Audio Drivers updates for M Audio in Windows 7?

willhouse

Hi everyone,
Just wondering if anyone else is having driver issues with their sound cards in windows 7. It seems M Audio have stopped giving info on their progress in updating. My issue, as is the same with many others, is pops, crackles and distortion. The only real solution now is to install xp on another partition, but am wondering does anyone else have issues with dual boot systems, as I hear they can be sluggish.

Cheers!

Will

Snowbat

The first partition starts at the outer edge of the disk where access and transfer rates are fastest¹. Additional partitions will be on comparatively slower parts but you shouldn't find it sluggish unless you're using a partition right at the end of an old drive.

If you want to optimize OS and application loading times, use two smaller OS partitions at the start and one or more larger partitions for user files.





¹ SSDs don't suffer from this.

willhouse

Cheers Snowbat. It's mainly for running music software and not much else. I had to make a partition once I got the laptop, which is Win 7 66% and now XP 33%. Didn't realize the drivers weren't updated at the time, unfortunately. I'll boot up and see how I get on. Cheers again!

ED E

@Snowbat: Percentage wise how much would the slowdown be? I have a win7 partition 406GB into a 500GB drive. Never thought about seek times relative to the position on the drive. Really must set time aside for a full wipe and double reinstall.


@Willhouse Is this a Fast Track or something like that? In any case I'd consider holding on a little longer. Several companies are still developing 7 64bit drivers for gear now it seems. With 7 being stable the industry is moving over and the manufacturers are playing catch-up.

Another option would be trying generic ASIO 4 All drivers. Work fine in all OSs with my Numark 2 channel.

willhouse

It was indeed a fast track pro. M Audio have stopped even commenting on updates and there's nothing on their website. I might go with the install and then wipe the partition once the updates are available. Where can I get the ASIO driver you're talking about. The last update I got from MAUDIO wasn't ASIO. Good to hear something's happening though.

willhouse

Just got the driver there. I'll give it a spin. Cheers LB

willhouse

The problem still exists, but it doesn't seem to be as bad. Cheers LB. I think I'll put off the dual boot and hang on for a while, much appreciated!!!!

ED E

The clicks and pops you described are usually due to one of two things. Interference(Issue I have, took ages to diagnose) or Latency trouble. From what I know basically the CPU isnt feeding the sound card steadily so its struggling to keep its sample rate constant.

If the driver is just inefficient not completely flawed then an easy fix may be to tone down the speed a bit. If you scratch this can be a bit of an issue but most guys out there are fine with a few extra milliseconds on the end. This can also allow you to increase quality a bit with a higher sample rate.

Another thing to check is that Windows isnt using the Fastrack. If you use the onboard sound as your primary card that takes all unnecessary stuff and routes it through the standard out jacks. Then you set your application(I'll guess traktor as the FTP seems a little ahead of VDJ) to use the FTP.

Snowbat

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

@Snowbat: Percentage wise how much would the slowdown be? I have a win7 partition 406GB into a 500GB drive. Never thought about seek times relative to the position on the drive.

Depends on the drive, but at 4/5 in probably around 30% slower transfer and 50% slower seek than the start of the drive.

willhouse

Cheers, I'm running ableton and itunes as my monitors are fed from the ftp. I'll try and slow things a litle, but don't wanna increase the latency at any point. Fingers crossed.

ED E

Gonna schedule all of thursday for a full format. I cleared it recently so its only about 30% full but the Vista(I know) updates will take all day. Its gonna be a whopper hangover day in any case so a simple task like this will be good.

So, for musical performance in case anyones interested:
1. DAW Installation(Essentials only)
2. Everyday Installation
3. Music Partition (35GB was getting small anyways)
4. Data Partition

Steam will end up on the data partition, which isnt perfect but will have to do as its size fluctuates hugely on a monthly basis.


Cheers for the help Snowbat and sorry for the threadjack Will.

willhouse

No worries LB. We all gained from it.