In the past I've learned Numark products have lots of issues. The number 1 reason I switched to Pioneer CDJS.

A year ago, I was floored by what the NS7 had to offer. I watched it several times and not a single problem. My partner buys the NS7, ends of going through 3 different laptops. All of which had well over the minimum requirements and should have easily ran the machine. 3 strikes your out.

I traded him my pioneer cdj 800mk2's for the ns7. I tested it and it appeared to be working with my pc. Man was I wrong. I get to the station fire up the system. 10 mins into the show, the player starts dropping out in the middle of the song, then would kick back in. Not cool when your live on the radio. I ran it two more times on it just continued to do the same thing. I have a sound guy with me and he started looking for answers.
I was using a ASUS G50V Dual Core 2.66ghz, 4gb ram 200gb hd. We went in and disabled almost everything and it still would not run as it should.

I borrowed a mac, it ran fine other than locking up at the beginning while trying to load the crates.

I have been able to use the NS7 with almost no problems on a mac. I don't know the specs because it was borrowed. I believe he said he has 2gb mem 2.4ghz processor on his. I am so frustrated with it that I would like to walk into your headquarters and beat you with it. This is just getting to be ridiculous. My laptop runs serato scratch live with video without one single problem. Yet the NS7 has issue after issue.

I just went and spent the money on a mac. It isn't the greatest but it should get the job done. If this thing doesn't work, trust me. After the 4 years of hell I went through with Numark on my cdn-90. Someone at Numark headquarters will be getting a visit with me and I will be bringing this crap with me and every pc that it has failed on and you will stay in that building until you fix every every issue.
i love this unit and what it can do, but it is starting to look like for every 1 that works there is 10 that don't.

sorry for the book of joeb.

recap - songs dropping out, progam locking up. [appears to be more the ns7 than the itch program], songs dragging, crates not being recognized, analyzed files are not recognized. have to reanalyze after every use. These are all the problems I have encountered. Maybe you can come up with a solution to all.

Again I apologize for taking most of your day while reading this.

Basically you had problems with ITCH not with the NS7 hardware. Your new Mac should handle that great machine as it deserves.

Unfortunately, ITCH and the NS7 is the same to me given I can not use one without the other.... ITCH should work fine with PC it just doesnt....

The hardware is not the problem. It's either drivers, usb ports on certain pc's or Itch. The NS7 hardware is actually built very well. It's kinda screwed up that guys are ready to throw Numark under the bus when something locks up on a computer concerning the things I mentioned.

I am a former NS7 owner:

NS7 + Itch + windows = constant computer tweaking, headaches, latency, dropouts, freezes, hangs, frowns, stares from the audience when the music cuts out, and so on and so on, etc...

SL1 or SL3 or Rane 57 + ScratchLive + Windows or Mac = rock-solid, hassle-free, reliability, no-fuss, stability, feature-laden, top-of-the-line, industry standard greatness!!!!!!!

Hi E-man, sorry to hear you are having a problem.
I do not seem to have a record of you making a support ticket or contacting support.
It sounds like you may have a iRQ conflict or software conflict interfering with your performance. We can likely assist you resolve this if you make a support ticket or if you prefer drop us an email or give us a call.
Kind Regards
Simon

+1

The NS7 is just a controller and sound interface. ITCH is where the action is. Optimize your laptop for real-time audio and you shouldn't have an issue.

-KLH

^ while true this statement is misleading. NS7 is just a controller but it is also a computer on its own. That's why you need a firmware to run it and that's why a problematic (or beta) firmware can cause serious issues (i.e. x64 windows).
So, don't just blame ITCH! Numark is also responsible for the NS7 issues.

Well it's actually an output device not a computer but I do understand your point. However I'm talking about NS7 the hardware and how people keep coming up with comments like this is typical of Numark products. I think that's unfair because the hardware was built solid. Now as far as Itch is concerned, I owned SSL when it first hit the scene and it was buggy as well in the beginning. I had a few freezes during gigs which pissed me off. But I hung in there with the software and SSL turned into the Industry Standard it is today. So let's not make it seem as though SSL hit the scene without it's share of issues and bugs. What makes an Itch problem stand out is that the controllers have no alternate media source, unlike T/Ts or CDJs whereas when a laptop froze up, you could just put on a record or CD to keep the party rockin until the laptop issue was resolved or just finish out your set. There is no immediate fall back with Itch&Controllers so the problem is magnified. Again, my opinion is the majority of the issues are not coming form the controllers.

well the way I see it. since I had all of the problems there was nothing that I said that was misleading.

On my Asus, we had disabled almost everything that may have caused a conflict with it after reading in the forums. If you had had gone through what we did, you would have felt the same way.

My feelings about numark come from experience with the products in the past, not based on hey I'm gonna plug in a ns7 and bitch about the things it don't do.

I won't be using it with a windows pc ever again. We did contact numark, gave a description of what was happening and was told that it should work. After more digging learned that amd machines don't work to well and was part of the problem. One of the pcs was a dell that had xp and WAS NOT 64BIT. It did the same thing. Sorry MY EXPERIENCE is so misleading. I'm just pulling things out of my ass to rant.

POSTIVE ---------------------------------------------
So I bought the mac @5pm show starts @9pm. Got the software installed set and again on A MAC the night was flawless. I didn't do anything to the settings. Just downloaded the latest version and installed. Not sure why but with a mac "It Just Works".

