about to buy a LAPTOP - advice appreciated

[N.U.G.]

hey fam,

I've had some dramas with my Internet PC lately (every now and again it seems not to recognise the hard drive and I have to take it into teh store to get fixed which leaves me without Internet access and usually a wiped hard drive ) so I've decided to get a Laptop as a backup Internet PC and for music production and recording.

I'mma be doing some research on Laptops and things over the next few days but if anyone has any advice on what to look for and what to avoid (in terms of processor, ram. hard drive, soundcard etc.) I'd really appreciate it. I'll mainly be running Reason and FL for production and Pro Tools, Cubase or Cool Edit Pro for recording (haven't decided yet)

one good thing about getting a laptop I've realised is if there is an MC I wanna record but I don't necvessarily want them to come to my house/know where I live, I can just take my Laptop with me to their crib or whatever and record there... so any advice about what soundcards and basic microphones to consider would be great too!

thanks!

 

[Formant024]

Get anything around 1Ghz and a Emu1616M and your good, just make sure it's all intel Pentium, stuff at least 1Gb ram in it. Unless you're recording a full band you're in no hurry for a fast HD, I'd suggest keeping a clean laptop for audio only and use the other crappy pc for internet, just for the sake of performance. You use the internal HD for recording but store your projects on a lacie via USB and always clear the temp. recordings you've made and defrag regularly.

Let the mc buy a nice fucking mic and you save that lot on some dope gear hehe.

 

[N.U.G.]

Get anything around 1Ghz and a Emu1616M and your good, just make sure it's all intel Pentium, stuff at least 1Gb ram in it. Unless you're recording a full band you're in no hurry for a fast HD, I'd suggest keeping a clean laptop for audio only and use the other crappy pc for internet, just for the sake of performance. You use the internal HD for recording but store your projects on a lacie via USB and always clear the temp. recordings you've made and defrag regularly.

Let the mc buy a nice fucking mic and you save that lot on some dope gear hehe.

thanks for the advice mate!

yeah I'll probably only use this laptop for the Internet in emergencies but I will try and keep it as clean as possible because I know how much Internet ish can stuff up a music computer. I have a music computer/DAW at home too that I never go on the Internet with - strictly music.

I'll probbaly take your advice and get 1ghz+ and get all Intel Pentium ish. I'll get at least 1 gig ram too like you suggested. those suggestions are very helpful bro

I'll definitely look into that soundcard/interface, it looks dope. I'm rocking Pro Tools M Powered on my DAW so I was thinking about getting an M Audio Interface for my laptop so I can run M Powerd on that too, are any off the M Audio soundcards/interfeaces comparable to the Emu you suggested?

do you mind explainging the USB / lacie thing a bit further, is that like a USB storage drive thing?

thanks heaps for your advice mate, very helpful

 

[Ema]

If your PC is powerful enough for music now and is handeling the software well why dont you just keep that for music and not use the internet on it and then buy a really basic laptop for really cheap just for the internet then you dont have to drop a load of money on a high spec laptop (just enought to run the internet which is nothing)and you have a PC capable of running your software smoothly witout the internet interfeering. If you wanna record vocals on it only now and again 512ram is definatly enough, if your not going to be doing much producing on it just vocals you dont need much power.

 

[2_nice]

make sure the hard drive is 7200 rpm and quality (it really sucks if your laptop harddrive dies)

512 should be enough ram and that emu soundcard should give you enough options power for most hip hop recording situations.

external hard drive is a good idea

also man........ check ebay usa laptops are alot cheaper in the states

 

[N.U.G.]

^^^

thanks

that Soundcard looks dope as hell but it maybe be more that what I need. Essentially something like an Mbox would be fine but with MIDI ports would be fine. With a soundcard all I really need is (at least all I think I need is);
- mic preamp
- midi ports
- a couple of stereo inputs (just in case)

also, should I get Firewire or is USB cool?

thanks

 

[Formant024]

I dunno about firewire, i've heard complaints about FW being noisy due to psu's and usb I have no experience with. I'd like to stick with a cardbus as the best option for a laptop daw. With the Emu 1616m you get PT converters(from192), multiple digital and analogue I/O to get you anywhere. It's also safe to say that you can walk into any studio and hook you I/O's to a console without being ashamed of pitty quality.

A lacie is a firewire or usb external disk, they're good and reliable not not neccesairly expensive (I've seen 300Gb lacies for $250 or less).

I dont work on PT either, but you can load wav's on any platform, so you can do recordings on a emu and work stuff out on you desktop daw by simply importing them recorded tracks, no sweat at all. Just hook the lacie onto the desktop daw for quicly swapping files between the 2.

 

[2_nice]

card bus from my experience is definitely the way to go..... i myself would definitely NOT get the mbox (usb 1.1) feature wise for the cash i think it is overpriced (only two ins and you will not be able to get low latency)

if you need something more basic the echo indigo is sweet (stereo in stereo out) and you could buy a seperate preamp (you will get higher quality going this route with raps a good one channel preamp will make a huge difference)

 

[N.U.G.]

^^^

interesting input guys. thanks. I never knew until now that you could get card bus soundcards fro laptops, I just assumed USB or firewire was teh only option dude to laptop size.

you've definitely given me some things to think about

thanks

 

[Anubis-Ra]

Make sure you get that 802.11 a/b/g wireless internet built in.

 

[Enigma]

Hey man, i recently bought an HP ZV6000 notebook with 1 gig of ram, and an AMD athlon 64 3200 processor for about 1K. It was quite a steal. It runs all my audio stuff perfectly. I run, Pro Tools, Reason, FL, and other things. I'm able to open Pro Tools with multiple RTAS plug ins active at one time with no problems at all. Plus its got all the extra stuff like built in wireless adapter, 15.4 Widescreen, 128 MB Radeon Video Card. AWESOME Buy

 

[Formant024]

Make sure you get that 802.11 a/b/g wireless internet built in.

doesnt matter since its a daw, just wire the mofo...