs and the brass/woodwind ensemble libe are about 600$.

Anyone have any recommendations?

-Matt

[JonFairhurst]

We were just having a discussion on a similar topic at the Tascam forum. Prosonus came up as a $299 possibility. I don\'t own it, so I can\'t give a first hand review - but the price is right!

[midphase]

Dan Dean is very good....why don\'t you buy it a bit at a time? Start with the flute and clarinet, then expand to oboe and basoon!

I think the individual instruments are only $120 or so. If you look around you might even find them for the coveted $99!

[Eric G]

Prosonus is pretty good, with a couple glaring bad points.

The woodwinds don\'t have very many multisamples. The clarinet and low reeds sound particularly fractured. I don\'t much care for the tone on most of the brass. The tuning is abysmal, although the update from about a year or so ago fixes most of it.

There is some very nice natural ambience to the samples, some clever and usable programming, and the marcato strings have a very satisfying bite.

[eliam]

My only advice: forget about Vitous.

[greatzed]

Miroslav is still outstanding. But with that obnoxious price, you can get something MUCH better. Vienna has the best woodwind samples I\'ve ever heard, but that\'s $900! What about Quantum Leap Brass?

[e_SEB]

Originally posted by greatzed:
Miroslav is still outstanding. But with that obnoxious price, you can get something MUCH better. Vienna has the best woodwind samples I\'ve ever heard, but that\'s $900! What about Quantum Leap Brass? <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">I was just about to start a thread on this question. I\'ve been looking for a woodwinds library myself, and I\'ve read good things in this forum on Dan Dean\'s libraries. However, I haven\'t been able to find any online demos of the individual instruments themselves. I have heard the Vienna woodwind demos. I was wondering whether you or anyone else might give me an opinion on how they compare, with regard realism, quality of tone, articulations, etc.

Many Thanks,

SB

[Alexcremers]

If you want VSL or Dan Dean to be a part of your \"live\" orchestra you will need to render or have alot of computers hooked up with each other. It\'s a pity Vitous is still being overpriced because the woodwinds are quite expressive and they almost use no resources.


------------
Alex Cremers

[greatzed]

\"If you want VSL or Dan Dean to be a part of your \"live\" orchestra you will need to render or have alot of computers hooked up with each other.\"

Now, why is this, exactly? Are they REALLY that much of a resorce hog? I just can\'t imagine 3 or more computers hooked up for ONE sample library... Although I\'ve never used them before...

[peter269]

Originally posted by Alexcremers:
If you want VSL or Dan Dean to be a part of your \"live\" orchestra you will need to render or have alot of computers hooked up with each other. It\'s a pity Vitous is still being overpriced because the woodwinds are quite expressive and they almost use no resources.


------------
Alex Cremers <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Are you a VSL owner? What\'s the source of your comments if you\'re not?

Because I\'m not finding that the case if you\'re careful in picking your instruments from the Cube. Several composers are getting 32 or more channels setup.

Miroslav is definitely overpriced, but the woodwind ensembles are still very useful. Except for Kirk Hunter\'s flutes, the only other library shipping right now with 2-3 unison woodwinds to a melodic line is Miroslav.

However, when it ships, QLSO will have the multiple woodwinds in unison:

http://www.truespec.com/store/samplelibraries/ewqlso/woodwinds.shtml (\"http://www.truespec.com/store/samplelibraries/ewqlso/woodwinds.shtml\")

[David Govett]

QLSO does have some very expressive Miroslav like sounds. I think Miroslav set the standard and to me, QLSO and VSL have finnally overtaken it. Until these two showed up, I always found myself reverting back to some of the Miroslav stuff no matter what library I had on hand.

Later
Dave

[Alexcremers]

\"What\'s the source of your comments?\"


This has been discussed more then once and with many VSL owners who claim that about 3 instruments from the VSL Performance Set maxes out a fairly decent computer. I\'ve been an eagle eyed observer on this subject for months now. But you\'re right! The Cube might be the way to go, however, if we\'re talking woodwinds, most members praise the Performance Set which is the one I might go for until QLSO convinces me otherwise.

