Microsoft Surface Pro 4 ok?

[ze2be]

The Surface Pro 4 has only 1 usb 3 port.

When using external controllers and sound card with Live, will it all work with a hub? Does anyone have experience with these models?


Best,
Kim

[Stromkraft]

The Surface Pro 4 has only 1 usb 3 port.

When using external controllers and sound card with Live, will it all work with a hub? Does anyone have experience with these models?

I don't have experience with these, though these are skylake processors so as long as they can be kept from switching down and overheating it should be interesting. The most powerful option the Intel® Core™ i7-6650U is only 2 cores though so there will be a limit to what you can do. A powered USB3 hub would probably work.


You probably won't find the GUI control extremely versatile from the screen so an external controller is probably needed is my guess. Make sure your audio interface and its driver is compatible with USB3. Some older ones aren't.

If you try one please share your experience. Hopefully someone else already has.

[Stromkraft]

I must say that the 256 GB / Intel Core i7 – 8 GB RAM  model — which I must view as the minimum for music production, though for a minimal external rig maybe not — was not impressively priced.

[Jbvdb]

Microsoft make a special hub for the surface pro now, seems like a good option.
Also check this out
http://surfaceproaudio.com
I have been watching that site for a while, I want to run push 2 with a surface pro 4, bass station 2 and octatrack. Would be my perfect live setup I think!

[ze2be]

Microsoft make a special hub for the surface pro now, seems like a good option.
Also check this out
http://surfaceproaudio.com
I have been watching that site for a while, I want to run push 2 with a surface pro 4, bass station 2 and octatrack. Would be my perfect live setup I think!

Hmm, but will the hub work with stuff that needs loads of power, like Push, Soundcards etc? My Virus Ti Polar needs its own port, can not work with a hub.. But I havent tried it with modern power-hubs..

[Jbvdb]

Push 2 needs power, my interface needs power, etc

[cfr]

check out Molten Music Technology on youtube he has lots of surface specific reviews using lots of audio programs hubs and controllers. He was actually having a bunch of trouble with the 4 but it may be worked out with an update not sure but that is a good place to start

[markwphoto]

I've been using the Surface Pro 4, i5/8GB - 256GB SSD, with Ableton Live, Push 2, and a Novation Launch Control. I bought the Microsoft Surface Dock/Hub which gives you 4 additional USB 3 ports, plus multiple external monitor capabilities, networking and audio. Note you can still use the onboard port with the Surface Dock so now you have 5 USB 3 ports! While it is a bit pricey for a hub, it was well worth it in my opinion. If you go with another hub be sure to get a decent quality one and one that is powered!

So how does it work? I've had my Surface Pro 4 for a year now and initially I had some audio issues in Ableton Live. Propellerhead Reason worked ok but Live had occasional pops and clicks on playback. I got some great tips from Surfaceproaudio.com on tuning Windows 10 to make it work better with Live. One of the key things that made Ableton run perfect was actually limiting the processor management settings in Power management. I had to do a registry change to access these options but once it was done I set the maximum processor state to 90%. One would think 100% would be great but by limiting how high the processor state can go, you get better performance! At 100% the processor will get hotter and the fan spins up more often. Once this happens that's when the pops and clicks occurred in Live.

Since I've had my Surface I have upgraded my Audio interface from a Scarlett 2i4 to the 2i4 second generation. I get low latency and Live as well as Reason has be rock solid with it.

MS has of course had the Anniversary Update since the SP4 release and I noticed no difference in how Live runs since the update. If you decide to go with the Surface Pro 4 the minimum I would get is the i5 8GB model. I've never had the CPU meter go above 60% with all the stuff I've done. I love how portable and small the Surface is and it makes it very easy to travel with. For me it's one of the best mobile solutions that still has plenty of power to get the work you need to do done!

[F34TH3R]

I use an anker 7 port powered hub that powers all of my equipment without any problem (push, launchkey, iPad, interface etc...).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B014ZQ07 ... ref=plSrch

They also make a 10 port if you need that many.

[Jbvdb]

I've been using the Surface Pro 4, i5/8GB - 256GB SSD, with Ableton Live, Push 2, and a Novation Launch Control. I bought the Microsoft Surface Dock/Hub which gives you 4 additional USB 3 ports, plus multiple external monitor capabilities, networking and audio. Note you can still use the onboard port with the Surface Dock so now you have 5 USB 3 ports! While it is a bit pricey for a hub, it was well worth it in my opinion. If you go with another hub be sure to get a decent quality one and one that is powered!

So how does it work? I've had my Surface Pro 4 for a year now and initially I had some audio issues in Ableton Live. Propellerhead Reason worked ok but Live had occasional pops and clicks on playback. I got some great tips from Surfaceproaudio.com on tuning Windows 10 to make it work better with Live. One of the key things that made Ableton run perfect was actually limiting the processor management settings in Power management. I had to do a registry change to access these options but once it was done I set the maximum processor state to 90%. One would think 100% would be great but by limiting how high the processor state can go, you get better performance! At 100% the processor will get hotter and the fan spins up more often. Once this happens that's when the pops and clicks occurred in Live.