As far as the comment about SSL and issues. I didn't have any. I personally didn't touch serato until this past summer. I have been using cds since I made the switch from tt's. I started teaching a young kid, and told him that with todays technology it's pointless to sit there and do what I have done for so many years. Just buy serato and an external hard drive. I forgot my cds one night, and he was like I got my serato and hard drive and that was that. I am sure that there was problems also, but I had none.

AGAIN I WILL STATE THAT I LOVE WHAT THE NS7 CAN DO. With the problems I experienced you can't blame me for being frustrated with it.

Thank you for your inputs.

sorry for the typo errors, I deleted part and missed a couple. Was that misleading too?

Again ---- Last night machine worked great with a mac. REGARDLESS IF IT WAS ITCH OR THE NS7.... Prior to last night it had problems.

Macbook Pro
Version 10.6.2
Processor 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo
Memory 2GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

So far so good.
2.1 GHZ processor
2GB Ram

No problem man. For the record I have gone through what you experienced. I got a MBP and now no probs.

From en.wikipedia.org


Take whatever definition of computer available and you will see that NS7 fits right in.
Don't confuse a PC (personal computer) with what computer actually means in electronics and information technology.

I stand corrected. Technically you're right.

Still, the point is that NS7 is a much more complex machine than VCI or even DX and because of this both ITCH and the NS7 itself sometimes struggle to run without problems, especially on PCs (and I include Macs here as well) that have performance issues for any reason. Personally (and although I don't own an NS7) I admire both Numark and Serato for what they achieved is a wonder of technology, but the combination of complex hardware + new software is IMO the main reason for all the problems behind NS7. Eventually as both ITCH and the NS7 firmware mature these problems will be limited to a minimun and in almost all cases will be due to problems on the PC (or Mac) side.

I forgot to mention the NS7 driver as a main player of how all the system "fits" together which is also Numark's responsibility

Have tried to lighten your windows xp or vista, by using nlite for windows xp and vlite for windows vista. it will allow you to remove features of windows....before i lightened my xp, I tried every windows and every solution on this forum but still I was getting drop outs like a mutha....Then I found this program that made your windows lighter as in features and customize it to your liking... all you need is your original copy of xp/vista cd.. Now that ive lighten my xp I dont have any drop outs like before and im running windows xp 32 bit on a lenovo y650...i have it dual booting with xp and windows 7 home premium. let me know if you need some help with it...

It can't be the intention of Itch that you need to cut up your OS before it works properly.

^ It isn't ITCH's intention, but Microsoft turns on SEVERAL unnecessary Windows services by default (which ultimately increases latency)... especially on the "loaded" versions of Windows (like Premiums, Professional versions).

You can turn the services off, but many have co-dependencies that most don't want to learn. It's easier to simply not install them - which can't be done without n-lite. MICROSOFT even uses n-lite internally.

-KLH

Seriously I gave up hope on a windows pc. I bought a mac and ended up reformating one of my external hard drives for mac use and I have only encountered one error. I had a song that loaded up at +30% and wouldn't move. I loaded it up on the other deck and it worked fine.

Here's a good one for ya. I am hosting an open spin night for the up and coming djs in my area. This fella brings in a NS7 to spin off of. We get to talking and had a sony vaio laptop and he said it gave him fits also. It actually only loaded up one deck according to him. He actually had a ticket and was told just go buy a mac. In his case also. He went and bought a mac and the problems have seemed to go away.

For those of you who are lucky enough to have gotten your windows based pc to work with the NS7 & Itch congratulations. May our negative experience never happen to you. I can't say that no one has had a problem with a mac and the ns7. I have now seen 6 djs run this machine without any flaws or problems on a mac. So I say save yourself some headache. Just buy a mac.

My only question which is probably best in another subject and has probably already been addressed is will itch have a video patch in the near future. I've read that the NS7 works with numark cue and virtual dj. But I don't even want to mess with it if everything isn't going to function properly.

Thanks to everyone who has left feedback.

Windows does seem to be a little more "hands on" if you use it for more than ITCH. I maintain that having a separate partition optimized and dedicated to ITCH is the way to roll on Windows, but there's another thread dedicated to that discussion:

serato.com

-KLH

Thanks for the shotout. LOL!!!

I love when one of my posts is referred to from other people.

I am almost ready to say F___k it and just go back to two techs and a mixer and serato....

Get a Mac.

get a mac

Funny how so many people say get a mac when people have issues... but there are SO many people like me that have no probs with a PC...... You just have to have some idea what you are doing to use a PC... get a mac if you have no clue...

That is a misguided suggestion. Get a Mac if you want it to work without having to go through hoops and ladders to make it work.



Funny how most of the world use PC but there are still people who don't know what they are doing. Yes there are people like you that are making it work and obviously know what you are doing, but the Mac guys know what they are doing too, that's why they got a Mac.

It may not be the reason in your case, but usually those who bash Macs, cannot afford them. And I say that because allot of people here always complain about the price first, and then everything else about a Mac.

Are Macs perfect? No! But they can't be beat when you want them to work. They are allot faster too. Why does it take my work PC 1 minute and a half to start up from it being off, while it only takes my Mac less than 30 seconds. Same thing with programs, on Macs they just start faster. Maybe its all the Anti-Virus programs using up all the speed. I use both platforms so I can do honest comparisons. And my work PC is very well maintained my automatic updates and Radia pushes from the IT department.

