Hey Folks,

I made the decision to upgrade my desktop to 4 GB of ram and also decided to run the new Windows 7 RC. I first installed the 64 bit version, but almost none of my music software or VSTs would run on it, so I tried the 32 bit version. So far, the only non music problem Ive had is with my printer driver, which isnt compatible. I am however having a bad time getting my music programs to work. BIAB will still not play from my midi controller (Akai EWI USB) Sibelius isnt happy and I cant even get Sonar to recognize my interface (Tascam Fire One) I hate to go back to XP, and Vista is always out of the question.
Im just wondering if anyone might have some tips to get this sorted out? I am getting a new Mac Laptop when I get back to the states (any electronics are VERY expensive in Mexico)but in the meantime, Ive got to try to make this work.

Thanks in advance,
Ed

Hi Ed. I've been running Windows 7 RC 32-bit very successfully for two months with BIAB and SONAR and a Tascam FW-1884. I really like Windows 7, especially with one tweak to run each browser window in a separate process.

Migrating from Vista (which I did) is easier than from XP because Windows 7 can use all the same drivers as Vista. The one exception I know about, from the Tascam & SONAR forums, is the firewire driver:

You have to go into Device Manager and revert to the IEEE 1394 firewire driver that says "Legacy". Give it a try. The newer firewire driver that is supplied with Windows 7 apparently does not work with Tascam equipment.

I learned this "trick" directly from a Tascam employee. Tascam will not officially support Windows 7 until the production version is released, but this rep gave us the "trick" anyway. Write back if you don't know what I'm talking about, and I'll find the specific instructions on the Tascam forum.

Hey Matt,

Thanks so much for the help. I was actually able to get my Tascam Fireone to work. Now I have to see if I can get Sonar to work, as It is giving me the error message about devices not being able to work with it. Ive had to disable the Fireone and I still dont get any sound out of it. Im using Sonar 7.

Good to hear from you, how are things going up there for you?

Take care,
Ed

Ed, are you saying the legacy driver did the trick, or something else? I'm just curious in case I see the question again.

I can't imagine why SONAR is having trouble recognizing the Fireone, but I seem to recall some discussion about it on the SONAR forum. Suggest you ask there. Also there is a profile-type file in SONAR (similar in function to intrface.bbw for BIAB) that can be erased so SONAR re-scans everything. Don't remember the name just now.

As for me, all is great. Writing a lot and getting ready for two concerts next week.

Here's something I think is interesting:

I'm starting to sell my music by digital download card, rather than CD. It's definitely the next thing. I was in a regional Barnes & Noble last week, which had an entire second floor of CDs in years past. When I checked out, the clerk asked if I had found everything I wanted. I said, Yes, once I found where you were hiding the CD collection.

Ed, I don't want to muddy the water with bad info....however I think I read on the Cakewalk Sonar forum that it matters the sequence of installation of Win 7, for Sonar to play well with Win7. If memory serves me well, Cakewalk recommends that you instal 32 bit FIRST, the 64. PLEASE investigate this yourself before you uninstal, and then reinstal, Don't rely on my faulty memory banks. Hope this helps

Hey Matt and Pastorbelvedere,

Thanks so much for your help. Matt, I have been able to get Sonar to work with the Fireone. You wrote this for me in your original post>

You have to go into Device Manager and revert to the IEEE 1394 firewire driver that says "Legacy". Give it a try. The newer firewire driver that is supplied with Windows 7 apparently does not work with Tascam equipment.

I did go there and tried looking for this, with no luck. Is there another place I should be looking? It does say>This device is working properly. Also, the only tab that is greyed out is the>Roll back driver.

Thanks again, the struggle continues........

Ed

Hang in, I'll find the instructions. The SONAR forum was down for a redesign, but it's back up now.


[EDIT. Found it. Look for something like this:

Go to Device Manager, Firewire Controller
Choose Driver, Update Driver Software
a list pops up with three entries:

OHCI-compliant 1394 Host Controller
OHCI-compliant 1394 Host Controller (legacy)
OHCI-compliant Texas instruments 1394 Host Controller


From these, select the one that says 'legacy'.]

I just upgraded from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 RC and have a few problems with it. RealBand and BIAB work fine but I have problems with my hardware drivers even though they are all Vista drivers. Here is a summary of my findings:
1. Edirol FA-101 Firewire Audio Interface - Their Vista ASIO driver is not compatible. If I try to uninstall and reinstall I get an error message from the Edirol installer that it is not compatible with the Windows version installed on my computer.
2. Sound Reality ASIO driver for Sigmatel Chipset - The device manager shows that the driver is ok but when I try to use it with BIAB and RealBand both give me several error messages including cannot setup buffer. I tried to get an updated driver but found that the Vista driver I have installed is the latest. ASIO4ALL is a workaround for the Sigmatel chipset. It works fine.
3. M-Audio Midisport works fine with Windows 7. I have that connected to a Ketron SD2.

I have a Sony VAIO Notebook with a 2 GHz DuoCore with 4 G/RAM. When I was using the Edirol and the Sound Reality ASIO driver for the Sigmatel chipset with Windows Vista Home Premium then BIAB and RealBand worked perfectly with either setup. Microsoft claims Vista drivers should work fine but that doesn't seem to be the case at least with some audio devices. Also frustrating is that there are some known incompatibilities with the latest version of Skype (Windows 7 gave me this message when I reinstalled). I was able to reinstall and it seems to be working so far but I haven't really tested all the functions. I sent Edirol technical support an email and I will post here the results of their response.

