Windows for DAW: Win 7, Win 8 or Win10?

Discussion in 'PC' started by Ambar, Oct 16, 2015.

?

Windows for DAW

  1. Win10

    27.0%
  2. Win8

    12.9%
  3. Win7

    55.2%
  4. WinXP FTW

    4.9%
  1. Ambar

    Ambar Producer

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    373
    Likes Received:
    85
    Hi guys Im just about to install a new windows and I think i should install win10 because it is the latest but it looks to have lots of bugs specially for music production. What you recommend? also I need a win version compatible with the most popular vst/vsti plugins and libraries

    Thanx in advance
     
  2.  
  3. r4e

    r4e Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2014
    Messages:
    852
    Likes Received:
    1,206
    I recommend Win 8.1 Update 3.
    It's very fast (faster than Windows 7 and 10), stable and is compatible with all vst's i have - and i have alot including some
    very old free vst's that were released for windows 2000/xp only.

    If you want to use a legit version, take/buy Windows 8.1 Pro. If you don't care,
    use Windows 8.1 Embedded Industry Enterprise because this version doesn't contain
    that app crap stuff and is basically just the plain os which makes it even more fast.
    To get all the drivers you need later, take a look at iobit driver booster and if you like
    aero glass, use Aero Glass for Win8.1 v1.2.5 by PaintR (you'll find it if you search on google).

    When you've finished the installation and configuration, you'll end up with a very light-weight
    os which is perfect for creating music and loading alot of stuff into your future projects.

    My Test OS with Windows 8.1 Update 3 (Embedded Industry Enterprise) x64 looks like this:
    [​IMG]
     
    • Like x 7
    • Interesting x 6
    • Agree x 2
    • Disagree x 1
    • Winner x 1
    • Creative x 1
    • List
  4. Ambar

    Ambar Producer

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    373
    Likes Received:
    85
    Thanks r4e ...so is the win 8.1 pro as light as the win 8.1 embedded too? both dont contain the useless apps, right?
     
  5. SAiNT

    SAiNT Creator Staff Member phonometrograph

    Joined:
    May 21, 2011
    Messages:
    1,994
    Likes Received:
    1,429
    Location:
    ZiON
    I've added poll to this thread and renamed the title a bit :wink:

    Personally i'm still on Win7, but if i'd have to choose right now i'd go with Win10.
     
    • Like Like x 5
    • Agree Agree x 2
    • Disagree Disagree x 2
    • List
  6. boogiewoogie

    boogiewoogie Platinum Record

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2012
    Messages:
    477
    Likes Received:
    196
    I have kepy my DAW on Win7. I had dualboot, one partition for gaming and "netting" and one for DAW. I upgraded the gaming one to Win10, but I kept DAW on 7. Just in case.
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Agree Agree x 1
    • List
  7. alinhovich

    alinhovich Newbie

    Joined:
    May 30, 2013
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Aber can you tell us what bugs win10 have with?
     
  8. lysergyk

    lysergyk Kapellmeister

    Joined:
    Jun 19, 2011
    Messages:
    510
    Likes Received:
    41
    Location:
    Shanghai
    So far performance wise I have not found anything better than win7 x64. I had 8.1 for a time but I found out my DAW's perfomances were about 15% lower than when I had win7 ...and some of my other softs were somewhat laggy too...I use bigdata analysis tools among other things...so I reverted to win7 and since then it's fine again!
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
    • Like Like x 1
    • List
  9. NicoDPS

    NicoDPS Platinum Record

    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2015
    Messages:
    310
    Likes Received:
    225
    Location:
    Wherever I may roam
    I'm on windows 7 atm, in a few month I could upgrade for 10...
     
  10. Mostwest

    Mostwest Platinum Record

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2012
    Messages:
    1,365
    Likes Received:
    214
    Of course Windows 7... If you need something really clean and fast there is this mod of Windows 7 (Ice Extreme https://audiosex.pro/threads/windows-7-ice-extreme.19130/ ) wich runs faster and better than regular Win7 with no extra stuff, plus can work perfect on old machines too.