You want a machine that just works and is fast? Get a Mac!!!

You want a machine that you have to tweak endlessly and is Speedy Gonzalez' cousin Slow Poke Rodriguez? Get a PC!!!

It's nice to know that some Windows users have no problems, but for some users who have many problems with their machines the best solution is to switch to something that works safely.

All we have over 40 years old have already passed the phase "Atari Commodore-Spectrum--MS-DOS-Windows all versions" and we know what we do. The best thing about Windows is that if you use a lot you become an expert because you spend the half of your life trying to fix it. Apart from the BSOD, all I remember of Windows is stopping services, fixing the registry, and reinstall the OS again and again ...

even you posted about going through hell for a month till you got your PC working correctly

Yes, I did have hell at first. but now I'm fine.. ( with alot of help from this site) But some poeple are so quick to get a Mac because they are having problems with there PC and are always told by MAC users " Get a Mac ".. None of the MAC people are willing to help a person having isues other then saying my a MAC.. :(

I do understand that Itch seems to run on a Mac with out many tweeks and seems to work fine, but it also works on a PC! I've seen people buy 2-3 different windows PC's and never thought to look at actual specs and recomendations from Itch and Numark and end up buying a Mac...

as a MAC user i cannot tell anyone anything about a PC and how to get it working... as a dj I can suggest that you get gear that work. (itch and a mac) I can suggest that cause i KNOW it works. I think the 'get a mac' may seem blatant and simple but it works so it isn't a bad sugggestion.

Never said it was a bad suggestion. I think people are missunderstanding me here... :( I'm just tyring to point out that "Get a Mac" is not the only sollution, that a Windows PC will work just fine. Yes, you do have to tweak most PC's to work, but that is the nature of windows PC's, to build them the way you want ( since there are SOOOO many options ) and to optimize it to do what you want it to do.

Think I'm just going to back down on this one... lol

subdriven dont back down cause i am not saying you are wrong either if you have a computer at some point you need to get it to work... if you can afford to just abandon it and get a mac then problem solved... if not.....

Yeah Subdriven, don't back down. You believe in a product that works for you, as all of us Mac users believe in a product that works for us. Have you ever suggested something to someone that you really like? Maybe its a car or a brand of toothpaste. It is the same thing here with us Mac users...

I just didn't want to get into a heated discussion on mac vs windows again.. we have enough threads that went that way. lol

I'm a PC.......... and I work fine..... :)

You're right! when it works for you, be happy and enjoy It(ch)!

Actually the get a mac suggestion wasn't for you, but for another user. The sense of the suggestion was: before giving up on the NS7 try a Mac and see if it works.

I know it wasn't for me.. it's for the user that started this thread. :)

And as I read back... he baught a mac...... a long time ago..

Alright let me recap. It seems like Subdriven kinda went on a defensive side with The Term Buy a Mac. So I hope you got a few minutes. Here comes the book of Joeb.

I have been a dedicated Windows user for years. I was one of the people who bitched about the cost of a mac. I didn't just run out and buy the mac and say problem fixed. I got lucky and it just appeared at the right time. I was seriously going to trade the damn thing to another dj for his pioneer cdj 800's mk1 which would have been a downgrade from my mk2's. But at the time of my troubles I didn't really give a rat's ass.

I had seen a few djs perform on the NS7 all having macs. They ran it like nothing. Not one problem what so ever. The guy who originally had the NS7 did the install on the first windows pc. So it wasn't like we didn't know what we were doing.

From the get go, we noticed several differences. We made the calls, talked with numark did everything we were told to do. Didn't work. We then bought not one but 2 more brand new window based pcs. Both had vista on I believe and we got the same results. After the 3rd window pc failed we installed it on a mac. It ran without any flaws. At this time we are now 3 wks into the NS7 and Itch journey. 2 mixshows live on the radio where it would stop cut out and then kick back in, play in reverse, sound like it was dragging, come out distorted. We said we know for sure it works on the mac system. So we lined up a trade with the dj who had a mac, I said I would give it one more try on a windows pc. This time we used mine. I gave all the specs of my ASUS earlier in the forum.

I got about a half hour into the show and then the problems started to begin on mine. We went in and disabled almost everything. Virus program, bluetooth, anything that was running that didn't need to be. We disabled. It still didn't work. I tried for almost 2 weeks to get the thing to work. Read forum post after post. Just kept on dropping out on me, amongst other things.

I got a phone call saying I got a macbook pro for sale. They want $800. I was told it was brand new and it was a college students who needed money and was selling it. I paid $719 for it. Turns out it is a 2006 model. WOW, for it being 4 years old this thing is fast, and I have not had one problem with it. I bought it at 5pm and at 9pm that same evening I was up and running.

The term "Buy a Mac, it just works" came from my personal Experience. I wasn't quick to turn my back on my windows pc. I will still use it, but for me being new to the mac. I sure do love it. If the day comes that you buy a mac for your dj use. You will also say that for what we need it to do, the mac is the way to go. Damn I wish I would have done this sooner. If that day never comes my man. Then the gods are good to you. Maybe you can be the one to help all the people who have problems with the windows pc, and may we all be as lucky as you. But if not try the mac. I can almost guarantee that you will be happy with the results.

