For those of us trying to keep on top of the latest computing trends as well as produce music from our homes, it seems that 64-bit computing would be the next logical step. Afterall, 64-bit operating systems process data more efficiently, allowing for a smoother computing experience. And biggest of all, it allows for more RAM to be recognized.

I ran into this problem recently while I was composing music on Windows XP (32-bit of course). I was loading in string orchestra samples, when pro tools would crash… like, all the time! So here’s the problem: Windows can’t allocate more than 2 gigs of RAM per process. I have 4 gigs in my computer. While 2 gigs should be plenty of space for Samples, Pro tools itself takes up about 700 megs of RAM just to run all the other junk i have going, and since i’m running my string synth via pro tools, Windows thinks it’s part of the same process.

I’ve thought long and hard about this, and here are my workarounds.

1) Slave Computers
Yep, that’s right. Pull out all my old computer from retirement and set them up as barebone computers ready to do my master computer’s bidding. In essence, run the synths on the other computers, control the synths through MIDI, and send the audio back through my audio interface. I can probably quickly throw together a “synth-farm” of sorts. I actually think I have enough monitors for all of them. I discovered this program called “MIDI over LAN” which would allow me to send all the MIDI data through the existing LAN in my house without the need to wire everything via MIDI throughput (how well would it work? That remains to be seen…) The main reason I wouldn’t want to do this is space and power issues… but I’ll probably end up doing it eventually. Let’s explore my other options though, shall we?

2) Run the synths as an external process and find some way to chain them into protools via Midi and clever audio routing (probably utilizing my on-board audio card).
The hardest thing about this idea was trying to figure out how to route MIDI internally. But if I ran the synths as an external process, theoretically I can dedicate a full 2 gigs of RAM to the soft synth and keep the other 1.25 gigs (because XP won’t recognize more than 3.25 gigs) for Pro Tools. But this way I’m still wasting .75 gigs of ram!

 3) Install a 64-bit OS
64 bit operating systems would recognize all my RAM and allow me to run all the synths I could within pro tools… but pro tools won’t work on a 64-bit OS! Grrr. Actually, because Vista 64 has something built into it called WOW64 that allows 32 bit programs to work, theoretically the pro tools SOFTWARE would run just fine. But WOW64 won’t support 32 bit drivers. Without the drivers, you have no hardware. Without the hardware, the software won’t run, and Digidesign hasn’t released any drivers to support 64-bit operating systems!  So blarg.

But here’s my new theory. M-Audio has released 64-bit drivers for their main line of audio hardware. As I’m sure we all know, digidesign actually releases versions of protools called ProTools M-powered that are compatible with M-Audio hardware. So, A + B = C, right? A) Theoretically Vista64 can run 32-bit programs (which ProTools M-Powered is). B) Pro-Tools needs the audio drivers to run which M-Audio can provide for 64 bit operating systems… therefore C) Pro Tools running on a 64 bit system!

We shall see what happens… I guess I’m gonna scour ebay for some M-Audio hardware deals…