Laptop Requirements

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rrestrella_

New member
Hi guys! I'm planning to start recording my music and I got a few questions before I start spending some money.

I'm on a tight budget so all I can afford is an audio interface bundle. I'm choosing between the Focusrite Scarlett Studio Bundle and the Presonus Audiobox Bundle. What do you think is better and do you have other suggestions?

All I have is an old HP Pavilion Dv2000 Special Edition Laptop bought years ago. I want to know if it can handle my recordings.

***My style of music is often acoustic so I'm assuming I'll only mix 5, 8 tracks tops of lead vocals, couple of back vocals, couple of guitars, and maybe a couple of loops and sometimes just a live recording of 2 tracks, vocals and guitar.

Here are the specs of my laptop.

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium planning to update to Windows 7
PROCESSOR: Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 @ 2 GHz(2 CPUs)
RAM: 4Gb
DISPLAY: 1280x800
VIDEO CARD: Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family (I believe it's 128 mb)
HARD DRIVE: 285 Gb ~ 141 Gb free space @ 5200 rpm
 
Similar specs to my laptop.

You should be alright recording however if you plan to use a lot of DSP when mixing you may have a problem. I can record 8 tracks at a time no problem but when it comes to mixing I run out of processing power quickly. Do you plan to use any virtual instruments? Some can be processor heavy.

The issue with my Laptop is, if you put it under and sort of processing strain then the fan goes on full blast, this causes problems during recording, especially acoustics!
 
I'm not really a techy person, and I don't really know what dsp is (i'm sorry) so I'm just gonna tell you what I usually do before on audacity.

So, first, I record the rhythm guitar part, then lead guitar part, then lead vocals, then backup vocals, then I just enhanced each track with reverb and some compressor, noise removal, echo and all that stuff. Then export it as an mp3 file.

On virtual instruments, I don't think I'm gonna be using a lot, because, I don't know how, and my style of music is acoustic, so I like to keep things simple. Maybe some piano and drums only. (If I ever get to learn any of them)

Sometime when I'm lazy, I just use an instrumental of a song then sing through it. Then done haha :)

When I'm recording in audacity before, I don't experience any sudden stopping while singing to the guitar track. But lately, when browsing the internet using google chrome, while like 10-15 tabs is open, and youtube or itunes, music tends to stop frequently like it's beating, like it plays little by little and on itunes it's like repeating the song, just like a broken cd.

I'm worried, please help
 
If I said "no, it won't handle your recordings" what would you be able to do about it?

Start recording is my advice, and ditch Audacity for a multi-track DAW. Audacity is an audio editor.

Your machine should be fine as long as you leave the virtual instruments out of it and go easy on the plug ins... compressor, reverb, EQ etc and use them in a way that minimises processing overload. More RAM is always useful and the 5200 drive could cause you issues, especially as it's half full already... but if that's what you've got, that's what you've got. Read up on optimising the OS for audio recording.

Good luck
 
I know that audacity is a bit shitty that's why I'm asking for guidance to develop my working environment.

My style of music is acoustic so very often I'm just gonna use, guitars and vocals, then some enhancers for the tracks, and with the new DAW that I'm gonna have, I'll use some guitar eq, like guitar rig.
 
IMHO the first thing you should do is get rid of Vista.

I have just updated from XP to W7/64 (get 64 bits, costs no more) and there is no easy path but you can just overwrite Blister with W7 which is a much "leaner" OS. For instance you don't get (and don't need) all that Windows Live baggage for music.

Since you have a "marginal" PC look at turning off all the frills like Aero and other display pretties. Set for "Best Performance" not Best appearance .
Kill all Windows sounds.
Kill OnBoard Soundcard.
Remove all anti-virus software and install Microsoft SE.
Make sure all power control setting are defeated (as far as you are allowed!)
Screen turns off "never"
HDD turns off "never".

Yes, ditch Audacity. There Can be Only One (in this instance) Reaper. Very small basic program and low CPU hit.

I know you are looking at an AI package but DO look at the Steinberg UR22 and check the $$$ numbers overall.

Have fun!

Dave.
 
rrestrella_ said:
I'm not really a techy person, and I don't really know what dsp is (i'm sorry) so I'm just gonna tell you what I usually do before on audacity.
Click to expand...

DSP stands for Digital Signal Processing. It covers anything that changes your sound in real time such as EQ and dynamics inserts on a channel strip.

You should be alright, and if you do find yourself needing an extra bit of processing power in the future, you can always upgrade. I'm still going on the same laptop I got in 2008 and I do a similar level of production to you (although I have access to a fully kitted studio for when I need to do processor heavy stuff!)

Dave
 
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