Laptop recording. Mac or PC?

[twodaydrive]

I am looking to upgrade my laptop setup. Up until now I have been using PC with my M-Audio Fast Track Pro. I am going to be recording my next record between several different cities so I unfortunately have to do this on a laptop for travel's sake. As far as laptop's go, what should I be looking for processor wise? RAM wise? etc.. mac or pc?

I currently use Adobe Audition 3.0, but am looking to possibly switch over to either cubase, or pro-tools m-powered.

Any opinions or help will be much appreciated.

 

[Bristol Posse]

Depends how much research and tweaking you want to do and how much you have to spend

I'm a PC guy for desktops (in fact I even build them for my self and others) but as far as laptops go:

Out of the box a macbook/pro is going to give you far less headaches. the BIOS and resource allocation is far better executed on a macbook because it is essentially the same as an imac, which is also built with laptop components.

What that means is that if you know a setup works on an imac then it will work on a macbook/pro however with a PC laptop, while you can spec out a PC laptop the same as a macbook, the horrible bios and resource allocation make it a crapshoot as to whether it will work nice with your interface.

If you want to stay with a PC laptop either buy from an audio computer manufacturer who will test for compatability or get ready to deal with a lot of turning off hardware and changing IRQ allocations to try and get it to work

 

[twodaydrive]

Thanks so much! Your information is VERY helpful. I've been leaning towards a Macbook Pro so it look's like I'll be sticking with that.

 

[dgatwood]

My gut reaction would have been, "Don't use a laptop," but it sounds like you don't have a choice, so.... I think you're making a good choice hardware-wise.

I would probably not suggest either of the two audio apps you're choosing, though.

M-Powered's biggest problem is that it limits you to M-Audio's interfaces. They're all fairly low end, and if you want to upgrade to better hardware, there go all your projects unless you go with Digi's hardware (which is way overpriced for what you get, IMHO). And their inexpensive hardware will always be low end now that they are owned by Digi because they wouldn't want to compete with the higher-end Digi gear.

Cubase... well, maybe it's better than it used to be. I know that in previous versions, everyone always said that the Mac version took a back seat to fixing problems in the PC version, so it was pretty buggy. Not to mention that any software that requires a hardware dongle to function is just an accident waiting to happen when you're traveling around with a laptop. I make it a policy not to do business with companies that require dongles, and I encourage others to do likewise.

IMHO, You're probably better off using GarageBand for starting out, and if you outgrow its capabilities, either get Apple's Logic/Logic Express, or MOTU's Digital Performer (or its little brother, AudioDesk, which comes free with any MOTU audio interface).