Win7 + HD 8.0.1

[cburgett]

Hello all,

I installed Windows 7 Professional 64-bit last night pretty much default. I installed ProTools HD 8.0 then upgraded to 8.0.1 using the newly released updater. The system is custom built by myself and is not a Digidesign-approved Dell or HP. I did the research and built a proper system (I've been building machines for years). I haven't installed any additional plugins yet - just using the stock set that gets installed.

I fired up HD on a session that had about 45 audio tracks in it. I hit play and for four and half minutes heard the track playback come through clean and without a single glitch. No pops or clicks, no 6031 errors. The GUI seemed very responsive, the level leds on the mixer channels seemed very real-time and snappy. The whole platform was totally rock solid. After about half and hour without a single glitch I had to turn in for the night. I will do a full mix on a client's track using Delay Compensation and third party approved plugins and post my findings.

One problem that MEAT brought up that is still in play is the CPU meters report different loads. My Protools CPU meter said 3%, but my Windows Performance meter bounced around between 18% and 31%. So I would volunteer that the video "blitting" issues are not fully resolved at this point.

I ran the tool DTS/Paul suggested for measuring real-time performance and it reports my system is qualified to run real-time types of applications, but I knew that already :)

Other than the CPU issues....all I can say at this point is WOW. What a great platform. I'd like to use the full CPU obviously so please Digi fix that. But I've used Macs and the feel of Windows 7 is superb. Great OS and ProTools HD so far seems to work very well on it. Very excited to finish the current record we're working on with this platform.

[Brandonx1]

M right with you. Windows 7 64bit is really a great os. I love running pro tools HD on it. Been doing so for months now.

[KKalampo]

I thought that pro tools is not yet combatible with win7

[Shan]

Originally Posted by KKalampo

I thought that pro tools is not yet combatible with win7

Many here are bleeding edge pioneers and have been running it for almost a year since build 7000.

Shane

[cburgett]

Was working with it again and yes it is really solid. One thing that is part and parcel of bleeding edge is that a lot of drivers are not ready by third party developers. USB Midi controllers are not there which means my three Mackie controls in HUI mode don't work. Liquid Mix kind of installed OK but not sure if it's reliable yet. My UAD-1 auths didn't work as I own most plugins but they show up as if I don't. So my environment isn't as complete as it is on XP. Good to know though that at a base level HD works well at this stage of the game.

Again running 8.0.1 with no audio artifacts and not a single error has come up yet. I know to those having problems it looks as if Digidesign did not QA their product thoroughly, but for people with working setups it looks really solid. (Still have the CPU load mismatch however).

If anyone has any questions just shoot.

[usastra]

MCDSP isn't compatible yet though. crashes everytime.

[Fullsound Recording]

So then is the W7 using more than the 3 gigs in ram with HD8.01?

If so im there.

[cburgett]

re: RAM
Yes...it is using 4GB at the moment. I have another 4GB I am going to put in today to bring it up to 8GB. I use BFD2 and was having to put it in the mode where it only loads samples as required to save on RAM. I believe I will be able to load the full VI, plus many more using the 64-bit OS and 8GB of RAM.

Again there are alot of vendors who have not made their products compatible with Win7/64 yet. So if you are heavily invested in those products then unfortunately you'll probably not be able to make the jump yet.

[lennieh]

So are you guys running the same V8.0.1 as every one else or do you have a 64-bit beta from Digi?

If you are on the same version as everyone else, how does PT get to use more memory. As a 32-bit app wouldn't it need to be rebuilt to use 64-bit memory addressing?

[cburgett]

Great questions.

I'm using the standard 32-bit version that everyone has access to. Good point that even though Windows may see more than 3 GB of RAM unfortunately ProTools cannot. So at this point I guess the increased RAM is probably not being used by ProTools. Possibly it's being used by Windows though so a full 3GB can be dedicated to ProTools for the first time ever, and then Windows can use the rest that ProTools cannot see.