I'm sorry it's taken so long to get to this point but things became insanely busy for a while there. It's all good though as it's enabled me to build a number of Windows 7 systems with a range of audio interfaces – it's almost all good news. Over the last month loads of drivers have become available making life so much easier for everyone. The craziest thing is that on the whole, everything seems to be working. In terms of software there's very little reason why something wouldn't install and run, even older programs, and with Windows 7 compatibility functions where it can install something in Vista or Windows XP mode then as yet I can't find anything that won't – except Pro Tools of course (no surprises there).



 So let's have a look at what i've got working so far and what issues I encountered, if any.

Software

All righty then, the computer is all together, fresh and clean, the BIOS is set to boot from the CD/DVD drive. Plonk the Windows 7 disk into the drive and let's get it going. Just to note that I'm installing Windows 7 Pro 64bit so if you're using a different version there might be some slight differences. I also got my camera out for some old school screen shots so please excuse the shakiness but hopefully they're helpful. To be honest though, it was really easy so just follow the instructions and you'll be fine.

1. Start the computer – put Windows 7 disk into the optical drive.




2. A message saying “Press a key to boot from CD” may come up in which case press a key!




3. The CD drive will spin up and you'll be told that “Windows is loading files...”.

Every year Intel manages to come up with new desktop technology. That means a new type of processor plus all the associated bits and pieces required to make it work – processor, socket size, chipset, motherboard, CPU fan, so when upgrading to the latest Intel technology you are essentially buying a new computer. With AMD they've gone down a much more wholesome route where each new processor can be dropped into your existing motherboard (usually), but still, Intel drive the technology and in forcing the creation of new motherboards it allows other technologies to advance along with it. So, we have the latest PCI Express slots, the latest LAN and audio architectures, but they are also quick to lose older technologies like floppy drive support and IDE drive support forcing you to buy new and move on.

Lot's of new stuff about, time to bring my rickety old system up to date with a bit of an overhaul. Thought you might like to join me in the process of building a brand spanking new system for music making with the latest Intel Core i5 processor and the all new Windows 7. I'm going to split it up into parts to make it more manageable and spread it over a few days:

In view of all the new Intel technology turning up and of course Windows 7 we thought it would be a good time to put some searching and penetrating questions to a builder of audio computers. Rain Recording has been running for 3 years in the UK (a few more in the States) offering a range of computers designed for music production. It's headed up by musician, author, technical whiz and all round PC music guru Robin Vincent.

PC-Music.com – So what's your computer music experience up to this point?

There I was, minding my own business, when I stumble upon a news item about the D-Touch Drum Machine. The idea appeared to be that you would print off a couple of sheets of paper, make a couple of paper counters and arrange them on a sheet to create drum patterns. Following links to youtube videos it looked every bit like some kind of clever April fool jape - but it's July. Blocks would be put down on the paper and new noises would occur. I thought it was just people off camera making the noises. They would all be giggling to themselves as they got people to build their own drum machines out of paper - what a jolly caper. However, i looked a little deeper and found that maybe there was something else here.

Four fabulous days were spent talking nonsense to passing punters in a huge hall inside the Excel exhibition space. This is the second  year of the London International Music Show and how it differs from Music Live! or the British Music Fair, or the Plaza is anyone's guess but all the usual exhibitors were in attendance. Most of the visitors seem to prefer thumping drums, banging keyboards or whacking guitars than talking intelligently about computer based music technology - and who can blame them? It wasn't packed by any stretch of the imagination although tube strikes may have had something to do with that, but there were enough people to make it interesting.

Windows XP is just like, soooo 2001, but regardless of Microsoft's efforts to move us to Vista, Windows XP remains the most popular choice for musicians. Probably not for too much longer as XP keeps getting discontinued (we really mean it this time) and Windows 7 is just around the corner meaning that you could soon upgrade without ever getting your hands dirty in Vista. So while Windows XP continues to exist it's fitting to pull together the best tips on getting it optimised for running audio.

Why does XP need to be optimised for audio?

Vista has not been warmly received by computer musicians. Largely, I believe, this is down to perception and driven by quite a bit of anti Microsoft scaremongering from self important technology gurus like me. They are not without merit though because it's true that in most cases Windows XP will out perform Windows Vista by a tiny bit, and that Vista brings very little to the table that XP can't already handle and so the price of the upgrade seems a bit steep when XP is already doing the job. However, much that's been said about Vista being rubbish for audio is unfounded and actually unhelpful as it's increasingly difficult to buy a computer with anything other than Vista on it these days.