Laptop Studio - Need Help Deciding on Hardware & Software

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MoBettaBlues

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Hello All!

I've decided to go the laptop route with my home/mobile studio. I want to be able to record 6 mics at a time for live drums.

I am 95% certain I want to go with a Mac (am open to suggestions) and I need recomendations on the following:

1) Which Mac
15" G4?
512 or 1G Ram?
80G Hard Drive?
2) I have no clue what audio interface/sound card I should get or need.

3) Software?

4) Monitors?

I'll decide on mics later.

My goal is to keep my cost down low enough to still get a quality system/software that could produce a CD worhty of selling (assuming I can do my part).

This is for personal use only.

I hope to keep the cost around $2500 - 3000.

Thanks in advance.
 
blues. before you spend big money, i would suggest you demo a new amd64 laptop and maybe a firewire interface. the amd 64 is phenominally fast.
all i'm saying is dont make a hasty decision. demo a mac and an amd 64
laptop, do real number crunching tests on both. also talk to people around the net using the amd64. the early results are amazing for high speed
processing and fft which is what audio needs. as well as track counts
and bumber of plug ins.
provided of course you use fast hard drives. at least 7200 rpm.
stay away from laptops with slower 5400 rpm drives.
as always i recommend what i use. powertracks from pgmusic.com.
try running it on an amd64 and i think youll be highly impressed.
a superb midi and digital audio sequencer that does 48 tracks for 29 bucks. the money you save you can put where it counts, in a high quality
set of mics and preamps. if you think i'm lying talk to some users on the powertracks forum at pg. ive search the world for a better value and yet to find it. the other advantage of going amd 64 is youll be able to use a lot of plug ins (many free) that are available for the pc.
as i said keep an open mind and demo a amd 64 running powertracks.
i think youll be impressed.
 
Manning1,
I am open minded. I would like to investigate your recomendation. Any details you can provide would be helpful as I am not familiar with AMD. If Possible:

1) Which laptop with AMD64 and where can I try it out as you suggested?

2) What other interface would I need to have 6 mics at a time?
 
ya i am gonna second the AMD laptop if a laptop is what you want. For a soundcard (firewire) if you can afford it, go for the MOTU MK. That thing is awsome for around 700 bucks i think. keep in my, with almost any soundcard you choose you will need a preamp(s) as well. Aardvark some with some preamps but have not heard much about them recently. it looks like echo is coming out with a firewire unit as well so wait and see about that.
 
blues there are lots of vendors selling amd64 laptops.
gateway is one for example. or see a local computer dealer.
just search on google for "amd 64 laptop portable".
dont rush into it .
take your time. get at least 512 ram in it.
if you CAN - i would try and rent a laptop.
play around with powertracks and get a feel for it.
pgmusic offers an unconditional return 30 day policy on powertracks i now see from their web site.
try and get the same from a amd64 seller.
or some dealers will let you try it based on returning it if your not happy.
ONE KEY point of success. lets say your going motu for example -
ASK MOTU tech support which one of the many amd 64 laptops THEY RECOMMEND. to cover yourself. ie: RULE - whatever sound solution you go for ask them which amd 64 laptop is most suited to run with their sound firewire soluttion. see what i mean. STAY AWAY FROM USB .
its TOO SLOW and too many probs people have had.
if and when you get an amd64 laptop MAKE SURE that dma is enabled on the hard drive. SOME DEALERS FORGET/or dont set it up has been my experience with some friends tower pc's.
 
well i checked gateway and it seems i'm wrong. no amd64 laptops.
i would call best buy . i think compaq have one also there are white box sellers.
 
blues . i think youll find this mihjty interesting....
amd 64 laptop as a recording studio link
www.digitalaudiowave.com/index. asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=277 - 76k
page down the page for the DAWin 6400 model.
i dont know this vendor. its just an example i came across.
note - when i delved further it seems they have reduced the price 300 bucks.
BUT you do your own reaearch there are loads of laptop vendors.
 
Laptop hard drives are 4200 RPM. I've never seen one that wasn't.

I could be wrong, but like I said I've never seen one.

So if you can I would recomend getting an external USB 2.0 hard drive for your audio.

Just my 2 cents...

Edit - never mind. I can see by Manning1's link that there are in fact 5200 and 7200 RPM drives for laptops.

Shows you how long it's been since I bought a laptop :eek:
 
I'm using an Acer Aspire 1624, 3.4Ghz, 1Gb DDR333 Ram, 80Gb HD (7200 Bpm). I'm very happy at the moment, the system seems to be very fast. One further advice, if you're bounded on a firewire soundcard, try to find a laptop with 6 pin firewire, otherwise (4 pin, like mine) you'll have to use a power supply with your soundcard.

Good luck.
 
blues - i did a further google.
from what i see hp, compaq, eurocom and acer and i think emachines make amd laptops as well as quite a few others in the works. but i would still ask motu or whoevers sound solution you go with which amd64 laptop they recommend. thats the simple less hassle way. because the sound card manufacturer tecchies prolly are using some amd's themselves by this time.
thats gonna be one fast mother of a daw.
yes - vestast - you can go 7200 rpm. it would be daft - a vendor would be laughed at putting a amd64 in a laptop with a slow drive.
blues - this is a whole new very exciting time for daw users with this fast amd64. but just be cautious and thorough in your reserarch.
like most tech its very new. so make sure you have good warranties and return policy on the laptop. in fact it might make sense to wait a couple of months , and see the results other daw users are getting with this great new amd chip based laptops. ie : talk to lots of people.
peace.
 
