installing on XP 32-bit

[Le DJ Abstrait]

Surely there have been people installing/running Wren on 32-bit Windoze XP. I'm calling on you for advice, tips and wisdom...
I'm having a hard time getting it going on my system: when launched it just gets stuck on the splash screen. Can't see the log, I don't have much clues to follow...

[blue hell]

I don't know, but the issue may be that Wren is not able to write the log file .. this can happen when:

- wren.exe is put into a windows owned directory - where was wren.exe put?

- there is anti virus software playing up

[Le DJ Abstrait]

here are some details:

in fact, Wren did run one time, but didn't produce any sound. then it never ran again.
there is a log file, but it contains very little stuff compared to the log that's presented at the start of the program. included here.

It is running on a french version of XP of dubious origin, with dot.net stuff installed. That computer runs Nord Modular Demo and Nord virtual fine.

---

wren.log
Description:		Download (listen)
Filename:	wren.log
Filesize:	1.1 KB
Downloaded:	30 Time(s)

---

[blue hell]

That makes it look more like something portaudio related ... hmm ... what could one try ... maybe try to get another version of the DLL and then rename that one to

C:\Musique et son\modules32.2021.3.29.0\portaudio-r32.dll (possibly first saving the old one for .. one never knows why ..)

Then ... where to get another 32 bit one ... it would probably need an application using it and installing it as a DLL ...

Or ... maybe https://github.com/spatialaudio/portaudio-binaries helps .. this came out of a google search for "portaudio dll download" (without the quotes) .. for maybe finding more ...

That's all my current thoughts about it

[Le DJ Abstrait]

Thanks!
that did the trick: I downloaded libportaudio32bit.dll, renamed it and it ran good. Had garbled sound at first but that got fixed when I set sampling rate to 44.1.

However I have a hard time making it play anything: 90%+ of the patches I try to play just grossly overload my system (or makes it crash). It's a core 2 Duo running at 3GHz...
all but the early 2015 patches run at 100%+ capacity. the Wren Example patch runs at 71% and produces no sound...

I'm including the new log file.

---

wren.log
Description:		Download (listen)
Filename:	wren.log
Filesize:	44.43 KB
Downloaded:	32 Time(s)

---

[blue hell]

Not very much to be done about overloads .. but there are a few small things one can try:

* switch off the lights with CTRL+L and maybe the wires with CTRL+W; this helps not very much, but where every little bit would help ...

* 44.1 kHz - indeed

* Try different (larger) buffer sizes - the latency will get larger but for self playing patches that does not really matter.

* Try different audio systems .. WDM-KS, Direct sound, ASIO or whatever you see being present when selecting audio devices [and when you do not have ASIO you can try ASIO4ALL]

And yes .. I tend to make large patches and my laptop was not the slowest one .. it by now probably is though

[Le DJ Abstrait]

Thanks very much for your advice!

I tried about all that you suggest, except the lights and wires trick.

at some point the buffer size does not seem to make much of a difference.

WDM-KS gives me the best results for now, but ASIO4all is the next step i'll try.
but it looks this portaudio I got does not deal with ASIO...

[Le DJ Abstrait]

I changed the portaudio thing to a version that supports ASIO, and I'm now running ASIO4ALL, which seems to give the best results.
It's still not much, and I can only play a very small percentage of your patches...
Most choke Wren, some complain of components missing, some crash Wren, and some just spectacularly crash and reset the whole computer.
never a dull moment...

[Le DJ Abstrait]

I'm wondering if I'd be better off setting up this computer with a 64-bit XP and running a more recent Wren... would it still be able to run Nord Virtual?

[blue hell]

Maybe .. it is a long time ago that i've used XP and never a 64 bit version.

I have been using the G2 demo software on windows 7 32 bits - which worked good.

Then changed to Win10 - 64 bits - and the G2 demo would still work ... however for some reason it no longer does.. which I think to be because of audio issues, but I've never really tested things.

So ..maybe someone else can saysome words

[blue hell]

[Le DJ Abstrait]

I continue my investigation...
I reverted to windows direct sound with a buffer of 2048, and that works quite well: I can play patches that run at some 250% without artifacts. But some others much less hungry glitch like (blue)hell. It's very variable.
Some patches still crash, some don't produce any sound (I'm sure there's a number of reasons).

One thing for sure, I'm sticking with XP. I have really no desire to go with 7, 10,11 or 44 and waste my time in re-adapting my workflow and losing the things I'm familiar with.