The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

Personally I think Win2K is a superb OS. Having used it on my main dual proc
system for over a year now, I wouldn't consider moving back to Win9x.
Furthermore with the imminent release of Windows XP later this year, you
will find software support for Win9x/Me declining and all development
focusing on Win2K/XP. Internally Microsoft are almost exclusively developing
for the 2K kernel. Their aim will be to get people away form Win9x as
quickly as possible after the release of XP.

Theoretically Win2K is a much superior OS for multimedia as it can
'guarantee' more predictable context switch and interrupt response times.
The WDM driver model is also superior to the older VxD model. (Albeit that
manufacturers have been slow to transition to the model and use it to full
advantage).

Note that you shouldn't expect dual proc systems to give you twice the
performance of a single proc system. The CPU allocation simply doesn't work
that way. Basically the OS performs a simple load balance between the CPUs
as each new  process thread is created. The net result is that you only get
increased performance if you have multiple threads within an application (or
multiple applications running). For most sequencing apps there will be some
performance gain (as most sequencers will utilise at least two or three
separate threads). Even if you don't find that you can run a significantly
greater number of tracks/effects etc, you will at least find that the UI is
more responsive.

In fact you will find the whole OS multitasks alot smoother when using dual
CPUs. I can certainly notice the difference when I dual boot between Win2K
and WinMe on my system.

Furthermore the stability of Win2K is superb. I can run my systems for weeks
at a time without a reboot or fatal crash (and even then the crashes are
normally caused by some major errant code I am in the process of developing
:-)

It should be noted that the migration of high end sequencer apps to Win2K is
already under way. You will find that Steinberg and Cakewalk are already
targeting their top end products primarily at the Win2K platform.
Furthermore all DirectX development within Microsoft is now targeted at
Win2K.

That said there are some issues with Pro Audio and particularly with the
Yamaha SW1000XG card.

In terms of Audio, Win2K implements a Kernel mixer. The task of this code is
to share the machines audio resources between all apps running on the
platform (i.e. so that you don't get the 'device in use' type message). This
is great for games and other multimedia apps, however it creates problems
for pro audio sequencers. In particular the KMixer buffers audio thus
introducing 30 ms of latency into the audio path!! The good news is that
this can be overcome by routing audio around KMixer. However to do this you
need both applications and drivers that support the bypass. These are
starting to appear (Cakewalks new Sonar application employs the mechanism)
as do several of the newer Win2K WDM compliant low latency sound cards.

Unfortunately the SW1K is relatively old and Yamaha have been slow to
implement stable Win2K drivers. The current Win2K driver does not bypass
Kmixer for audio and has a severe problem with MIDI IN when used on dual
proc systems. Consequently I cannot recommend Win2K if the SW1000XG is your
primary audio/MIDI device.

That said the card does work under Win2k (if you don't use the MIDI input or
have a single proc machine) and PLG card support is not affected. Note
XGedit and AN1xEdit will both work fine under Win2K (as do Cubase, Cakewalk,
Reason and several other sequencer apps).

Yamaha claim they will release a 'fixed' driver for the SW1K under Win2K
shortly, however I have not seen any firm release dates quoted.

So my recommendation is to stay with Win98SE if the SW1K is currently your
primary sound device. However if you are looking to upgrade in the near
future you should definitely be moving to Win2K (or wait for WinXP). Under
no circumstances would I recommend WinMe...its basically a dog!!!


Regards

Gary Gregson

Email:gary@...
http://www.yme.co.uk/yme

-----Original Message-----
From: DMANX@... [mailto:DMANX@...]
Sent: 27 March 2001 23:06
To: sw1000xg@yahoogroups.com
Cc: AN1x-list@yahoogroups.com; sw1000xg@yahoogroups.com; gary@...
Subject: [AN1x-list] Windows 2000



Please can someone adivise me on the following.
Im thining of upgrading from win98 toi win2000,so i can use dual
processing,multitask,and stability.
I have a sw1000xg,plg150an card,150ANEdit,xgedit & cubase5.
How dose win2000 perform with this set up and what sort of latencys
occur,and how dose it perform under audio and midi.
I know some xg users are using win2000,but yamaha R&D say stay away from
it,so why have win2000 drivers on the yamaha web site?However if the above
is not possible ,how dose it perform under Win ME.
Regards DMANX.