Your computer's most fundamental system settings are stored in its BIOS. Modifying them can help increase performance and eliminate glitches, but it's not something to approach lightly...
We take a look at the EQ response of the Yamaha SW1000XG soundcard, the possibility of disabling the SMBus to gain an extra IRQ, and more advice on managing your updates.
An hour spent fine-tuning the performance of your soundcard can yield permanent improvements in background noise, distortion levels and frequency response.
Many UK music technology retailers are now building specialist PCs to order, and Digital Village are no exception. Their Pentium 4 systems promise careful optimisation at a very competitive price.
Applied Acoustic Systems, known best for their Tassman software synth, have now used their modelling technology to create an electric piano plug-in. But of course, theirs isn't the only one around...
In the second part of our investigation into the real-world delays caused by PC hardware and software, we consider the differences between different MIDI applications and versions of Windows. Are some sequencers really 'tighter' than others?
Theoretical figures and manufacturers' measurements may suggest that the latency of your soft synths is negligible — but that's no use if their timing is all over the place when you actually play them. Our real-world results give you the true picture.
As Intel and AMD continue to push the clock speeds and architectures of PC processors, music software developers are taking advantage of the optimisations possible, as demonstrated by Waves with the latest update to their native plug-ins.
Not all PC problems are down to software, and a huge range of difficulties - from occasional glitches to complete system failure - can actually be caused by hardware faults. Here's how to diagnose and cure some of the most common.
Windows XP is probably the most important PC operating system upgrade since Windows 95, but as always, its new features come at a cost. Should you upgrade your computer? Here's the definitive guide...
On October 25th 2001 Apple released their first non-Mac device for many years, the iPod. Apple Notes spots a vital clue which makes the iPod rather useful to the recording musician, whatever the general consumer makes of it...