Choosing a Laptop for Music Making

[Chater-La]

A good friend of ours from pc-music.com has written this article about the great laptop debate. That is, I still hold that desktop is better for music production- BUT if you must have laptop and need some guidance:

Part 1:
http://en.audiofanzine.com/pc-laptop...o-laptops.html

[grimtraveller]

An interesting article. I know very little about computers but I know a little more now than I did before I read this.
I tend to use my laptop for housing my virtual instruments as I prefer to record on standalones. But the day may well arrive when some of the options that exist currently will have been phased out almost totally so any computer based options are worth getting my head around now, at least in embryo.

[Chater-La]

Here is Part 2 where we actually put some laptops to the test!

http://en.audiofanzine.com/pc-laptop...-the-test.html

[humjaba]

The two Quad Core’s were not as fast as expected but then the comparison between at 2.4GHz dual core and a 1.6GHz Quad core is difficult to make assumptions about – essentially you are comparing 4.8GHz to 6.4GHz and so we should be looking at a 25% performance difference and that is actually not far from what we got. The perception of a Quad Core though would assume a much bigger increase

Nice article, but this is a very incorrect statement. Having more cores helps for programs that are multi-threaded - essentially allowing them to work on more than one thing at a time. However, if the program isn't written in such a way that it can take advantage of this, then having more cores makes no difference. Now I have no idea to what extent those programs are multi-threaded, but having twice the cores does by no means imply twice the performance.

[Uhdinator]

As an Example Logic is developed to take advantage of multi core technology:
With and I7 quad core with hyper-threading my system monitor shows 8 cores and Logic uses all of them. Not every software is optimized to take advantage of multi-core systems yet.
in 64 bit mode I can tell Logic how many cores I want it to use to free up CPU power for software instruments.......Its a nice feature.

[ranjam]

It's a little biased, but that's OK. There are so many variables not mentioned; hard drive speed, on board cache, or if he has hyper threading on or off. And what about USB? Why only Firewire?
You can get by with an 'old' laptop (I'm proof) if you are super careful. If you watch YouTube - Learning how to use Cubase LE Part 2, Bill Childress shows you how to use a 'junk' computer built from scrap parts, and record with Cubase LE. That got me going, and I'm doing it as an avid follower. If you go easy on the plug ins, that old Dell or Think Pad will work, and work well enough to get your song ideas recorded. And that's why I do it; not to impress anyone with how many plug ins I used or how many cores my processor has. The money I saved not buying a super-duper laptop bought me a nice interface and a few good mics.

[Fruity Loops]

My Macbook Pro, RME Fireface 400 and Avalon U5 have made me lot's of money in music. Laptops are very powerful and much more useful than a desktop. If you are a mobile musician that is. And these days most of us have to be.

[willied]

My Macbook Pro, RME Fireface 400 and Avalon U5 have made me lot's of money in music. Laptops are very powerful and much more useful than a desktop. If you are a mobile musician that is. And these days most of us have to be.

I'd hope it works well with a $1300 interface.

[jazztastic]

Hi folks,
I am just getting setting up to do my own recording and I was hoping someone could help me with some advice. Specifically, how fast of a laptop (Macbook/Macbook Pro) will I need to record 8-tracks (ideally 24/96) simultaneously thru cubase? I am looking at probably a used Macbook Pro or maybe the new, low-end 13" macbook pro. To be clear, I have a nice fast desktop at home I'll be using for all the mixing and post stuff. This is strictly for recording and with no effects or anything — just dry tracking of acoustic music.

Also, I will probably use an external HD to record to; can I get away with USB 2 or do I need firewire, and if so is FW400 gonna do it?

The interface I'm using is an io|26.

That's all for now. Thanks so much for your help!

[nolimore]

You don't need to spend $$$ on an iMac, optionally you can buy an Intel CPU based laptop.

I second the firewire IEE1394 spec.

So if you can get a laptop with an onboard firewire card and pin interface that would be able to handle any high volume of audio you create, that comes from an external line in audio card. The more onboard memory for data buffering the better.

A PCMCIA interface is a plus too. Means you can plugin a optional sound card e.g. echo.

An operating system that can switch between 32-bit and 64-bit mode. You might have older software 32-bit, so the address mode switch is required. If it is running in 64-bit mode, your system will be able to use +4Gb of RAM. So 8GB, 16GB RAM, etc, is possible. Theoretically a 64-bit Operating System, uses virtual addressing to address 16EB (Exabytes). Good size of RAM.

A standard dual core should be able to handle enough processing, coming in on the motherboard bus from the firewire card.

If you are using an Intel CPU you can run dual-boot Operating Systems. Windows on one partition and Snowleopard OSX (Apple OS for iMacs) on the other. Snowleopard will outperform Windows, but you will have the choice of software from both systems. Acronis DiskManager 11 for about $40 will setup a dual-boot for you; One of the most popular products out there.