Before I leave this Book ( MY APOLOGIZES FOR REWRITING THE BOOK OF JOEB ) I just want to say that I have always loved what the NS7 is capable of. I know it's not the machine that does it all, you have to have some talent to do the things we do. Damn I love this machine when it is working properly. Thank God for my mac, cause I would probably still be bitching about it not working instead of enjoying it.

Thank you all for your comments. I am not a scratch dj, but I am learning. If you got time one day, feel free to listen to my mixshow. I'm on every Friday 7pm - 8pm, 10pm - Midnight and on Saturday Nights from 9pm - Midnight, all mixing is done using the NS7. You can stream the show live at www.wiog.com.

I've been using the machine less than 2 months. I'm not perfect but I do love what I do. Any tips tricks or comments are always welcome.

May the beats be with you.

Respectfully,

Dj E-Man
Wiog Mixshow Specialist.
www.wiogmixshowdj.blogspot.com

I know that was a shameless plug. LOL.... Enjoy

I apologize to you all for leaving such a long ass post.

Yeahh! Applause for this guy.

The moral of the story... "get a Mac"

Even he said that that is not the moral of the story..

I understand his frustrations. As kraal pointed out I had many issues with my NS7 + Windows PC, maybe a good month. I was running windows 7 64 bit before the beta driver came out and wasn't able to run anything other then latency 20 and still had drop outs. A week later the beta driver came out and I started getting alot of help from the people on this site. I tweeked for 2-3 weeks and was still having issues. reformated my harddrive and installed 32 bit and re did all my tweeks again. Since then I've been able to run at latency 5 with out any drop outs at all and no crazyness happing.. except..... every 2-3 hours or straight playing my crossfader might drop out or the plater might start up slow once ( both issues take 1-2 sec to fix).

The main thing I was trying to point out earlier is that "Get a Mac" is not always the only way to solve the issue, it might be the easiest ( I will not disagree ) but defenently not the only.

So yes, it had crossed my mind to buy a mac.. O.o But I've done alot of work to my PC and I am happy with the results since I already had the PC before I bought the NS7.

I'm a PC... and I work fine.. :)

Still with the issues you describe after your tweakings you'v done, i still wont be happy in my personal situations.

On my Pc (low spec 32bit vista laptop) Itch runs on 2ms without dropouts and no strange behaviour after 2-3 hours at all. I had almost no tweaking to do (only some non sleeping tweaks like you have to do on maw aswel that's all)

My point is, it is still not normal the issues you're describing.

And I'm working with serato to find out what is going on on those. And I have a 2 year old low spec laptop my self.

Seems that people with my same prossesor are having the same issues. See what comes out. Most of my frustration was the 64 bit win 7 issues, after going back to 32 bit most of the tweeks were just in case.

Why am I beeing knocked on my happiness with my own setup??

Using AMD processor?


I Guess, you're one of the unlucky few :-S

Intel duel core 2.0 t6200 I think..

T6200 gives a problem? Why's that?
I have T7250 as processor and that works just fine.

No clue if it is the processor.. Just happened to see that someone else having the same issue has the same processor...
Don't quote me that it is the processor... lol I'm not the software designer here.

I have AMD running 1ms.. + maximum refresh rate (which I think could even be better)..

czar, on a desktop?

Great news guys.
I got my windows laptop back from asus after 4 months yeah....
I had completely removed itch from it. I thought to myself lets start over.
Installed the 64 bit drivers and the itch software.

Here it comes, open up the itch software the program loads only to see the decks load for about 5 secs and then dissappear likes i don't have it connected.

I close the program, turn the ns7 off. Restart both of them and the same thing happens. Something isn't right, I powered down the ns7 unhooked the usb from the pc and plug it into my mac, powered right up with no problems.

Something just isn't working here. I love running it on the mac, but would be nice to see for my own experience that it does work and to quit reading about how all these other djs are using a windows pc.

So if anyone has any suggestions please feel free to give them. If you need my specs, scroll up. I gave my info when I started this back in March. I thank you in advance.
E-Man

try the public beta, i had a lot of problems getting itch up and running with the seperate install of the 64bit drivers
itch 17019 installation went flawlessly

e-man could it simply be a bad usb port on the pc

i was about to give up on ns7 too but then i changed system to 64bit system and got numark's drivers... now it works about 99.8% correct... just have a small bug i gotta defeat...

definitely make sure you're running the latest version of the NS7 64-bit drivers... hopefully that will help :) if you still can't get it going start a help thread in the support area

I've got some time on Friday, I'm gonna set up shop and start from scratch and am calling both Numark and Serato until this is resolved.

Kraal and the rest of you guys I appreciate the response, but I can't imagine all 4 of my ports are bad. My externals and mouse all seem to work fine in the same ports.

I just opened the program without the ns7 attached and it's doing the same thing. So there is something thats on my pc that don't like being itched. :-)

I downloaded the 64 bit drivers and installed them and this is where I am at. Hopefully, on Friday I will get this corrected.

ok, so I just got off the phone with numark. I guess every usb port on my windows pc is bad cause it won't connect. So I give up and thank the man above I bought a mac.

working fine now?

i switched sides too, i used to get dropouts every hour or 2 hours depending on how the stars were lined up that night lol, haven't had a problem in 5 gigs so far with my mac, plus the crowd always loves the apple on the back of your display :D. I gotta say that you dont need a 2500$ macbook pro, the 1300$ will do the job, again this is the tool for your job so its worth the investment, plus im loving this 8 - 10 hour battery life, thats a huge plus for working on your crates on the road, my previous laptop was definitely more powerful than the mac but just gave me 2 hours of battery.

