Which Laptop

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laj35

laj35

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So I've been well aware of the fact that I need a new PC for recording for quite a while now. As of right now I am running Cubase, etc. on my room/bandmates PC, and while it has a reasonably fast processor and all that good stuff, the fact remains that it's not mine and I defitnitely will not be marrying the dude so I'm gonna eventually need one anyways. I've flirted with the idea of building a PC from the ground up, but lately I've been considering a laptop, for a few reasons. One I don't need a home PC, atleast not one that does anything but audio applications. Two, I've heard some of the mid-high end consumer laptops are actually quite formidable for DAW's. The main reason the whole laptop route seems logical is that I've been spending a whole lot of time lately getting MIDI set up in the studio and working out a "live" set. In addition there's been some serious thought given lately to dithcing the Triton for dedicated pieces of hardware, ie dedicated rackamount/soft synth sound modules, dedicated (better) sampler, and a dedicated sequencer. This is where the laptop comes in. It's obviously not highly practical (though not impossible) to lug my roomies PC to and from gigs and I feel as though I'd be foolish not to utilize the sequencer within Cubase, not to mention the few other pieces of software that I've accumulated; hence a laptop seems a logical step. I've been seriously considering only a couple other ideas for a sequencer like this: [http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=020324014638012045034146028181/search/g=home?q=rs7000 but again it comes down to longevity and I think a laptop should provide that a bit more.

So, I'm basically just wondering what your guys' thoughts are on what Laptops out there are ideal for working both in the studio, tracking, processing, wave editing, etc. as well as in a live MIDI sense. The $$$ range we are lookin at is somewhere between 1000-2000. Also will I be able to use my Audiophile 2496 in such a laptop, and how bout all my software, they'll be adaptable to the laptop setting as well, right?

Sorry about the rambling questions, any ideas are very much appreciated, thanks!




Laj
 
Computers are still so flakey it would be hard to recomend one for live use. Most groups that use computers live have 2 running concurrently so they can switch over if one crashes.

You would be better off composing the sequences on a comp and dumping them down to your Triton or something.

Laptops in general are tough for audio recording because of the data interfaces. You have to go USB, FireWire or get an expensive PCI adapter for a regular PCI card. PCI is the main reason that desktop comps are better for DAW's.

FireWire is pretty good but USB will limit you to about 4 tracks of audio total in or out simulataneously. With midi it wouldnt be that big of a deal.

You can build a rackmount computer but that can get pricey also.
 
So don't ditch the Triton for dedicated pieces of hardware? I guess for now the sequencer/sampler within the Triton are cool, but is it gonna last? What do you think of that RS7000 Tex?




Laj
 
I'm a die-hard laptop recorder, mostly because I can only afford one computer and I need a portable for several of the jobs that I do or volunteer for.

I have a Sony Vaio pcg-fx250. Its a PIII 800mHz maxed out at 512M ram. I've also used a couple Toshiba's for recording.

They work, but you won't be saving ANY money with them. Make sure that you get a 7200rpm drive! The Toshibas had 5200 drives and I nearly died when I saw how much higher my track count was on the 7200 drive in the Sony.

The internal soundcards are never good for much- even on this "multimedia optimized" Sony. Since I record at home and hardly ever use more than 3 mics at once, the USB limitations of 4 tracks in is just fine and I like the control surface on my Tascam US-428.

I thank heaven's, though, that the Sony has a firewire port. Even with a 20gig internal drive I was running out of room fast. (I have a dual boot XP system. One XP is setup for audio only and works great but XP eats harddrive space.) I now have an external 80gig drive on the firewire line and don't have to worry about space any more.

There are PCMCIA options for adding external cards to the laptop, but I don't know much about them. I saw an article in a recording mag that recommended that as a way to go. I'll see if I can dig it up.

Take care,
Chris
 
I think a laptop will probably be outdated before your triniton will. This is because newer and cooler software is constantly being produced which requires faster laptops. However, laptops offer an extreme flexibility that your triniton won't give you.

