Windows XP and Pro Tools: Fact or Fiction

[cdog]

Sometimes someone will mention this to me, and I honestly think the guys on Mythbusters should give it a shot.

No one else is going to as far as I can tell.

I know its technically possible, but could it actually happen?

Have you witnessed a session performed on XP? Have you ever been abducted?

cdog

[Mike O]

A large percentage of digi's presentation's at the last AES utilized AES. My guess is that they are really courting the combination as Apple/Logic do their thing.

It will be interesting to see if they can over time win (no pun intended) over the AE community that trust their Macs more and have years invested in that environment. Specific presenters (such as GM presented running on the Mac.

Depending on what Apple does or does not do, maybe Digi will never find it necesarry to REALLY market/push Windows.

But other than the odd box to show it works, you would never have caught Digi running under any version of Windows for their presentations.

Things change over time. Or do they? I guess we'll see.

[Bob Olhsson]

If anything, I find it's more solid than the Mac version. Now that PT can handle VST plug-ins, I don't think most of the Mac-only ones will be missed.

[lang_dave]

I run ProTools TDM v6.1 on a Windows XP machine and it works fine. I've even managed to convince some friends who use ProTools on a Mac that the Windows platform is a viable alternative.

In my opinion, though, support for the Windows TDM version of the software is poor. Mac TDM and Windows LE versions get bug fixes first because they have larger user bases.

I do miss some of the high end Mac plugins like the McDSP series....

[guittarzzan]

I use hd2, still on 5.3 with xp and it works fine. I used to have le on Millinium which was horrible. I found millinium to be very unstable. XP is rock solid though in my experience. The only problems I've run into is from my own stupidity.
With a lot of help, built a new computer and my first session I got 38 tracks at 24/96 with all the automation, edits etc off of a single 7200 rpm drive via the promise controller port on the Asus mobo. Pci buss and system not even breaking a sweat at that point. All the parts only $1240. Try getting that kind of performance from a Mac on a $1,200 budget

cheers,
steve

[cdog]

I'm married to my XP machine for pure number crunching performance - and I still prefer Logic 5.5 over anything else for PC, but clients always ask for Pro Tools.

So, I don't have much choice in the matter, unfortunately. grudge

[Gerax]

I've been using Pro Tools on Windows since I started out using it (I'm kind of a black sheep ), and though I managed to get a very stable system on 98SE (I self built a custom PC with selected parts tested in compatibility on the DUC forum) now I'm on XP and I never get a single crash, I almost forget the machine I'm running PT LE on and just interface with it; yes, at the moment plug-ins availability isn't the same as with Macs, but it's growing fast, and if one cannot have work done with all of the currently available plugs, maybe he/she should start searching for the problem somwhere else, not on the XP platform...
Performance is top notch for a system like the one I use, I can get 32 tracks (still using 5.3.1, will switch to 6 in the next months) with a healty dose (25/30 instances) of plug ins (Waves, Bomb Factory, Focusrite, Blue Tubes, etc..) and sevarl aux sends, everything out of a single ATA 100 7200RPM drive, and the system is stable as a rock.
I think now there's no such argument about which platform anymore, just get the app you like to use and go on the platform that supports it, Win XP is definitively valid and reliable.

Cheers

L.G.

[davemc]

Well I moved to Mac from PC a while ago because of the lack of plugins.
I found that if you configure the machines they both will work fine, its just a box. Although digi was always a bit behind in developemnt on the PC side. Some plugins are just not out for PC which is sad.

[faeflora]

Do you Windows XP PT users experience problems with PT becoming destabalized after you run Windows Update for security patches etc?

[ProFool]

Originally posted by faeflora
Do you Windows XP PT users experience problems with PT becoming destabalized after you run Windows Update for security patches etc?

