Mixcraft7: what operating system?

[kr236rk]

Hi,

What's an optimal pc platform for MC7 please?

Thanks

[Mark Bliss]

Thats a very vague and general question. Hard to give a very useful answer I think.

I have run Mixcraft on XP, Vista and Win7. For me, Win7 would be preferred slightly, due more to drivers than anything. Giving a better answer than that would require more info IMO. What are your personal needs? How powerful a system do you intend to build? How many tracks and processors are in your planned performance needs? Etc. Or are we just "bench racing" PC's here?

I think right now, if high end performance is in your plans, its still going to be Win7 64 bit on a MB that will support a lot of RAM and running as powerful a processor as your budget allows. Ice the cake with an SSD.

But then, most users don't really need all that.

You will likely get as many varied answers as replys.

[BremenCole]

Win 7 64 bit

[Larioso]

W7 64-bit too and a motherboard with 16G on it, and extra slots available to extend to 32G when needing it.

When I got my current machine 2010 - there were different limitations whether you bought W7 Home, Pro or Ultimate etc. So check that chosen OS also support the max RAM for MB from start - not having to do OS upgrades to extend RAM.

I bought my machine with 8G on it, and glad I had extra slots and recently upgraded to 16G.

I don't know if there are downsides on W8, 8.1 etc - but drivers for everything might not be available yet, or have more bugs. But W7 would be safe by now - all hardware support it.

[kr236rk]

Thanks guys,

So Win7 64 bit with loads of Ram - gotta be a quad core? I build projects till they crack, the project starts stuttering under the weight of effects & tracks, so memory is my friend or my foe, depending on whether I am running enough Ram. I ask because MC7 is obviously going to be hungrier than 6. At the moment I'm running a quad with 8GB (max) so I'll be looking for a second hand (probably) pc capable of 16 to 32 GB?

[fredfish]

Actually MX7 is more efficient than MX6 - What might slow you down is if you run the 64 bit version with a load of 32 bit plug-ins - the process of "wrapping" the 32 bit plug ins can be a real memory hog. You might well run up against this with 8 gig - probably not a problem with 16 gig.

Cheers

John

[chibear]

I agree WIn7 64 bit. As far as the actual RAM use, that's kind of a grey area depending on your style of writing. To amplify and reiterate sonme of the advice you've already received:

1. If you have a project in Mixcraft 6 with lots of 32 bit fx and VSTis it will use more RAM in Mixcraft 7 64 bit because EACH 32 bit process is wrapped so it will function in the new 64 bit DAW. Some of us did the reverse in 6 and wrapped 64 bit fx and VSTi's in jBridge so that we could use the extra RAM the 64 processes could access (and often required).

2. The amount of RAM you will need really depends on what you are putting into your projects. If it is mainly audio tracks with lots of fx then 8gb might be enough. However if you are using MIDI libraries of the like offered in some of the Kontakt 3rd parties or the EWQL Hollywood series then the sky is the limit. A lot of those folks recommend 32 GB RAM. I'm kind of middle of the road in that area and normal projects are usually in the 20 GB area for me.

3. If you are streaming libraries, it is of the upmost importance that you do so from a separate physical 7200RPM or faster hard drive. The 5400RPM hard drives found in most laptops just don't cut it and you to use them in the above scenario you are going to be living in a world of pops, clicks, and other artifacts. The Mixcraft program itself will run OK from the 5400 RPM drive.

[outteh]

+1 to all the advice. Stay away from Win 8 and 8.1 for now if you can. Many drivers and other support is not quite ready for prime time. Besides, Win 10 is right around the corner. Your audio interface is also going to play a key role in what you do. Get a good one with provided ASIO drivers. On-board audio cards in most laptops and PC's are OK but many times not adequate for rigorous demands of audio production. Good luck with your efforts!

[kr236rk]

Thanks, Kontakt doesn't work for me full stop, so it's not an issue. Have a blind spot for some softwares and Kontakt is right there. Otherwise, I use a midi keyboard with the MC library plus some VSTs - also use an EWI now and then - again, syncing with the MC. A lot of my stuff is analogue into a DAW by way of an interface