Since I've had my Surface I have upgraded my Audio interface from a Scarlett 2i4 to the 2i4 second generation. I get low latency and Live as well as Reason has be rock solid with it.

MS has of course had the Anniversary Update since the SP4 release and I noticed no difference in how Live runs since the update. If you decide to go with the Surface Pro 4 the minimum I would get is the i5 8GB model. I've never had the CPU meter go above 60% with all the stuff I've done. I love how portable and small the Surface is and it makes it very easy to travel with. For me it's one of the best mobile solutions that still has plenty of power to get the work you need to do done!

So how good is the touch interface? Can you name your projects, tracks etc without a keyboard?
How well is it integrating the push 2? Are you able to open a project and put the tablet away and just focus on the push?
Are you rewiring reason into live? And is the touch screen good for all the cabling and knob tweaking in reason?
For some reason robin at surface pro audio seems to say there are always some small issues with his setup, are you seeing the same with yours? You mentioned no more pops, but any other weird things?
Thanks.

[markwphoto]

I've been using the Surface Pro 4, i5/8GB - 256GB SSD, with Ableton Live, Push 2, and a Novation Launch Control. I bought the Microsoft Surface Dock/Hub which gives you 4 additional USB 3 ports, plus multiple external monitor capabilities, networking and audio. Note you can still use the onboard port with the Surface Dock so now you have 5 USB 3 ports! While it is a bit pricey for a hub, it was well worth it in my opinion. If you go with another hub be sure to get a decent quality one and one that is powered!

So how does it work? I've had my Surface Pro 4 for a year now and initially I had some audio issues in Ableton Live. Propellerhead Reason worked ok but Live had occasional pops and clicks on playback. I got some great tips from Surfaceproaudio.com on tuning Windows 10 to make it work better with Live. One of the key things that made Ableton run perfect was actually limiting the processor management settings in Power management. I had to do a registry change to access these options but once it was done I set the maximum processor state to 90%. One would think 100% would be great but by limiting how high the processor state can go, you get better performance! At 100% the processor will get hotter and the fan spins up more often. Once this happens that's when the pops and clicks occurred in Live.

Since I've had my Surface I have upgraded my Audio interface from a Scarlett 2i4 to the 2i4 second generation. I get low latency and Live as well as Reason has be rock solid with it.

MS has of course had the Anniversary Update since the SP4 release and I noticed no difference in how Live runs since the update. If you decide to go with the Surface Pro 4 the minimum I would get is the i5 8GB model. I've never had the CPU meter go above 60% with all the stuff I've done. I love how portable and small the Surface is and it makes it very easy to travel with. For me it's one of the best mobile solutions that still has plenty of power to get the work you need to do done!

So how good is the touch interface? Can you name your projects, tracks etc without a keyboard?
How well is it integrating the push 2? Are you able to open a project and put the tablet away and just focus on the push?
Are you rewiring reason into live? And is the touch screen good for all the cabling and knob tweaking in reason?
For some reason robin at surface pro audio seems to say there are always some small issues with his setup, are you seeing the same with yours? You mentioned no more pops, but any other weird things?
Thanks.

As far as using the touch interface in Ableton Live ... don't. Lol. The screen is too small and really not optimized for touch. Pen support works ok but I recall having to make a change in the Ableton Live options.txt file to make the pen work properly. If you use the Pen and bring up the on screen keyboard you can name projects, tracks, etc, all without the physical keyboard attached.

When I use Push 2 I pretty much don't even look at the Surface until I'm ready to save my project.

Reason works a bit better with touch vs Ableton but it's still not optimized for touch. As far as I know Bitwig is optimized for Touchscreens but there's no way I'm buying another DAW. I haven't rewired Reason into Ableton very much but I have recently played with using Link to sync Reason and Ableton together. Works like a charm with both apps running on the Surface and I plan to use it more in the future.

Robin seems to have worked most of the kinks of his setup with the Surface Pro 4. I have personally had some email exchanges with him about some of the issues and with his help things are running good now. I have no pop and click or other weird issues since doing a few tweeks. He even retracted some of what he said in one of his recent videos. The biggest thing is limiting the processor management so the CPU doesn't get too hot. It's been smooth running since then.

The only issue I have had with my Surface is that MS will occasionally put out a buggy update or firmware and that can cause other issues. Most the time they will patch it within a reasonable time. My only wish for Microsoft and the Surface is that they would take a little bit more time to test updates prior to releasing them to the masses.

Any other questions feel free to let me know.

[Jbvdb]

Amazing, thanks a lot!
Seems like apple release lemon OS updates too tho!
Are you running hardware synths as well with the surface pro?
If (when )I do get one I might email robin direct as well!
Thanks again!