Using Windows 8 and MegaDRUM, MegaDRUM Manager!

[angr77]

Holidays invites to do new things…

I have since long time ago a couple of systems with Microsoft Windows 7…and I am working for a company that help larger enterprises to upgrade their PC fleet to newer OS/Applications repackaging a and distribution…so I am probably representing Microsoft most positive deployment partner in Sweden. But on the private side and on my music computers at home…I had absolutely no plans to upgrade to Windows 8…for the moment…I was suspicious and wondered what really Windows 8 could offer to me…especially on my old notebooks. (No touch or anything…)

But I have got inspired by Allan at digitalDrummer who has written a couple of posts of going to Windows 8 versus W7.
So – I started to wonder…why not upgrade one system to Windows 8 and see what’s happen. So I did!

The old system
I have two similar systems which I use for generic music tasks like Cubase, VSTs and one system especially target for live drumming using Addictive Drums, MegaDRUM etc.

I selected my live drum system as the W8 victim for my tests! They are both equal and the model is a HP Compaq 6910p system with 2GHz, Intel Dual Core, 3GB, 200 GB hard disk and an external USB based 8 channel DSP based soundcard from M-Audio called Fast Track Ultra 8R(Driver 1.5.1 for W7). So these systems are real old!!

On the current selected system, I had Windows 7 SP1 running in 64 bit mode. I was also running the application VST Host(1.53) in 64 bit mode which hosted Addicted Drums 1.5.4 in 64 bit mode. Connected to the system I used the MegaDRUM USB midi trigger device (Firmware 20121216) and the related MegaDRUM Manager(20121202) + Oracle Java 7 Version 10.

The new system
Windows 8 Pro, same hardware except for the hard disk which now was a 120 GB SSD disk.

ASIO Tests
To test the soundcard latency I used a common used tool from Centrance called LTU. The LTU measures the audio delay in your Windows™ computer. Determines true round-trip latency of your computer audio setup, from input to output, via an ASIO driver. (You actually connect the sound cards output to the input…see http://centrance.com/products/ for more information.

Windows 8 Installation Steps
Loading the W8 OS. I created a bootable USB stick and booted from that. I wanted to create a clean installation on my system. Creating a bootable USB stick – my recommendation to use the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool from Microsoft Store. This application can create a bootable USB stick from a Microsoft Operating ISO file. W7/W8 etc.
1.Boot your system that you are going to install/upgrade on the W8 USB stick. Proceed with installation sequence. I did reformat my hard disk etc.
2.Ready!! – Wait for the Windows Update to run do all patching first. A antivirus malware application is included directly from MS called Security Essentials.
3.Attach all your hardware – normally – W8 will find the requested hardware drivers. In my case I needed to download the M-Audio/AVID driver to install. This was a W7 driver…but it works for W8 without any problems.
4.The MegaDRUM Device use the Windows Core USB midi driver. Included in W8 – Just to run! Fine!!
5.Just to install the VST Host for X64 and then also install Addictive DRUMs which now has a very fine online installer!!
6.For MegaDRUM Manager – Oracle Java 7 is required. Needs to be installed in desktop mode.
7.Ready for rocken-roll!

Comparisons between the old and new system.

Comparison.png

Conclusion W8 is fast as hell!! To boot and to work with. The ASIO performance was worth the whole journey!! On my old system I gained like 3 times in performance boost!! You could always question the absence on the start button…but now your start button has been spread over the whole screen instead…I can live with this. (If you can’t live with this – there are solutions for this also like the Start8) Still missing the hided power off button? There are solutions for this also!!

Nice to see my critical applications like Addictive Drums, MegaDRUM Manager and VST Hosts were working in Windows 8 without any problem. (Even sleep/resume works with these apps running) Of course – they have to run in the old desktop mode…but what the heck – It works and performs well!

Hopefully more and more apps will show up and also use the Modern-UI which makes sense and also opens up the RT based flavor of systems. (I personally would like to see MegaDRUM Manager, Cubase, VST Hosts etc. converted into the Modern-UI)

Bring it all together- I am using the new ARM based MegaDRUM which runs on 12 Mbit/s over the USB bus and internally has a 72 MHz ARM processor, which internally gives me a latency on about 1-1,5 ms from the drum trigger to USB bus. So all together with Windows 8 and the low ASIO latency, the ARM based MegaDRUM and Addictive Drums in 64 bits mode…it actually felt extremely nice to play the drums!! It felt real and near and the system was fast as hell! I have even tried to use the sound card in 96 KHz mode and it works even better with even lower latency!!

Finally, I think I need to go out and find a Intel i7 core based system with touch…that would be a nice live drum system!!

Microsoft Windows 8 – My best recommendations!

