I need help with buying equipment

[mjsinc6]

I just got a new laptop and I was wondering if it will work for any recording program.

Toshiba Satellite A105-S4324

Processor:
Processor Type - Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed - 1.60 GHz

Operating System - XP Media Center 2005

Memory Size - 1536 MB

Hard Drive Size - 160 GB

Hard Drive Speed - 4200 rpm

First of all, will this laptop work well?

...and I need recommendations on what other equipment I will need. (in general)

[warble2]

Not an ideal laptop for recording (but not completely undo-able), but first, what are you hoping to do as far as recording? How many tracks are you hoping to record at one time? Do you have expectations?

EDIT: I misread the specs a little - sorry. It seems to be a decent laptop, but still, what are you hoping to record?

[mjsinc6]

Well i dont need to do too many at one time. and I'm not sure what I'm doing but i would need enough room for a couple guitar tracks, loop drums, bass, vocals.
please tell me everything you recommend if you were in my position (equipment, extra comp stuff...)

[mjsinc6]

What are the 100% necessary pieces of equipment for recording?

[RandyW]

I would go with a Motu Ultralite interface very decent, hi reviews and ony $550.
A good set of monitors and some headphones.
Mics as required the sky is the limit here.
Your gonna need a second hard drive something that spins at 7200rpm's to record your music to 4200 would give disasterous results.
And your also going to need a pgm: Sonar 6, Cubase etc
You will probably need a external preamp or DI for voice and Bass.
I guess you can plan on spending 2 to 3 times what you payed for the computer
to get you started. I bought one of the Tascam FW1028's to use with my laptop. It is on the bulky side but is really nice at what it does. They also throw in a budget version of Cubase with it.

[mjsinc6]

ok...i assume that i would have to start with the second harddrive? and then ,in order, how should i make my purchases?

[warble2]

Can't recommend a hard drive, but can recommend this:

Interface: Echo AudioFire 4
http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/Fi...ire4/index.php

You're looking at about $300 or less here, but I love Echo products and own a Layla 3G. Underrated stuff IMO. The audio fire will give you six ins/six outs and two decent pre-amps as well. I use the pre's on my Layla, and sound decent and should be the same pre's.

Mics: a lot of options here. I own CAD M177's and they are great mics that work on a variety of different sources. You're looking at about $100 for one. The CAD is a large diaphragm condenser mic, and requires phantom power (which the Echo AudioFire 4 will provide for). There are what seems like millions of options in the budget condenser category, but I stand by the recommendation of the CAD.

Doesn't hurt to have the old stand-by dynamics either - Shure SM58 or SM57. I have a few of each I use live, and in the studio from time to time.

Software: you could opt for the higher priced stuff (Sonar, Cubase, etc.), but if you're just getting going, I'd look seriously at Reaper:
http://reaper.fm/

Lots of people love this application. I tried it and thought it was pretty cool myself, but use Sonar 6 for my work.

Buy a decent pair of closed-ear headphone for monitoring. There have been a zillion recommendations for "cans" around here. I use a pair of AudioTechnica MTH-M40fs cans and love them for tracking. Do a search for MoreMe's around here - a cheaper and useful option.

Monitoring: a pair of powered monitors would be important for mixing. Again, a zillion recommendations for those around here as well. I use a pair of Tannoy Reveals with a Hafler TA1600 amp (the amp is not longer available). Works for me. Whatever you get, you "learn" the monitors and work your mixes to help them translate to other systems (boom-boxes, car stereos, etc.)

And now if you really want to dive in, let's talk acoustic treatment:
http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

Good luck and have fun with it. But beware - soon the disease will infest you - the one where you can't stop buying new and better gear!

[RandyW]

I bought a 7200rpm external USB from Tiger for about $100 bucks last month.
It is 250GB extremely quiet. Brand was somethin like microdrive, if you want I'll check when I get home.

