| WINDOWS XP DAW OPTIMIZATION GUIDE from http://www.opusaudioprojects.net/ Well Folks...It's that time again..A new OS..a New Tweak Guide. This one is going to be pretty indepth and requires some Registry Editing and other fun stuff of the sorts! This is what I do. Install OS, Install all hardware drivers, Tweak OS and then install software. So..here we go First thing is the installation. When you see the installation tell you to press F6(Third Party SCSI or RAID Drivers) press F5 instead. You will see Press F2 for Automated System Recovery(DONT press F2) Right after that you will see a list Press the UP arrow key twice to highlite Standard PC Hit Enter.. Hit Enter to Continue Hit F8 saying you agree(legal stuff ya know!) Now, if this is an existing OS of say Win2k or a previous install of XP you will see options for Esc=Don't Repair; R=Repair F3 to Quit Well, we're doing a fresh install so we want to hit Esc for Dont Repair Now, you'll see your drives and partitions here.. If you have Two "physical" drives it will show you these drives as C and D Highlite C Drive If you had an existing Install from any other OS press D for Delete Partition. Press Enter to Continue Press L for Delete Now, we're back at the drive selection screen again and this time we see Unpartioned space.. We're ready to create a partition. Typically you want to the OS drive to be as small as possible for drive reading purposes. Reccomended OS and Application drive should be around 12GB tops. If you have a 20GB drive partition it into two parts.. the first part being 10,000MB and the remaining to the Second partition(comes to around 9500MB)...Which can be used for extra storage Once the drive is partitioned and the main Parition is highlited press Enter to Install Now we have to decide what File System do we use...NTFS or FAT32 Here's the lowdown.. I'm going to steal someone elses words here... Daniel Keller from Tascam wrote this little blurb about NTFS vs FAT32 I find this stuff very intriguing and indeed do agree! FAT32 vs. NTFS You have the option under W2k and XP to choose the file system that best suits your needs, FAT or NTFS. FAT (File Allocation Table) is the native file system based on the Windows 9x kernel (including 95, 95a, 95b, 95c, 98, 98se and ME). NTFS (New Technology File System) is the native file system for operating systems based on the Windows NT kernel (including NT4, 2000 and XP). During the installation, Win2K or XP will ask if you want to convert the installation partition to NTFS. If you need compatibility for Windows 98 � especially if you want to dual-boot � don't convert. While NTFS offers a number of improvements over FAT32, most of these advantages are not all that applicable to audio, and you are unlikely to see a major performance difference between the two. Moreover, defragmenting your drives (something you should do on a regular basis anyway) is substantially quicker in FAT32. Be aware that Windows 9x cannot read data on NTFS-formatted drives. Generally speaking, you should use FAT32 if you are doing a parallel installation with Windows 9x/ME, or if you will need to work with files created with a FAT32 system (opening old song files, working with others using FAT32-based systems, etc.) leave everything with FAT32. One exception would be if you�ll be working with video or other large files in excess of 4GB; or if you also use your PC to browse the internet or the computer is part of a LAN running XP Professional. Only NTFS can limit access rights to your files and therefore provide the security needed for a networked computer. In this case, select NTFS for all partitions except those which are to accommodate your audio data later. One other interesting point: NTFS can read the "resource fork" of SDII files from MacOS, and can therefore recognize the timecode stamps used in these files; FAT(32) can�t do this. If you do a lot of work with ProTools or other MacOS-based DAW applications, you should consider at least one NTFS partition in your system. (Note that this does not imply that your NTFS-based system can mount/read from a MacOS drive; simply that individual SDII files imported to an NTFS drive will retain their time-stamp information.) Most DAW users tend to go with NTFS file systems for the OS drives due to more stability and more security plus larger disk support. FAT32 for the data drives. I've done both and dont see a performance difference either way. Windows will begin it's file copying, once it's done it will restart your machine. It's a good idea from here to enter into the BIOS to stop the CDRom from being the first boot device Set the Hard Drive as the main boot. Exit out and restart to begin the XP installation Enter your Name and Orginzation(If Applicable..you can leave it blank) Enter your Windows Key Name your computer! Hit Next Continue Installation If you have a NIC card it