Ren uses WDM drivers not ASIO

I agree that its asking too much for the full specs this early in the game. At the risk of seeming to go off topic, they have a pretty poor history based on the specs they have posted for the EIE. As far as I can tell they do not mention the drivers at all, either in their manual or specs. For an audio interface, that is a pretty shoddy omission. I only first learned that only the Pro version uses asio drivers here.

MPC-Tutor wrote:
Pretty sure when it's released, finer details of drivers and other things most musicians couldn't care less about will be picked at with a fine tooth comb by the geeks.

if most musicians dont care what they get for their hard earned money that's on them...why bother buying pro gear if you can make music using pots and pans...whether ren uses WDM or ASIO is pretty critical piece of info on how the interface will perform...just google wdm vs asio to hear about all the issues with wdm....

konc3pt wrote:
if most musicians dont care what they get for their hard earned money that's on them...why bother buying pro gear if you can make music using pots and pans...whether ren uses WDM or ASIO is pretty critical piece of info on how the interface will perform...just google wdm vs asio to hear about all the issues with wdm....

Most musicians are simply happy if their gear works the way they want it to. Most are not interested in geeky details - if they can plug it in and it it let's them make music the way they want, then they're happy. If it doesn't work, then I suspect they'll start having to learn about the geeky stuff (or just send it back).

For example, I don't give a toss about the finer details of how Mac OS works, I'm happy to turn the thing on and get on with my day. When something goes wrong, no doubt I'll spend an hour Googling about kernel panics, but it isn't something I would have been remotely interested in before buying the computer.

As for the Ren, again, most people will simply expect it to 'perform' out of the box, they won't concern themselves with driver specifics unless it doesn't perform out of the box. I'm sure WDM vs ASIO is critical, but I'm not so sure it's currently a critical element of people's buying decision.

MPC-Tutor wrote:As for the Ren, again, most people will simply expect it to 'perform' out of the box, they won't concern themselves with driver specifics unless it doesn't perform out of the box. I'm sure WDM vs ASIO is critical, but I'm not so sure it's currently a critical element of people's buying decision.

yeah but the point is that the ren will not perform as desired if it doesn´t use an asio driver! because (on a win computer) asio is needed for a low latency operation.

so the ren without a proper asio driver = unhappy customers/noobs

MPC-Tutor wrote:

konc3pt wrote:
if most musicians dont care what they get for their hard earned money that's on them...why bother buying pro gear if you can make music using pots and pans...whether ren uses WDM or ASIO is pretty critical piece of info on how the interface will perform...just google wdm vs asio to hear about all the issues with wdm....

Most musicians are simply happy if their gear works the way they want it to. Most are not interested in geeky details - if they can plug it in and it it let's them make music the way they want, then they're happy. If it doesn't work, then I suspect they'll start having to learn about the geeky stuff (or just send it back).

For example, I don't give a toss about the finer details of how Mac OS works, I'm happy to turn the thing on and get on with my day. When something goes wrong, no doubt I'll spend an hour Googling about kernel panics, but it isn't something I would have been remotely interested in before buying the computer.

As for the Ren, again, most people will simply expect it to 'perform' out of the box, they won't concern themselves with driver specifics unless it doesn't perform out of the box. I'm sure WDM vs ASIO is critical, but I'm not so sure it's currently a critical element of people's buying decision.

This is true. I've noticed that I only talk technical shit with you ugly **** and on forums in general. I've found that when talking gear with most people in person, most people have no idea about the technical shit and they usually just say a bunch of incorrect shit, or just have no clue what you're talking about! The average buyer is just a user. And it's like that with anything. Some of the guys I work with think I worked in the cell phone industry because I know how to jailbreak iPhones. One guy asks me where'd I learn to do that?! But if you go online to an Apple forum, everyone knows everything about jailbreaking.

DJ Hellfire wrote:This is true. I've noticed that I only talk technical shit with you ugly **** and on forums in general. I've found that when talking gear with most people in person, most people have no idea about the technical shit and they usually just say a bunch of incorrect shit, or just have no clue what you're talking about!

Totally. However, I've found that a lot of people online have no idea what they's talking about either, especially some of the ones that talk the most about certain pieces of gear. Even some of the ones that do know the tech and history are completely void of any technical aptitude as it applies to production and are utterly alienated in their views. But you're definitely right, I only know like 5 people who really talk technicalities outside of the internet but these hermits never see the light of day and probably drag their caskets into the vocal booth at twilight after feasting on a young assistant's blood. The rest are these rude ass tweak heads with funny avatars.

Since so many now just want to make beats like their heroes, which is cool too I guess, many will be so gullible as to not even care about the particulars of driver implementations so long as it's not hindering them full stop. As Tutor pointed out, unfortunately, only the initiated will even care or notice unless the inherent problems are outright obvious.

Don't know much about no stinking WDM drivers. I do know that ASIO is the way to go for my brethren who choose Windows though.

My problem with punting to WDM is this. MS has barking for he last couple of years on how they want to orphan WDM i favor of WDF. If a device is WDM it's lifespan is limited.

i havent kept up on this schit, but back when i cared to be informed much more than i am now...

no ASIO drivers meant latency issues are highly probable.

The Ren runs on OSX. No WDM drivers on OSX.

And usually no ASIO either.

JAH wrote:The Ren runs on OSX. No WDM drivers on OSX.

this explains why you been talking about getting dedicated mac for ren...to avoid WDM

moyphee wrote:My problem with punting to WDM is this. MS has barking for he last couple of years on how they want to orphan WDM i favor of WDF. If a device is WDM it's lifespan is limited.

If optimization for Windows users leans heavily on ASIO over WDM or WDM will soon be hitting EOL then I definitely can see the valid concern. Even for us OSX users, if Akai can't make optimal drivers for both platforms then it should imply that their dev and testing team are shortsighted or inept and that we should sit up and take notice. If you can't get someone to write a proper driver for Windows then I highly doubt they can write a proper driver — Since most programmers code for Windows or started with Windows centric training. There are only rare exceptions to this rule. Many would say heed the warning signs from their own older OSes though.

However, I think those who are waiting to know will have to continue to wait until someone that actually knows can tell them if this is the case or they can test one themselves.

konc3pt wrote:

JAH wrote:The Ren runs on OSX. No WDM drivers on OSX.

this explains why you been talking about getting dedicated mac for ren...to avoid WDM

I use both PC and Mac. I have never used a WDM driver in my life.

I suggest Mac (iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro laptop) as I believe the operating system is better out the box than a Window's system for music.

Undertow wrote:

DJ Hellfire wrote:This is true. I've noticed that I only talk technical shit with you ugly **** and on forums in general. I've found that when talking gear with most people in person, most people have no idea about the technical shit and they usually just say a bunch of incorrect shit, or just have no clue what you're talking about!

Totally. However, I've found that a lot of people online have no idea what they's talking about either, especially some of the ones that talk the most about certain pieces of gear.

Hell yeah! And that's with anything; especially with automotive shit on car forums. Correcting all the misinformation get's exhausting!

Windows driver is ASIO.