Laptop audio is perfectly viable- it is just a *completely* different world than desktop audio.
The main reason is that laptops are darn near impossible to upgrade at all. Second to that is that a laptop can cost twice as much as a desktop and have little more than half the performance. It just isn't a good deal - UNLESS you only have a laptop or you need the portability.
Since you are stuck with what you get in a laptop purchase it carfully if you have the choice. If you already have it...hope for the best. You can almost always get *something* out of it, but how much depends on a whole lot of factors: drive speed, bus speed, amount of RAM, etc.
Then the first thing you have to deal with is getting audio in and out of it since the onboard sound cards are never good enough. There are a growing number of devices out there now, but you have to be really careful about which one you buy. USB and Firewire audio is really new so there aren't a whole lot of experienced folks yet to offer good advice. Each device is optimized for different recording habits, though, so research them carefully.
I have
a Tascam US-428 running into a Sony Vaio PIII 800 w/ 256 RAM and a 7200rpm drive. Audio runs on its own Windows ME install that is optimized for just audio. The US-428 hiccups occasionally when I am recording all 4 of its inputs at once, but I can usually avoid that by defragging regularly. It works like a charm at 2 tracks in- which is what I usually do. I haven't used the midi much yet, though, so I can't comment on how reliable that is.
I tested this system out and it maxs out at 22 tracks at 24 bits, 44.1kHz (with Cubase VST 5.1). Recording gets hairy around 16 tracks since you are nearing the disks capacity to read back that much audio. All that is without effects...which are mostly processor load, anyway.
With a desktop you could buy a faster hard drive, a motherboard with a faster bus, even make sure your different hard drives are on seperate cables. With a laptop you are stuck with what you have and either find some trick to squeeze one more drop of performance out of it or deal with the limitations.
They are different worlds. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Given that I could get 2 times more performance for my money out of a desktop, I still LOVE my laptop studio. But then, I wanted a laptop anyway and use it for a variety of other things, too.
Like recording while I am traveling on my holiday vacation, playing tunes through friends' stereos with the headphone out, and typing long posts...
Happy Solstice, (yup, this is the longest night of the year right now. Get out the coffee!)
Chris
