Lack of Support

I think I figured out why Jamlab doesn't work for me.

The drivers that are supposed to ensure 32-bit Vista compatibility aren't compatible with 32-bit Vista.

Which, yes, they're beta drivers, but you'd think that basic functionality wouldn't be spotty.

The device shows up fine in the Device Manager, but it won't start. The installed driver still shows up as the default (dated 2006) even after installing the update. Manually uninstalling the old driver and installing the most recent one has no effect. I believe the old driver may be installed by the device itself.

So I'm back to where I started.

I'm pretty sure I won't be buying any M-Audio stuff in the future. The support is just terrible. I can't even find any official forums.

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On the other hand, I've gotten a look at Native Instruments Guitar Rig 2 and it looks mighty sweet. I have the fear, though, with computer audio, that things will not work or be glitchy or become obsolete. Understandably.

Plus it's a fuckload of money (370 bucks) to drop on noodling gear.

Jamlab Update

I was excited to see that M-Audio released Jamlab beta drivers for Vista.

The install seemed to go off without a hitch. Now I've got the little icon down in my system tray.

Then I tried installing GTPlayer Express. No Asio driver detected - GTPlayer wouldn't even attempt insallation.

I installed Asio4All and restarted. Tried GTPlayer again. No luck.

I have no idea what other program to even attempt with Jamlab and I have no confidence whatsoever that any other program would work. Not to mention that I'd be without a simple amp/effect interface which was the whole reason I bought the damn thing. To jam.

I have no desire to spend several hundred dollars on a hardware/software interface for my computer because I just want to bust out some power chords and maybe play along with MP3s.

Shit like this makes my Mac-lust flare up, visions of Garageband flying through my daydreams.

Of course, that conflicts with the whole not spending money thing.

Minor Technical Issues

Issue #1 - For some reason certain games cause my computer to emit an incredibly high-pitched whine at regular intervals. I am particularly sensitive to this noise. Every time it occurs I wince a little, then it goes away and I'm relieved, and then it happens again and I get the urge to smash something.

The whine appears when running Oblivion and Guild Wars.

It does not occur when playing WoW, which is to Blizzard's credit (people often wonder why WoW is so popular, and there are many reasons, but I think a big one is that the game runs on most of the major OSes from - at least - the past seven years - even, apparently, Linux via Wine - and loads up fine even in Vista without having to download support drivers).

From basic searches it sounds like the problem might be a video card fan. The fans are usually spinning at a percentage of their maximum and running intensive 3-d causes them to spin faster. If they aren't [seated properly/constructed correctly] then there can be a whine. I have no idea what I will do to fix this, other than NOT play Guild Wars or Oblivion.

That won't be acceptable for very long.

Issue #2 - The M-Audio Jamlab doesn't work with Vista. Just flat up will not install a few simple drivers for a USB port.

On their website they say Vista support is coming, but they don't even have Beta drivers yet.

I realize that in some sense this is still the early-adopter period. Maybe there were such major changes to DirectSound that the M-Audio guys need some time.

It still sucks.

Musical Interlude

I picked up an M-Audio JamLab from Musician's Friend. It arrived in the mail on Monday.

I played around with the thing most of the evening. Installation was quick and easy (once I realized that I had to have the unit plugged in before the second part of the software would install).

The experience made me giddy. The amp/effects modeling on GTPlayer is pretty damn good, probably better than I get on my ME-50 for most things. And I'm thinking I can slap an amp/mixer/ME-50 into the chain for pre-processing - can't see why that wouldn't work.

I'm still not sure yet why the sustain seems wonky. The clean signal doesn't have a problem, but the preset effects will clip the sound. This is more than likely something with the effects that I haven't discovered (that's the problem with using the presets). I tinkered with the Noise Gates and a few of the other pedals, but there must be an option I'm missing.

My major problem thus far has been my attempt to hook the Rewire into something, anything. Nothing works properly and support is just plain. The forums were majorly unhelpful. I tried Adobe Audition, ACID Pro, Reason and MAGIX and none of them worked. If I had GTPlayer open and tried to open Audition, I'd get an error concerning Rewire. Yet Audition wouldn't display the GTPlayer on its list of Rewire sources. No clue what's happening there.

Also, no guitar tuner. I found a few online but they aren't very good - one is ugly and laggy, the other unintuitive.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to put songs together. I'm thinking that I can play the Reason click track in the background (or even a backing sequence) and record with the GTPlayer's record interface (it's supposed to only take the input from the USB and nothing else). Then just drop stuff together with MAGIX.

Lots of tinkering to do. It's exciting to get back to the guitar. I've mostly just been dry playing my electric because in an apartment building it's not good form to blast an amp. Using my computer, everything's in the headphones. Which means even after my wife goes to bed I can jam.

Okay, this is starting to sound too much like copy for a lame ad in Guitar Player Magazine.

Rockapotamus!