Command 8 under Vista and with Pro Tools LE 8

[adelestevens]

Hi Hope I can get some help and sorry in advance for a long post.

I received my new Command 8 today after having to order it from Thomann in Germany as I could not find a supplier in the UK and my normal supplier said that he had been told by Digi that the earliest he could possibly get one was end of March. The only problem is that it came with a continental plug but I have borrowed my husbands electric razor adaptor that he doesn't use, as a stop gap until I get a replacement power supply. :D

Anyway it arrived today and I have been trying since 16:00 to set it up and still I cannot get it to work satisfactorily under Vista and Pro Tools 8.
OK I know there are lots of issues with Vista and I can't wait to see if the New Windows 7 is any improvement.:confused:


My set up is

Dell Dimension 9200 about 2years old, originally came with XP Pro but I upgraded to Vista Ultimate last year before I really got into using Pro-Tools.
1st Mistake upgrading to Vista Ultimate. and I should have stayed with XP or gone for a Mac before going for Pro-Tools . :(
It is a dual core 2.3 GB processor, 4 GB of RAM two hard drives of 244 GB each, although I record to a Firewire drive of 500 GB to be safe.

I have an M Box 2 factory, and an M Box Mini, Pro-Tools LE 8 which I just love as its a great program and is much better than any of the other DAW's I have tried or used in the past, and I am only scratching the surface of it at the moment. The Command 8 which arrived to day.

My issue is that I cannot get the Command 8 to work correctly under Vista I downloaded and installed the Command 8 Vista Program from the Digi Site as my Pro-Tools LE 8 was an amnesty download upgrade as I originally had LE 7.4.


I have read an awful lot of the posts on here relating to this kind of issue and have done a lot of what was advised By DIGI TECH SUPT like deleting extra MIDI entries in the registry, trashing preferences and tried different combinations of MIDI connection from my Yamaha Keyboard and numerous permutations of the I/O set up in peripherals etc. Although I haven't deleted and re-installed LE 8 yet.

I also had issues initally with installing the Command 8 because of having more than 9 MIDI entries in the registry and Vista actually wouldn't install it until I had edited some of them to the bin. :D
I have even tried the drastic measure of trashing Vista and trying to re-install XP Pro but all I get is a blue screen after the CD has loaded the Windows components. Luckily I have Windows Home Server recently installed and I am currently doing a restore from a back up which may take all night, I am lucky that we have a number of additional PCs and Laptops here so I am not incommunicado. :-)

I am getting warnings in Pro-Tools like "can't communicate, power cycle and check connections etc" Its starting to get very frustrating and I am nearly at the stage of tearing my long blonde hair out. ( Ah maybe that's the problem I am blonde):D
Joking aside I am starting to get very frustrated as I hoped to get the Command8 set up tonight and get started hands on mixing of a new cover I have done of a Peter Green number. I was hoping that the faders and other hands on controls in Command 8 would make mixing and editing easier but of course I don't know as I can't get it to work.:(

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can some nice kind person make some polite suggestions on wat else I can try?

Also can Digidesign either update their Command 8 manual to include updates for LE 8 or at least supply an additional guide that uses the same terms as Pro Tools 8 as I couldn't for the life of me find any references to Command 8 surface etc. Just Command 8, MIDI in/out 2/3 and Command 8 emulated on the MIDI and Peripheral set up dialogues.


If I can't get this resolved I am not going to be a happy bunny and will have an expensive piece of equipment gathering dust in my home studio or I shall have to return it for a refund. :mad:


Thanks again for any help and again sorry for a long post but I thought I needed to give as much info as possible?


Adele

AKA Shadow Lady, lead guitarist in Celtic Shadow if I every get the band off the ground.

[DigiTechSupt]

Can you tell us how you have the Command|8 connected to your computer and the exact steps you're taking to set it up? We need to know so we can try to determine where things are going south.

[adelestevens]

Can you tell us how you have the Command|8 connected to your computer and the exact steps you're taking to set it up? We need to know so we can try to determine where things are going south.


OK I will try,

The Command 8 is connected to the next USB port to my M Box 2

I have followed the steps as detailed in the Manual that came with the Command 8 which I have just noticed has Version 7.4 at the bottom of the cover.
When I installed the Vista drivers etc I ignored the 1found new hardware prompt and let the installer instal the files.
I then connected my keyboard follwoing the steps in the manaual, which was the first problem as the input ports and output ports didn't have the excat wording of the maual so I tired to work it out as close as I could.
Once I had done that I tried to initialise the Command 8 in Pro tools again the wording on the various drop downs did not exactley match but I used the obvious ones I think of course I cant check now as my PC is still restoring.

Sorry I can give any more details

Adele

[adelestevens]

PS

I am currently installing Pro-tools LE 8 on my other Vista PC. Then I shall go through the procedure of installing Command 8 again so I can be more specific about the steps I have taken.:-)
If that doesn't work I shall try installing on a LapTop that has XP on it but it is older and slower than any of the other machine and may not be compatable I shall have to check first.

Adele

[adelestevens]

PS

I am currently installing Pro-tools LE 8 on my other Vista PC. Then I shall go through the procedure of installin command 8 again so I can be more specific about the steps I have taken.:-)
If that doesn't work I shall try installing on a LapTop that has XP on it but it is older and slower than amy of the other machine and may not be compatable I shall have to check first.

Adele


This idea didn't work so I have taken drastic measure and re-installed XP Pro to my studio machine. So we shall see what results I get.
Any advice or bugs under XP I need to know about?

Thanks

Adele

[adelestevens]

EUREKA :D:D:D:D:o

At last I have a working Command 8 and I can see I am going to have a lot of fun and steep learning to figure out exactley how to use it. :eek:
OK I had to rebuild the home studio computer to run on XP Pro but it all works and to be honest I have never been that pro Vista. Just hope Windows 7 is better when it eventually comes out. But I am not going to rush to change when it does.
I also configured my second hard drive as the recording drive as I have had lots of problems with the WD My Book fire wire drive I have but you never know under XP it may work better.??????

Just one little question are there available or can someone recommend a cover for the Command 8 so that I can try and keep it clean and dust free.:-)

Thanks for the suport so far and I am sure I will be back soon. :o

Adele

[DigiTechSupt]

Glad to hear it's working!

Sorry I don't have any recommendations for a C|8 cover - I usually just use some fabric from the fabric store that's cut to the right dimensions.

[adelestevens]

Glad to hear it's working!

Sorry I don't have any recommendations for a C|8 cover - I usually just use some fabric from the fabric store that's cut to the right dimensions.

Thanks and no worries I shall get the sowing machine out and run something up.:D

Really appreciate your support.

Adele