Excellent information! Thank you all very much.

If I may ask a question that I am sure has been asked many times:

Is the quality of "Power Tracks" as good as say "Pro Tools" or "Cubebase"?
......and could I take a "file" that was recorded using "Power Tracks" and take it to a studio using ie "Protools" for additional work (ie to record drum tracks)?
(I'm sure my ignorance is obvious)

I am very interested in "Power Tracks". The price is concerning me. Too good to be true? (I am open minded though)

Thanks!
 
laptop hard drives

I found one laptop that had a 7200RPM hard drive for a premium price. I've been considering a laptop setup for mobility and I guess I'd need a fast MB, at least 512MB of RAM (true for audio on any computer) and maybe a firewire card to hook up an audio interface and an external drive. The external drive provides a couple of advantages: you could get a less expensive 40G 4200RPM drive and get the external drive for less than the cost difference between the 4200RPM machine and a machine + the price of the 7200RPM drive (which is only available on higher end -- more expensive -- laptops in my limited research), and it would connect to my desktop after I got everything home. So it would come down to selecting an interface/control surface for the maximum tracks...but I haven't got that far yet!
 
blues - just try the demo of powertracks.
the QUALITY has nothing to do with powertracks (which will record in highest quality 24 bit if you wish but i dont as i like to conserve DISC SPACE)
the sound quality purely depends on the quality of the sound card or firewire solution one buys and the mics and preamps or mixers.
there are people using lynx sound cards (very very expensive) with powertracks and getting superb results.
DONT BE PUT OFF BY THE PRICE. i was at first and its a blind alley.
i dont know pg's policies ,. i think maybe to get broad market acceptance.
on the protools export issue if you did drum tracks in powertracks you could mix them down, export as a stereo wave file , and burn to cd and import into pro tools.
pro tools has its own proprietary format. so powertracks of course has its own as well called a SEQ file. which saves all the audio and midi track settings and mixer settings. every sequencer has its own way of doing things.
just try the demo and fall in love with it like i did years ago.
what i love is the upgrade policy. when i upgrade top a new version its 19 bucks. anyway if you think i'm lying go to the powertracks forum at pgmusic, and talk to other users whove used competitive products like pro tools,cubase and many others. ive tried them all. but i want you to get other opinions so you see i'm not lying. imho powertracks is a steal for the price.
 
Manning1,
I'm not calling you out, by no means, just trying to educate myself. I am most certainly going to investigate this setup. It makes getting this going even easier.

I appreciate the help, and respect your experience and informed opinions and advice immensly!
 
blues two things. when you download powertracks demo make sure of the following set up tips...
1. you will notice "TY" on each track. you click the ty symbol on the
particular track (ty means type of recording) if you notice starting up
you get what looks like midi plugs. click these to record in mono audio (icon changes) or stereo (two waveforms) or leave as it is to record a midi track.
what i do is i have a TEMPLATE i save so for each new song i dont have to identify what type of tracks i'm recording. for example you could set up a template (48 tracks remember) with 24 mono audio tracks, 12 stereo audio tracks and 12 midi tracks. very flexible.
2. also there is a device drivers dialogue and powertracks will scan the sound card. MAKE SURE YOU TELL POWERTRACKS which midi and audio drivers to use. as in most multitrackers.
really investigate the extensive built in editing functions and effects.
and things like the noise gate for example which has saved me many times with a noisy guitar amp. also when laying down vocals. i usually do two tracks of vocals. (doubling) and apply a bit of powertracks echo or rvb to one and leave other dry. and mix to please.
just read the extensive help. this is a pro package all the way with lots of deep features not first apparent like the ability to make your own midi drum tracks. too much to list on a bbs i'm afraid. if you get STUCK just put my name in your header post hear and i'll try and answer because there are 10001 tricks hidden in powertracks.
peace.
 
also you dont have to wait to try powertracks till you get your laptop.
just find a pc of a friend or relative and download the demo and start familiarising all the different features. theres lots of features to explore.
whch will keep you busy for quite a few weeks. its an easy learning curve however.
i should say even though i'm a humble happy powertracks user i'm also a computer engr for eons prolly before a lot of folks on here were born. and as such i have the greatest technical respect for the people at pg that programmed this great software. i DO know a great technical effort due to my experience in hi tech, this is why i recommend it.
day in day out it never crashes on me EVER. i hope you have the same happy experience.
 
Much appreciated.

One question:

Currently I scratch my ideas down and record live using a mini disk recorder. (The quality of the sound is pretty impressive)

Could I download a recording from the mini disk to Power Tracks just to play around with the demo version? (although it would be into the mic input on my laptop)

I'm currently using a Dell Insperion 9100 laptop, Pentium 4 2.8, 512RAM, 60G hd.
 
yep. if you already have a laptop why bother getting a new one ?
that one should run powertracks like a bunny rabbit being a p4..
line out of mini disc >>>line in of sound card laptop. powertracks - from now for easier typing (us users call it ptpa) will show you the level coming into the sound card.
set ty in track 1 to stereo wave and hit the recording button.
of course stop to stop. then explore all the editing functions.
after recording click the waveform icon in the toolbar.
then record more tracks if you have a mic >>>mixer>>>sound card line input.
up in the menus ptpa will tell you how many tracks the p4 will do.
i suspect at least the full 48.
unless its a junky drive. which i doubt as its a p4.
 
Awsome, I'm there!

I'll keep you posted.

I'm still going to invest in another laptop. We just bought this one last week and the wife would ring my neck if I decided to take this one somewhere and she decided to use it while I was out.

Well worth the money.
 
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