PC still owns as desktops though :D

either way I'm glad you got it up and going and are happy now!

I am happy too but it just ticks me off that as soon as the ns gets near my asus it gets all crazy on me. Sooner or later, I'll be able to say I got it. LOL...

I wish I had the 8-10 hour battery life. I get 2 hours tops if I am mixing. Maybe its time for me to invest in a new battery. :-)

Maybe you should pull the battery and play on the cord that way your not sucking power from the battery even though its plunged in. Maybe that will help.

the laptop should be using battery power if the cord is pluged in anyway. The total life of the battery depends on how much time you've used it unpluged. they have hour rattings...

That's not what I was saying sometimes performance is limited by leaving the battery in.

... I love it. Re-reading the thread, it was actually the PC's last chance...

-KLH

KLH - I guess I could say yes and no with being the PC's last chance. I have totally given up on trying to make the ns7 work with my pc.

After listening to Numark tell me my pc was the problem I switched the usb cord and the thing fired right up. I was able to mix 4 songs and then what do you know, it starts dragging and then made a nice loud static noise. I said f it. I give up.

I was also trying the other product for video with the ns7 and had issues and their support team also told me "Use a Mac" LMAO.

So in my eyes this case is closed. I pc for everyday use but for my NS7 it's MAC. Before anyone else gets started, we know you have no problems with yours working with a windows computer. Good keep it that way. Thanks to all for your input. Ok time to get my mix on.

I'm just happy that you're able to enjoy the NS7. I love mine and I hope that you'll love yours too...

-KLH

That I do.

there has to be a workaround man... im having similar issues to what you described...

my pc will open up the itch software and load the decks smoothly... but as soon as about 15 seconds pass from the moment i hit the PLAY button on either deck, serato itch starts flashing the MIDI light and it crashes all over again

my pc ran serato scratch live flawlessly as well as other high demand software like FL Studio 9 and ableton....

i dont understand what it is about the ns7 or itch software that is causing this malfunction but i hope the numark team addresses it

ive had my ns7 now for 2 days and have NOT been able to use it AT ALL...

this sucks major ass and im very upset and disappointed that numark let me down again

they originally let me down when i bought their X6 2 channel mixer two years ago... crossfader crapped out within a MONTH of owning it

i decided to give numark another chance after i messed around on a buddy's ns7... i was actually blown away by the functionality of the ns7 so much that i decided to get one

im very close to wanting to turn around and buy a MAC but SCREW THAT, my laptop now is not even a year old.... i KNOW its a software related issue but i just cant figure out WTF it cud be from

i updated all sorts of drivers and updated windows components and such and still had no luck

it definately has something to do with a firmware, driver, or possibly even ASIO drivers not loading properly


HELP!

WHERE U AT SERATO/NUMARK TECH SUPPORT?

DO YUR JOBS A LITTLE BETTER PLEASE BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY NOT EVERYONE OWNS MACS SO PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT HELPING OUT ALL THE PC CUSTOMERS

if i had known i wudda been runnin into issues like this i wud never have even sold my 1200's and serato scratch live

so pissed off

>= |

At the very top of this thread is "create a help request" have you done that?

yup = \

"u can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig"

A buddy of mine just bought the ns7 with effects. I warned him about the problems with windows. He was lucky at first. But sure enough he is now starting to see the problems with windows and NS7 / Itch....

I bought a mac, end of problems until I fried the logic board. That totally sucked, I ended up switching my ns7 for cdj 800s and S.S.L.. The entire time I tried to get my NS7 to work with my ASUS laptop. Still no luck to this day. I did a factory restore and was able to get it to connect. I have updated, and disabled everything and still NO LUCK. I got one deck that wants to play backwards. NO ITS NOT IN REVERSE MODE! Constant drop outs and parts that drag on the working deck... Here's the ish kicker..
I can run Virtual dj and the NS7 without any problems at all. Mixed videos for 3 and a half hours not one problem or lagging issue. I can't even run 5 mins with the software that came with it..

I'm done trying to figure it out. I did however get my mac repaired and again I do love the NS7. I can't wait for the update to come with SP6.

I didn't actually trade my NS7. I swapped gear with a buddy until I got my mac back. He hasn't had one issue running the ns7 on his mac. We've been running smoothly between the two of us on the mac since March of 2010.
To those of you who read this and say this is bullish cause your running fine on a windows pc. Consider yourself lucky, I hope these issues don't come to haunt you. I wasn't a lucky one.

There is not enough information to even begin to know what was wrong with the Asus but that is definitely a hardware related issue.

We don't know what chipsets are on the mainboard, what bios revision it's running, etc, etc.

Yes there is more to troubleshoot on a Windows based build because of it being an open platform vs a closed platform (OSX)

I would have been curious to if installing a Hackintosh build on that system would have worked.

These are the steps when I get a windows based laptop for DVS.

- Wipe the OS and load XP from scratch since I own one just for this reason. Personally I haven't tried to run these types of applications on Win 7 yet, I won't even bother trying Vista.

- Check for bios updates and driver updates immediately after loading the OS and applying all the windows updates.

- Download and run the dpc latency checker without installing any DVS hardware/software to see if there are any spikes.

If I find spikes at this point I tackle finding the root problem before loading the DVS software and hardware drivers.