    [​IMG]
     
    • Like Like x 5
    • Interesting Interesting x 3
    • List
  11. JudoLudo

    JudoLudo Kapellmeister

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2014
    Messages:
    439
    Likes Received:
    46
    I'm on Win8.1 atm, and it's running faster than my old 7. I immediately noticed the difference between 7 and 8.1 in terms of SPEED: no brain, 8.1 is faster and lighter than 7. I think (IMHO) that the best OS which you can do music production with, it will be Win10 in a few months. Do not forget that they are releasing Threshold 2, and maybe it will change everything...or maybe not...but let's wait, and then declare a winner ;) I believe in Win10 because (spying aparts, this is another - terrible - discussion) it has what it takes to be the fastest OS Microsoft ever created.

    Btw, I suggest Win10 Enterprise N LTSB 2015, so that:
    - there is no "app", useless for music production, such as Contacts, Calendar, etc...
    - you can manage the updates perfectly, as you wish
    - it doesn't have the Current Branch, but the Long Term Service Branch, so that you can only install big updates that are tested and stable, not every little update released every day, or week.
    - N: it does not have the Windows Media Player Pack, which I think is a waste of space. There are player way more better than WMP, anyway you can choose the non-N version or you can install it gratis from Microsoft.

    AND......most important....DO NOT use those crappy little software like "Start Win 7" or "Have your Aero on win10" or something like that...they are. all. shit.

    -JL-
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Disagree Disagree x 1
    • Useful Useful x 1
    • List
  12. Snill

    Snill Kapellmeister

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2015
    Messages:
    138
    Likes Received:
    72
    Location:
    Kabul
    I never use windows Vista and 8/8.1 I didn't like.
    My fav is windows 7 and the new one win 10 pro the downside in win 10 are the piracy term and activation.
    If you upgrade your hardwares (mainboard and cpu) you can't easily activate it again. You cant move your license to new pc.
    That sucks
     
  13. Mostwest

    Mostwest Platinum Record

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2012
    Messages:
    1,365
    Likes Received:
    214
    The reason why it's seem faster is very simply, is the same reason why OSX seems always faster than Windows: CPU frequency and multiplier. If you can match Win7-8-8.1-10 and OSX 10.9.0+ and force all of them to run at exactly the same CPU frequency and multiplier you'll notice that they are exactly at the same speed when it comes to the same tasks. Really. AMD user can try it with a tool called K10Stat wich force the cpu to run at particular frequency and multiplier. I know because i tried all of them.
     
  14. nikon

    nikon Platinum Record

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2012
    Messages:
    954
    Likes Received:
    168
    Honestly, fur production I wish I can use Windows 98, it's really lightweight and pure OS :) 120 Mb of installation. And if you remove all unused fonts and graphics, IE5 maybe you can pull down size to 80 Mb. I'm on Windows 7 for long time ago, and it run without any problems.
     
    • Agree Agree x 4
    • Like Like x 1
    • Funny Funny x 1
    • List
  15. thantrax

    thantrax Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Feb 20, 2012
    Messages:
    2,584
    Likes Received:
    2,684
    Location:
    Italy
    Windows 7 is the best for me. It's stable and it's performance are enough for me. I'm planning to move to 64-bit platform. :drummer::chilling:
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Agree Agree x 1
    • List
  16. nikon

    nikon Platinum Record

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2012
    Messages:
    954
    Likes Received:
    168
    We cannot compare OSX and Windows, because OSX is specially designed to run correctly... look just integrated core audio, it's briliant. At the other side, you can use some configuration with integrated audio card and it's rubbish :) Windows politics is the same as Android, can hold anything (hardware, software) and every problem with bad driver etc is the price of that politics.
    If you compare OSX or iPhone etc... (I'm iphone developer), you must eat all the apple shit just to release some app.
     