I tried the Legacy firewire suggestion from Matt but that didn't work. The firewire interface couldn't even find my Edirol FA-101 when I plugged it in with that firewire driver installed. When I try to change Firewire drivers Windows 7 give me 3 choices: 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller; 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy); Texas Instruments 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller. When the TI and the normal 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controllers are selected as the Firewire driver then it finds my Edirol FA-101 but with yellow caution signs showing the driver is not correct.

Regarding Skype. It turns out Skype Limited had a beta version that works with Windows 7. It would have been nice when I installed their latest 3.8 release from the normal Skype website that it notice I had Windows 7 and installed the correct version then.

Dave, that's too bad about the Edirol unit.

Just to be clear, the advice I received about choosing the Legacy firewire driver was for Tascam products only. Edirol is a division of Roland.

Hope you get it straightened out. Have you tried the Roland forum? It's at http://forums.rolandclan.com/

Yes I knew there was only a remote possibility the Tascam suggestion would work for Edirol but it was worth a try. Just got a message back from Roland that they have no plan to support Windows 7 until it is released so I have to revert back to Vista if I want to use my FA-101. Another frustrating thing happened a few hours after I started using Windows 7 was that my Outlook 2007 stopped working. It worked fine for a couple of hours but now it won't even open. I tried repair, older Windows compatibilities, uninstalling some Windows 7 updates that were done later but nothing helped. Also couldn't find any others in the 7 users group with the same problem.

Just for your information, I am successfully using a Roland Fantom XR synth with BIAB under Windows 7 RC 32-bit. The Vista drivers work fine.

AT the moment, soundcard drivers and Windows 7 look to be a "catch as catch can" situation.

Some work, some don't.


--Mac

Hi Matt,

Just to confirm that many soundcard drivers in Vista work fine in Windows 7

And due to the development co-operation given by Microsoft this time, developers are well in hand with drivers for Windows 7 - this is in complete contrast to the lack of info prior to the Vista launch

We have been testing the full release driver set for Windows 7 by Creative for the X-Fi range and they work just fine
jazzman

Isn't the Windows 7 release date scheduled for October?

Yes, that release date was just confirmed in a press release by Microsoft. Supposedly Windows 7 was just 'finalized' this week, to include the most recent Tuesday security patch downloads. That way, it can go to the OEMs and be ready for sale on PCs on the release date. I'm looking forward to it, since it runs on my test machine much better than Vista.

My comment was about Creatives full release of it's X-Fi soundcard drivers for Windows 7 audio which has been finalized by Microsoft

jazzman

Jazzman, what a contrast this is with the way Creative handled drivers for Vista!

Hi Matt,

All the soundcard/application manufacturers were left a bit in the dark over Vista and those who were leaders suffered the most - in fact MS changed the audio spec again late in the game - it seems that many manufacturers like Turtle Beach almost refused to go Vista at the beginning as a protest about the lack of co-operation by MS

The main problem that Creative had was with those users with Audigy and XP who upgraded their OS to Vista which handles audio in a different and much faster way and Audigy was obviously not designed for

You know that I have said this many times before but we have not had any problems with Vista and Creative Vista drivers from day one - if they are fully and correctly installed

With far better co-operaton Windows 7 is far more ready to go with external driver/application makers - like you I have been using Windows 7 during the run of releases and found it a joy and everything Vista should have been

On another subject it is great to hear regular plays of your beautiful CD "Brazilian Wish" on RadioIO as I know that the tunes started their life with the help of BIAB
jazzman

Another compatibility issue with Windows 7. E-Mu Proteus VX crashes my PC when trying to run it as standalone or as a VSTi with RealBand. Just to make sure there were no conflicts I tried to run it as a standalone with no other audio software running and still it crashed my PC. Windows 7 has a nice utility whereas you right mouse click on the exe file then you can select to troubleshoot and decide to run in various compatibility modes like 98 or XP. It decided that it should run in XP service pack 2 mode and then tried to restart the program but it crashed my PC again. E-Mu clearly states on their website that Proteus VX is an XP compatible app but that you should have no problem running on Vista. Vista maybe but Windows 7 definitely not, at least for now. Oh well, I'll leave it installed on my PC and hopefully E-Mu will have a fix after the official Windows 7 release.

A word of warning for those of you considering Windows 7. As Mac said earlier in this post it is a "catch as catch can" situation for now. I imagine most of the companies making software and hardware for PCs are busy checking out compatibility with their existing products but they are probably not in a hurry to release any fixes before the October 22nd release. If you decide to try the free release candidate then you should install it on a separate partion of your hard drive and boot it from there. If you install it over your existing operating system and then find it won't work for now with your key software and hardware then you're screwed. You'll either be begging for fixes or spending hours restoring your PC to it's previous configuration.

Quote:

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I imagine most of the companies making software and hardware for PCs are busy checking out compatibility with their existing products but they are probably not in a hurry to release any fixes before the October 22nd release.

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Am thinking about some sage words I read somewhere regarding "vain imaginings"...

In reality, you have no idea whatsoever what soundcard development for any of the companies may be up to at the moment, right?

Give 'em some benefit of the doubt, okay?

At least give some of them that benefit anyway.


--Mac