Performance seems to go better, but slower on start up time, opening sessions etc. but in sessions I seem to get more CPU lately then ever before and that only on a Pent III 700mhz 512ram. Power toy tweak was a big improvement

[De chromium cob]

I also run PT 6.1.1 on a P4 2 Ghz with XP.... No problems or crashes at all- I like the fact that the keyboard shortcuts are the same as a mac for the most part....Also run Nuendo on a P4 3 Ghz with XP and its just as stable. Both boxes are custom builds with Zalman cooling & power supplys, dual head cards, motherboards with Intel 850 & 875P chips, ect... a performance and price combo that just cant be beat in the mac world. I use HD systems on Macs quite a bit and actually like XP better as an operating system.

[ProFool]

De chromium cob

whats your tought on the shuttle systems,
Did you used one already or now someone?
Anyone have experience with them?
Xp home or pro? On the XPC site they say ist better to stay with the home edition.

thanks

[Gerax]

Originally posted by ProFool:

Xp home or pro? On the XPC site they say ist better to stay with the home edition.

Apart for a couple of things (networking and dual CPU support) the two are almost identical, so go Home (no pun intended) if you think you won't need those features; if yuo think you'll need to network your DAW with another, or plan on building a dual CPU machine (PT currently supports dual CPU, even though it doesn't take advantage of both, just one, but who knows...a few releases down the road... ) then Pro version is what you need.
I have my system with XP Pro, and it rocks.

Hope this helps

L.G.

[jimlongo]

PT currently supports dual CPU, even though it doesn't take advantage of both, just one, but who knows...

Is that true still true with 6.x?
In OSX, PT6 utilizes both processors.

[hammer]

Dual CPUs in toolsXP 6.xx works like this
CPU1 Audio engine
CPU2 everything else (bugger all)
It's not really a very efficient way of dealing with 2 CPUs. But it does make bigger projects smoother.
I know SONAR 3.1 splits the audio engine across both CPUs now and people are seeing a 50% increase in performance over a single CPU at the same speed.
NOw that Hyperthreading is in all the mjr players (including tools I guess) will slowly start switching over to this model.

[Gerax]

How can you manage to assign the CPUs to different tasks? What do you mean everything else? DO you mean Plug-ins or other apps that may run in the background, or together like Reason or soft samplers?

I'd like to go dual for my next upgrade down the road this year, but I'd like to get some more infos on it by somebody who's actually using it.

Thanx

L.G.

[ProFool]

What do you guys do about recycling parts when upgrading?
eccept for drives and cdrw-dvdr stuff, are there any other parts you could use again?
upgrading motherboards is this posible?
thx

[Gerax]

Well

I'll be upgrading my system for the first time since I bought it and built it (3 years being the average life of a PC system, I fear it will shorten as we go on) and thinking about going to a dual CPU I think that peripherals, PCI cards, fans, and case maybe will stay the same (if not dual CPU maybe the Power supply can be the same too provided it's big enough); CPU and mobo of my current system will be used to build a VST/Soft Sampler/Convolution Reverb machine that I'll hook up to my main PT DAW like an outboard processor via SPdif or ADAT, so that I'll be able to save some parts and DSP off Pro Tools.

L.G.

[tommyd]

Late to the party, as usual but....
I'm running an HD2 desktop rig and a 002 rack with my laptop. Both on 2.6ghz pc's 1 gig of ram, Win XP pro. 6.1 on the desktop, 6.1.1 on the laptop, and both systems are stable and fast as *!
I work at 96 / 24 often and have zero problems with fairly high track counts ( I run out of voices before cpu horsepower).
It is true that some of the plug in options aren't available to Windoze users, but so far I haven't run into anything that I can't live without. ( I really do WANT that Cranesong Phoenix though). Parity between the O.S.'s from an application stand point is pretty much apples to apples, and the plug ins seem to be catching up. The reasons that I went for the Win platform are really that I was very familiar with the hardware and software voodoo aspect, and that I could build my own demon desktop rig for peanuts compared to the price of a Mac. And no, I'm not dissin' Mac's. I love em'. Don't know how many times I've threatened to switch to Apple because of Mr. Gates shenanigans, but that hardware price to performance ratio keeps me on Win for the moment. Really has worked out very well, and no compatiblity issues with other facilities. My .02
TommyD