MOTU Releases Audio Drivers for Vista/XP; Vista Driver Changes in Store
And we’re off to the races. Last week, I wrote up a teaser on some of the new features in Windows Vista for audio, which launched a long and heated discussion of the new OS. (Read through comments for some specifics, including how Vista compares to Mac OS X and BeOS. Hint: BeOS wins.)
Now, late yesterday — and well over a month before the operating system is due to ship — MOTU announced it was shipping a public beta version of its audio drivers. As far as I know, this is the first public driver support for audio interfaces on Vista. See comments for word that RME shipped their Vista drivers a couple of weeks ago, though presently only for the Fireface; MOTU’s shipment covers their entire product line. Good job, RME and MOTU — and with weeks to spare before consumers get the OS. (These drivers also feature enhancements for all versions of XP, so all Windows users, have at them)
Windows Vista drivers now shipping as a public beta [MOTU.com]
I’m guessing the Vista Ultimate box featured on MOTU’s site is a hint; no Vista Home Basic around here, thank you.
As some readers reported, some existing XP drivers will run in the 32-bit release of Windows Vista. However, some drivers may not work at all or may suffer degraded performance, because of a whole range of issues. That means you’ll want to use Vista drivers if at all possible.
MOTU’s Vista beta drivers will cover the full MOTU audio range, including FireWire, PCI, and USB audio alike, and perennial favorites like the UltraLite and 828mkII. Note that, for high-performance music applications, the new Vista drivers’ preferred operating mode is actually good, old-fashioned ASIO. While Microsoft has unveiled a new audio system in Vista called WASAPI, it’s not yet clear how useful it will be for music software; for now, ASIO remains your best bet. (I hope to have more details on WASAPI soon, especially since every time I think of the acronym I start craving sushi and WASABI.)
Also very important: drivers are required to be “signed” under Vista, or certified by Microsoft for playback. Digital certification of drivers for compatibility is nothing new; Microsoft had a procedure for signing for Windows XP and other editions. On XP, you’ve probably gotten the “unsigned driver” error message. What is new is that the bar has been raised in terms of what tasks require signed drivers. You can’t install unsigned audio drivers under the 64-bit Vista even with admin privileges, and you’ll have to jump through some hoops even on 32-bit Windows (some DRM-controlled playback won’t play with unsigned drivers, either). So, one important feature of the new MOTU drivers is that they’re signed. Again, I’ll have more technical details on this soon. I know some of you are developing drivers for Vista, audio or otherwise, so feel free to set the record straight while I wait on the official word from Microsoft on what’s changed. (Microsoft is hosting a driver compatibility document for Vista if you feel like pouring through it.)
22 Comments
Leave a Commentkingmetal
glad to see MOTU is still on top of the driver game. I’m not running Vista yet, but I’ll throw the Beta drivers into my 828MKII in the next few weeks and battle test the latest drivers. never had a lick of problem with my 828 on any OS on any computer, its solid as a rock.
December 12, 2006 @ 6:37 pm
Adrian Anders
Just waiting till someone is able to hack their way through the vista digital certification.
This really pisses me off. I don’t even intend on buying any DRM’d music, movies, and HD-DVDs, but they’re still fucking with my audio performance. It’s no business of my OS what hardware I choose to install on my machine.
Sticking with XP until there are established ways of taking the MS bullshit off Vista. Give it a year or two, and it’ll be hacked to ribbons, stripped, and ready to roll with DAW software.
ATA
December 12, 2006 @ 9:04 pm
Peter Kirn
Well, given that you’d need new 64-bit drivers for Vista 64-bit anyway, that’s not as much of an issue … anyone bothering to write the drivers has been getting certified (though most haven’t bothered to write the drivers, except for MOTU and Edirol).
But as for 32-bit, I agree. I’m curious to try out unsigned drivers and see what happens. It may be okay.
December 12, 2006 @ 9:17 pm
Teej
agreed, BeOS definitely wins. R.I.P.
December 12, 2006 @ 9:21 pm
» Windows Vista Audio Drivers Tips Dr.com
[...] As some readers reported, some existing XP drivers will run in the 32-bit release of Windows Vista. However, some drivers may not work at all or may suffer degraded performance, because of a whole range of issues. That means you’ll want to use Vista drivers if at all possible. Source: Create Digital Music [...]
December 12, 2006 @ 10:14 pm
RattyUK
Would have preferred if MOTU had got off their backsides and actually updated Mach 5 as a Universal Binary. I can understand that they need to be in with Vista at day one but would prefer if they could keep on the ball with the other stuff.
December 12, 2006 @ 10:20 pm
bryan tewell
Ha, too bad their existing drivers for the 828/intel mac’s mess up the 828.
December 13, 2006 @ 2:07 am
Craig
Actually, Vista support was added to the Fireface 800/400 interfaces by RME a couple of weeks back.
- not a first for MOTU there im afraid.
December 13, 2006 @ 7:06 am
Peter Kirn
Bryan, do you have a link to that 828 issue (FAQ / tech note / forum)? My 828 seems okay … maybe I remember updating the drivers but didn’t.