will ask you what type of Installation do you want to choose Typical or Custom Do Typical for faster install Ok. so now we have a fresh install of Windows XP. When XP starts up everytime you get that anoying Take the XP Tour pop up... click on it to open the tour..once in the tour simply exit out and it wont open up anymore. Also Messenger starts up at the windows load up but we can get rid of that in no time at all.. Double click on the Messenger icon in the system tray to open it. Skip thru the internet and sign up stuff, just cancel it. When Messenger loads go to tools and Options then Preferences and uncheck 'Run this program when windows starts' Now...get rid of that Fisher Price look and go back to Classic Windows interface. It's better for system performance when using as little colors or graphics as possible: Right-click on your desktop, and then click Properties. Click on Themes tab Set Themes to Windows Classic Click on the Screen Saver tab Set Screensaver to None Press the Power button near the bottom Power Schemes..you can have the monitor turn off but set Turn Hard Drives off to NEVER Hibernate..If this is Enabled uncheck it. This is mainly for Laptops but uses a very large chunk of data. (I've seen this not show up on the first boot of XP..when you restart it will be there but it's disabled) APM..Enabling this will allow your computer to shut down properly when in Standard PC mode Hit OK Click the Appearance tab. On the Windows and Buttons menu, select Windows Classic Press Effect button Deselect all options. Hit OK Click the Settings tab Set your bit depth to 16Bit. This is optimal for Audio machines due to less colors for video drawback which in turn gives you better audio performance Also do this for the Start Menu: Right�click the Start button, and then click Properties. Click Classic Start menu. Click the Customize button to select items to display on the Start menu. By default, selecting the Classic Start menu also adds the My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, and Internet Explorer icons to your desktop. Right Click My Computer and select Properties: System Restore tab: Check the Turn System Restore on all drives. Automatic Updates tab: Turn Off Automatic Updates. Remote tab: Uncheck all options to turn off Remote Assistance. Advanced tab: Press Settings tab under Performance Visual Affects tab: set to Adjust for Best Performance. Advanced tab: Processor Scheduling: Set this for Background Services Memory Useage: Set this for System Cache Virtual Memory: Press Change... Depending on how much RAM you actually have is what you are going to enter here If you have 256MB RAM set this to 512 for Min and Max If you have 512MB RAM set this to 768 for Min and Max If you have 1024MB RAM set this to 1536 for Min and Max Once entered hit SET..Hit OK and then Hit OK.. Restart your machine at this point in time... When you come back the first thing you should do is defrag the main drive even if it doesnt say it needs it. This way the swap file has been truly set and you're ready to continue. Now is the time to Install your hardware drivers if you havent done it allready. It makes no difference what order you install the drivers in. Turn off CD Autoplay Go to Start->Run->gpedit.msc Computer Config -> Administrative Template -> System Double click Turn off Autoplay Enable it. Control Panel>Double click Sounds and Audio Devices...Go to the Audio tab Set the Playback and the Recording settings to either Your built in soundcard or a soundblaster(If Applicable) Check Only Use default devices down below Go to the Sounds tab Under Sound Scheme choose No Sounds Press No to saving the previous Scheme Hit Apply Now we get to play with the services! ********FIRST THINGS FIRST!! MAKE A BACK UP OF YOU REGSITRY ***BEFORE *** DOING ANY REGEDIT OR SERVICES TWEAKS OF ANY KIND!!!!!!!!************** Start Menu, Run...type in regedit and hit OK... Hit the Drop menu for Registry and select Export Registry.. save this to another drive for safe keepings. Now, let's stop that annoying balloon from popping up from our system tray This is a Registry Tweak we have to do.. Start menu>Run...type in regedit Hkey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\Advanced If enableballoontips is there set the value to 0 If it doesnt enter it in as a new DWORD and put the value to 0 What we want to do is turn off certain "services" that are running in the background that we dont need while recording or playing out AUdio Software. Control Panel>Administrative Tools: Double Click on Services Here is a list of what I have disabled. Keep in mind my machine doesnt touch the internet or a network in any way If you have an NIC or modem of any sort I specified which ones and what settings Alerter Disabled Application Layer Gateway Service Disabled Application Management AppMgmt Manual Automatic Updates Disabled