------------
Alex Cremers

[Markus S]

Well and there is xsample, too. They have three woodwind volumes. I think they will sell them in a bundel one day. The clarinets are very nice, the flutes, too. Now the hb and engl horn have less quality than the others, IMO , but the basson is nice. It\'s not vsl (I only know it from the demos), but it\'s not vsl-price neither (one volume 120 euro). You can get flutes and clarinets and maybe the hb from somewhere else.

[Leon Willett]

QLSO does have some very expressive Miroslav like sounds. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Wonderful!

I had the pleasure of using Vitous solo instruments a few months ago in a local studio, and they were so expressive I was wishing I had written more lyrical music!

Of course, the price for Vitous today is a just silly. But I did really enjoy playing that english horn. I miss it! images/icons/frown.gif Nice to hear EWQLSO may be as expressive images/icons/grin.gif

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Alexcremers:
\"What\'s the source of your comments?\"


This has been discussed more then once and with many VSL owners who claim that about 3 instruments from the VSL Performance Set maxes out a fairly decent computer.<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">That is sooooooo much BS. A performance legato instrument roughly takes up about 15% on an unoptimized machine with one gig of memory. 3 instruments max? C\'mon, where did you get that crap? Certainly not on this forum.

[Markus S]

And there is one thing very regretable about vsl: in the first edition they sell the brass and the woodwinds together. Why not sell the woodwinds for 450 euro??? I would have bought them, but I already got good brass and no 900 euro...

[Markus S]

... I don\'t even dare considering to sell instruments separatly...

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Markus S:
And there is one thing very regretable about vsl: in the first edition they sell the brass and the woodwinds together. Why not sell the woodwinds for 450 euro??? I would have bought them, but I already got good brass and no 900 euro... <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Judging from a recent post by Herb on the VSL forum, they might be selling instruments seperately in the near future.

[Simon Ravn]

Originally posted by Alexcremers:
\"What\'s the source of your comments?\"


This has been discussed more then once and with many VSL owners who claim that about 3 instruments from the VSL Performance Set maxes out a fairly decent computer. ------------
Alex Cremers <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">That\'s rubbish! Where on earth did you read that. I can load about 10-15 instruments from the PERFORMANCE set (and those samples are by far the most RAM hungry ones) on one 1GB machine. Or in other words. I can load most of the strings+woodwinds that I need on one machine.

[Alexcremers]

Sovereign wrote:


That is sooooooo much BS. A performance legato instrument roughly takes up about 15% on an unoptimized machine with one gig of memory. 3 instruments max? C\'mon, where did you get that crap? Certainly not on this forum.
<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">What other forum is there? images/icons/smile.gif

Sure, it was this forum, a few weeks ago, maybe you\'ve read it too. Btw, how much bull**** can it be if we assume that the usage per instrument is 15% as you say? Is that so generous? Is one or even two machines going to do it? It doesn\'t change the problem.

On a brighter note, in five years when computers are fives times more powerful your onces so power hungry library might be tamed.


------------
Alex Cremers

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Alexcremers:
Sure, it was this forum, a few weeks ago, maybe you\'ve read it too.<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">No, but I think I know which thread you\'re referring to. I even participated in it.


Btw, how much bull**** can it be if we assume that the usage per instrument is 15% as you say? Is that so generous?<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Let\'s not go off on a tangent now, shall we? Fact is, you were wrong. No shame in admitting such.

[Alexcremers]

Let\'s not go off on a tangent now, shall we? Fact is, you were wrong. No shame in admitting such. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">No, perhaps I was quoting people who were wrong. There is no sign that says who is right or wrong, only stars. But if it makes you feel better then I have no problem admitting I was wrong. And I will be very happy to load 15 Performance (Simon) Instruments if VSL wins the race between the battle of the giant libraries.


