Okay, let’s just get this out of the way now: my initial experience with Windows Vista was hideously awful. Like, smoke and flames awful. Shuttle, the maker of my small form factor PC, pointed to an old version of the NVIDIA nForce driver for the chipset which repeatedly corrupted the device database, so eventually nothing […]

I’ve found the Windows Vista Team Blog to be largely disappointing in terms of actual OS information, but they’ve got an interesting post this week from Windows Vista audio team Program Manager Richard Fricks: Using a microphone array to enhance sound capture Microphone array recording is a technique for improving recording quality by processing signal […]

Look out, PCs: you’re getting the audio engine from the Xbox 360. That’s the message from Microsoft, which abandoned the old DirectSound APIs in Windows Vista. They’ve got a new audio system called XAudio2 ready and waiting, however, and it looks good — though it also begs the question, why didn’t Microsoft ship it with […]

All along the watchtower, Princes kept the Vista: IK’s Hendrix software emulation, now on the newest Windows. IK Multimedia says its whole product line is now ready for Vista, fully tested across the software line. The latest versions work; if you have an older version, your mileage may vary: Ampeg SVX AmpliTube 2 AmpliTube Jimi […]

Patrick O’Neill points out that M-Audio has started to release new drivers with Vista compatibility: the Axiom 25, Fast Track Pro, MobilePre USB, and Jamlab all got new updates (the last three in beta). The Fast Track Pro is especially nice to see. Still no love yet for Wally and his Conectiv DJ interface, however. […]

Linux compatibility problems? Wally’s got his DJ gear working on Linux, and broken on Vista. And that makes him MAD. We’re celebrating random rant Friday, so let’s have at it until it gets fixed, ‘kay? He gripes because he loves, I’m sure. His opinions are his own, but I think it is important to be […]

Ah, the blame game. Users want their stuff to work, and they want it now. (Well, can you blame them?) When it doesn’t, as in the case of some hardware and software on Windows Vista, the blame often gets transferred to third-party developers and not the operating system developer (ahem, Microsoft). Sure, Microsoft gets blamed […]

Music hardware giant M-Audio has been one of the big obstacles to Vista compatibility for many users. (We certainly heard from many of you that you didn’t want to upgrade until M-Audio support was ready.) They’re announcing driver support today. Note that “announcing” doesn’t necessarily mean they’re available right this instant, but it does sound […]

Cakewalk has posted a Vista Resource Page for Windows users. You might expect this to be pro-Vista and Cakewalk-centric, but it’s actually a very useful jumping-off point for some solid information for upgraders. Most helpful: there’s a comprehensive list of audio drivers for Vista, and an exhaustive list of links to coverage from various publications. […]

After early driver releases by MOTU, RME, Roland/Edirol, and a few others, the Vista driver landscape has been pretty quiet. (M-Audio, anyone?) Some drivers will work anyway, after dismissing some warning dialog boxes. But having Vista-ready drivers is, of course, ideal. PreSonus is the latest, with new 32-bit and 64-bit Vista drivers (and XP/XP x64) […]