Background Intelligent Transfer Service Disabled ClipBook Disabled COM+ Event System EventSystem Disabled COM+ System Application Disabled Computer Browser Disabled Cryptographic Services Disabled DHCP Client Disabled (Set this to Manual for Internet) Distributed Link Tracking Client Disabled Distributed Transaction Coordinator Disabled DNS Client Disabled (set this to Manual for Internet) Error Reporting Service Disabled Event Log Automatic Fast User Switching Compatibility Disabled Fax Service Disabled Help and Support Disabled Human Interface Device Access Disabled IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service Manual Indexing Service Disabled Internet Connection Sharing Disabled IPSEC Services PolicyAgent Disabled Logical Disk Manager Manual Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service Manual Messenger Disabled MS Software Shadow Copy Provider Disabled Net Login Disabled NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing Disabled Network Connections Manual Network DDE Disabled Network DDE DSDM Disabled Network Location Awareness (NLA) Disabled NT LM Security Support Provider Disabled Performance Logs and Alerts Disabled Plug and Play PlugPlay Automatic Portable Media Serial Number Disabled Print Spooler Disabled Protected Storage Disabled QoS RSVP Disabled Remote Access Auto Connection Manager Disabled Remote Access Connection Manager Disabled Remote Desktop Help Session Manager Disabled Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Automatic Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator Manual Remote Registry Service Disabled Removable Storage Disabled Routing and Remote Access Disabled Secondary Logon s Disabled Security Accounts Manager Disabled Server Disabled Shell Hardware Detection Disabled Smart Card Disabled Smart Card Helper Disabled SSDP Discovery Service Disabled System Event Notification Disabled System Restore Service Disabled Task Scheduler Schedule Disabled TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service Disabled (set this to Manual for Internet) Telephony Disabled Telnet Disabled Terminal Services Disabled Themes Disabled Uninterruptible Power Supply Disabled Universal Plug and Play Device Host Disabled Upload Manager Disabled Volume Shadow Copy Disabled WebClient Disabled Windows Audio Automatic Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) Disabled Windows Installer Manual Windows Management Instrumentation Automatic Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Manual Windows Time Disabled Wireless Zero Configuration Disabled WMI Performance Adapter Disabled Workstation Automatic Once you have set all of these close out of the services and restart Do this for all NTFS drives: Open My Computer>Right Click on C:Drive and select Properies. Deselect Allow Indexing Servicing....Hit Apply Select Apply Changes to C:\ subfolders and files You might get a message that says Access Denied...press Ignore All By default, Windows 2000 logs the I/O traffic of your hard drive. While this is a very useful setting for servers, for workstations it doesn't do anything except use up system resources. To disable it, go to the run menu and type diskperf -n Hit Enter to disable this logging. Disable Error Reporting Control Panel>Performance and Maintenance. System>Advanced tab Error-Reporting button Select Disable Error Reporting. Click OK Click OK OK...the true fun part of Windows systems...Regedit! Here we will be doing some pretty snazzy stuff that I found very cool! ****Again...it may be a good idea to make a back up of the registry ***** Intel Chipsets need to have UDMA 66 enabled for Win2k and XP. This also enables UDMA100 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000 You will need to add this value in Right click and select New..DWORD Type EnableUDMA66 and hit Enter..and Double click it and put the value to 1 It should the look like this: EnableUDMA66=dword:00000001 Again, this is really only for intel chipsets. Remove the Shared Documents folders from My Computer: Windows XP user interface provides links to all of the Shared Documents folders on your system, right at the top of the My Computer window. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\DelegateFolders Delete this Key {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee} NTFS Disk Performance The NTFS file system is the recommended file system because of its advantages in terms of reliability and security and because it is required for large drive sizes. However, these advantages come with some overhead. You can modify some functionality to improve NTFS performance as follows: 1. Disable creation of short names. By default,NTFS generates the style of file name for compatibility with MS-DOS and Windows 3.x clients. If you are not supporting these types of clients, you can turn off this setting by changing the default HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation set value to 1 2. Disable last access update. By default NTFS updates the date and time stamp of the last access on directories this update process can slow performance. To disable: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentContolSet\Control\Filesystem You will need to enter this as a new Dword: NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate set value to 1 3. Reserve space for the master file table. