Hello Perry,
First of all, I'd suggest:
- Make sure you have the latest BIOS installed for the PC's motherboard. Check on its manufacturer's website for the latest version, and how to install it, if relevant. That's very important, and can solve all manner of performance issues.
- Make sure you have all power-saving functions in the BIOS disabled, if relevant.
- Make sure all current operating system updates are installed on your new computer. (Use Windows Update to check for updates, apply all available, reboot, then keep repeating until there are no more. Note that you might need to click the 'check for updates' button *twice* before Windows actually performs the check.) Please note, however, that the recent 'Windows 10 Creators update' is a major new Windows version that's might not yet be fully proven for reliable audio, so it might be best to avoid that particular update yet (if possible), until it's had time to be mature a little.
- Make sure that you have the latest versions of the drivers and firmware installed for all of your hardware, especially your audio/MIDI interface(s) and graphics card, checking on the manufacturers' websites.
- Download and install the driver for the Hauptwerk USB key, the current version of which is always available on our main downloads page here: http://www.downloadhauptwerk.com/ . (It doesn't hurt to re-install it if you aren't sure whether you already have the current version.)
- Disable all Windows power-saving functions, including the options for putting USB ports/devices to sleep. For example, on Windows 10 you would use 'Windows Control Panel | System | Power and sleep | Additional power settings', select the 'High performance' power plan, then click its 'Change plan settings | Change advanced power settings', then make sure that the settings are set as follows:
- Sleep: Hibernate after = Never (for 'plugged in' if present)
- USB settings: USB selective suspend setting = Disabled (for 'plugged in' if present)
- PCI Express: Link state power management = Off (for 'plugged in' if present)
- Processor power management: Minimum processor state = 100% (for 'plugged in' if present)
- Hard disk: Turn off hard disk after = Never (for 'plugged in' if present)
... then OK all of the screens.
- Also make sure you laptop is always plugged into the mains when using it for any audio purposes (such as Hauptwerk).
- Reboot if you updated anything.
- Make sure that that you have your M-Audio interface's ASIO driver selected in Hauptwerk (*not* DirectSound).
If those things don't solve it:
If Hauptwerk's audio-CPU meter is going into, or nearly into, the red when few or no pipes are sounding then it indicates that the audio driver/host is calling Hauptwerk too late for Hauptwerk to have time to calculate the audio before the hardware needs to play it (i.e. resulting in a 'buffer under-run'), either because the audio driver isn't performing properly, or because the PC is having underlying hardware/driver timing issues (e.g. DPC latency). The following utilities should help to identify whether the latter is the issue, i.e. whether the PC and its drivers are performing sufficiently well to support real-time low-latency audio:
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
http://www.thesycon.de/eng/latency_check.shtml
(Leave them running for a while. The second of them, DPCLat might not be fully accurate on Windows 10, but it still seems broadly to work.)
There are also some documents with more suggestions for troubleshooting PC audio problems here:
https://www.hauptwerk.com/clientuploads/documentation/Tutorials/WindowsOptimizationsAndDiagnostics.pdf
https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/glitchfree/
Hope that helps.