New laptop, Inspiron 1420.

Posted on Jul 21, 2008 01:48 pm
CptTripps
Czar of Turd Polish
Member Since: Jun 20, 2006

So, I got my laptop yesterday (went with this one to save me money, will upgrade to 64 when all gear is in). 2.0Ghz T5750, 3GB Ram, Vista 32,l 250GB 5400rpm HDD, some USB and a 4pin firewire port.

I removed all the crapware that comes on it, dumbed down the interface to look like win2k and proceeded to install Audition, drumagog and my waves plugs.

I put it to the test by setting up 16 inputs at 24\48 with a 512 buffer and let it run for 1.5 hours while playing CD's in the room. Session ended up a little over 2GB and did not have one pop\click, Woo Hoo.

So, a quick question now. If am tracking all this stuff at one time, keeping a low buffer is not really required is it? It will not slowly stretch the session over time causing me problems with sync'ing to the video aye? As long as I line up the start points properly all should be well yes? I seem to remember doing this in the past and having sync problems (different PC and software though).

Last but not least, Audition also can incorporate video, I am gonna see if there is a way to actually sync my camera to audition.

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Noize2u
Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002

Jul 21, 2008 10:20 pm

One word.

SMTPE

Simply make sure to engage it so they sync up with SMPTE time code.

CptTripps
Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006

Jul 22, 2008 06:23 pm

Looking into it, Audition supports slave or master SMPTE, but it seems I would have to have some device between the my camera and the PC as it needs midi data. Not something I can do with my firewire cable.

Alas, I will only be running one camera at a fixed position. I should be able to line that up no problem.

I will have a second camera mobilized but will only grab bits from here and there. It will be time consuming for sure, but as a one time deal I will work with what I got.

CptTripps
Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006

Jul 23, 2008 12:21 pm

Well, this whole sync video to audio was a chore. I was recording at 44100 and when I would import the video it was about 8% shorter than my audio files. I was able to timestretch and match them up, it was small enough that it did not sound odd but more work than i would want to do when involving a bunch of songs.

I decided to look into what my camera actually records at, turns out it is 16bit 48000. When I switched my session to a closer match (32 48000) I was able to import the video (which extracts the audio into a seperate file automatically) and have them line up perfectly. I simply did a few stick clicks to have a nice matchable waveform.

I used Windows Movie Maker to edit and Windows DVD Maker to create the menu. Vista rocks in this respect, it was easy, looked good, and has me 100% excited for the upcoming task.

CptTripps
Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006

Jul 24, 2008 04:42 pm

Ok, a little update. I have a band coming in to do some recordings. Young guys, heavy heavy stuff of course. But they are paying me and pretty well I might add. They were going through a local studio at $65 an hour but realized those hours add up quick. I am tracking and mixing the songs for $100 a pop and said I would master them (gave examples and explained my style vs. a studio with 100K in rack gear) for another $100.

What does this have to do with my laptop for live gigs. Well they just bought me an E-Sata add-in card and a 320GB E-Sata external drive. Man-o-man, I was able to track 16 channels at 48 even on the 5400rpm drive that also runs my OS and DAW's swap file. I can still do that, but things seem less sluggish as far as waveform drawing and playback reacts quicker all why using a smaller buffer.

In the end I paid $700 for the laptop from bestbuy (priced same config at dell for $950 plus another $60 to ship to Alaska. I paid $200 for the e-sata card, the 320GB drive and also a wireless small form mouse. $900 for a capable mobile machine seems pretty darn good to me!!