Thanks for the catch on RME, Craig. I had a feeling someone else might have gotten something out. I expect we’ll see the floodgates open over the next few weeks.
December 13, 2006 @ 10:10 am
bryan tewell
Well, all I know is I downloaded/installed driver version 1.4.2 and now the 828 doesnt work with anything. And it was just sent to MOTU for repair in August of 2006 (i bought it on ebay)
December 13, 2006 @ 5:11 pm
Peter Kirn
Bryan, I’ll have to test 1.4.2 with my 828 and see what happens. In the meantime, note that MOTU still has the previous driver release available for download, so you should be able to roll back to that.
December 13, 2006 @ 5:54 pm
Seemebreakthis
Anyone tried the drivers yet? BTW MOTU released an ‘official’ version on Jan 15, so it is no longer beta.
February 7, 2007 @ 12:59 am
Christian
MOTO SUCKS ASS AND I will never buy another item from them.
Their drivers new and old have so many problems loading that it just makes it not worth the hassle.
Their support is amazingly horrible - that factor alone would prevent me from ever buying from them again.
It took nine trys of installing and uninstalling before I could get the ultralite to work last time, and I was never really sure they installed correctly as the ultralite would just randomly disappear.
After reformatting my machine, with nothing more than ie7, and Microsoft Office, and Winzip (to extract the driver installers) I still can’t get it to work. I am on my 4th try.
The driver installer goes through the entire process and then gets to the very last screen and then hangs, it never completes the install.
LAME
February 10, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
Dave Dri
Christian…
There are SO many variables of computers these days that you cant really say “they suck ass” and be taken seriously when there is otherwise nothing but exceptional praise from power-users out there, myself included. My bandmate had troubles with his own Ultralite so he hit Google for an afternoon and printed off a sheet of issues and workarounds and sat down to establish that the chipset in his firewire PCMCIA firewire card was an issue, which we solved with a quick swap-out.
What im suggesting is that the onus is on you to utilise all resources to workaround your own configuration. Motu cant be held responsible for a microscopic percentile of uses spread across limitless configurations and at least 4 different OS’s.
For the record, go do some research on the pathetic track record of M-Audio! Once upon a time they were the best audio card drivers i knew, and i was proud of my invincible DELTA44. Then USB and Firewire came and nothing can ever be so easy as a PCI card on Win98…. :P
PS: Our Ultralites are amazing :)
May 2, 2007 @ 1:12 pm
Alfredo
I have installed Vista and the new MOTU drivers for the traveler. With every software I tried the playback was terrible. It played well for the fist five seconds or a little more, then began all sorts of hi hiss and noises, pops, etc. Like some kind of buffer problem. No changes that I did on the buffer settings of my traveler had improved the situation. Did any one of you have this problem with any MOTU product?
Thanks.
May 19, 2007 @ 11:47 pm
Raphael
Yes Alfredo, I have the same probleme with my MOTU 828mkII on VISTA,the noises, pops, etc. Like you said, some kind of buffer.
SO… PLEASE HEEEEEELP….
June 1, 2007 @ 5:27 pm
Dr. Digital
I’m trying to run a Moto 828 “not the 828mkII”
but the original 828 firewire.
I can’t get cuemix to work at all. Everything else does “smpte setup - audio setup” but no cuemix.
I tried the new drivers but that made things worse, lots of pops and hiss. so I went back to the old ones so I’d have some kind of sound.
Anybody know of a fix for this?
July 7, 2007 @ 1:57 pm
Dr. Digital
I forgot, I’m running under XP
July 7, 2007 @ 1:58 pm
Jamie
Why, oh why did I forgo my w2k? I ‘upgraded’ to xp pro with a clean install. I’m running 2 Motu 828s and I loaded the latest Motu driver 3.6.7.3… the good news is it works sometimes but most times one unit just flickers between 44.1/48k sample rates! AND, last night I recorded 16 channels just fine but this morning - same flicker story! I have yet to tackle the sync issues.
Is there a link for optimizing XP Pro settings? I can’t go on like this!
October 3, 2007 @ 11:34 am
Jorge
I’ve got the same problem of hearing clicks and hisses when running MOTU under VIsta. No buffer change helps. Does anybode know how can I solve it?
December 1, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
skopsko
I have a problem with my motu 828 mk1.There are some issues with the out signal (dropped signal for a couple samples), that’s happens only when i plugged in with my pc throught wirewire cable.
Driver is 3.6.7.0, and os is xp with sp2.
I think that the firmware is broken…
So, anybody know how to fix this, where can I find latest vesion of firmware v1.01????
May 4, 2008 @ 7:04 pm
Ron
After downloading and installing the latest 64 and 32 bit vista drivers from the motu site, 828 original causes vista both 64 and 32 (dual boot) to freeze on my new gateway quad core system. At one point before a freze, it gave me a memory dump blue screen. The led lights on the 828 still do the dance and the clock led still flash 44 to 48 and settles on 44. Looks normal but freezes. I checked all firewire connections and cable, all new. Checked voltage selector at 115V. I intend to use 828 on sonar 7 but haven’t gone that far on installation. emailed MOTU Tech support but no response yet. Help :(
August 26, 2008 @ 1:50 am
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