Very strong and noisy fan (the case/CPU is located outside the studio)
MOTU 828mkII
Steinberg Midex8
Mackie MCU
TC Power Core FW
Notes: HT is disabled because of compatibility problems with NI Battery
My current SW setup:
Windows XP Pro 32bit, SP2
C4 (latest patch)
NI Battery 2
GMedia M-Tron
I use this setup mainly for mixing. It is able to handle 30-50 audio tracks plus a dozen group/return chanels, 2-3 VSTi and 20-30 VST fx.
Unfortunately, to solve some bugs I need to upgrade to C6, but I don’t want to invest in a new PC + Win7 + 64bit + update all plugins + destroy the Midex8 + …
I know C6 on XP is not officially supported by Steinberg, but I read that it works, so I need your experience for my plan.
I made different searches but unfortunately the search for “XP” does not work as the term is considered too common…
Here are my questions:
I’ve read that C6 can run on Wonsows XP, correct?
I need to install SP3, correct?
I need to install .NET Framework, correct? What version?
Does it make sense to upgrade RAM to 2GB (max for my MoBo)?
Midex8 will still work with SP3?
Will I loose performance (track count, VSTi and VST count)?
I am thinking of adding a Focusrite Luquid Mix. Any experience if this will work with my setup?
any other thing I have to think of to make it work?
I’ll appreciate all your comments and hints. I’m asking for your thoughts and experiences on a similar path.
This setup is for my own project studio only for my band, so we produce a record every 2-4 years, and I don’t want to buy a new PC every time… I hope you understand.
hi andy i’ll give you what info i know , ive been using c6 on xp since 27/1/11 with very minor bugs ,nothing to cause any recording issues ! anyway to answer your questions
1 yes it runs on xp very smoothly indeed
2 no some people are using xp with sp2 but it depends on your system of what files have been installed on the sp2 ,like the netframe it can skip installing certain files which means you MIGHT have to install sp3 for those files
3 after oringinaly trying c6 on xp back in jan before there was any info on wheather it would or wouldn’t work i tried different netframes and the only one that seemed stable was the netframe 3 with sp1 and the latest elicencer ,the issue was not all files were being installed from the netframe 2 and was receiving error codes of 000052 if i remember rightly.after a lot of trial and errror me and one other xp user found that the most stable system with xp was sp3 and netframe 3 +sp1 (but others will work ,depends on your system )
4 if you can take your ram to the max then it will help the processing even tho xp only reads 3.1gb it is best too
5 midex runs absolutely perfect with no issues so yes , i use 2 midex and ive not had a problem !
6 performance is not an issue here as i use mostly outboard stuff but ive not had to freeze any tracks with fx racks engaged and the tracks and lanes behave exactly how they should
7+8 sorry i can’t help you with these 2
over all it is safe to make the jump on to c6 with xp and believe it or not us xp users are having less issues or “bugs” than the supported win7 .
i hope you find the information useful and im sure your move to c6 will be a smooth one if you follow those steps
no problem , you might want to upgrade to a larger hd but should be fine , going off subject a little but i notice you are running a via chipset on the firewire , have you not had any problems with pops and clicks with the motu , i had to change to a “ti” chipset with the ultralite for that very reason ?
sorry for that off topic note
well im sure you’ll enjoy your step to c6
regards
john
one last thing i forgot , you can run c4 and c6 side by side so it might be worth downloading the trial version and installing it and see how you get on if you have any worries then leave your c4 on just in case , i upgrades from sx3 and done exactly that but had no issues ,anyway enjoy your day
Hi John.
I HAVE to go for C6, so trial is not an option. We have a 26 Minutes suite that C4 cannot handle (no mixdown possible).
I’ve already ordered C6. The worst case scenario is that I have to go from XP to W7 32bit, but then I’ll run into trouble with drivers for my MoBo, drivers for the Midex8, so it could get even worst causing me to buy a new PC…
I’ve got C6.00 on XP SP2. Seems to run fine. Have very rarely the random glitch that I need to shut down for … personally though, I’ve always had that on every system from Cubase VST5, so I can’t necessarily say that is because it’s C6 on XP. I haven’t upgraded to 6.02 because of some threads near the top of the forums about crackles, and “delays” some people are describing that resolved with rolling back to 6.00.
I did have to upgrade the netframe. If you search for my threads probably around early March/Late February you’ll find some good advice I got … it might even have been from filterfreak (it was a kind gent named John whose advice I ultimately wound up using, and it seemed to have been spot on!)
Sorry, I can’t help much with your other questions.