Live 8 and Vista 64-bit - good to go?

[dublow]

So far I've been using Ableton Live Lite 7 (M-Audio Enhanced Version) on my laptop* with no problems so far. I'm keen on upgrading to Live 8, but I'm having my doubts since it doesn't officially support Vista 64. I've read a lot of older mixed reviews, but has anyone out there had any recent success running the two together?

*Sony Vaio VGN-FW290
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz
250 GB / Ram 4 GB

Thanks for your feedback

[leedsquietman]

before you even think about if Live has 64 bit Vista support, you need to check out the drivers for your audio interface, MIDI controllers/devices and check your plugins to make sure they are all 64 bit capable too. Many audio interfaces/soundcards and MIDI devices/controllers do not have 64 bit drivers for Vista yet (some don't even have 32 bit Vista drivers). And if you're plugins are less than 64 bit, that creates problems too (some programs such as Sonar 8PE and Cubase 5 have 'bitbridge' which sort of allows you to run 32 bit plugins in a 'compatibility mode' but it can be a glitchy hit and miss).

The pro audio world is coming slowly to 64 bit, kicking and screaming, partially because win XP remains a better low latency o/s for this work than Vista (and often with less tweaking and with more mature, stable drivers), even though Vista 64 offers the massive advantage of being able to run huge amounts of RAM etc and also because Apple have been slow to release their first FULLY fead to toe 64 bit o/s (Leopard is NOT totally 64 bit in every area), which they are working on with Snow Leopard. This is why Mac DAWS such as Logic and DP are still on 32 bit, and why Cubase has only recently gone 64 bit and Samplitude is still on 32 bit.

Within 2 years, everything will be pretty much 64 bit, and then everyone still 32 bit will be needing to upgrade or get left behind. But right now, 32 bit still rules the DAW world, in spite of SOnar having had 64 bit support since Sonar 5PE.

[twisted-space]

As long as you have 64 bit drivers for your sound/midi interface your good to go.
Because live is 32 bit any plugins you want to use inside live must be 32 bit.
Live 7 suite and 8 demo both run perfectly on my system (see specs in sig)

[dublow]

ah ha... interesting. thanks for the insight fellas. yeah i have an m-audio fast track usb pro, and the vista 64 drivers are solid for that sound card. so from what i understand ill be fine as long as i use 32-bit plugins within ableton since it is a 32-bit program. will those plugins work fine with my sound card that's running on 64-bit drivers? i take it no other known glitches or crashes running Live 8 on Vista 64 outside of the sound card?

[RawTheory]

Go Windows 7 beta. Its supposedly vastly superior to Vista...

[Zygi]

live is ok @ vista x64 - dunno bout the hardware u got...

[leedsquietman]

Windows 7 uses almost all the same drivers as Vista ... but given that it should be released soon, you might want to wait and then be prepared to wait another few months for stable drivers to become available.

[ekwipt]

you can download the beta of windows 7 which will until 2010, test everything out on your system, problem is everyone can tell you it's ready but you'll usually run into some sort of problems with a fresh windows install

[leedsquietman]

This is OK if you have back up computers, or are prepared to do a seperate partition, but I would advise against beta testing windows, especially on time sensitive or any commercial work you might be doing. Stick with what you have which works until the humps are smoothed out and let other mugs do the smoothing work. Even if things seem fne at first, any poof/BSOD moments could happen at any time and then you could be screwed ...

[dublow]

yeah i'm not too comfortable with the idea of beta testing windows 7, but im sure it has it's advantages. looking forward to when it officially comes out though. i think ill just go ahead and get Live 8... according to the feedback it seems to be pretty smooth sailing on vista 64 for the most part. minor bumps here and there will hopefully get smoothed out sooner than later. also looking forward to ableton's official support of vista 64

thanks again for all your inputs!

d

[twisted-space]

ah ha... interesting. thanks for the insight fellas. yeah i have an m-audio fast track usb pro, and the vista 64 drivers are solid for that sound card. so from what i understand ill be fine as long as i use 32-bit plugins within ableton since it is a 32-bit program. will those plugins work fine with my sound card that's running on 64-bit drivers? i take it no other known glitches or crashes running Live 8 on Vista 64 outside of the sound card?

I've used the fast track pro on my system. It works fine.

[dublow]

I've used the fast track pro on my system. It works fine.

wicked as m.i.a. would say, im good to go