SOUND ON SOUND
Several months have elapsed since the release of Windows Vista — so is it safe for musicians to assume that most music software and hardware is now compatible with the new OS, and upgrade? PC Musician investigates.
Your PC may well be the nerve-centre of your studio, so keeping it in top condition is worth a bit of effort. Read on for the SOS guide to inner and outer PC cleanliness.
Your much-loved elderly PCI soundcard may be working perfectly, but might still have to go on the scrapheap if you upgrade your PC. Why? It's all down to the PCI specification and the location of your notches...
If you ever have to re-install all your software after a PC upgrade, there are tricks that can save you a lot of time, and also help you to be more organised in the future. PC Notes rounds them up, as well as keeping you up to date on Vista compatibility for musicians.
There are now quite a few plug-ins on the market that have the ability to split audio into hundreds or thousands of bands and treat them separately, paving the way for a variety of weird and wonderful effects. Are you brave enough to enter the frequency zone?
More Vista-related musings, advice on 'boot management' for multi-partition setups and the usual handy tips — all in this month's PC Notes.
As a PC user, one job you're almost sure to have to do at some point is a clean install of Windows, whether because you've built your own PC, as outlined in last month's issue, have suffered a serious crash, or have decided to change to a new OS. Here's what you need to know...
If you haven't yet taken the dual-core plunge, there's an alternative to either buying an off-the-shelf mainstream model that may not be quite right for music or paying a premium for a custom-assembled music PC: choose the components and build your own.
Giga Virtual Instrument gives you Tascam's Giga sampling engine as a plug-in for the first time.