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem. You will need to enter this as a new Dword NtfsMftZoneReservation set to 1 Reboot after making changes. Speed up the Start Menu in Windows XP. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Desktop MenuShowDelay file set to 1 Click OK. A restart is needed to see the results Increase IRQ Priority of CMOS Real-time Clock Improve overall system performance by increasing the IRQ priority of the CMOS real-time clock. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl You will need to enter this as a new Dword: "IRQ8Priority" set to 1 Windows Explorer caches DLLs(Dynamic-Link Libraries)in memory for a period of time after the application using them has been closed. This can be an inefficient use of memory. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer Create a new DWORD sub-key named "AlwaysUnloadDLL" set to 1 Restart Windows for the change to take effect. Speed up CD Copying to Hard Drives HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem You will need to create a Key here. Right Click on the FileSystem folder and select New>Key Name it CDFS CacheSize, this must be added as a binary value, then type in this value: ff ff 00 00 Prefetch, this key must be added as a DWORD value, then type in this value: 4000 hex PrefetchTail, this key must be added as a DWORD value, then type in this value: 4000 hex To Disable Dr. Watson HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug Delete the AeDebug key Ok...so far this is pretty tweaked out but now I've found some other tweaks that will make a non internet machine even better with less programs! Uninstall unwanted components Locate sysoc.inf (windows\inf\sysoc.inf) on the main drive and make a backup of it Open the Sysoc.inf file. Each line of text in the file represents a component that can be displayed in the Add/Remove Windows Components dialog. Delete the word HIDE for any component that you want to see in the dialog (do not erase the commas). Save the Sysoc.inf file, then close it, and reboot your computer. The Add/Remove Windows Components dialog will now display the items you want to remove. I have removed everything but the AMI, COM+ and Distributed Transaction Coordinator! Install Software!!! Some notes... Level 2 (L2) CPU cache size can be sized this way, ONLY IF using earlier CPUs: Intel (and compatibles) 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, AMD K5/K6/K7, Cyrix, etc, with off-chip L2 cache SRAM memory (external, off the CPU die). If using newer CPUs: Intel Pentium II/III/IV/Celeron/Xeon, AMD Athlon/Duron/Thunderbird, etc, with on-chip L2 cache SRAM memory (internal, on the CPU die), L2 cache size can *NOT* be altered! I found that when doing these tweaks: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management] "ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management] "LargeSystemCache"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management] "DisablePagingExecutive"=dword:00000001 Would cause the system to hang on restart and shutdown. Resetting all the values to 0 solved that As far as USB Audio is concerned. After reading all about the stuttering audio and BSOD's with XP and USB Audio devices I got myself prepared with the Microsoft Patch for this fix. I found that I did not need this patch as audio thru the Tascam US428 was flawless. I looped a 5 minute 24bit 16 track song for close to 30 minutes and switched songs to a heavier data count and looped that for 20 minutes. I recorded several tracks thru the SPDIF in for 24bit recording and did multiple punch ins and takes without a single problem. As far as why my system is fine...who knows. There are too many configurations to truly explin this. Try these tweaks and if the problem goes away..cool! If not..can't say you didnt try! There are some other tweaks that can be done as well such as: Removing Outlook Express, Stopping the Messages during shutdown, Stopping the WinXP Splash Screen on load up, Decrease SystemPages and a few more that I havent tested yet. You can do a search for these tweaks by using www.google.com and typing in XP tweaks! Websites I found to be very useful were: TweakXP.com MusicXP.net Wxperience.com tipsdr.com winguides.com tascam.com and of course microsoft.com Gary Brenner Opus Audio Projects [email protected] Moderator for: http://www.recording.org Built for Musicians BY Musicians! |