Visual Analyzer Settings

[BruceSmith]

Good day, I had to update my laptop which runs iOS 11. Seems it wouldn’t sinc with VA 9.0, and mic. The most recent edition of VA has more bells and whistles than the 9.0 program. Are there any changes or additions to the settings that Trevor recommended for the older version? Any guidance would be most appreciated!
Regards, Bruce -

[Trevor Gore]

Good day, I had to update my laptop which runs iOS 11.

Windows 11?

VA won't run on Apple/Mac systems. VA version 9.0.6 was built for Win XP which has different I/O requirements from Windows 10 (Win 11 I'd expect to be much the same as Win 10, but I haven't tested it). 9.0.6 runs fine on Win 10. Install it as administrator and set it up in the usual way. You will get an error message saying it can't find the mic (because it is looking for a Win XP location) but just acknowledge that and carry on. Connect a mic in the normal way and select it in the VA mic set up screen (settings: in/out devices). The VA mic level controls won't work, but set the mic level level in the Win 10/11 system (Win 10/11: Settings: System: Sounds) or wrong click the the speaker icon in the tool tray, bottom right of your screen.

Disable any mic "enhancements" in the Windows system. They usually cut the low frequency response at too high a frequency so you can't see the T(1,1)1. If you can't get rid of the "enhancements" Windows throws at you, use a USB mic which will bypass all the Windows sound drivers and other stuff you don't want and leave you with an unprocessed signal, which is what you do want.

[BruceSmith]

Thanks Trevor for all the detail! I will give it a try. Great books by the way. Bruce

[kiwigeo]

I'm a Mac head so ended up buying a cheap laptop from AussiePost Shop a few years back with Windows 8 on it. The machine is a dedicated workshop machine and never gets connected to the internet.

I tried running VA on my Macs on top of a Windows emulator. It works but moving data in and out of the virtual OS enrvironment is a pain

[GregHolmberg]

I stopped using it and run REW, I still look at it sometimes, but it’s never clean like Trevor’s graphs and I have it spec’s to his settings

I like Room EQ Wizard too. It's free and it runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux. Also supports the UMIK-1 USB measurement mic ($130), and can import the calibration data that comes with the mic.

https://www.roomeqwizard.com/

Greg

[Taffy Evans]

Hi, To better understand what you guys are tailing about I purchased Trevor's video from Obrien Guitars. However on trying to set up the VA, I kept getting the error shown here, so gave it away as a lost cause. With the extra info here I might revisit, thanks.

1-IMG_0272.JPG (107.11 KiB) Viewed 22660 times

Taff

[Trevor Gore]

That error message occurs on Windows 10 systems and likely Win 11, too. When I made the videos with Robbie I was using Win 7 on my computer, and the error message seems not to appear in Win 7, though the effects are there. As VA v9.0.6 was written for Win XP it was written to suit the input/output protocols for that system, which all changed (due to the advent of mobile computing) with Win 7 (actually probably Win NT). So where VA is looking for the recording mixer (to set mic levels etc.) it can't find anything. It couldn't find it in Win 7 either, but it doesn't give the error message.

Bottom line is, just click "OK" and carry on. All that happens is you can't adjust the mic level in VA (as I say in the video), you have to adjust it in Windows. But you can see the mic level on the level meter in VA, again, as I say in the video.

Hopefully this clears things up.

[Taffy Evans]

Hi, Trevor thanks for your response. The bit about saving as admin or one cannot save data, made me think it was a problem and I did not continue.
Cheers taff

[Trevor Gore]

The "Run as administrator" thing is another of those XP to Win 7 conversion issues. As viruses and things proliferated, MS bumped up security levels, so only those with Administrator rights could do certain things, like save *.ini files, for example.

Theses issues were, of course, addressed in the later versions of VA, but I still preferred using the earlier 9.0.6 version.

[Taffy Evans]

Hi Trevor, thanks. Teaching an old dog new tricks is not working easily.
Taff