------------
Alex Cremers

[Markus S]

Originally posted by Markus S:
And there is one thing very regretable about vsl: in the first edition they sell the brass and the woodwinds together. Why not sell the woodwinds for 450 euro??? I would have bought them, but I already got good brass and no 900 euro...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Judging from a recent post by Herb on the VSL forum, they might be selling instruments seperately in the near future.
-----------------------------

IS IT TRUE??? OBOE, HERE I COME! graemlins/tounge_images/icons/smile.gif

[csduke]

Originally posted by Alexcremers:

This has been discussed more then once and with many VSL owners who claim that about 3 instruments from the VSL Performance Set maxes out a fairly decent computer. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Alex,
Its RAM not GHz. The number of Performance Set instruments that can be loaded on one system is only dependant upon how much RAM it has and GS RAM address space limits. The processing overhead is typical of any GS lib as are all of the Cube instruments. I can loaded 6 Performance Set instruments with 640 MBs.

[Alexcremers]

Its RAM not GHz. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">I know and Giga (or Windows) can adress 1.5 gigabytes. So if Tascam gets around that problem and if computers can hold more ram which is inevitable then only one computer will do the job. We probably don\'t have to wait 5 years for that to happen.


------------
Alex Cremers

[pantonality]

Many posts back someone asked about DDSW. I recently acquired these and just finished a project in which I got to know some of them, flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon.

Of those 4 I liked the bassoon the best, it was the most consistent and generally pretty good. The flute doesn\'t have any real hard tonguing and some notes are just played lame. There have been some much discussed opinions on the oboe, it\'s workable, but quacky. I found the clarinet had either too fast or too slow an attack, but after that it\'s OK.

Kirk Hunter postsed a demo of his flute sounded great. At $99 it\'s definitely a competitive value. He also mentioned he\'d be doing oboe next. I\'m probably going to grab it and the oboe at some point, unless QLSO or VSL offers woods seperartely at a reachable price.

Dan Dean is OK and it\'s been the best around for a while, but it\'s not perfect. Still, I\'m glad I\'ve got it. I\'ll be posting my latest effort soon using DDSW and a bunch of other stuff soon (did a first pass at the mix last night).

Steve Chandler
http://www.mp3.com/stevechandler (\"http://www.mp3.com/stevechandler\")

[gungnir]

To address original topic “Miroslav in today\'s market….. Still needed for lyrical melodic lines!

The truth is that many of Miroslav’s instruments, like his string ensembles, are still the only one’s to date that can stand up-front on their own, without all the layering and usual manipulations, and provide a truly expressive melodic line.

But yes, they are overpriced, especially with the limited samples provided, but I’m still glad I have them. Some of those individual recorded Miroslav samples are truly musical and very beautiful, and set a standard that has yet to be matched, IMHO.

Cheers, Don

[Jazzhole]

I can tell you, I almost always layer the miroslav instruments with almost all my new sample libs. And they sound GREAT together with most other sample libraries. And they dont take any ram at all. But today I wouldnt buy them for the price they are (still) at.

Cheers

[Markus S]

QUOTE] But yes, they are overpriced, especially with the limited samples provided [/QUOTE]

Is this true that the whole thing is only 2 CDs images/icons/shocked.gif ? (Saw it on the best service site) But true, true, very beautiful sounding....

[Monty]

Hi Sharmy,

I\'ve been offline for some months because we have had a serious illness in the family. What news on that \"Christian Project \" you were working on? Did it turn out ok? Did you select a simple piano section or keep the original?

Re XP and 98SE. It would be interesting to know your findings here. Theoreticians would say that 98SE will not handle more than 512 mb RAM. Lets reduce this by 80mb for the most skilled 98 installation. In contrast XP will allow 1 mb but will take up 200-300 mb unless experts can shave this. On my reckoning XP should win hands down provided all drivers all fully optimised on both platforms. However during the last year some people have claimed to see better performance from 98SE with additional ram over 512mb.

I have no idea so your evaluation would be of considerable interest.

