Nuno wrote: ↑Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:10 am
Some PCs are better than others, and that might surprise us because sometimes the cheaper one is better for the task.
I was using Aerodrums mostly with low-spec laptops, because I wanted to take Aerodrums everywhere with me and I didn’t want to take the risk to use my best one for this.
The first was a HP Probook 6450b from 2009/2010 with a Celeron P4500 @ 1,87GHz processor I got for 25€ in 2014. Used it for 3 years just for Aerodrums in it’s third alternative graphic mode with an external Behringer UCA202 USB sound card for about 22€ which came with it’s own proprietary ASIO drivers. And no problem with latency. With what I’ve seen Aerodrums alone doesn’t need a power computer, but a good sound card with it’s OWN proprietary ASIO drivers for best performance. There might occur problems with old computers (before 2010) where the graphic card isn’t compatible OpenGL 2.0.
Aerodrums 3D is another story. No one of my laptops can run it. However it runs quite good on my little daughter’s entry-level Android tablet for under 100€.
My most important things I verify before a gig with Aerodrums:
- deactivate Windows sounds
- deactivate notifications in Windows
- deactivate ALL network devices, not only the wireless ones
- deactivate Windows update (maybe not nessessary with no active network device)
- deactivate antivirus
And I used nearly all optimizations (excerpt 15 and 20 and I don’t turn off Windows Firewall because I deactivate all network devices) mentioned in this article:
20 ways to optimize your Windows 10 PC for music production
You can find a lot ideas by doing the following research in Google:
how to optimize windows 10 for daw
About USB sound-cards
Even if WASAPI is coming, ASIO is still the standard for all professional music software for Windows. If you want to spend money for an external USB sound-card for your Windows computer you should make sure the manufacturer has developed it’s own ASIO drivers for it. In case he just offers ASIO4All run away.
If you need a good and cheap USB sound-card with good connectors (and for me it’s just a condition for using Aerodrums with a group) I suggest the Behringer UCA202 USB sound card, actually for 20.40€ @ Thomann. Works with Linux and Mac without any additional driver. But for Windows they are offering today only the generic ASIO4All and this is a shame!
- UCA202.jpg (14.31 KiB) Viewed 20334 times
And if you need ASIO
don’t use this card with ASIO4All! The old driver was much better. With the old HP Probook I could go down to 128 buffers what I couldn’t with ASIO4All without crackling noises. When I bought this card in 2015 it came with it’s own ASIO driver. Behringer have retired them (there was also 32bit driver) for whatever reason, but it works very well with Windows 10, never had a problem. And other than ASIO4All, this driver lets you still use your Windows sounds, listening to YouTube, etc while using ASIO low-latency for Aerodrums. To find this driver do following research in Google
BEHRINGER_2902_X64_2.8.40
Be carefull what you download! This is the original file from Behringer:
BEHRINGER_2902_X64_2.8.40.zip
MD5: E4462F7F5B17586F6201856F2A882975
821KB
This driver works also with a lot of other legacy Behringer devices like mixers and controller keyboards:
UMA25S, UCA200*, UCA202, UCA222, UFO202, UCG102, iAXE393/624/629 and many more.
*bundled with UMX series, XENYX mixers, PODCASTUDIO USB
Personally I use this same driver also with my UMA25S MIDI controller keyboard and my old XENYX QX1202 mixer.
Just seen at Google that there is another package (854KB) and a lot of scam. Don’t download any other download-helper or whatever! The good file is under 1 MB.
You can check the md5 checksum of all files in the installation directory with my attached Checksum.md5 file.
Looking for high quality sound-card without breaking the bank?
I got me a Behringer UMC1820 more than a year ago, it’s a very good sound card with an unbeatable price / performance ratio. And it’s the same for all the Behringer’s U-Phoria UMC family. Most musicians I’m playing with on Jamulus are using one of these UMC 202/204/404 HD.