is this a good laptop for audio?

[Cmaj7]

first: hello everyone!

second: i'd like to buy a laptop and equip it with a pcmca or fireware audio interface. I need it as a portable multitrack recording/editing system and also to perform something simple on stage; the soundcard i like the most is the Layla 24 by Echoaudio because i found a lot of enthusiastic reviews.

is this one a good choice? -> Toshiba 2410-303

Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 - M 1.7 GHz
(Front Side Bus : 400 MHz)

ram: 256 MB DDR (max 1024)

Hard disk : 30 GB

CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Display : 15.0 " TFT

NVIDIA GeForce4™ 420 Go 32 MB


on the toshiba italian website is 1800 euros, including taxes [near the same in dollars]

in your opinion is this a good machine? Can i expect low latency?

And what about the new Apple iBooks?


thank you in advance.
Cmaj7

 

[TexRoadkill]

No computers are really very good for live production. A dedicated HDR would be a better solution.

With that in mind, sure it's as good as any laptop. I would get at least 512MB of RAM.

What is your concern with latency? Softsynths, sample playback? It really isnt an issue unless you are going to be triggering stuff live.

 

[Cmaj7]

well, live performance does not matter that much, since i am now rebuilding my band after some "turbolence" . by the way, i won't do more than send stereo tracks to the main mixer and click to my crazy drummer...so...

i think the latency issue would be important in real-time monitoring...i suppose.

by the way, what i want to know is: is this toshiba laptop capable of managing 12-14 tracks, plugins and dinamics-wise?
Of course i will add an external fast drive and plenty of ram...

i am also considering iBooks because of their extreme portability, but they'r probably LESS powerful than the wintel laptops. Probabily powerbooks are ok but they are not that cheap, you know

 

[adam]

by the way, what i want to know is: is this toshiba laptop capable of managing 12-14 tracks, plugins and dinamics-wise?
Of course i will add an external fast drive and plenty of ram...

i am also considering iBooks because of their extreme portability, but they'r probably LESS powerful than the wintel laptops. Probabily powerbooks are ok but they are not that cheap, you know

It should. I used to use an IBMp3 700 256 and could get playback of 20-35 tracks with 5-15 plug-ins. I now have an hp p4 1.4 512 and I have gotten up to 35-50 tracks (not all continuous of course) with 10-20 plug-ins. The only problem I find is when using the spectrum analyzer on timeworks eq, a high quality plug in. Play back stutters in graphic mode, but not in standard mode. All at 16/41. The tracks I have been working on were started with a 16/48 card so I haven't been able to record in 24/96 yet. will likely try it this weekend or over the holidays.

I have also been able to record up to 6 tracks at a time w/ no problem. This isn't the limit, I simply haven't done any more.

All this is with the stock harddrive btw.

Using an RME multiface