What can your LAP do?

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The Green Hornet

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In perusing the world of CD burners, a thought came to me today as I was going through the latest copy of EM.

Can a Laptop PC be used to burn a CD.

That is: could I dump my music from the MD-8 RCA outs into a LAP PC and have the necessary program {s} and plugs to do the CD?

Thanks to you engineers out there who know.

Green Hornet
 
Yo Mark:

What I am thinking is that the Laptop will not take up much room in my studio vs. a computer. Soooo, if I have the right program and the right plugs, I guess I can burn a CD.

It's interesting to note how Roland kind of locks you into buying their CD burner if you use Roland.

I would like to keep it as simple as possible rather than take a two year learning curve and many dumped CD's.

So, I'm debating over a stand alone or the Laptop PC. I guess I'm going to have to rely on the knowledge of these knowledgeable artists who frequent this frequency.

Thanks Mark,

Green Hornet
 
The Only Problem...

No problem Hornet!

The only thing you might want to consider is that you would be converting your signal into audio, then passing it through questionable connections into your laptop and then using questionable converters to turn it into digital again. In other words...how much do you trust your laptop's digital converters and I/O's? If you're really concerned with maintaining high quality throughout, this probably isn't the best mixdown method. If you are just a hobbyist, it probably doesn't matter.

Keep us informed though either way.

Mark
Alpha Dog
http://www.mp3.com/alphadog
http://alphadog.iuma.com
 
Laptop is not going to cut it as far as converters go. Either invest in a DAW with good converters or get a stand-alone unit for transfer from your current recording medium.


I'm assuming you already have a laptop that your thinking of using. You can buy new ones that can handle this task.. but your looking at big $$$.
 
I haven't seen any laptops with CD burners but I cannot say that I looked for one either. Make sure that it's really a CD burner and not just a CD player. You might very well be looking at getting an external (PC) CD burner for your laptop. Also, there is at least one prosumer audio interface with USB connections that can be used with laptops. http://egosys.net/eng/u24.html It has 24-bit converters, optical S/PDIF and coaxial S/PDIF I/O so you can hook up just about anything to it. However, due to the limited bandwith of USB, you can only use 16-bit format at the moment. I haven't used one though. I'm only saying that it exists.

You could also get a laptop docking station with PCI slots but they cost big bucks.

In any case, don't use the built in connections. They suck big time.

You might want to check out the laptop route if you already have a good laptop but if you don't, get a real DAW and save yourself some money and trouble. Just get a small monitor and put the computer under the desk and you'll use about the same space in the studio.

/Ola
 
My lap is good for...

...enjoying lap-dances and being a nice place for girls to sit! :)
 
That's What I Thought

There you go Hornet...

From people who know more than me on this issue. As far as the CD burner, my wife has a stand alone unit that hooks up via serial port. I don't know much about the V-studios, but isn't that how they work as well, or is it a proprietary port?

Mark
Alpha Dog
http://www.mp3.com/alphadog
http://alphadog.iuma.com
 
Two different problems here. One is the soundcard on the laptop being adequate to fully capture the MD signal. Another route into your laptop would be one of those external audio USB converters. Roland has the UA-100 or some such, but I just checked and they make a UA-30 for ~$250 without the MIDI stuff.
IMHO the only cool thing about the laptop is the size to display ratio. Maybe you could bring a regular tower and use a laptop for the display.... An easy way to get 8 channels of 24/96 direct to HD.
I've seen standalone CD burners much cheaper than laptops, so I assume your're gonna get the laptop for something else, and just use it here as well. I've heard of serial and parallel burners but I wouldn't trust either- opt for the USB connection or a dedicated IDE or SCSI connection.
Sure USB is a serial connection, just not a "serial" connection. Ha ha ha.
 
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