Laptop as sequencer

[SupertedJP]

Thanks! That's given me some food for thought...

[SupertedJP]

I want a sequencer which is cheap and portable for live applications. One option is a P90 laptop with 40MB RAM. Would this, coupled with a parallel port interface, do the trick, or would the computer breakdown and cry? I would like to be able to have 16 or 32 tracks, to sequence a Roland JP8000 and XP30.

[drstawl]

My P90 with 24 MB RAM and a parallel port MIDI interface worked fine with the 2 ports (32 channels) on my Canvas. No sobbing involved. (at least on my part)
Get some Cake to go with that laptop.

[saxman]

If you take a laptop to a gig, you'll have to worry about a variety of interference sources (blender, cash register) sending a power spike and hosing your sequences mid-song. Why not record them to mini-disc and play that back a live accompaniment? Easier to manage and a lot more stable, and the difference in fidelity will be negligible given the ambient noise.

[drstawl]

No doubt it would be worthwhile to bring along a UPS and run the laptop and synth from that.