I just re-set up my studio on Win8 Pro x64 and here are my thoughts.

A: It's faster period. My kontakt libraries load up more than twice as fast and instead of having to wait 3-5 minutes for my drumkits to load [2 sd2 kits split into bass/snare/toms - Cymbals/highhats + EZX kit for overlay] now loads by the time the project comes up instead of having to wait.

B: It runs much leaner. From what I've noticed at least on Win7 a full track with master on it will usually get my cpu load up to 96% [quadcore P4 2.8ghz] With Win8 it floats between 74%-88%

C: The audio in general is much cleaner and more vibrant. I have no idea if this is due to newer drivers or what but comparing the sound quality between the 2 systems Win8 sounds much better regardless of what is playing the audio.

D: My Kontakt x64 actually works now. In Win7 I had to use Kontakt x86 or it would crash every time regardless of work around's tried with it. Win8 has seemed to solve this problem.

These are just observations for installing Win8 Pro a few days ago. There have only been 1-2 downsides but in the end nothing that really effected anything. Some of my kontakt libraries said they failed to load properly even though they seem to work just fine, it was just an error that popped up that seemed to have no validity behind it.

So in all honesty Win8 gets 2 thumbs up for Music Workstation use from me. The entire system runs, faster, cleaner and more efficiently for me on both x64/x86. I guess it depends on use/plugins/daw but so far I'm more than impressed with the new system.

Even more who here isn't amped up about getting a new Win8 Tablet and being able to write music anytime/anywhere with high end quality at a swipe of the finger?