Making the switch to a laptop based system

[shockingcandy]

Hello all,

It seems I may have outgrown my trusty Tascam 2488 and assorted boxes. We pretty much maxed out all 24 tracks when recording the new album and so it's time to trade up.

I currently have a Dell Inspiron 6400 notebook (Core Duo 1.73GHz, 1GB Ram, 120GB 5400rpm HD etc) which I've mainly been using for mastering (Sound Forge 6) as well as artwork etc.

I'm looking for an interface with at least 8 mic pres but I've read that the Ricoh Firewire chipset isn't great for audio so I'm looking at the Tascam us-1641. I know some people have had problems with the drivers.

Does anyone have any experience of using the device with i) a laptop ii) Intel mainboard chipset?

Software wise I already have FLStudio 8 which runs fine but isn't great with high track counts due to poor disk streaming so I will probably utilise the bundled Cubase LE 4 for multitracking and use FL when I want to do something a little more electronic.

Comments and experiences with simaler welcome.

Ben

 

[TimOBrien]

You ONLY want to use a TexasInstruments firewire chipset. If you've got a PCMCIA or ExpressCard slot, you can put a TI-chipped card in there.

Just as with desktops you want to work off the internal boot drive with all data streaming from an external 7200rpm fast drive.
(OS and apps on the boot drive, sample libraries on a secondary drive and recording data on a separate external drive.)

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I use a Gateway P4 2.8Ghz XP laptop (built-in TI firewire chips) with a Motu828mkII daisy-chained to a Glyph firewire drive for recording and a USB2 Seagate 500Gb drive for sample libraries.

ZERO problems.

 

[shockingcandy]

Thanks for you reply Tim. What I really want to hear about though is people's experiences with the us1641 and a laptop / Intel USB 2.0 chipset though.