laptop????
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S
SiN
Guest
i run reason and cubase off of an Apple iBook 900, but its not really the best. I would recommend macs for big programs like reason just cuz they're fuckin solid as hell and i've never had any major problems using them.
E
Equality 7-2521
Guest
im interestdd in getting a laptop for producing too. running reason on it.
whats the go with soundcards?
any other things to watch out for when shopping around?
whats the go with soundcards?
any other things to watch out for when shopping around?
MaximeRobin
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
I think some response to this got lost in the storm...
I work mostly with a powerbook 64 667mhz with 768 mb. Use use mostly Live and Reason. It work great. I use to work with cubase sx but I'm tired of it (it worked fine tho). I've got a new m-audio's firewire audiophile and it's nice, I use to have an m-audio's usb quattro interface.
Things you should check;
-The power (more is better but I guess you knew that...) (I can't say from experience for PC but for macs don't go below G4 for audio...)
-The plugs (does it have the right connection on it?)
The thing is, you'll have to have an external soundcards. Firewire and usb2 are the best. USB and Cardbus are ok.
I don't wanna be an ass about it but macs laptop are about as costly as GOOD PC laptop right now. But that being said if you got all your PC software already why change?
I work mostly with a powerbook 64 667mhz with 768 mb. Use use mostly Live and Reason. It work great. I use to work with cubase sx but I'm tired of it (it worked fine tho). I've got a new m-audio's firewire audiophile and it's nice, I use to have an m-audio's usb quattro interface.
Things you should check;
-The power (more is better but I guess you knew that...) (I can't say from experience for PC but for macs don't go below G4 for audio...)
-The plugs (does it have the right connection on it?)
The thing is, you'll have to have an external soundcards. Firewire and usb2 are the best. USB and Cardbus are ok.
I don't wanna be an ass about it but macs laptop are about as costly as GOOD PC laptop right now. But that being said if you got all your PC software already why change?
Formant024
Digital Smokerings
ill o.g.
Hmmm, In all honesty, a G4 powerbook is creme of the crop right now, with or without the 17" flatscreen, this thing is a monster and its out for your wallet so try a second hand ( if you can find one ). Pc wise I would scope out the Toshiba Satellite, the P25 model for instance looks like an equivalent to a G4 ( 17" screen, 3,4 GHz ) but is cheaper than a G4 ( $2099 @ 3,2 GHz and super multi drive DVD burner (± formats) w/DVD-RAM (works like an optical HDD) / $2799 for a 3,4 Ghz without the multi, but with 128MB Geforce Go5700 instead ). I would still expand on memory though since it only comes with 512MB, taking new technology in account demanding ( certainly audio ) you'll need more more more more memory.
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cmod.to?seg=PSE&coid=-26379&sel=0&rcid=-26367&ccid=1291021
Fairly cheaper but not directly my first choice ( hey you're spending hella money anyway ) is the Dell Inspiron XPS. With 1GB/400MHz memory it'll go for $2749 or $2399( $72 a month ) with 512MB. Put an extra grand on it and you have the 3.4GHz Extreme Edition boosting more performance(2MB L3 Cache, 0 L3 on non regular 3.4, funny though since the Extreme is fixated at 90nm thickness whilst the regular 3.4 has an oxide thickness of 0.13 micron which is smaller ).
Audio solutions so far I know at the moment are these;
RME Cardbus interface ( Hammerfall DSP on PCMCIA card ). You can use this for internal audio processing, there's a 1394 connection ( not for Fireire ) to connect to the I/O boxes. You wouldn't need it for a pc only daw, but if you have hardware around I suggest getting into the Multiface which offers 8 chnls of I/O @ 24bit/96kHz/105db SNR, digital 1x ADAT ( +sync ) 1x I/O s/pdif - 1x 16chnls midi, 720 chnls internal mixing ( 0latency ). Then there's digiface which is an extended version of the HDSP 9652, meaning only digital I/O; 3 x adat I/O ( + sync ), s/pdif - 2 x 16chnls midi ( high speed ) and 1456 chnls internal mixing. It has two analogue outputs for ya headpiece and monitors ( aux ). The third option is the RME RPM which is aimed at dj's, digital 2 chnl ( stereo, 4 mono ) live performance. It features 5 inputs ( low-noise turntable inputs (Cinch/RCA) with integrated RIAA frequency correction/switchable to Line inputs and a single quadmic preamp ( class A )), 2 stereo out (1 pair balanced, 1 pair unbalanced probably switchable aswell and aux out ) and a 1x 16chnl midi I/O.