[RandyW]

You might want to check out Reaper for your DAW, I just downloaded a shareware version and it looks pretty clean. You can't beat the price.
A free 30 day eval for the full version. $40.00 if you think it is worth supporting.
I've just been playing around with it on at work on typical underpowered work computer and it seems to load real fast and from what I hear it is not super CPU extensive.

[TexRoadkill]

Figure out which soundcard or interface you are going to use and then buy a computer that they recomend. Sometimes you can have weird errors with certain motherboards and processors. It's not as bad as it used to be but it would suck to a get a new laptop that has USB or Firewire driver issues.

[Soundmind??]

You may have some challenges with drivers with Windows Media Edition. May want to try and upgrade to XP Pro or possibly Vista. Recording software makers are quickly adapting to Vista.

[warble2]

Originally Posted by Soundmind??

You may have some challenges with drivers with Windows Media Edition. May want to try and upgrade to XP Pro or possibly Vista. Recording software makers are quickly adapting to Vista.

People around here have got the interfaces working with MCE, so while it *might* be a challenge, it's doable.

[Goodwin Audio]

MCE sucks for pro-audio. I have gain woeful stories of driver issues and PC crashes. I am now having to upgrade to XP Pro. The only interface I have gotten to work about 99% percent of the time is Line6 UX2. Does that suck? Yes!

[cortexx]

Originally Posted by RandyW

I bought a 7200rpm external USB from Tiger for about $100 bucks last month.
It is 250GB extremely quiet. Brand was somethin like microdrive, if you want I'll check when I get home.

The internal hard drive that came with your laptop will do fine , putting a 7200 rpm hard drive at the end of a USB cable is not going to get you full transfer speed . The transfer rate from the internal bus through the IDE or SATA (in some newer laptops) to the 160gb 4500 drive far exceeds any external drive ( with the exception of the new external sata only seen on higher priced Desktop PC's).

I would use the external drive for STORAGE alone , not for editing on though. Edit and master on your internal drive then transfer to external drive for safekeeping.

The MOTU ultralite is the mini version of the 828mkII that I use and it is an amazing piece of kit , I love it , it does use firewire though so if your laptop doesnt have firewire you'll need to purchase a PCMCIA firewire card to run it .

Take a look at yorkvilles monitors , great gear at a very descent price.

save some cash for decent interconnects . People always overlook their cables and it's a mistake to buy great gear and use cheap cables

good luck with your new hobby

[cortexx]

Originally Posted by Goodwin Audio

MCE sucks for pro-audio. I have gain woeful stories of driver issues and PC crashes. I am now having to upgrade to XP Pro. The only interface I have gotten to work about 99% percent of the time is Line6 UX2. Does that suck? Yes!

thats funny

Windows MCE is based on Windows XP pro , in fact Home , MCE and PRO are all the same kernal , operating system . The difference between them ( if you can call it a difference ) is the add on modules that come with each version. Pro has the ability to logon to a domain and manage dynamic drive partitions amongst other things , MCE can also be made to do this plus it comes with the graphical interface that allows you output the video signal to a TV without making your TV run crying to it's momma due to high resolutions and small fonts.

The only different version of windows XP is the 64 bit version , and you only really take advantage of this on a full 64bit hardware platform ( IE the itanium processors for example) . practically all other processors ( amd 64 , intel core 2 duos ) are 32 bit processors with a 64 bit instruction layer built into them they are NOT 64 bit architecture processors at all, they just use a 64bit data bus .

[Carter]

Originally Posted by cortexx

thats funny

Windows MCE is based on Windows XP pro , in fact Home , MCE and PRO are all the same kernal , operating system . The difference between them ( if you can call it a difference ) is the add on modules that come with each version. Pro has the ability to logon to a domain and manage dynamic drive partitions amongst other things , MCE can also be made to do this plus it comes with the graphical interface that allows you output the video signal to a TV without making your TV run crying to it's momma due to high resolutions and small fonts.

.

You beat me to it, XP pro is not an upgrade from XPMCE, on top of that I run MCE and I have no problems running anything with it........some people just dont have the knowledge on setting up a computer for recording