We frequently get user complaints on our site about incompatibility issues and special requirements. I wanted to address one of the complains in more detail.
Guide On Sound Recording
Before we proceed with the complaints, here is a great
Recording Sounds: Too Complicated? Should Microsoft Include Software For It?
User “Peter W.” complained about the problems of sound card drivers to re-route signals in Windows 7 to allow users to easily record sound. While this problem is not new, Microsoft can’t possibly address all “software issues”. They can include only so many tools in their operating system. I agree that it would be great to have more built-in software, however there is a bunch of software out there to address the issues and it’s not Microsoft’s job in the first place. Professionals spend thousands of dollars on sound recording software for a reason.
Here’s the full complaint:
This thread really illustrates the problems with win 7, especially the 64 bit version. If you buy an android phone or Apple phone – they work! Why should a PC with win 7 be different?
By the way, thx to all those people who find solutions to these problems, even though you aren’t on Microsoft’s wage bill.
I fail to understand why a sound card or AC97 onboard device cannot be controlled by the application to route these signals logically, at the click of a button.
In XP there were problems but there were also so many solutions. Why? Because sound card manufacturers had direct access to their own hardware. My old hardware (adat, mixer, PCI sound card etc.) no longer works properly in win 7 or Vista either.
In XP, manufacturers wrote the drivers and mixer apps etc. and whatever Sequencer software you were using worked incredibly well. Sadly, it seems that Microsoft have no such intentions of letting that happen any more.
I had similar problems on Vista and after 2 years of work-arounds, I decided to dump it and move to Windows 7 only to find that the problem has not really been appropriately addressed.
Now I have an expensive brand new Quad core, 128 GB SSD, 8GB RAM, terrabyte hard disk, ultra-silent win 64 system that fails to do the basic job of HD recording without me having to set something in the OS each time. How stupid is that? Theoretically, my new system can do things 10 times faster than before but actually – no! The problems take my precious time away. In all truth, I may as well go back to XP, single core and 1 GB memory. At least it worked and provided a stable solution for recording.
It really is a joke (but we shouldn’t laugh). A multi-billion Dollar organisation doesn’t seem to understand our basic needs. I am sure that many Vista or Windows 7 users would just love to express their anger by handing back their license and reverting back to XP. However, my new computer would not work with XP because of the SSD and 8 GB memory. Therefore, a solution would be better.
I have always said “let the painters do the painting and builders do the building”. Microsoft either needs to fix the problems by reverting to an audio driver system like they had in XP or they should hand over their Operating System audio driver strategy to a company which understands our needs.
On a positive note, win 7 is really stable but if someone at Microsoft is reading this thread then start taking the issue seriously – and most of all, provide us with a solution!
Some words of wisdom “if you do something good then tell the world about it” Has anyone here heard whether Micosoft is working on this problem ????
So, there you go, just letting off some steam!
Operating System Only Provide A Platform, 3rd-party Software Will Always Be Required
While it’s understandable that this is frustrating, everyone has to keep in mind that hardware is changing constantly and old hardware that worked on XP can’t always fully work on newer systems that run Windows 7 and there is no way to provide full backwards-compatibility, it’s simply not possible and never will be. However, Microsoft even included a Windows XP-Mode in Windows 7 and tools like Virtual PC allow you to run older software like Windows XP via a virtual machine just fine.
Also, new security systems like the UAC feature in Vista/7 and the secure UEFI boot loader in Windows 8 will break some things, but also protect you from new emerging threats.
No company can address all issues and for a problem like “recording what you hear” there are various tools out there that get the job done just fine without having to install old drivers or even downgrading to XP. There is no reason to complicate things and recording sound using tools like Audacity should be really simple. Sure, it will require some work and research, but again there is no way any company can address every problem and Microsoft is providing only an operating system that allows you to run software on it. You as a user have to do the research to operate the system, that’s your job.
In this special case, recording “what you hear” actually requires some 3rd-party software and it’s not Microsoft job to include an entire software library in their OS.