These three devices can be hooked to the Cardbus ( and the PCIcard! ), you can also hook up RME Pre amps ( 4 chnl half 19" and 8 chnl 19" ) and other utilities making the RME protocol pretty much a modulair one.
So, in the budget/small hiphop setup the RPM should be sufficient enough, the multiface the most capable one.
The Cardbus comes for $299 and the RPM at $549, no bundle.
The HDSP Multiface/Cardbus (PCMCIA Type II) bundle @ $908
TheHDSP Digiface, and Cardbus (PCMCIA Type II) @ $795
www.rme-audio.com
Echo has made a serie of PCMCIA devices, pretty cheap too but also very basic, not to compare with the RME products ( except for Layla24 maybe ).
Indigo @ $129, 1 stereo out @ 24bit/96kHz, that's it.
Indigo DJ @ $179, 2 stereo out @ 24bit/96kHz.
Indigo I/O @ $179, 1 stereo out, 1 stereo in @ 24bit/96kHz.
A bit more serious
Layla24 8x I/O ( balanced ), 24bit/96kHz - 110dB snr, ADAT pipeline, opt/coax s/pdif, 16chnl midi I/O ( midi in , out and thru ! ). All this is racked in a 1u 19" rack. Comes for $450.
_____
Something else, instead of cardbus you can look at the USB/Firewire cards which opens a whole new catalogue of products but arent ( practicly seen ) portable which I assume is key since we're talking laptops. But anyway....
Firewire
Digi 002 rack ( portable ), nuff said I guess, I/O = 8 analog (with 4 mic preamps), 8 ADAT optical, and 2 S/PDIF. Comes for $1199.
Edirol FA101 ( breakout box ) I/O = 8 analog 24-bit/96kHz, 2 out ( mastertrack ) 24bit/192kHz @ $498.
Egosys Quatafire ( 1/3 of rack ) I/O = 4 analog 24bit/192kHz, 2x micpre ( phantom ), 2 coax spdif I/O, 2x midi I/O @ $399.
MOTU 828MKII ( rack ) I/O= 20 in / 22 out @ 24bit/96kHz ( 10 analog I/O, 1 ADAT, Spdif I/O ) and midi ofcourse. This is a beast and works standalone too ( no pc ), so practicle for mobile efforts. Comes for $750. ( for $1250 there's the 896HD with 8 mic pre's and 24bit/96kHz support )
Im not gonna bother with Metric Halo, very nice but for more info just ask, these babies start @ $999 for a 2chnl preamp ( with nice AD/DA cv but still expensive ).
USB?!?!?
all crap, too slow or desktop biased. If it's not neccesarly needed to be portable, I wouldn't mind going into it, but I guess it's not ( why need a laptop then ? ).
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cmod.to?seg=PSE&coid=-26379&sel=0&rcid=-26367&ccid=1291021
Fairly cheaper but not directly my first choice ( hey you're spending hella money anyway ) is the Dell Inspiron XPS. With 1GB/400MHz memory it'll go for $2749 or $2399( $72 a month ) with 512MB. Put an extra grand on it and you have the 3.4GHz Extreme Edition boosting more performance(2MB L3 Cache, 0 L3 on non regular 3.4, funny though since the Extreme is fixated at 90nm thickness whilst the regular 3.4 has an oxide thickness of 0.13 micron which is smaller ).