Take care,

best wishes, Monty

[A_Sapp]

To be completely honest, to be whole-heartedly satisfied with the entire VSL set, you\'d need a BUNCH of computers. My second computer has nothing but VSL, and with about 7-10 legato patches loaded up, the computer is maxed out (1 gig machine running Win2k).

When I see how much stuff VSL has, like legato instruments, repetition samples, short, medium, long-note sets, dynamic sets, effects, runs, ect ect ect, having a computer for each section still wouldn\'t quite be enough. To me its worth it for the computer to take that much memory to load up these gorgeous legato patches, but to load up an expressive patch that takes little little memory is quite convenient.

I mean, I\'m doing ok with one computer for VSL, but I have to be careful about what I choose as to not exceed 99%. When I can bust out on all kinds of patches without breaking a sweat, than I\'ll breath a little easier. But for now...

\"Flute patch.. \'gigastudio loading flute patch_leg\'... please please pleaseeeeee... ahh. ahh, DAMNIT!!! Okay FINE, scroll down, click, open, flute_sustain patch, click. Gigastudio loading.... hmmmm. Wonderful, it loads. Click, repetition folder, perf-rep, Vlns at 300 bps, click... loading.... \"You\'ve exceended the allocated mem... *CHA-CHINK! \'sonofab- \"KA-BLOOIE!\" <--- A regular day in the Sapp Studio.

[Leon Willett]

Aaron, maybe you should try putting a Win 98 partition on your giga computer. If it is completely dedicated to giga, then you may find no inconvenience in running an old OS like 98, and it will give you more instruments loaded at once (about 45% more).

[Alexcremers]

A Sapp wrote:


To be completely honest, to be whole-heartedly satisfied with the entire VSL set, you\'d need a BUNCH of computers. My second computer has nothing but VSL, and with about 7-10 legato patches loaded up, the computer is maxed out (1 gig machine running Win2k). <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">My point exactly! And you\'re only running VSL!
If one is to run other programs like sequencers, synths, etc., besides VSL, then maybe we\'re getting back to the early mentioned and ridiculed number of 3 images/icons/wink.gif (which wasn\'t mine to start with) .


------------
Alex Cremers

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Alexcremers:
A Sapp wrote:
If one is to run other programs like sequencers, synths, etc., besides VSL, then maybe we\'re getting back to the early mentioned and ridiculed number of 3 images/icons/wink.gif (which wasn\'t mine to start with).<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">\"Maybe\"? Horse manure, 3 is a ridiculous number. And you\'ve sure changed your story a lot for that matter, now you\'ve got everything running on a single machine! Sheesh. images/icons/rolleyes.gif

Ya know, if you also run all kinds of programs like Word, maybe a game in the background too, you can eat up enough memory so that Giga would not load much more than one instrument! Isn\'t that amazing?! images/icons/rolleyes.gif

[Alexcremers]

And you\'ve sure changed your story a lot for that matter, now you\'ve got everything running on a single machine! Sheesh. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Chips, Sovereign! Now you have to read the whole thread again and highlight the words where you think that I\'ve said such a thing. Good luck!


------------
Alex Cremers

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Alexcremers:
Chips, Sovereign! Now you have to read the whole thread again and highlight the words where you think that I\'ve said such a thing. Good luck!<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Well, Alex, that\'s not really tough, now is it?

\"If one is to run other programs like sequencers, synths, etc., besides VSL...\"

Surely you\'re not suggesting here that running synths and a sequencer on a secondary machine has any influence on the amount of ram Giga has at its disposal when Giga is running on a dedicated box.

Thus, your assumption is that all the applications above run alongside Giga on a single machine, otherwise you\'d not make a comment about how this would get you towards that magical number 3 you\'ve been touting in this thread.

If you feel you\'ve been misunderstood, you should clarify what you mean when you say that
running \"other programs ... besides VSL...\" brings it down to that \"number 3\".

[lex]

Interesting...

Altough I\'m in a same situation as Aaron, once you taste the legato patches you just can\'t let go, the statement of 3 patches is redicilous...
The number is betwen 7 and 9 legato patches on one XP 1gb machine, with Sonar running as well, no problems no hickups...

