Laptop question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Treeline
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Treeline

Treeline

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I just got a laptop and am trying to be an opportunist. So I figured I'd go shopping for something that could be a good interface for both the PC and the laptop, say, an Echo Mona, where the basic unit + another $200 would also get me a laptop adapter; it represents an "upgrade" path if I chose to go that way.

Problem is, I loaded n-track on the laptop and fired it up just for kicks (without a line in) and am reading background noise like all getout - I mean it's like -40dB. By way of comparison, my PC registers nothing (or nearly nothing) at rest.

1. What am I looking at?

2. Is an interface (such as an Echo Mona) likely to make this go away?

Unit is a standard Toshiba Satellite, Celeron 1.1 Ghz, 256 MB, 20 Gig drive, bells and whistles galore for its class. I'm assuming the soundcard (OK, "soundchip") has all the compromises you get when you thread a moderately high end gaming card though the eye of a needle.
 
Seems like it's the on-board sound that would cause the noise. The sound on my Dell Inspiron isn't great by any stretch of the imagination. You may want to play with n-track for a while before you decide to get a sound card for your laptop. Laptop hard drive speeds are usually much slower than their desktop counterparts, so that may limit the amount of work you can do.

Another thing, if you have a built in NIC, disable its connection. If a NIC is enabled, but has no cable hooked up, the OS constantly polls the card to see if a cable has been plugged in. This causes a hiccup in sound playback - particularly mp3's as they require more cpu to decode.
 
Yup- an external sound card should make the noise go away. Same deal with my Sony, only its much quieter and only in one channel. No noise at all with my USB device.

And ditto on playing with n-track for a while. See what your track and plugin count will be. That toshiba probably has a 5400rpm drive and they aren't impressive for recording. I love recording on my laptop, though, and you won't beat that extra $200 price tag IF you already need the upgrade for you PC. Its a good idea to do an upgrade that will work for both computers.

Take care,
Chris
 
Thanks!

I feel better already!

Any sound upgrade I do will be with the PC, but I'd like the option to take the laptop and the interface to a gig if I had a mind to. So that would be a maximum of four tracks (and likely only one or two) into the Toshiba. The Mona seems a nice match.

Your warnings about overextending the system are spot on; I've been doing that with n-track and my PC (9 tracks + reverb on each track = CPU lockup). So it's time to learn about the aux features, I guess; I really have only 2 reverb settings and that's about it. No reason not to apply one or two plugins instead of 8 or 9...
 
Chris -

What kind of USB device do you use, and are you happy with it?

Oren
 
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