what kind of laptop is decent for home recordings

I

ianbernacett

Member
So I have a 200-400$ budget to purchase a new laptop it's mainly for home recordings. Ideally I want to use my Tascam Portaone and connect it via analog to digital interface to this laptop using the Portaone as a mixer thus saving me time and money buying high biased tapes(there nearly impossible to find in town here). Any direction or feed back regarding what kind of laptop would be decent in doing so would be greatly appreciated, but I also want to know if anyone thinks using the tascam as a mixer would be a bad idea. I love the 4 track tape recording sound, but not the cost of doing it and the annoyance of rewinding a tape back and fourth. Also I would plan on recording with audacity or some other free program like cool edit if this has any relevance to this topic.
 
You posted the same thing in another forum..... What do you plan on doing with the computer? 200$ won't buy you a very powerful laptop.
 
I posted that thread before I posted this one. I figured it was way more relevant here, so I asked for someone to delete the previous thread because I could not do so myself. I said my price range was 200 to 400$ I'm not looking for something "very powerful" I'm looking for something affordable that works alright. Anyways if I was looking to spend 500$ or more I would just buy some studio time. Any suggestions!
 
ianbernacett said:
I posted that thread before I posted this one. I figured it was way more relevant here, so I asked for someone to delete the previous thread because I could not do so myself. I said my price range was 200 to 400$ I'm not looking for something "very powerful" I'm looking for something affordable that works alright. Anyways if I was looking to spend 500$ or more I would just buy some studio time. Any suggestions!
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Oh ok. When I asked what do you plan on doing with the computer, i mean, how do you plan to use it? Like, will you plan on recording using the Portaone then sending it to the interface? Are recording through your interface, then sending your tracks to the Portaone to mix there? I don't even know the outputs of the Portaone. I know they are RCA but how many are there?
 
There's just one line out which is two RCAs which connects to the line in on the interface another 2 RCAs I'll have the instruments and microphones running into the portastudio, but will actually be recording on the laptop via audacity or some other free program.
 
ianbernacett said:
There's just one line out which is two RCAs which connects to the line in on the interface another 2 RCAs I'll have the instruments and microphones running into the portastudio, but will actually be recording on the laptop via audacity or some other free program.
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If you plan on using all the tracks to record a band. I would recommend against doing that. You might not be pleased with the audio quality. If you have 4 tracks that you record, and then send those tracks to the interface, you will limit yourself to 2 tracks and there is not much to do if you want to mix them. What interface do you have btw?
 
I have a Behringer UCA202, so lets say I don't do that idea. Is it possible for me to record four tracks on a tape and use the interface to upload them on the computer using audacity or am I limited to just 2 tracks ?
 
Your really just limited to 2 tracks at a time. You could record one or two tracks at a time, giving you more control over each track. But that may not be what you want. How much do you care about the audio quality? You may want to buy a better interface.
 
dang that stinks I could not just take a song I recorded which contained all four tracks and just upload them all straight to a computer? if not that blows really bad =/
I don't care too much about audio quality I'm just trying to make a demo right now it's been a pain though.
 
Well i mean, you can record all five tracks at once. They just won't be individual tracks. Meaning, you have to get your mix right before you record or you won't be able to change anything. And that's tough.
 
Does it look like this?

tascam4.jpg
 
I really appreciate you talking to me about this I cant find anything online about these questions, I have another one though haha if I were to mic three things a p.a. for vocals, one for drums, and a last for a guitar amp(I'm recording my band all at once) and they were all plugged in to the four track and recorded on three different tracks but at the same time could I use the interface to upload them all on a laptop to make them essentially one track on say audacity if so would I pan the first hard right, the second hard left, and the third hard right?
 
ianbernacett said:
I really appreciate you talking to me about this I cant find anything online about these questions, I have another one though haha if I were to mic three things a p.a. for vocals, one for drums, and a last for a guitar amp(I'm recording my band all at once) and they were all plugged in to the four track and recorded on three different tracks but at the same time could I use the interface to upload them all on a laptop to make them essentially one track on say audacity if so would I pan the first hard right, the second hard left, and the third hard right?
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Well i would actually leave all those things center if your going to record it like that. And if you use the Line Out then they will actually be 2 tracks. Left and Right. However, you could use the tape outs to have individual tracks giving you more control over the tracks when mixing IN THE COMPUTER. However, you said you don't really care about the quality. You can record the three things at once and turn it into two (left and right) tracks if thats what you want. If that is what you wan't, i'll go ahead and recommend a laptop. If you want to know how to use more control when mixing in the computer, i'll explain how you could use the tape outs.
 
ianbernacett said:
I'm down to learn how to use the tape outs.
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Ok so for this, your probably gonna need an interface with 4 inputs. If you want to record 4 tracks at a time, all you would need to do is hook up the outs from the Portaone to the ins of the interface. For a laptop, I recommend a Lenovo. I think I saw a model in the X-series for $400.
 
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