SOUND ON SOUND
If you've ever been confronted by the dreaded Blue Screen Of Death, suffered random reboots or faced the frustration of inexplicable PC crashes, read on for some preventative measures...
Firewire and USB 2 interfaces have their advantages, but if you need serious channel counts at high sample rates, the PCI card still rules, and ESI's heavyweight recording system caters for a huge range of input and output formats at up to 192kHz.
The 64-bit Windows XP x64 edition is on the shelves, but musicians should stick with their trusty 32-bit OS for the moment. PC Notes explains why, as well as offering some constructive soundcard feature suggestions to manufacturers.
With interface standards and user requirements changing all the time, the audio interface marketplace is a volatile one. We catch up with representatives of eight leading manufacturers for the inside track on the future of audio I/O hardware.
We demystify the powerful internal routing and mixing engine within Emu's recent popular range of computer audio interfaces.
We explore the relevance of User accounts and the vital contents of the Windows Documents and Settings folder.
If you've had enough of chasing a mouse around your desk, there are many other ways of controlling the on-screen pointer of your music software. We examine some options.
Echo are the latest soundcard manufacturer to move into the market for Firewire interfaces, and the flagship of their range promises 12-channel analogue I/O with pristine sound quality.
The new PC interfacing standards of USB and Firewire brought with them the promise of 'hot-plugging' and easy interconnection. But some musicians have discovered, to their cost, that the reality doesn't always live up to the promise. We investigate...