If there is no spikes I load the drivers and software and run the dpc latency checker again.

If spikes occur, I start digging to find the root cause at this point and resolve it.

OSX a "closed platform"? Since when?

still issue here is unresolve,,,,,,,,,the main problem here is the pc running ns7+itch,....


YEs ns7+itch+mac was a perfect combination!no debate for that!!!!!

but where is the support for those pc user????

theres a doble population of pc user than mac,,,,(also a big market for numark and serato)

you mean to say dont buy ns7 with itch if youre not a mac user???.....

(monopoly way of business tie up) --------???????????

mo it is mainly there are more variables on the pc side where you may need to tweak your pc more

DJs use mostly Macs. Windows is not good for real time audio, too many variables in play... you could be lucky and enjoy a perfect experience, or less lucky and burn in hell.

Mac+ITCH is the closest thing to an embedded system you can get.

I've been running SSL flawlessly on my PC for quite some time. Like others, I could not get ITCH to run without dropouts and other issues like continuous play not working either with or without my NS7 connected. Yesterday I decided to try an experiment and installed the MAC OS on a separate partition on my Samsung laptop. I've been running ITCH on my PC converted to MAC for 3 hours now at the lowest latency setting without a single dropout and my continuous play issue has also disappeared.

It's pretty sad that the Windows version of ITCH is so buggy for many of us. In most cases, it's definitely not the PC hardware since my machine is an i5 460 2.53ghz with 4gigs of RAM and the same machine running MAC OS seems to work much better. I also did everything to optimize the PC and resolve any conflicts.

I'm confident that Serato will eventually resolve the Windows issues with ITCH as they did with Scratchlive but I don't think that they are moving fast enough with ITCH developement.

....M

hi melman,

SSL is much lighter than ITCH. There's no mix engine involved, and the superior platter definition in ITCH produces way more data to be crunched in real time. If OSX works better on your computer, just use it. Be warned though: you'll want the real thing very soon ;)

LOL. Thanks djceria.

I'll continue to run it like this for a little while before taking the pluge on a new MB Pro. I still want to give Serato some time to work out the Windows ITCH issues before jumping off the Windows ship and paddling to the dark side ;-)

.....M

What latency are you guys running on the Windows machines that are causing drop outs.

I run SSL and Itch both at 5ms and don't experience drop outs.

Mac + OSX is a closed platform because they engineer the hardware within spec and build the OS to run on this particular hardware config.

I have OSX running on a Dell, but that is only possible now because the CPU's are the same for PC's and Mac's.

I honestly think the NS7 drivers need to be updated so they can handle dpc interruptions and usb errors better.

That would clear up some of the issues seen on the Windows side.

I agree with you about the drivers DJ Quartz. I've tried it a all the latency settings and it still does not make a difference.

It's obvious that there are harware combinations out there that will run ITCH on Windows without any issue but it's too hit or miss at the moment.

.....M

6 hours of continuous play running OSX 10.6.7 and not a single dropout. I was also running the NS7 at 45rpm which puts even more stress on the PC and still no issues. This was not possible for me under Windows for whatever reason using this hardware.

....M

Here's my reasoning...

The drivers are written for the SL(x) hardware to operate at low latency and are way more immune to these types of problems on the Windows side.

I've done a lot of digging and research to get my Dell running the way it does, but I found the SSL was very forgiving on these types of issues.

The NS7 drivers aren't so forgiving even though I'm not having any drop out issues and the hi-speed midi data has to be accounted for as well.

Some optimization can still be achieved however.

I'd be glad to hear of any way that I can get my Samsung r580 to run ITCH properly in Windows. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

....M

PM me, I have a couple questions.

still issue unresolve,,,even i5 and having 4gig memory,,,problem still arise if you use itch @ pc...='( i tried it @ my dell also i borrow my nieghbors vaio with same specx

this is not the definition of "closed platform" though.

iOS, as opposite, is a closed platform.

Thanks to the help of DJ Quartz, I was able to isolate the issue that was causing me so many problems with ITCH and Windows 7.

It seems like the Marvell Youkon LAN driver was the source of my problems. Since disabling the LAN driver along with all of the other OS tweaks, my system has been flawless. I ran the system at the lowest latency and at 45rpm for about 4 hours to really stress it and I did not receive one dropout or CPU spike. The system is performing on par to how it does in the MAC OS now aside from the annoying continuous play problem.

I usually only disable my Wireless connection and did not think to check or disable my LAN connection but using the DPC tool, I noticed huge latency spikes that disappeared when I disabled my LAN driver. I noticed the latency being caused by the LAN driver would get worse if I unplugged the AC adapter and it would not settle down even after plugging it back in. I've now added the LAN adapter to my list of things that I will disable while using ITCH.

Thank again DJ Quartz.

......M

need to study computer tech to grasp this things....=)

No problem Melman,

This follows the comment Cerla brought up.

When I say closed platform, throw the text book definition out the window for a second. But we could argue and say in house solution.

OSX + Mac (Apple designed/built computers), are tightly integrated which makes the solution work 'out the box' . If there are issues, there are way less variables to troubleshoot.

Yes, the hardware is similar to windows based systems, but the architecture is different, etc, etc, etc...

It's the same ideal as Scratch Live + Rane hardware and Itch's 1-1 design.

There is where Windows gets a bad rap sometimes because there are so many variables that a problem can stem from.

Especially when you don't control the hardware/software design for the systems it will run on.