Audio solutions so far I know at the moment are these;
RME Cardbus interface ( Hammerfall DSP on PCMCIA card ). You can use this for internal audio processing, there's a 1394 connection ( not for Fireire ) to connect to the I/O boxes. You wouldn't need it for a pc only daw, but if you have hardware around I suggest getting into the Multiface which offers 8 chnls of I/O @ 24bit/96kHz/105db SNR, digital 1x ADAT ( +sync ) 1x I/O s/pdif - 1x 16chnls midi, 720 chnls internal mixing ( 0latency ). Then there's digiface which is an extended version of the HDSP 9652, meaning only digital I/O; 3 x adat I/O ( + sync ), s/pdif - 2 x 16chnls midi ( high speed ) and 1456 chnls internal mixing. It has two analogue outputs for ya headpiece and monitors ( aux ). The third option is the RME RPM which is aimed at dj's, digital 2 chnl ( stereo, 4 mono ) live performance. It features 5 inputs ( low-noise turntable inputs (Cinch/RCA) with integrated RIAA frequency correction/switchable to Line inputs and a single quadmic preamp ( class A )), 2 stereo out (1 pair balanced, 1 pair unbalanced probably switchable aswell and aux out ) and a 1x 16chnl midi I/O.
These three devices can be hooked to the Cardbus ( and the PCIcard! ), you can also hook up RME Pre amps ( 4 chnl half 19" and 8 chnl 19" ) and other utilities making the RME protocol pretty much a modulair one.
So, in the budget/small hiphop setup the RPM should be sufficient enough, the multiface the most capable one.
The Cardbus comes for $299 and the RPM at $549, no bundle.
The HDSP Multiface/Cardbus (PCMCIA Type II) bundle @ $908
TheHDSP Digiface, and Cardbus (PCMCIA Type II) @ $795
www.rme-audio.com
Echo has made a serie of PCMCIA devices, pretty cheap too but also very basic, not to compare with the RME products ( except for Layla24 maybe ).
Indigo @ $129, 1 stereo out @ 24bit/96kHz, that's it.
Indigo DJ @ $179, 2 stereo out @ 24bit/96kHz.
Indigo I/O @ $179, 1 stereo out, 1 stereo in @ 24bit/96kHz.
A bit more serious
Layla24 8x I/O ( balanced ), 24bit/96kHz - 110dB snr, ADAT pipeline, opt/coax s/pdif, 16chnl midi I/O ( midi in , out and thru ! ). All this is racked in a 1u 19" rack. Comes for $450.
_____
Something else, instead of cardbus you can look at the USB/Firewire cards which opens a whole new catalogue of products but arent ( practicly seen ) portable which I assume is key since we're talking laptops. But anyway....
Firewire
Digi 002 rack ( portable ), nuff said I guess, I/O = 8 analog (with 4 mic preamps), 8 ADAT optical, and 2 S/PDIF. Comes for $1199.
Edirol FA101 ( breakout box ) I/O = 8 analog 24-bit/96kHz, 2 out ( mastertrack ) 24bit/192kHz @ $498.
Egosys Quatafire ( 1/3 of rack ) I/O = 4 analog 24bit/192kHz, 2x micpre ( phantom ), 2 coax spdif I/O, 2x midi I/O @ $399.
MOTU 828MKII ( rack ) I/O= 20 in / 22 out @ 24bit/96kHz ( 10 analog I/O, 1 ADAT, Spdif I/O ) and midi ofcourse. This is a beast and works standalone too ( no pc ), so practicle for mobile efforts. Comes for $750. ( for $1250 there's the 896HD with 8 mic pre's and 24bit/96kHz support )
Im not gonna bother with Metric Halo, very nice but for more info just ask, these babies start @ $999 for a 2chnl preamp ( with nice AD/DA cv but still expensive ).
USB?!?!?
all crap, too slow or desktop biased. If it's not neccesarly needed to be portable, I wouldn't mind going into it, but I guess it's not ( why need a laptop then ? ).
young_keyz
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Everybody says i want a laptop so i can make music on the go. Do you really need a laptop to make music on the go or are you tring to look cool. Well if your answer is to make music on the go and look cool, i must say in the past i was just like you. Two years ago i got myself a laptop and one thing i found was laptops no matter how you treat them, and since your on the go with your music will easy to break or have things get damage. Most laptops are made to be portable compare to desktops that are built to handle a more heavey load. One thing i notice with laptops are there processor speed are slower compare to what you can get on the desktop side for the same price. Desktops can be upgraded easier , while laptops are pretty much un upgradeable. Well two years i got laptop and i really regreted it, and said if i have to buy another computer in the future it will be a kick ass desktop. The only good thing that came from my old laptop was it broke down but was still under warrenty and best buy could fix it so i got a new laptop out the store for the same price. O well i dont know if any of this makes anypoints but hey like i said i would never buy another laptop if i had to pay for it so now i have another laptop but for free.
