Recommended Laptops For Recording Work

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Sam

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Can any experienced users out there recommend any good laptop->soundcard combinations for a new purchase. I know you need to be careful that the laptop motherboard and RAM is fast and of high quality.
Thanks in advance.
-Sam
 
Hi Sam,

The most important things are (in rough order)

1) 7200rpm hard drive!!! Trust me, the fast harddrive is the only thing that makes laptop recording at all cost-effective. Don't leave home without a 7200rpm drive!

2) Check on the expandability of the ram. I have 512 in mine and it runs great.

3) Must have both USB and Firewire. These are your doorways to prosumer soundcards. There are also PCMCIA options, but make sure you have the firewire, too.

4) Get a laptop with a CD burner.

For sound cards you have more options today than ever before. I use a Tascam US-428 USB 4in/2out device with a mixing consol. I love it! MOTU has a firewire device or two, though, that will give you 8 ins- pretty sexy. I don't know about any of the options, though, because I only have what I have. :)

Computer-wise, I have a Sony Viao pcg-fx250. 800mHz, PIII. I can get 23 tracks of 24bit/44.1 audio to play. It totally rocks for me and what I do. I love being able to play with my mixs on the plane, on the bus, at work, etc. Try that with a desktop studio. :D

Chris
 
Thanks for the info

Thanks for the advice, Chris. I definately want to evolve a decent PC setup to a smokin' laptop setup in the near future.
-Sam
 
I read about the faster drives in laptops, and I am sure they help. I am only recording 2 tracks at a time now and have had no problems using my work laptop. I don't think it is at 7200 either. It was pretty high end when I got it 2 years ago, but now the specs are pretty average. It is a:

IBM t20
750 Piii
256 RAM
12 gig harddrive (not sure of speed)
CD/RW
Win2000

I have been able to monitor about 25-40 tracks with no problems with Sonar -- depending on the number of plug-ins.

The screen is large and overall is a solid performer with few crashes and drop outs. Also, use the USB port with an Evolution 249c as both a soft synth keyboard and control surface (very cool).

It has 2 PCMCIA slots, no firewire (though you can use an adapter w/ th PCMCIA). I will probably upgrade to a better soundcard when I turn this puter in in august and get a new one. Probably will be at least a P4 1.5G HP -- company issued.

For sound quality you can check out some random works in progress I have up at http://www.home.earthlink.net/~adamcrose/index.html

This is with the stock soundcard, Shure 58, ART MP, occasional alesis quadraverb, some plug-ins, soft syths, lots of quitars, old tube amps, pedals, etc.
 
7200 rpm????

Are these for real? I've heard that they're in Sonys but I could never find any documentation on it.

Chris, does your Sony laptop have a 7200 rpm drive? Also do you think an external 7200 rpm firewire drive (hooked to its own port) is just as fast as an internal one?

-Sal
 
yeah, It totally changed the way I think about recording. mixing or at least trying things on planes/trains (noise is an issue). Recording in hotel rooms. When I'm home, which is a NY apartment, I can set up anywhere in the house, not have to move amps and equipment. I don't think I could go back. Even when I have more room, a laptop might me the core set up, with either 2 monitors or a projector, input devices like my controller keyboard and or x-keys etc. Haven't done lots of simultaneous track recording, so not sure how it work work, but can't think of using more than 8-16 at a time in the near future.

Harddrive speeds on laptops are a big mystery -- mfg's don't talk about it much.

Check out www.rme-audio. They have some good laptop information and testing
 
I couldn't find anything about laptops on that site. It seemed to be a page that was selling products for laptops not reviewing them. Was that the right link or does anyone have any other info?
 
scroll down the site (english site) to "Tech Info" You will see a series of articles on notebooks.
 
Re: 7200 rpm????

SalJustSal said:
Are these for real? I've heard that they're in Sonys but I could never find any documentation on it.

Chris, does your Sony laptop have a 7200 rpm drive?
Click to expand...

Hey, Sal.

Yup. Its got a 7200rpm drive. It kicks the crap out of 5400 in the Toshiba that I had before the Sony. I'm not sure which models of the Sonys have them, but the all-in-one multimedia one (FX series) all seem to. At least they did, I'm not really sure if they still do.

I also have an external firewire 5400 drive. It works just fine, but I have to jack the buffers up to play some of my bigger songs off of it. I'd imagine the 7200rpm drive would perform better. I don't think the firewire bus will perform as well as an internal drive, but I'm not sure where the performance cut off is. It may be that the bus won't handle the performance increase of the 7200rpm drive, but I'm not sure.

Take care,
Chris
 
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