Sure there are standards that need to be met, but let's not kid around. Windows was designed to be installed on anything to a certain degree.

That being said, you just need to understand where to look for problems in Windows and troubleshooting it isn't major task.

The same problems that affect dvs can affect Itch and moreso Itch because it has to stream hi-speed midi data along with the usb data for audio, etc...

That being said, Itch will glitch, pause and drop audio if there is any kind of large dpc latency interruption.

I'm not claiming to be any Tech God so I'm glad Melman was able to pin-point the source of the problem with some assistance.

All the information is available to everyone... remember Google is your best friend in these situations.

Hi Quartz, so you meant "vertically integrated platform".

Yeah I guess you could say that. VIP, I like that ;)

Note to SSL/Itch users, I'm running SSL 2.2 and Itch 1.7.1 on my Dell Studio 1737 with Windows XP SP3 without turning off anything.

I turn off my wireless because I have an ethernet connection plugged in when I'm in the studio but I can run either with wireless turned on as well.

Config 1:

SSL 2.2 + TTM57SL + DJ-FX + VSL 1.2 + Bridge + Abelton Live 8.2

Config 2:

Itch 1.7.1 + NS7+ NSFX

Both running at 5ms

Everything turned off, disabled everything. Uninstalled and reinstalled. The deck on the right is playing backwards.

VDJ with the NS7. Running very good. No drop outs. A couple of squeaks but none of the isses as I have with itch.

I'm not gonna get into all the specs again. One of these days. It will work properly... I still have faith.

Recalibrate.

Man I've been playing with this damn thing for a year and can't get it work properly. Reformatted the hard drive and followed the instructions and did all the stuff you people here have said to do, called and talked to numark, etc etc etc.. I would just like it to work without me having to put anymore wasted time into it.

I use it with my mac and I'm good. Just would like to have it work without all the extra b.s with a windows pc in the event I ever have issues again with my mac. Only issue I had with my mac was my logic board got toasted. Thanks djcerla for your input.

i already got mac,and everything goes smoothly...nywy what is logic board???/

E-Man, as someone who has both a G50V and a G51VX (I use both for DJing, but mostly the G51VX) (both with an Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 and 4GB of RAM), I can't understand why you've had these issues for over a year and absolutely no solution has cropped up as of yet except to switch to Mac OS X. I do not discredit such a decision (for reasons I'll outline in a moment), but at anytime did you try to load up Windows XP 32-bit and see what happens? I had a much better experience with Windows XP than I did under Windows 7 64-bit in terms of using ITCH and hence dual-booted for some time. Windows 7, unless on an absolutely clean install, did not like working with ITCH in my operating environment for some reason. Windows XP - as a clean install - handles ITCH like a champ. If you're using an external hard-drive, then I'd recommend backing up your main system data (documents, etc.), repartitioning the drive, Installing Windows XP on a 20GB partition, and Windows Vista/7 on the remaining space (this can be done painlessly - forum.notebookreview.com ).

I personally used to do the above and have no issue, but I started using XP for other things as well (see: Ableton Live, Sonar, Adobe Audition, etc.) and needed a new clean environment. I had half the mind to try a second clean Windows 7 install and just have XP, 7, and 7 on my machine, but I went through what was instead the single most painstakingly annoying process dealing with this computer I have gone through all year: I installed Mac OS X 10.6.6 (now 10.6.7 via Software Update). I have to admit, it was worth every second of the install because my DJ experience with ITCH and the NS7 has been perfect but it's led me to ask several questions...

Under Mac OS X, my CPU usage is less than 10+/-% while DJing. It never waivers. It does not go up or spike at any time. I run at 1ms with the tables spinning at 33rpm. Under Windows XP with the exact same settings, it runs at 30-40% CPU usage. No spikes. Why such a jump? Under Windows 7, CPU usage is at between 50-60% with random (unexplained) spikes to 100% (where drop outs are likely to happen). In all situations, the wireless card is turned off an ethernet cords are unplugged. Now why there is such a drastic difference between when ITCH is operated under Mac OS X and Windows operating systems is what I am forced to wonder.

Now I'm not saying you need to try to install Mac OS X on your G50V. You'll do fine with Windows XP. That is, unless your a glutton for punishment and just wish to go for it.


Roughly stated, the Apple equivalent of a Motherboard. The term is rather antiquated now, though, considering Mac's use Intel hardware and have for the past few years.

Also, the thought just occurred to me: When DJing with the NS7 while using a G50V (or G51V), use the rear USB port (next to the Power Cable input jack / RJ-45 port (/ RJ-11 port)). I have found that to be the best USB port for the NS7 in my experience. If you're using an external HDD as well, place the external HDD on either of the two right USB ports. I find this combination results in the most reliable experience.

I couldn't get any of the ports to read the ns7 for the longest time. I did a factory restore and it finally started to work. Just not understanding why the deck on the right wants to play backwards.

Thanks Papa Midnight, I have been thinking about the XP thing for a while. I just may do that.

@papa Midnight
Are you running OSX on a PC laptop? If so and Mac OSX handles so much better, it confirms that the weak point is Windows XP/7.

I know this to be true because of how OSX multitasks and handles USB I/0. I can't remember exactly, but Windows uses interrupts to accept input from the USB and other functions, whereas OSX handles this differently.