    • Like Like x 2
    • Disagree Disagree x 2
    • List
  17. luaksone

    luaksone Member

    Joined:
    Oct 20, 2014
    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    11
    Windows 10 works perfectly for me. I don't know what's all the fuzz about bugs and stuff. Though I experienced the memory leak bug once. But just once :)
     
  18. r4e

    r4e Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2014
    Messages:
    852
    Likes Received:
    1,206
    Windows 10 is a big data-collector and it doesn't let you stop collecting everything what you do
    if you don't go deep into the OS. As some tests showed in the past - you can tell the OS to stop that
    by switching some buttons off but it won't stop collecting and sending data.
    Also Win10's performance is lower that the performance of Win8.1 - maybe because of all that crappy stuff.

    For example - If i run a virtual machine with Win8.1 Embedded Enterprise and a vm with Win10 Enterprise LTSB
    at the same time, Win8.1 boots up in half of the time.

    Nope, Windows 8.1 Embedded is that light. Win8.1 Pro contains Apps and other stuff you (maybe) don't need.
    The problem is: 8.1 Embedded isn't available as a legit version for customers at home. That means you have to
    use it with an activator like KMSPico which activates it using a volume license for enterprises.

    It's called Jarvis and since it can't be found that easy (with the updated blurry startmenu for StartIsBack+),
    I've uploaded it for you:
    Jarvis_Theme_Win811.rar

    For the native blur/aero glass effect you need "Aero Glass for Win8.1" and if you look out
    for v1.2.5 by PainteR, You'll find a working version without the advertising watermark that comes with
    the "as free called" version by the developer. You also need "Black Glass Enhanced 0.5" to blur the explorer background
    and OldNewExplorer to let the explorer look like the one from win7.
    If you need an installer which does it all for you at once, write me a pm. I've created a setup which
    installs everything you need incl. this and other themes, Aero Glass by PainteR, Black Glass Enhanced,
    OldNewExplorer, some wallpapers and more.
     
  19. JudoLudo

    JudoLudo Kapellmeister

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2014
    Messages:
    439
    Likes Received:
    46
    but...in the end...it is faster, effectively, no? :) even if they use a.."trick". but they are faster anyway than tha precedent...or am I wrong?

    what kind of memory leak do you mean?
     
  20. Mostwest

    Mostwest Platinum Record

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2012
    Messages:
    1,365
    Likes Received:
    214
    They seems faster because they are asking more power to the cpu basicly, with same settings they are all the at the same speed and power...
    Change power managment settings is the easy way, change minimum % CPU from 0% to something 30-40-50% to taste...
     
  21. Guitarmaniac64

    Guitarmaniac64 Platinum Record

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2011
    Messages:
    1,311
    Likes Received:
    298
    So why does it crash and freeze?
    And i dont think core audio is so brilliant why do you even use it?
    I cant record a guitar straight in to my mac pro it only have spdif and toslink and a shitty minitele inputs so most of the homestudio user have audiocards instead with mic preamps and DI and guess what they need drivers in order to work..
    And hey they dont always work in fact many have problems with them
    And then the shitty apple upgrade their OS every other year or so people may think great i upgrade and find out that the driver NOT work anymore.
    And that includes most of the audio apps even some DAW even apples OWN Daw Logic how idiotic is that? And that includes many plugins aswell.
    You must be a real fanboy i got news for you there are others that dont think like you and who knows better then you
    I have both Mac (write this on a Mac Pro) use to have shitty iphone (still have it in case my android which is way better than that crappy iphone got lost or i forget it somewhere) I never again i gonna buy a crappy iphone never again buy anything from crappy apple only idiots buy their shitty policy and buy their crap (which almost always break especially laptops and imacs and even some mac pro:s strange duh! If you dont believe me just read on any mac forum and you see my BRAND NEW mac pro broke :( and you see answers like yeah thats a well known fact for this model they broke easely that part contact apple support bla bla i hope you have pay the "apple care plan" for a shitload of money bla bla!!Whyh doeas those amazing thing need an apple care protection at all?I mean they say it is SOOO GOOOD still it isnĀ“t and they paid 5 times than the price for a win computer with the sam specs and i bet the win last much longer than the shitty mac.

    Mac where better for musician 15 years ago but not today.
    So to answer your idiotic statement yes we can compare shitty apple crap with windows and hey windows is better
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2015
    • Agree Agree x 4
    • Winner Winner x 2
    • Like Like x 1
    • List
Loading...
Loading...