Hardware experts - laptop help

S

Strat Man

New member
As I am going to be moving around a bit next year I'm planning to start using my laptop for recording. It is a Toshiba Satellite, 600mhz, 128mb, 6 gig hd. I plan on upgrading the hard drive.

Unfortunately the latop does not have an audio line-in. The only audio visual plugs it has are a headphone in, mic in, and audio visual out (for DVD). I am looking for a cheap way to either adapt the current card to have a line-in or get a laptop card which will fit the latop with a line-in.

Firstly is it possible to get a line-in sent to the mic input instead of the mic in from the current soundcard. If this is possible I assume this is the easiest option. Or is there any other way of connecting to a line-in eg SCSI? PC Card? USB? Or if these are much to hard to accomplish what are some good sound cards that fit the satellite series, is it possibe to get an external one so I don't have to tamper with the computer much at all?

thanks,
Neill
 
I am currectly looking into laptop recording possibilities. We are lucky because there is lots on the market. It all depends on the price. You can either connect throu USB PCMCIA or FIREWIRE. USB is the slowest the other two are both good.

some products:

USB: I advise the M-audio audiosport quattro. It is cheap and seems to be reliable. The disadvantage is that it does not have digital ports.

Other options: emagic emi2/6, ezbus by event, tascam 428

PCMCIA: rme have just released a product hammerfall dsp. This seems to be the best buy

Firewire: Motu 828. this looks really good too

those are the most interesting products.
 
I missed a point from the aboe post. I am using a Tascam 414 MKII for all recording. eg micing amp running it through the 414 mixer and then to the computer using the RCA out.

So basically I need a way to be able to plug my 4-track into the latop as there is no line-in (currently anyway) and only a mic line for audio in (and i'm told these are crap).
 
I looked into laptop recording about a year ago when I had a computer with the same specs as yours. I fiddled with the Toshiba to see if I could get the mic input to do what I wanted it to, but in the end there was no way to record a stereo signal into the laptop without an addtional device. It DOES work ok as a line input if you play with the soundcard mixer, but it doesn't sound that great.

I decided to looking into other hardware and, at the time, the Tascam US-428 seemed like the best way to go. At $500 (US) it is still a pretty good deal. I'm still REALLY happy with it. Now I have 4 inputs- all useable as line or mic inputs. :)

There are probably other things that sound better, but my ears can't tell the difference. Neither can my recording technique. I like having the hardware mixing surface, too- even though I mainly just use it for transport controls and fade outs. Its a good, low-cost all-around way to turn a laptop into a DAW. It even fits in my laptop bag.

The one bummer is that it doesn't have phantom power so you have to carry around a power supply of some kind. Other than that, it fits the bill really well.

Of course, I haven't tried anything else so I can't really compare it to anything.

Good luck.
Chris
 
Wow. That was quick. ;)

On the note of the 4 track:

I've been using my Tascam US-428 to record the old Tascam Porta 2 tapes that I've got. I run the four tracks line out to the 428's inputs and then...viola! I have the orginal 4 tracks intact in scintilating 24 bits and ready for some serious noise reduction treatment. ;)

I don't know if the 414 has those tape outs. They're really handy. If it does, you'd love the 428's 4 ins. :)

It also sounds like you don't really want to replace your 4 track- just transfer your 4-track mixes to digital? Hmmm... that's going to get frustrating. There really isn't much in a low price range that gives you a stereo input. Everything is built for making your computer the multitracking device- and priced that way.

Take care,
Chris
 
I don't need so much a professional system with XLR inputs and all the sorta stuff, and I don't have the money to spend on it. With desktop I've had great results just using the line-in, is there any way at all to get a line-in the lap-top, pc-card adaptor or something like that - other adaptors for inputs already there? Or like I said, would i be possible to maybe change the mic in to a line-in?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top