There were some roumors that once and if new Giga comes out it will be able to load twice as much...wouldn\'t that be nice..loading full quality, no compromise orchestra template on one machine...niceee.. images/icons/wink.gif

Alex

[Alexcremers]

Sovereign, I presume you\'re using a dedicated VSL only machine while I have only but I computer running Cubase VST and GS. Perhaps therein lies the misunderstanding. What\'s more, when I quoted the magic number three, I was quoting someone else from another thread. I don\'t have VSL. Maybe you think I did.
Anyway, the percentage, that VLS is consuming per instrument, you gave me, tells me that my \"3\" is alot more realistic for a one computer situation then anything else. This thread isn\'t based on whether you have 1, 2, 3, or more machines. So same numbers can lead to different results. And that\'s why we\'re having our little quarrel, I think.


------------
Alex Cremers

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Alexcremers:
[QB] Sovereign, I presume you\'re using a dedicated VSL only machine while I have only but I computer running Cubase VST and GS. Perhaps therein lies the misunderstanding.<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Not really, my assessment included that option all along. I haven\'t had a dedicated setup for that long either.

Assuming the \"worst\" config here (XP) which leaves the least amount available for Giga you can still load 6 or 7 legatos in one go, alongside giga and your sequencer. Forget \"3\".


What\'s more, when I quoted the magic number three, I was quoting someone else from another thread.<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">You probably quoted someone else\'s *question* because none of the answers from *VSL owners* in that thread mentioned any low numbers like that.


I don\'t have VSL. Maybe you think I did.<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">No, that thought never crossed my mind. Because if you did you wouldn\'t be hung up on number 3. images/icons/wink.gif


Anyway, the percentage, that VLS is consuming per instrument, you gave me, tells me that my \"3\" is alot more realistic for a one computer situation then anything else.<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">No, hardly. As others have mentioned, Giga does not use all the available memory in your system. In my case it leaves over 200 megs sitting there doing nothing, which is, to say the least, annoying.

And if you\'re running Win98 or ME with 1 gig you can probably load a whole lot more than I can on a dedicated rig, or at the very least the same amount if you run a sequencer alongside.

[XanaX]

Originally posted by Monty:


Re XP and 98SE. It would be interesting to know your findings here. Theoreticians would say that 98SE will not handle more than 512 mb RAM. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Actually, there\'s a built in 512 Meg RAM limit in 98se that\'s easily circumvented. I\'ve been running 1024 with no problem.

[Alexcremers]

Sharmy,

That\'s quite some power your describing. 7%? images/icons/shocked.gif So I have to know what machine and what settings were used to come up with such fabulous figures. Thank you.


------------
Alex Cremers

[Alexcremers]

As Andy B confirmed over at the VSL forum. You can now run 2 gig machines with Mattias\'s settings and he\'s thinking even more is possible. Hopefully in the next day I can try this expieriment on a 3 gig machine (Peter?)<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Sharmy,

Does this not matter?


------------
Alex Cremers

[kid-surf]

Holy crap!

Thanks for the heads up Sharmy! Man, I think I need to call Peter. images/icons/grin.gif This is really great news!!!

Fingers crossed!

(BTW- Nice cues! *wink* images/icons/wink.gif )

[Alexcremers]

Sovereign, don\'t go. I\'ve another bold quote for you to sink your teeth in or get annoyed by. Go there:

Hard drive and Ram questions link (\"http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=002778\")


------------
Alex Cremers

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Sharmy:
[QB]
Compared to XP 1 gig machine, at least double the amount of instruments loaded.<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">I\'m in a dilemma now, because if Win98/ME is going to give me almost double the amount of instrument space I am going to kick WinXP off my giga machines. Trouble is, the HDs are all formated in NTFS so I\'d have to format and install everything all over again. images/icons/frown.gif

Upgrading memory is not an option for me, the nforce 1 boards I use only accept 1 gig and no more.

