Laptop Questions?

[chizzle]

I'm intersted in purchasing a laptop...
I'm currently running Adobe Audition on my desk top. But I'd like to go with a notebook for those times when I want to work on my stuff while on travel or sometimes while I'm at work.

Does anyone know anything about the "Averatec" line of notebooks? I'm looking at a notebook with Amd Athlon
XP-M 2800+ processor running @ 2.8 Ghz, 512 for memory and 40GB hard drive.

What exactly should I be looking for? My budget is $1000. And what else will I need? I'd like to go into my interface via USB.

Any suggestions?

 

[minofifa]

depending on how many tracks you want to record, usb would probably work. i really hate to admit it, as i used usb and back it up for a long time, but it can be annoying sometimes... at least the tascam us-122 can be. it gave me some hassle sometimes but all-in-all it worked great. i would recommend it to somebody looking to record no more than 2 tracks at a time. Another usb choice would be an m-audio usb interface.

as for the computer, it sounds pretty good. i hve 512 ram on my old computer and it works fine. I have reached its limit sometimes but it is definately workable. the only suggestion i would make is to try hard to fit a larger hard drive into your budget. the biggest gripe i have of my laptop is its 40 gig drive, it fills up way too fast. also make sure you get a speedy hard drive, at least 7200 rpm. I know some lap tops come with slower hard drives around 5400 rpm.

 

[chizzle]

Cool.....thanks yeah I only record one track at a time. On some rare instances I'll do two, but one is sufficient for my needs. So I guess I need to spend more to insure Drive size and speed hunh?

 

[minofifa]

yeah, it blows when your hard drive is full. then you have to resort to lugging an external drive around, or durning a million dvd's or something. Only requiring one input will save you some money, you should look for a soundcad with good A/D converters and a good built in preamp, or buy a nice separate one channel preamp with the money you'd save from buying a multi-input sound card. a joemeek or a rnp would boost your quality hugely. Oh yeah, one more thing you will want with your portable laptop recording system is a nice set of cans. I got a $100 pair of audio-technica headphones and noticed a world of difference.... probably one of the best parts of my system.

happy shopping

 

[syrupcore]

dont most usb interfaces have some severe latency issues? If you can afford a firewire interface, go fer it.

will

 

[Polaris20]

I'd recommend not spending too much on a laptop, since most any modern one can do quite a few tracks without crapping out, especially with AA and it's freeze function. I'd personally do one of Best Buy's $499 Toshiba specials, and add the warranty, swap the drive, and add some RAM. For $750 you'd have an ass kicking machine.

 

[minofifa]

ya polaris is probably right. my computer is 3 years old and it does fine for recording up to at least 24 tracks with plug ins. it is a toshiba satellite with 512 ram and a 1.7 ghz pIV.

I thought the latency was pretty good with the tascam us-122. it has both wDM and ASIO drivers. It may not be the best for software realtime monitoring but it has built in hardware monitoring which works quite well. Firewire does work well though, maybe check out m-audio's firewire lineup if you get a laptop that supports it.