few questions from a novice

[DrewUberAlles]

I recently purchased a dell xps laptop and plan to purchase pro tools for it but i need to know a few things before I start spending my college dollars.

Question #1) My system has wicked specs (4G ram, dual 2.4 proc) But with my system running Vista will that be enough to run a limited lag session? I want to be able to have a monitor playback of like 20 tracks while recording. Or is it possible to run pro tools from linux and I free up my proccesses?

Question #2) If / when I get my pro tools set up, What are the Must haves for plug ins? My buddy has drumagog and quantizing. I think I will get both but I didn't know if there were any other ones that you guys couldn't do without.

Thanks,
Drew

[Steenamaroo]

hi there,

the only thing i can offer is that digidesign have a very very specific list of "qualified hardware" and it seems if you're gear doesn't qualify,,,you won't receive any help from them,

it may be worth a look on the digidesign website to see if your gear is good to go.

other than that,,i've run xp and mac both on 2.4ghz c2d system w/ 4g ram and they've both been flawless with many softsynths and vsts
unfortunately, i can't comment on vista.


as far as plugins go, its really just what suits your needs,,,,but personally i have waves platinum and rely heavily on the eq's, compressors, and reverbs.

good luck.

[ace516]

well i've got 1.8 gigs of ram running Vista Home Premium.
mmm not really much lag, just gotta make sure you're not running anything else...optimize it a little.



ur video card has also a lot to do with the performance.
.. pro tools + linux = eeeh.
...20 tracks? i've been trying it with 12, works fine, but c'mon.. we're pushing it by adding plugins.

[Steenamaroo]

i have to agree with the video card reference,,,it's one thing i ignored for years but recently i upgraded from onboard intel chipset, to a 512mb pcie nvidia,,and the performance of protools rocketed!!!

the card was only about £20 too,,,,7600gs.

[ace516]

swear???

aaagh. if only i would of NOT gotten an integrated NVIDIA card.
time to upgrade then

hey guys, seriously remember this: buy cheap, buy twice.
i'm still not learning..

[Steenamaroo]

swear,

so much so that a week later i upgraded my dads mx400 :P.


he was still using the graphics card he had 4/5 computers ago! lol

[DrewUberAlles]

Yeah I upgraded to the 256Mb for memory but it is a laptop rather than desktop. I knew I would be using and abusing this machine so I went all out...trust me.