Windows not so scary

[bayswater]

This may be of interest to those not very familiar with Windows, but considering a switch. I've never owned a PC, but used them at previous employers, and developed a definite dislike.

Someone gave me the use of an old PC that was headed for the recycling bin. It's a Lenovo with an IBM label on it, probably quite old. It has a Core 2 Duo 1.87G, 4G RAM, a small SATA drive, DVD writer, and 12 USB 2 ports. Roughly equivalent to the mid 2007 Mini, one of which I have. Came with Windows 7, and one user account. I added a WD external bus power USB drive. It can automatically detect and use the Mac's internet connection over ethernet using Internet Sharing. This is a pretty gutless machine.

I downloaded and installed drivers for a MOTU MIDI interface, a Lexicon Alpha audio interface, DP 8 trial, Blue Cat free VSTs, and PDF Reader, all 64 bit.

All these installations worked first time and were simple to do. I altered system fonts and general appearance to get a look closer to OS X. Windows automatically set up a Time Machine-like backup. My fear was a series of endless weird incomprehensible setup problems, but it was a simple and straightforward as the Mac setup. Basic navigation is easy, things are where they ought to be, and do what they look like they should do. I have to say Windows 7 is a big improvement over the versions I used years ago that left me with visceral fear and loathing.

I copied over a DP project in progress from the Mac. It had 8 audio and 2 MIDI tracks with busy arpeggiators, 2 instances of Model 12, a few DP EQ plugins, a couple of Blue Cat plugins, and MW Leveller. It loaded in DP Windows without incident and looked just like it did on the Mac. It was easy to resolve the remapping device options. I tried out MIDI, Sequence and Waveform editors, Bundles, V-Racks, Chunks, etc, all the stuff you use in most projects, recorded a few tracks, and generally played around with as many functions as I could for about 12 hours in total over four days, during which the PC was left running and DP was started and exited a few times.

DP never crashed, and Windows never did anything unexpected. Once in DP, it was indistinguishable from the Mac version except for a couple of minor differences in OS menu structures, and some confusion over key commands using modifiers (Win vs CMD). The overall experience is very much "DP" and not very much "Windows". MOTU did a great job on the port.

With a three relatively minor exceptions, it all worked perfectly. I experienced occasional audio glitch, likely attributable to hardware limitations in the CPU. If left idle for a long time, DP switched to MIDI only after a message that there was no response from the audio interface. And sometimes, exiting DP led to messages that something did not close properly. Saved projects were fine anyway, and reloaded properly.

As for the claims that DP runs better in Windows than OS X, who knows, but I'm inclined to give that the benefit of the doubt. DP 8 on this PC run much better than DP 7 ever did on my roughly equivalent and similarly aged Mini. The USB throughput is very obviously faster.

DP on Windows was easy to setup, and easy to use, was stable, responsive, etc. All I have that doesn't work on Windows is DSP-Q and Logic. So switching to, or adding a PC, if it comes to that, is not a problem. Ironically, the remaining barrier is cost. You have to buy Windows, and decent PCs from reliable suppliers are not that cheap, if they ever were.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

DP 8 on this PC run much better than DP 7 ever did on my roughly equivalent and similarly aged Mini.

So your pitting a tower against a mini and calling it "as good as?" To truly be fair, pit a tower against a tower, a laptop against a laptop and a mini against... oh wait, there are no PC minis, are there?

Also, loosing connectivity to the audio device is no small annoyance. In a production studio it is a major problem if you have to reboot every time you take a coffee break or lunch. I had a mini for a while and never really felt it was performing as well as my towers or laptops. Internal busses (AFAIK) were not as fast or efficient and I can't imagine the internal circuitry was as well made (IE - cheaper components that were less capable).

The idea of a PC laptop for DP is still, nevertheless, attractive to me for stage use, especially when I want to have VIs and samples on the ready for my more demanding theater and comedy gigs. But even VI pianos would be nice to have as my Kurzweil PC2 starts to age.

I appreciate the post and the experiment but I don't think it's really fair to make the comparison to the mini. No offense to you, bayswater, so please don't take this as a personal attack. I've already met my quota for that today...

[bayswater]

My main point was that setting up DP on a PC was simple, the basic DP experience is identical under either OS, and the workflow I'm used to transferred transparently.

The comparison to the Mini was not the point of the exercise, but even so, it may not be so unreasonable. The processor and general state of technology of the two computers is quite similar. I didn't mention that the PC also did a better job of running DP than my G5 which in theory has a better performance profile than my Mini. The particular PC I have here is a small general office desktop machine (not what you would normally call a "tower") used by clerical staff for email and word processing. We'll never come up with a test of OS efficiency that satisfies everyone.

As for losing connection to the audio interface, I agree this is not trivial, but its easily recovered and did not create a problem with the test project. But it happens on my iMac on ML and MBP on Mavericks too, so it is possibly something to do with the Alpha (which can be had for $49, so not exactly state of the art). If I take this any further, I'll put my PCI 424 card in the PC and try out the 2408-2 and see how that fares.

[rmgatl]

Thanks Bayswater, exactly what I was looking for.
I have a 2007 MBP and a couple of more current W7 machines. I'm in the market to replace the MBP with something I would use exclusively for a DAW and I'm interested in DP.
I find W7 really very easy to use, actually easier than my MBP because I'm using W7 all day for work.
I'm finding Apple increasingly offensive...Customer service has just been ok. Apple has been generally good about picking quality components but they're not perfect (the battery in my MBP for example is a well-chronicled over-priced piece of crap).

I'm watching to see how DP is testing on windows machines and very much appreciate your review.

[wilcofan]

I have a perfectly functional 2.0GHz Macbook which Apple has dropped OS support for, yet Microsoft has not.

Get your head around that.

I agree Windows 7 is a breeze, I too use it at work. It's still very "Windoze" at times, gives you information you don't need, gets in your way once a day.

The backwards compatibility is the most impressive to me. Some of my software was released last month, some of it in 2002. And it all still runs on the same platform.

And the fact it runs AutoHotkey.

[bayswater]

I can't get my head around the claim that Microsoft is providing OS support for a Macbook.

[billf]

I can't get my head around the claim that Microsoft is providing OS support for a Macbook.

Apparently Apple has something to do with it if this thread is to be believed.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1600147

Regardless, since Macs went to Intel, running Windows on a Mac has been possible via Bootcamp. And of course you can run it parallel to OSX with utilities such as Parallels or VirtualBox. I run Windows 7 on the Mac Pro, although I primarily use OSX for audio work.

[bayswater]

OK. I see. MS has nothing to do with it, just a happy accident, exploited by Apple.

Anyway the writing has been on the wall for a very long time. Computers are not Apple's core business any more. My bet: in 5 years, we'll all be on either a nMP or a PC.

[mikehalloran]

I've never owned a PC, but used them at previous employers, and developed a definite dislike.

Sums it up for me. I got fairly good at Windows but never liked it. I still have an IBM/Lenovo laptop running XP. I can make it work but glad I no longer have to so it sits in a box in case I ever need it again. It's a tool that does a job–some things quite well.