Metro 7 and Windows XP SP3 32-bit

[rictheobscene]

I have been watching Metro with interest for some time now, and circumstances are such that I am ready to purchase, but I need to confirm that it will work with my existing rig. Right now, my music PC is running Windows XP Pro SP3 - 32 bit. Will the current version of Metro run within that OS?

The upgrade to a 64 bit Windows rig and the addition of a Mac to my studio is on my radar for later this year, but my current project is being produced on a rig with the aforementioned OS, and I need to make sure Metro will run on that rig.

Thank you for your time in reading my post.

[Jerm]

It works well on my Windows XP systems (I have tried professional and Media Center). The best way to know if it works on your system is to try the demo.

[rictheobscene]

Ah - didn't see that demo link before.

Thank you for the reply.

[Jerm]

Let us know how it goes.

[rictheobscene]

OK - I am getting into it a bit, and I am trying to set up my Control Surface.

I have a Frontier Design Group Alpha Track and TouchOSC and V-Control on my iPad (connected over Wireless Network MIDI).

Does Metro support any of the above options? If not, does it support control surfaces at all, which ones?

Again, thank you for your support.

[Jerm]

Yes. Metro supports the alpha track and other Frontier stuff like the the transport.

As for the TouchOSC I have no idea. I would think you could probably get Wireless network MIDI to work if it has a driver for XP.

The biggest problem I have found using XP is that you must restart music apps before they recognize changes to USB MIDI devices.

[rictheobscene]

OK - I obviously need to dig a bit deeper into the documentation resources. Your assistance is very much appreciated.

[Jerm]

No problem. The remote control window is probably the least documented so feel free to ask questions at will.

[rictheobscene]

It was a good first night of testing. I was hitting a wall with the MIDI implementation in Reaper, and it appears that Metro is capable of addressing these challenges. Still working on the control surface thing, and there are several advanced features that I still need to get my head around.

But the one observation that I need to qualify is the audio routing capabilities. As I previously mentioned, I am coming from Reaper, and that is something that it does very well. I can take audio from one track and route it to the audio input of any other track. For example, in Reaper, if I have a synth patch that I like but is a bit thin, I can send the audio from that track to another track (as well as continuing to send it to the master track) to fatten it up. My observation is that audio routing is a bit limited in that I can send audio from a track to an aux bus.

Is this observation accurate, or do I need to dig a bit deeper into the audio system?

Basically, I have seen enough to know that Metro will enhance my MIDI work (which is what I do most) and have submitted the requisition (I need to have some sort of semblance of a budget to appease the IRS) to purchase it, which will most likely be approved later today. However, if the audio routing is more flexible than I have observed, then that is a bonus and adds value. But, even if I only use the MIDI implementation in Metro, it is well worth the asking price for that alone.

[Jerm]

It was a good first night of testing. I was hitting a wall with the MIDI implementation in Reaper, and it appears that Metro is capable of addressing these challenges. Still working on the control surface thing, and there are several advanced features that I still need to get my head around.

Good to hear.

<snip>

For example, in Reaper, if I have a synth patch that I like but is a bit thin, I can send the audio from that track to another track (as well as continuing to send it to the master track) to fatten it up. My observation is that audio routing is a bit limited in that I can send audio from a track to an aux bus.
Is this observation accurate, or do I need to dig a bit deeper into the audio system?

In Metro, there are several other things you can do here. For example, if you want to add another synth (layer) you can simply add in to the effect chain. When multiple non-audio inputting synths are on an effect chain they are mixer internally. Or you can add a non-synth to the effect chain. Or you could add a plug-in to the mixer channel. Or you could use side-chains.

[rictheobscene]

I just completed the purchase, so I am all in and drinking the Kool-Aid

[Jerm]

Thank you very much! It is people like you that keeps us going.

[rictheobscene]

OK - I have hit a couple of snags, and I have not as yet uncovered how to resolve them.

The first is with ReWire. When I turn ReWire on, FL Studio is always immediately launched. I don't want it to launch any Rewire slave automatically; I want to manually start the app. Is there a setting that will shut off the automatic startup.

The second and definitely more severe problem is that I have not been able to figure out how to float any of the various section windows other than the transport window outside of the main window. For example, I want to drag the mixer and window onto a second monitor. I have a 4 monitor spread, and I want to run the main on one monitor and move the mixer to a second monitor; however, being able to drag any of the section windows onto another monitor is pretty critical for me.

I have been able to resize the main window to cover 2 monitors and move the section windows around inside of the main window, but I absolutely loathe that arrangement.

Hopefully, there is a setting somewhere that I am missing.

[Jerm]

The first is with ReWire. When I turn ReWire on, FL Studio is always immediately launched. I don't want it to launch any Rewire slave automatically; I want to manually start the app. Is there a setting that will shut off the automatic startup.

Just be sure that 'Rewire on' is not checked from the special:rewire menu.

The second and definitely more severe problem is that I have not been able to figure out how to float any of the various section windows other than the transport window outside of the main window. For example, I want to drag the mixer and window onto a second monitor. I have a 4 monitor spread, and I want to run the main on one monitor and move the mixer to a second monitor; however, being able to drag any of the section windows onto another monitor is pretty critical for me.

I have been able to resize the main window to cover 2 monitors and move the section windows around inside of the main window, but I absolutely loathe that arrangement.

Right now in the Windows version the only windows that will float are Rhythm Explorer and optionally the transport or any of the plug-in editor windows. It would probably not be too hard to have other windows float. Please file a feature request with exactly which windows and how the UI to enable them to float would work.

[Jerm]

Just for fun I tried implementing an option for floating the mixer window and while it not as easy as I thought, it is working quite well and will be in the 7.0.1 update.