good laptop spec for recording?
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Posted on Apr 08, 2013 08:57 am
skeg0
www.dorian-music.co.uk
Member Since: Apr 04, 2008
I am looking to make my studio a lot more mobile and be able to edit songs etc on the couch in front of the tv with nuendo!
It has been a while since I bought a laptop, so Im wondering if there is anything I should be aiming at.
I have a new macbook that I use for app development, and was hoping to use it for audio as well, but came across a lot of hurdles with regards to transferring files between pc and mac, the fact mac's bootcamp will only run windows 7 and above, and I need a newer nuendo to be able to run on windows 7 etc etc etc.
So now I think I should just buy a new laptop instead.
I am assuming an audio interface is important as the sound cards on the laptops ive used in the passed have been rather noisy. I have a behringer digital usb mixer which I use for live stuff, i dont really like it for recording compared to my age old (ready to laugh) tascam 414 Mk2 ( I just use the mixer to audio in on pc - the behriner should be better right? Maybe I should play around with it more and spend some more time with it).
The behringer outputs 98khz via usb 2 i think. But I dont think I will bother with 96k personally.
What about ram and processor size though? I figure I can do better than my current audio desktop workstation, i think its about 10 years old and a dell, with maybe 2 gigs of ram.
Id like to use some convolution verb plugins but maybe not go over £400 ($600usd approx).
Also, is a bad idea to record onto an external hard drive? I was thinking it would be good to be able to swap projects between laptop and desktop pc quickly and easily.
A lot of questions I know, I apologise. Just want to make sure I hit the nail on the head first time!
OH what OS is best these days? I still have xp on the go with nuendo 2.x, but I figure I should probably upgrade to prevent any issues with new plugins etc.
Cheers
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Apr 08, 2013 01:10 pm I would see no difference between laptop and desktop in terms of specs, however, for a portable computer, I would, if you can, go for solid state drive, at least for OS and applications, perhaps external drive for the actual audio being recorded.
Other than that, spec suggestions remain as they always are, the most of everything that you can afford. :-)
skeg0www.dorian-music.co.ukMember
Since: Apr 04, 2008
Apr 08, 2013 03:00 pm Cheers dB,
Any particular spec for external drive? Is usb2 ok or too slow?
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Apr 09, 2013 03:57 am Do laptops with SSD in the $600USD exist? I thought they tended to be more expensive? USB2 is fairly fast, USB3 is available on most newer laptops these days. Otherwise, most any modern laptop will cover what you need on processing power and such.
OS: I used XP for the longest time, then made the hump to Win7 early last year.....or was it the year before? Of course, Win8 is around now, but....I'm finding it to be somewhat counter intuitive, and some of the functions and workflow seem to be....I dunno....arbitrary? And I don't just mean the metro interface, just simple tasks and mult-tasking is a little awkward and takes getting used to. With the built-in programs and features, My wife keeps saying, "how do I close this program? there's no menu bar and no title bar!" I keep reminding her that you have to go to the desktop, hover in the upper left corner and then right click the little program thumbnail and close it. Stuff you install yourself seems to have all the proper "click X to close" type stuff, but the built-in apps and features are less than intuitive.
(she LOVES the new paint program in Win8 though!)
I'm sure there's an easier way to do things if you dig into the customizations, but out of the box it's kind of a hassle. :P So far, I'm still liking Win7 way better.
My wife just got a new laptop for $549 USD before tax....$580 after the sales tax. It's an Asus Q500A,
Windows 8
15.6" Widescreen 1366x768 resolution
Core i5 3230M 2.6Ghz Processor with "turbo boost" up to 3.2Ghz
6GB RAM expandable to 8GB
DVD/CD Burner drive
750GB HDD
Wireless-N
Bluetooth
2 USB3 and 1USB2 port
Multi-Format SD Card Reader can also read xD media apparently.
weighs 5.2 Lbs. (according to our scale) listed Weight is 5.7Lbs.
Pretty good bang for the buck. Having an SSD would be realllly nice for OS/programs, but I'm not sure it would be in a $600 laptop. Maybe in the $750 to $800+ USD range you'll get some laptops with SSD.
As for external drives, Western Digital or Seagate should be fine. I'm rather fond of WD drives, myself. A 1TB Seagate USB 3.0 or a 1TB WD MyPassport drive would be sub-$100 USD.
Transfering data over USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 will be plenty fast. However, I don't know what the spindle speeds are. I think some of the seagate go-flex drives are 7200RPM....but no idea on the WD my passport drives since they don't list it in any of the literature. >_< But on USB3 some people are reporting data transfer rates anywhere from 80Mb/s to 120mb/s.
That's what I've seen around anyway.
skeg0www.dorian-music.co.ukMember
Since: Apr 04, 2008
Apr 17, 2013 01:45 pm I'm getting bogged down in forums now seeing what processor people recommend. It's usually an i5 or i7 with Lenovo Thinkpad being mentioned quite a bit. But I think they are slightly out my price range and I'm wondering whether they are recommended for "professionals". I'd like to think of myself as having near professional sounding tracks but I rarely go over recording 20 tracks at the most per song. I would however like to try some convolution verb over other plugins. And I do use a fair few other plugins, mainly compressors, eq, stereo enhances etc.
It's been a long time since I bought a laptop or desktop so I'm wondering whether my needs are not actually that much any more?
I'm wondering if an i3 may work well...
Apr 18, 2013 06:20 am My new work laptop has a quad core 2.4ghz i7 and the thing screams...it wasn't cheap (about a thousand dollars) but I am pretty impressed with it.
Personally, the processor and the ram are things I wouldn't skimp on...
