After upgrading my PCs memory to 4gb I realised that I couldn’t sit back and not use it’s full capacity.
I was also not totally convinced my pc was any faster.
The solution? Upgrade my operating system.
So with a little bit extra cash I bought myself a copy of XP Pro 64bit.
To install on a sata drive you will need your drivers and a floppy drive to put them on.
If you do not have a floppy drive then either borrow one or get ready to make a slipstreamed installation disk.
Be prepared this kind of setup is painful and has taken me a few days, if you are not tuned to tinkering in this way then back off now or find someone who is experienced in this matter.
Read this first: Great tutorial on slipstreaming installation disk
Note: Before you start check your systems drivers can cope with x64 – I found beta drivers for my hardware but it took a good few hours.
Investigate your potential setup first, it may be that this is going to cause more problems than you think.
M-Audio for example have beta driver drivers but they are difficult to get but not impossible to find.
Check controllers, midi equipment and graphics drivers.
Next check your software will support this, again pointless if it doesn’t.
I’ve got Sonar 7 which has a x64bit version in the installation and by all accounts should run.
Also my UAD card states that it should work also so I’m a happy bunny so far.
BACK UP EVERYTHING!!!
I decided to dual boot so that I could test it first.
So you’ve got your slipstreamed disk.
You should be ready to install.
Once you’ve installed XP x64 install any drivers you have and then start to install your software.
I decided to check that Sonar works first before rushing ahead installing everything.
I installed my M-Audio driver, followed by my Behringer BCF2000 and then my UAD card.
The M-Audio 2496 was a bit painful and I had to do a manual install.
That is find a driver then look in Control Panel – System – Hardware – Device Manager.
You need to locate your Multemedia Device that has a yellow symbol next to it.
Click properties – Update driver – browse for driver(which you should have unzipped somewhere)
Install Sonar 7 – its hould ask you which version to install – I chose x64 which comes with an unsupported warning.
Once installed I then copied my old VSTs into a new folder called VST64.
The reason for this was to let Sonar scan the VST plugins to see what would work straight off the mark.
I understood that some would need reinstalling but some wouldn’t.
Straight away I hit problem software.
QSpectrum
CMplay – Computer Music – Probably a reinstall?
DS404.dll
4Front
Also got MSVCP71.dll and MSVCK71.dll – need to check these out.
Also found quite a few of my other VST plugins would need full reinstallation.
That done, I tested the recording and monitoring setup and it’s great.
I will probably update as I go along with this because it’s only a day old so problems will arise I expect in the future.
But at the moment I’m a very happy bunny!
Below is my PC spec with equipment listed for those interested.
AV8 3rd eye Motherboard
AMD 64 4200 Dual Core
4gb Memory
2 UAD-1 PCI-X cards
M-Audio 2496
49e Keystation
Behringer BCF2000