NOTE : Pyramix 14 - Ovation 10 - VCube 10 - AMR 14 - Merging Audio Device are not supported on Windows 7.
Windows has been designed for a wide variety of applications. Unfortunately that means that, out-of-the-box, it works correctly for office or entertainment applications, but for DAW applications, several settings and features have to be fine-tuned.
Windows 7 SP1 is mandatory to run Merging software.
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2.WINDOWS CONFIGURATION
DEVICE DRIVERS
Merging recommends to install WHQL (Driver certified by Microsoft) or if not available, the latest drivers from the manufacturer website.
Install the drivers ONLY, do not install the utilities it can cause much trouble.
Do not install Intel® Control Center that is included in Intel® Rapid Storage Technology installer or Intel® Management Engine installer.
WARNING: Since PMX V11/ Ovation V7, MassCore users running a RAID configuration must use a dedicated RTX dongle (SSK-HUD-RTX) to authorize MassCore.
This issue only affects the system (Windows ) RAID drives, if you have RAID Data drives, a dedicated dongle is not required.
Do not install the RealTek Ethernet Diagnostic utility.
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Data Execution Prevention tab
If you have access to this setting, set it to "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only".
If you can't access this setting, the default configuration is "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only", so it is probably correctly configured.
System Protection tab
Back in the main System windows, switch to System Protection tab:
Make sure protection is turned on for your system drive.
Select the system drive and click on Configure.
Select Turn on system protection, and set a value for Disk Space Usage (usually 10% max).
Disable the system protection on the Media drive(s), as this feature only works on system files and programs.
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Tools page > Options: adjust Automatically scan my computerto your needs.
Full Virus Scanning should NEVER run at the same time as Merging software.
If you plan to install an Antivirus software, Windows Defender will be disabled.
You should also disable scanning of the Pyramix files (pmx, pmf, pml, pad, pmw) but also media files (wav, aif, flac, mp3,...), because each time the DAW have to access such file, your antivirus may scan it.
AVAST has already caused a lot of problems with several Merging programs, it is therefore not recommended.
See this page for help on configuring your antivirus exceptions.
WINDOWS DEVICE MANAGER
Ports (COM & LPT)
If you use 9pin-RS422 connection:
Communication Port (COM x) > Properties
Ports Settings tab > Advanced > set both Receive and Transmit buffer to Low (4)
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RAVENNA ASIO users have to set WOL & Shutdown Link Speed to Not Speed Down.
For better performance, RAVENNA ASIO users should use a dedicated RAVENNA network adapter.
Find more details on this page.
MEDIA DRIVES
By default; Windows will index the content of all drives, which allows Windows Search to work faster.
But this indexing task takes CPU power and can result in performance issue when recording.
To disable the Windows indexing, open My Computer, right click on the Media Drive(s) and select Properties: disable Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties checkbox.
NEVER USE “Compress this drive to save disk space”.
External drives: access your external drive properties through Windows Device Manager and set it to optimize for performance.
Format block size: if you only use audio files, the best size is 64 Kb when formatting the drive.
But if you also need to use video files, 64Kb is not the optimal size, in that case keep the Default Allocation size (128Kb).
The best way is to use separate drives for video and audio, if possible.
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SYSTEM CONFIGURATION (MSCONFIG)
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Common programs that can be disabled are Adobe Reader, Java updater, Skype, QuickTime...
Those programs will be still be installed and accessible, but will not be loaded during Windows startup.
WINDOWS UPDATE
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You may create a System Restore point before installing Windows updates.
Win 7 users: click on Change Settings: Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install themSee this page for further details on Windows 7 updates configuration.
Due to the "Meltdown and Spectre" Windows Update, Pyramix 11.0.6 / Ovation 7.0.6 is mandatory for MassCore users.
If for any reason you can't update to that version, do not install updates KB4056894, KB4056897 and any other following Important update (as Windows update are cumulative)
DPC LATENCY CHECK
To handle real time application, the CPU gets a defined amount of time to perform the required tasks.
If those tasks are delayed, the result is usually drop-outs in the signal.
A common tool to verify if your computer is able to handle real-time audio is DPC Latency Checker.
If you experience DPC latency issues, disable each device one by one to see if there is any improvement in DPC latencies.
Remember that some devices cannot be disabled.
Wi-Fi, LAN, specific USB devices, on-board audio, PCI / PCIe devices are the common culprits.
See http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml for further details.
!!! The DPC latency utility runs on Windows 8 or 10 but does not show correct values.