windows 8.1 as DAW

i've switched from MPC1000 with jjos 128XL as primary sequencer coupled with REAPER as DAW on a windows 7 tower PC to REAPER as primary sequencer with highly customized midi controllers on a windows 8.1 laptop.

for all the hate on windows 8, i've found it to be fast and stable. i would never have opted for using it, but i was forced to because (surprise!) my new laptop didn't have windows 7 support (seriously).

i am running as local administrator, btw, because i generally know what i'm doing and know what to do if i screw up. also i don't like to see any permissions warnings. ever.

first thing i did was utterly nuke the metro and charms interface. **** em. you don't need them on a DAW. power users don't need them at all.

second thing was install classicshell. gives you whatever kind of start menu you want. generally i only use the start menu search field to launch programs and system preferences.

lastly, perform general preference tweaks, disabling unnecessary services, window animations, and all the goofy shit that you find in every contemporary mainstream OS.

what you're left with is a lean and stable OS. no OS related issues in my again, highly customized and potentially finicky system.

your mileage may vary as always, what with all the poorly supported DAWs and drivers out there. however, i'm shocked to report that windows 8.1 has been great.

i was so ready to hate on it.

Glad to hear it works on Windows 8.1. I just installed Reaper on OS X Mavericks. CPU usage is nice and low, and the GUI is a hell of a lot easier on my eyes. It's been a long time since I used Reaper. But I'm confused about how to map the transport controls to my Axiom 49. I'm about to search around the site and catch up on all that.

i've switched from MPC1000 with jjos 128XL as primary sequencer coupled with REAPER as DAW on a windows 7 tower PC to REAPER as primary sequencer with highly customized midi controllers on a windows 8.1 laptop.

So you're just going straight with Reaper and no MPC?

It's been a few years since you got into building your own controllers. You gotta be doing some next level shit with Reaper now. If you got any pics or videos to share, that would be cool to see.

I've also recently switched to Windows 8.1 64-bit, and it works perfect. It is fast and stable with low latency. Remember to install the brand new ASIO4ALL 2.11 (non-beta) drivers.

distortedtekno wrote:But I'm confused about how to map the transport controls to my Axiom 49. I'm about to search around the site and catch up on all that.

it takes a couple of minutes to do... maybe 20 minutes including looking it up in the manual and then doing each step.

basically it's an issue of changing the transport to MMC on the keyboard itself... it's a couple of button presses. Check the axiom manual out.