OSX gets it's roots from Unix or more closely Linux (as I understand it)....been awhile since I was into that so deeply. Those type of systems are incredibly robust are were written from the ground up for Multi-tasking for decades prior to Windows.

I have to state this *****This is not a Windows vs Mac debate****** just stating an opinion/educated answer to the stability issue.

For many on here and elsewhere, the problems disappeared largely when using a Mac, mainly due to the OSX operating system.

I get so frustrated when we set it up on my pc. I borrowed another buddies windows based laptop and that damn thing, worked right off the back. 2 hours no dropouts, or glitches.

It's like it sees my machine coming and says hell no.. LOL... As far as my mac I'm on the current op system. I'm running off an older macbook pro. Believe it or not the original ones that came out in 2006. Still works like a charm. I'll take a day in the future and dedicate it to sitting here and tweaking this and that, disabling eveything from a-z and see if it will finally work for me. Hopefully I get better results than I did when I was on the radio.. Boy did I learn the hard way.. LOL...

Well, I'm a stickler for the acronym "PC" as it applies to personal computer and not generally to Windows/Linux vs Mac but I digress, ironically, yes, I indeed am running Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.7) on my Asus G51VX-RX05 (along with Windows XP Pro SP3 (32-bit), Windows 7 Enterprise (64-bit; essentially the same as Ultimate) and Fedora Linux 14). Damned if it wasn't hell to build, though - especially in a Quad-Boot scenario.

Now mind you, most of the time (99%), I have no problem under Windows XP, but I need a solid environment to perform in and Mac OS X tends to give me that. I have found it to handle MIDI (as I'm sure those who have looked around now and generally the USB bus better. Dropouts are minimized. Hell, I, just for kicks (and I've done it without issue), am even able to run the NS7 on a 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub (which also doubles as a Targus laptop fan) with no issue.

If anyone wants, I can make and post a demonstration video so you get the idea of what I work with.


To be accurate, OS X is derived from UNIX.



Honestly, I can't even argue that. But there should ideally be no difference between the two in terms of performance given that Serato definitely did the leg work to produce a product that would work across both platforms. To be fair, I can just as easily find a number of topics on this forum of users with Macs having the exact same issues as users with Windows-based machines (they all use the same hardware for the most part these days). But in reality, there seems to be a divide that some experience. Now obviously, my experiences have been much more fond across Windows and Mac despite using the same general hardware as E-Man.

Out of curiosity, E-Man are you using any other devices aside from the NS7 and running any other software than ITCH (and generic background processes)? Windows XP still stands as my strongest recommendation, for the record. It just seems to handle low-latency audio significantly better than Windows Vista or 7. I believe others have made the same observation.

Just Itch and the NS7. I along with 2 others have spent a day reading up on the forum posts regarding the issues that we had. One of my guys is a computer guru, he works on them and is a network tec. Not that means anything, but he def knows his stuff. The same thing with my other partner.

We disabled everything that it called for. The only thing left for us to do is shut the computer off. Just not sure why my windows pc don't like itch. I can run vdj with the ns7 on it. Just not itch. It's weird.

Papa if you got the time feel free to make the video. I'm seriously considering the xp thing though.

I sold mine....... and got a NS6!!

@Subdriven. I am looking to do the same thing. How do you like the NS6 compared to the NS7? Did I just hijack my own post/thread?? LOL

@Subdriven. I am looking to do the same thing. How do you like the NS6 compared to the NS7? Did I just hijack my own post/thread?? LOL

twice

could the problem with windows be a 64 bit problem, I still use an old gs1 with vista 32 and never had an issue and I have a friend with a win 64 machine and has smiler problems.

I don't know. People say that they have used it and it works well but you got to tweak this, tweak that. Gut your system so that nothing else runs cause it causes interference.

I'll just say that everyone I know that has the NS7 has had nothing but problems on a 64bit pc. I know only one person who has used ITCH and used it with no problems and he was using the VCI-300 with windows xp. He was using a dell I believe.

He has recently upgraded to a sony Vaio and also the NS6. Which I used with him last Thursday night 7-7-11. Can't remember his operating system. I will ask him.

I have two Toshiba laptops. The only difference between them is the processor. Everything else is identical. Both with Win7 64bit. One has a 2.2 T6600, the other a 1.6 core I-7.

The 2.2 would run itch OK at 5 ms latency with every suggested tweak done and would sometimes have the occasional 1-2 seconds loss of sound throughout the night. I bought the core I-7 laptop about 3 months ago. I powered it up and let win 7 do its updates. After that was done I installed itch and DPC Latency checker. I did nothing else to it. I didn't tweak it or turn wireless off or anything. I immediately ran Itch & DPC. I set the latency @ 1ms and the RPM's @45. The laptop didn't flinch. The DPC latency Checke shows an average of about 465 usecs. To this day I've done about 6 gigs using it and still haven't made not one tweak to it. At each of these gigs I've left a browser window open the entire night and have downloaded requests that I didn't have. I guess I'm lucky.

ontime1269: The first, the 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo Mobile JUST MEETS minimal requires for ITCH with the Numark NS7 under a 64-bit operating system. The Core i7 at 1.6GHz far exceeds it. There are also vast differences between your Core i7 and the Core 2 Duo than just the processor, including but not limited to: RAM type and speed, Motherboard, chipset, bus speed, northbridge, southbridge, GPU, (this list goes on for a bit), etc. It should be fully expected that it would significantly outperform the Core 2 Duo system.