A plan!

A

andydeedpoll

i do love smilies...
Hullo,

I'm moving out soon, and need to seriously 'compact' my studio, and thought it'd be a pretty good oppertunity to try something different/new. I think I'm going to get a macbook (mac for the first time! I'm quite excited) - I was going to get one of the 'older' ones, which still have firewire, I believe. i've decided this because they're cheaper, especially with the student discount, and because I'd quite like to use an alesis iO26 - they look to have a lot of features for the price, and I've read they're well built/generally work well.

I was going to upgrade to having 4gb of ram, partition the hard drive (standard 120gb) so I could still use it for internet/uni stuff, and use my current harddrive (180gb) as backup/storage for the recording side of things. I was actually thinking of only using the 'audio' side of the inbuilt harddrive for individual songs, and then dumping it back over on to the bigger hard drive. I don't know why this feels like a good system, but it does :p

Has anyone got any suggestions? Do you think I need all that ram? I can afford it, I think, and I suppose you 'can't really have enough'? haha.
 
Why did you decide to go for the mac approach?

Nothing wrong with it (well, not strictly ;)), I just wondered why you decided that was the better route?
 
Waffleness said:
Why did you decide to go for the mac approach?

Nothing wrong with it (well, not strictly ;)), I just wondered why you decided that was the better route?
Click to expand...

I've actually changed my mind on the mac thing, I think :p I use a desktop PC now, and I've got so much stuff that I'm still working on, and will be working on for a long time, I'd like to be able to just upgrade this computer. Alas, it's not going to work in the new house - I need to be able to get it to the library/gigs and things, which isn't going to happen with a desktop. It just sort of feels to make sense to stick with a PC, for the time being at least.

Though, it feels like I'm trying to go upstream without a paddle with the laptop thing, I don't have a clue what's good/bad. Any suggestions?:D

Andrew
 
Buying a laptop isnt much different to a desktop, you'll have to get a USB external sound interface though.

Just go all out to find a powerful CPU and at least 4GB of RAM. I would opt for a 17" screen, because I like to layout my DAW interface, but if you can get away with 15" then thats alright I guess.

I would say at least a 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo should be a goal. Also beware of bus speeds. 667 Mhz bus speeds will be slower than 800 Mhz bus speeds, but the PC could very well have the same (or similar) specs.

All depends on price really.
 
Ah yeah - I'm still sort of set on a firewire interface, but I assume you meant that too. I have one or two machines I'm looking at a bit more seriously now. Just need to find some money from somewhere, haha. Anyone want to buy a PC?:D

Andrew
 
yay yr going mac i felt i was the only one on home recording i was given an old e-mac but in november i got a really nice imac, now i just need an interface. btw if you wana save money you could get a refurbrished macbook for 750-950
 
Awesome, never thought of that. That opens up the oppertunities greatly! While you're here... :D Could you explain the 6pin/4pin? Should I be going for one or the other? Does it matter? Is there anything specific I should be looking for in a Cardbus thing?

Ta!

Andrew
 
Only difference between 4-pin and 6-pin Firewire is that 6-pin provides power, and most interfaces aren't bus-powered anyway (and a cardbus card wouldn't be able to provide enough power without an external power supply anyway). Soooo, it really doesn't matter. I guess its down to what cables you have :)

I didn't look too closely at the specs of that card but its recommended that you go for one with a TI (Texas-Instruments) Firewire chip in it. Also, steer clear of the combined USB/firewire ones.
 
mattr said:
Only difference between 4-pin and 6-pin Firewire is that 6-pin provides power, and most interfaces aren't bus-powered anyway (and a cardbus card wouldn't be able to provide enough power without an external power supply anyway). Soooo, it really doesn't matter. I guess its down to what cables you have :)

I didn't look too closely at the specs of that card but its recommended that you go for one with a TI (Texas-Instruments) Firewire chip in it. Also, steer clear of the combined USB/firewire ones.
Click to expand...

Ah great - have you got any ideas about specific cards?

Ta!

Andrew
 
Hi, sorry to keep bumping this up, I just want to confirm I'm looking at the right pieces of kit - I'd quite like to order tomorrow, and I'm a bit under confident about computers generally.

So..... http://www.cclonline.com/product-in...ory_id=266&manufacturer_id=0&tid=lx.tqh0z.482 this laptop, with http://www.inta-audio.com/pp/PC_Com..._-_IO/Belkin_3_Port_PCMCIA_Firewire_Card.html that card (do I need to spend so much?) with an http://www.dv247.com/invt/32250/ Alesis IO26.

How's that all sounding?

Thank you very much for any help.

Andrew
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top