[Monty]

Hi Sharmy,

I am amazed and impressed to see how far you have progressed things in the last 6 months - and no help from Microsoft!

Looks like 98SE will be around for quite some time. I have been working up to a clean install of XP but have delayed because I have so many progs with different registrations and will XP drivers be as good as my 98SE ones.

When I get my extra RAM I hope I can come back to ask just how much you have shaved out of 98SE without loosing functionality and performance.

Well done,

Best wishes, Monty

[Simon Ravn]

Originally posted by Sovereign:
</font><blockquote><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><hr /><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Originally posted by Sharmy:
[QB]
Compared to XP 1 gig machine, at least double the amount of instruments loaded.<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">I\'m in a dilemma now, because if Win98/ME is going to give me almost double the amount of instrument space I am going to kick WinXP off my giga machines. Trouble is, the HDs are all formated in NTFS so I\'d have to format and install everything all over again. images/icons/frown.gif
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">You can use a program like Partition Magic to convert NTFS to FAT32.

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Simon Ravn:
You can use a program like Partition Magic to convert NTFS to FAT32.<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Well, I solved that problem for the moment by just buying a new HD. images/icons/wink.gif

However, now I remember the horror that was Win98/ME! Oh my god, I have just spent hours trying to get things right, only to have the latest driver for my Terratec card screw up the windows installation over and over again. Finally I found an older driver which did work. images/icons/cool.gif

But seriously, XP is bliss compared to this old crap. I wonder how stable this thing will remain.

[Sovereign]

One more question, Simon. Is it normal for Giga to show abnormal high cpu ussage under win98? I\'ve seen it go over 140%! images/icons/confused.gif

[DevonB]

Originally posted by Sovereign:
One more question, Simon. Is it normal for Giga to show abnormal high cpu ussage under win98? I\'ve seen it go over 140%! images/icons/confused.gif <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">That\'s a bug from previous versions, I believe 2.50 did that, but was fixed in 2.5x something....? It\'s in the release notes. What version are you using?

Devon

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by DevonB:
That\'s a bug from previous versions, I believe 2.50 did that, but was fixed in 2.5x something....? It\'s in the release notes. What version are you using?<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">2.50.48 I think, but I\'m not entirely sure. In any case, I just killed the partition with the Win98 installation and ordered a mobo which has 3 DIMM slots and can hold up to 3 gigs.

I got intermittent popping as well when playing, so no way am I gonna put up with this crappy excuse for an OS. images/icons/wink.gif

[Ed]

Sovereign,

Are you saying the popping is caused by XP?? I get this problem too!

Ed

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Ed:
Sovereign,
Are you saying the popping is caused by XP?? I get this problem too!
<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Uh, no, Win98. I have no such problems at all when using XP.

[DevonB]

Originally posted by Sovereign:
</font><blockquote><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><hr /><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Originally posted by DevonB:
That\'s a bug from previous versions, I believe 2.50 did that, but was fixed in 2.5x something....? It\'s in the release notes. What version are you using?<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">2.50.48 I think, but I\'m not entirely sure. In any case, I just killed the partition with the Win98 installation and ordered a mobo which has 3 DIMM slots and can hold up to 3 gigs.

I got intermittent popping as well when playing, so no way am I gonna put up with this crappy excuse for an OS. images/icons/wink.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">And your popping probably could have been solved by a few OS tweaks in W98. Been there, tweaked that, had the popping go away. I think it was the ConservativeMemUsage param that brought me out of the \'popping\' problem.

Devon

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by DevonB:
And your popping probably could have been solved by a few OS tweaks in W98. Been there, tweaked that, had the popping go away. I think it was the ConservativeMemUsage param that brought me out of the \'popping\' problem.
<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Possibly, but I spent hours installing the damned OS only to have it crash and screw up the installation over and over again. My patience is not unlimited. images/icons/wink.gif

WinXP is just a thousand times more pleasant to work with and does not crash when I use the latest drivers. So the 100 bucks I will loose on a new mobo are well spent.