recording on a laptop

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Denzel85

New member
i've been told that if i want to record on a laptop i should be looking for these specifications;

HDD: 120GB 7200 RPM
RAM: 1 GB
CPU : P4 2.0 GHz

the thing is,i'm finding it difficult to find a laptop with an HDD of 7200RPM and a CPU of 2.0 GHz to follow my budget.

what areas of recording to HDD and CPU come into?

also, i heard that 7200rpm isn't really needed unless you're recording 6+ tracks at one time, which i won't be doing.

cheers

dan :)
 
I recorded with a laptop that had 5400rpm and after a month or so it killed the hard drive. Those specs are definitely good to follow.
 
You may not have luck finding a builtin laptop hard drive that runs at 7200RPM. What most folks do with laptops is use an external firewire or USB2.0 hard drive that runs at 7200 RPM. NOt a terrible idea as you coul dthen theoretically take your music projects from one PC/laptop to another without any effort.
 
Just as with desktops, you want to use a secondary drive to record to so that the stream of data is not interrupted by any housekeeping going on with your primary OS drive.

I use an external firewire drive on my XP laptop with a Motu828mkII interface.
(Glyph GT050 80gb drive - rack mounted, DEAD SILENT and worth every penny I paid for it.)

Zero problems.
 
bubbagump said:
You may not have luck finding a builtin laptop hard drive that runs at 7200RPM. What most folks do with laptops is use an external firewire or USB2.0 hard drive that runs at 7200 RPM. NOt a terrible idea as you coul dthen theoretically take your music projects from one PC/laptop to another without any effort.
Click to expand...

You can get it as an option from both Apple and Dell, for certain. Not sure about other companies. But you're right that if you're planning to buy one used or something, the odds aren't that great because most people don't spend the extra money.
 
Thanks again,

I was thinking on getting one of those new Macbooks and then get an external firewire drive...but it's CPU is only 1.83 GHz as opposed to the 2.00 GHz recomended

Thoughts anybody? Should i save my money for a Macbook Pro? Should i be looking elsewhere?

I'm 19 so i don't really have the best paid job in the world unfortunatly!

I'm just looking for something to get started and build upon.

Thanks again, i really appreciate it.

Dan
 
whats your biudget? I paid about 2.5-3g for my laptop which is a dual processor P4 3.8GHz 1GB ram, the internal HD is only 40GB but I have an external 300GB firewire HD that I store everything on.

I think we could help you alittle better if we knew how much you had to spend

-C$
 
Cyanide-Depende said:
whats your biudget? I paid about 2.5-3g for my laptop which is a dual processor P4 3.8GHz 1GB ram, the internal HD is only 40GB but I have an external 300GB firewire HD that I store everything on.

I think we could help you alittle better if we knew how much you had to spend

-C$
Click to expand...


Cheers, I'd say for the laptop... about £1000, which is just under $2000

Like i said before, i'm just looking for something to build upon as i'm completely new to recording. I'll be looking to do good quality demo recordings initially,nothing amazing, because i'm right at the beginning of the learning curve.

...but if people think it's wiser for me to save my money and go for something better, then by all means tell me to do so!
 
Denzel85 said:
Thanks again,

I was thinking on getting one of those new Macbooks and then get an external firewire drive...but it's CPU is only 1.83 GHz as opposed to the 2.00 GHz recomended
Click to expand...


Comparing Motorolla CPUs in Macs to Intel CPUs in PCs is apples and oranges. The number of operations per clock cycle is different and the OSs run very differently. I wouldn't wory too much about that. What I would more worry about is the hidden cost of owning a Mac versus a PC. No free VST plugs etc. and far fewer DAW and interface choices for Mac. Not that Macs or PCs are better than the other... but Macs seem to get much more expensive than PCs in the long run I find.
 
bubbagump said:
Comparing Motorolla CPUs in Macs to Intel CPUs in PCs is apples and oranges. The number of operations per clock cycle is different and the OSs run very differently. I wouldn't wory too much about that. What I would more worry about is the hidden cost of owning a Mac versus a PC. No free VST plugs etc. and far fewer DAW and interface choices for Mac. Not that Macs or PCs are better than the other... but Macs seem to get much more expensive than PCs in the long run I find.
Click to expand...

Agreed 100%, IMO I sould say save another $1000 and get a kick ass dual processor PC. There will be more budget minded options with the same audio quality available for the mac, so you can spend the same $$$ and get more.

Also, if you decide you dont want to stick with recording, TONS more games for the PC, and youll have a sick gaming computer :D

-C$
 
jack the mac.
If going laptop means getting all the externals - hard drive, soundcard, AD/DA etc what is the point of going laptop?
Besides the life expectancy of a laptop is pretty short.
 
rayc said:
jack the mac.
If going laptop means getting all the externals - hard drive, soundcard, AD/DA etc what is the point of going laptop?
Besides the life expectancy of a laptop is pretty short.
Click to expand...

i'll be moving it about alot that's all, i don't fancy lugging a tower about with me all the time...

i feel as if i'm going round in circles with this :(
 
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