I think getting win 2000 might be a pretty stable option and probably wouldn't crash "too" often especially if you're just doing midi triggering stuff. To put it into more perspective, your laptop will probably crash less often than breaking a string on a guitar (depending on the type of song played, of course) and is about the same (or quicker) time to reboot than to change a string. You could easily have a plan B, where you could do a different song with a different instrument while the thing reboots.
 
Wow, Sony vaio laptops come with a 7200 rpm HD? I wish I had known that I!
 
I heard that the reason why they don't put such fast spinning drives in laptops is because they take up so much energy. However, I'd sacrifice battery life for a good spinning drive any day...

-Sal
 
Actually, I thought they were reasonably priced. I got my Dell Inspiron 7500 with a PIII@650Mhz (fastest available at the time), 192MB of RAM, and other assorted goodies for $3800 two years ago. That Toshiba is more than a grand less.
 
elevate said:

The Sony is even available with a 16" display - which all told, makes my desktop computer look quite antiquated.
Click to expand...

Paying a premium for a system that is not as easily upgradeable as a desktop system and has a shorter life in terms of performance improvments is not my idea of good business sense. I have a hard time justifying the additional cost of portability in a laptop! You can buy yourself a Sub-ATX system from HP or Compaq that is still cheaper than a laptop with similar features.

As long as that continues to be the case with laptops, I think desktop systems will be around for quite a while...
 
Paying a premium for a system that is not as easily upgradeable as a desktop system and has a shorter life in terms of performance improvments is not my idea of good business sense.
Click to expand...
For most people, lugging a desktop computer around an airport is not an option. On mine, I can replace the cpu, RAM, video card, and hard drive. Then I have all the things that can plug into one of my two bays - Zip drives, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, an extra hard drive, extra battery, etc...
 
On mine, I can replace the cpu, RAM, video card, and hard drive.

Thats a first! Explain to me how you can upgrade the video card and CPU since most laptops do not have AGP/PCI slots and the mobile version of the Pentium processors are usually soldered to the motherboard.
 
On the bottom of my laptop, there's a removable panel for my RAM and my video card. The video card is held in place with two screws. I'm not certain about the cpu, but I thought I read that it could be replaced/upgraded on Dell's site...perhaps not though.
 
elevate said:
On the bottom of my laptop, there's a removable panel for my RAM and my video card. The video card is held in place with two screws. I'm not certain about the cpu, but I thought I read that it could be replaced/upgraded on Dell's site...perhaps not though.
Click to expand...

But what kind of video card can you put in there? You can't just go buy one off the shelf at your local BestBuy/CompUSA then...

Are you sure that doesn't just mean you can upgrade the amount of video RAM and nothing else?
 
Are you sure that doesn't just mean you can upgrade the amount of video RAM and nothing else?
Click to expand...
I didn't really clarify that I had two seperate removeable panels - one for RAM and one for my video card. I realize my selections would be limited, but it's not like Dell made this special motherboard just for Inspiron 7500's. You probably wouldn't be able to find a laptop video card at CompUSA, but I have seen sites selling them.
 
So basically regardless of how good the laptop itself really is, I'm gonna have to shell out a bunch more cash just to get it set up huh? Well that should pretty much fizzle that idea right out, sheeeeeeet....anybody have any thoughts on that RS7000????

BTW, thanks for all the thoughts, very much appreciated.



Laj
 
I dont know anything on the RS7000, sorry. The main issues you need to worry about are:

1. Does it have the features to do the job?
2. Will it perform dependably enough?
3. What happens if it dies in the middle of a gig?

If you are just starting out and playing for 20 people at a local dive bar than stopping in the middle of song to reboot is no big deal. But if you get your big shot at opening for a national act at a big club then you want to make sure NOTHING can go wrong.

If you depend on sequencing it will be a good idea to have a backup no matter what you use. The Triton will probably make a good backup for whatever sequencer you decide to go with.
 
Cool, I'm definitely getting the sense that a stable sequencer is absolutely neccesary, that's probably the main reason I'm trying to think of a way around a laptop, only problem is I know extremely little about hardware sequencers, the RS7000 seemed the only relatively intuitive hardware seq. I found, mind you I've only just started looking, haven't even gone down to GC and checked some gear out, soooo...know anything about hardware seq????


Thanks TEX,

Laj
 
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