Loose Cannon
...
ill o.g.
If you want somethin durable and inexpensive, get an old Panasonic laptop. There old shit could be dropped on the floor plenty of times before something breaks. It has Win98, and no burners, and it will be kinda slow if you load it with 50 wav editor programs. But you could probly find these under $650. And like i said, there very durable.
This is one in that lineup, its doesnt look the greatest (kinda like a suitcase), but its durable and inexpensive:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42205&item=3488452436&rd=1
Heres a review for it:
http://www.computershopper.co.uk/article/computershopper/shopper_reviews/panasonic_cf_25.html
Theres way better looking ones in there lineup but this one is pretty inexpensive.
This is one in that lineup, its doesnt look the greatest (kinda like a suitcase), but its durable and inexpensive:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42205&item=3488452436&rd=1
Heres a review for it:
http://www.computershopper.co.uk/article/computershopper/shopper_reviews/panasonic_cf_25.html
Theres way better looking ones in there lineup but this one is pretty inexpensive.
brooklynstyle
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Here's some minimum specs for a PC laptop
Processor: Pentium 4
Speed at least 1.8GHz
RAM 512MB or more (256 would work well too but it may stall if u try to run big programs at the same time)
HDD: 40GB or more
CD-ROM/RW
If u get something like that u'll be good to go. For these specs expect to pay in the lower 1,000s.
1
Processor: Pentium 4
Speed at least 1.8GHz
RAM 512MB or more (256 would work well too but it may stall if u try to run big programs at the same time)
HDD: 40GB or more
CD-ROM/RW
If u get something like that u'll be good to go. For these specs expect to pay in the lower 1,000s.
1
E
Equality 7-2521
Guest
i went to the shop today and the chick told me that you only need firewire if you have hardware which is compatible with it. if you are just using software and on the laptop and want to record into the laptop uning line in and line out then you only need usb2.
she also said 700mb ram is worth investing in for producing.
what do you guys reckon?
she also said 700mb ram is worth investing in for producing.
what do you guys reckon?
MaximeRobin
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
yeah 700mb ram is defenitly needed. I don't get the part about usb2 and firewire. The thing is, if you record with a firewire card, you need a firewire port and if you record with a usb2 card you need a usb2 port. Of course you don't need those port if you don't use them.... If your use the in and out of the cheap internal soundcard of course you don't need either usb2 or firewire.
That being said if you want to plus a burner or an external hd you'll need a firewire or usb2 port. If you buy a PC, it's less complicated to get a usb2 port for that. If you get a mac, firewire is standars so alot of product for the mac are firewire.
That being said if you want to plus a burner or an external hd you'll need a firewire or usb2 port. If you buy a PC, it's less complicated to get a usb2 port for that. If you get a mac, firewire is standars so alot of product for the mac are firewire.
brooklynstyle
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
700 mb ram? thats more than u need. u'll be kicking ass with 368 or 512. 700 is way too much and u'll just waste your money on ram u will never really need. Investing in a faster processor would be much wiser if u ask me. Currenly I'm with 4 Ghz and it's working gravy but i dont know about the future.
Cold Truth
IllMuzik Moderator
i beg to differ on your ram statement, broolyn. that really depends on the applications he is running.
MaximeRobin
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Yeah, I sample alot so ram is very important for me. I guess if I was a synth head, the processor speed would be where it's at.
E
Equality 7-2521
Guest
just ordered my laptop today.
i got this...
www.cybershop.com.au/ex2000.htm
not sure what ima do for a soundcard yet.
this was a dope buy though cos its got a dvd burner too.
i got this...
www.cybershop.com.au/ex2000.htm
not sure what ima do for a soundcard yet.
this was a dope buy though cos its got a dvd burner too.