> > Why Vista sounds worse: Changes to how the latest version of > Windows handles audio playback has caused unexpected > quality issues for musicians and consumers alike, > reports Tim Anderson: Vista music > > The art of noise: professional musicmakers tend to bypass the > Windows audio engine, creating a further problem if they are > using Vista Photograph: Getty Images > > Just what does a glitch sound like? That's easy, explains Steve > Ball: "Glitches during music playback can sound like a loud 'pop' > or like a brief slice of silence where your music should have > been." As the senior program manager for sound in Windows Vista, > Ball knows that nobody wants that. > > So it must have been difficult for him to author a blog post > explaining why Vista suffers from precisely that problem - > glitches on some systems during music playback or composition. > > Boiled down, his explanation (tinyurl.com/ywgm5t) is: because > Windows has to do lots of things at once. His best news? "Windows > developers have made significant progress in reducing glitching. > For example, music playback on an otherwise lightly loaded system > can be generally as smooth as [a] $20 (pounds 10) CD player." > > But that's hardly what someone using a pounds 1,000 computer wants > to hear. Among the scores of comments, one remarked: "My mobile > phone can play MP3s, while I surf the web, on a call and text > message; all without any glitches." > > So what's gone wrong? Our investigation suggests a combination of > wholesale changes to the way Vista handles audio, late bugfixes, > and problems in drivers written by the makers of soundcards. > > For music professionals, though, it's a dealbreaker. Will Benger, > a musician who also works at Making Waves Audio, a music > technology retailer, advises his customers to stick with XP. > "Vista is riddled with issues with existing software packages and > existing hardware," he says. "If you've got problems with > recording audio, you might not get a second chance. You can't > sell a system to a professional studio if you don't know for sure > that it's going to work." > > That's a problem in the professional music market, where Apple has > a significant share - one-third or more - of the market. Apple > went through similar struggles with musicians in the shift to > OSX; but that was more than five years ago. Now it's Microsoft's > turn. > > No cakewalk > Not everyone has problems with audio in Vista, but it is still > perplexing. How could Microsoft set out to improve the audio > system, yet end up making it worse? > > Noel Borthwick, chief technology officer for Cakewalk, which > creates music software for both the consumer and professional > markets, recalls his company's first involvement with Vista - in > 2003. "Microsoft had a Vista audio summit - it was called > Longhorn at the time - and invited several vendors for private > meetings to put forward the specification for audio in Vista and > try and collect feedback." > > Fundamental changes were on the way: many of Cakewalk's products > used a programming interface called DirectSound, which was being > phased out. "We went back and re-invented all the stuff that we > did in our applications," Borthwick says. > > In 2005 there was another conference. "Microsoft presented Vista > as it was going to be released. We found some fundamental flaws. > WaveRT [see panel] is a new mechanism by which audio drivers > would perform really well. There were a couple of flaws in the > design. We pointed out the flaws before Vista shipped." > > Microsoft made changes - but they came so late in Vista's > development that a number of companies released drivers for > WaveRT used the old, inefficient model. "So there's a fundamental > flaw right there for consumer audio," Borthwick says. > > In fact, Vista's new audio setup lays numerous traps for driver > authors. Most off-the-shelf PCs have integrated soundcards, > produced by companies such as Realtek and Analog Devices, makers > of SoundMAX. Borthwick says these tended to have older WaveRT > drivers. > > Users of add-on sound cards such as those from Creative Labs > suffered different problems: those drivers often required an > emulation system to work in Vista, a sure recipe for poor > performance. > > "The end-user experience on consumer audio devices is pretty bad > on Vista for the most part," says Borthwick. (Creative Labs > describes its own struggles with Vista's new architecture at > tinyurl.com/qhzyy). > > Professional musicians face different issues. For performance > reasons, professional audio drivers tend to bypass the Windows > audio engine, using de facto standards such as Steinberg's ASIO > (Audio Stream Input/Output). > > "Nothing really changes in how you talk to an ASIO driver in Vista > as compared to XP," Borthwick says. "The problem under Vista is > overhead in the operating system itself. It takes more CPU to > achieve the same result. You tend to get clicks or pops or noise." > > Things can only get . . . > Vista's audio is getting better. Drivers are improving, and the > imminent Service Pack 1 apparently fixes some bugs, such as one > that affected timing on MIDI (used by professionals to integrate > sequencers). > > Experts agree that Vista's audio has potential. "The WaveRT driver > architecture can produce better performance," says Robin Vincent > of Rain Computers, which builds PCs for musicians. "However, no > one supports that. That's the problem." > > Steinberg's Lars Baumann believes Vista will improve. "We think > Vista is going to be the future platform for audio applications, > but it will take more time." > > Another promising area is 64-bit computing. "A 64-bit operating > system breaks down a lot of the barriers to RAM and performance. > It just seems to be really hard to move people to it," Vincent > says. > > "Vista still has promise," Borthwick says. "Microsoft needs to > clean up the loose ends in Vista to make it deliver. I still > think it's possible." > > > ____________________________________________________________ > Copyright (C) Guardian Newspapers Ltd, 1984-1997