Links
• Windows 8 site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows8
•e-Drummer Magazine, http://www.digitaldrummermag.com/About.html
•A nice forum for E-drummers, http://www.vdrums.com/
•DIY e-drum trigger-to-midi device http://www.megadrum.info/
•Addictive Drums e-drum plugin http://www.xlnaudio.com/
•VST HOST – hosting your VSTs, http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm
•Windows 7 drivers for M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R, http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_U ... cType=1450
•Get the start button back in W8 http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/
•ASIO Latency test: http://centrance.com/products/
•My site about e-drumming: http://powerhell.wordpress.com/about/zo ... ans-td-20/

Best Regards
Anders Gronlund (ANGR77)

[everson]

Thanks for sharing this experience, Anders!
I guess I`ll move from w7 to w8 sometime this year, so it will be very useful for me ...

[Trommeltotti]

Holidays invites to do new things…

Hopefully more and more apps will show up and also use the Modern-UI which makes sense and also opens up the RT based flavor of systems. (I personally would like to see MegaDRUM Manager, Cubase, VST Hosts etc. converted into the Modern-UI)

Thanks @angr77 for your Windows 8 experience. Nice! And also this is a goal for @dmitri! When we will see your MDM application ready for touch screen using probably in full resizing/scalable mode under Windows 8 64bit?

greats Trommeltotti

[angr77]

Thanks!!

[Trommeltotti]

Hey @angr77,

I forgot you to ask if you did any optimizations and special tweaks on your Windows 8 system? If yes, which one please. (For example deactivating some services and so on)

@dmitri: Is it possible to realize your MDM (MegaDRUM Manager) as one Windows 8 metro app wrote with html 5 and Java script? Would be nice! This should be the modern windows counterpart to your MDM iPad app for Macintosh. (Of course ready for simple touch screen using) Thanks.

greats

Trommeltotti

[angr77]

Hi again!

No tweaks at all!

Best Regards

Anders

[dmitri]

@dmitri: Is it possible to realize your MDM (MegaDRUM Manager) as one Windows 8 metro app wrote with html 5 and Java script?

Hard to say. I have neither Windows 8 nor Microsoft developer account. Besides I have doubts about Windows 8 future compared to iOS and Android.

[Trommeltotti]

@dmitri thanks for your interest in this case.

Besides I have doubts about Windows 8 future compared to iOS and Android.

Wow, this declaration should be heroically! On Desktop systems there are worldwide 90% PC computers with on-board Windows OS from Microsoft! Compare to this Macintosh have around 7% market share on earth. Only on mobile systems like tablets and smart phones does Microsoft overslept the trend. So it should IMHO much to early to placed Microsoft in the ground and covered with earth.

I like very much the mobile/compact touch screen ideas like iPad solutions. But in this case - for using with Toontrack Superior Drummer in real-time - on now, this technique is definitively to slow! No way! Maybe in three four years comes this compact technique style fast enough for those VSTi applications.

For now PC technique is cheaper compare to Macintosh systems and on the same performance level. First impressions to Windows 8 said that this OS is very fast, stable and good to use with ASIO gear for real-time using.

In clarity: Using the MegaDrum converter instead of one old sound-module technique is just the first step. The next step is to use a fast computer system well packed in 19" road-gear enclosure like this http://www.ebay.de/itm/19-Rack-Server-Gehause-3U-3HE-schwarz-nur-38cm-tief-/160718980375?pt=DE_Elektronik_Computer_Geh%C3%A4use&hash=item256b990517 and containment in this 19" 3HE Road-case http://www.thomann.de/de/thon_rack_3_he_live_40_new.htm#bewertung for using VSTi stuff in real-time on stage. But of course you have to control this computer! How? Surely with a mobile solution like one 10" industrial touch screen monitor like this [url]http://www.faytech.com/index.php?id=120&tx_browser_pi1[showUid]=11&cHash=0d392f9674[/url]

This is not a modern multi-touch 10" solution like on iPad but not so far away from this. That's the reason for asking you @dmitri for a Windows 8 metro style MDM app for comfortable using this to make settings on MegaDrum converter with a touch screen interface on PC. I will hope that this is a realistic request to you.

Thanks very much greats

Trommeltotti

[angr77]

IOS and Android are PAD and Phone operatingsystems...I would compare them to Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT in the MS world.

Windows 8 is another call...true...as Windows has a big part of the market today!

MDM in W8 Modern UI style would have been a nice feature - but absolutly not a must have...it is 100% possible to run MDM without as is! And honestly...would you be running MDM on stage live...?? Don't thinks so. From a market standpoint...to have MDM working in Windows 8 Modern UI would generate some nice positive waves. (It is easy to also make versions for Windows Phone 8 also based on the same code) But this is marketing...

What I personally would spend some money on is to get a VST Host application that runs in W8 Modern UI...but I think this is another forum!

MD_RACK3.png

Best Regards

ANGR77

[dmitri]

I will think about MDCommander for Metro UI but it will be definitely some months in the future.