Laptop Recording

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Member Since: Jul 07, 2004

How do Laptops handle recording these days I want one so as to make my setup more transportable I was thinking the G4 ibook as alot of people have recommended apple for recording purposes. I havent been a big fan of apple in the past but their new stuff looks alright what do you guys think?

specs.

CPU: 1.2 ghz
RAM: 256 mb
HDD: 30 gig

Im thinking upgraded hdd would be a must and more ram if possible.

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SM7b the Chuck Noris of Mic's
Contributor
Since: Jun 20, 2002


Mar 06, 2005 03:13 am

I've found that laptops are quite able to handle the task of recording . I have my desktop that i do 90% of my recording and mixing on but there are times that i need to go and record live,or record a drummer at his place. I have a year old Dell 2.8Ghz P4 ,winXP, with 512of ram, and a 40 gig hard drive. the only big down fall with laptops is there hard drive size, but you can get firewire or USB hard drives to go with it. I've sayed away from mac's (they are good computers) because I've come to know windows and the programs i use are windows based,I also don't feal like paying double for a computer.

but to answer your question the lappy works just fine. The question now is what USB or firewire recording interface to get .

Member
Since: Jul 07, 2004


Mar 06, 2005 03:26 am

Thanks alot geoff yeah i've been looking around for laptops and found that too.

I'm thinking a laptop and an Mbox at the moment but im not sure if the mbox takes away the ened for other pieces of equipment such as eq and condensers and I can jsut do that on the computer.

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Mar 06, 2005 08:12 am

it's always nice to have a compressor before sound gets to the sound card (MBox in your case). Regarding your laptop, I would say the first thing you need to do is bump the ram count to at least 512MB.

Czar of Cheese
Member
Since: Jun 09, 2004


Mar 06, 2005 08:14 am

Coltrane,

I have an Apple iBook, but I don't use it for recording. I honestly don't think you'll be very happy with those specs, especially the RAM and the hard drive size. My iBook has 256 MB of RAM and it gets bogged down very easily. Also, audio chews up a lot of hard drive space in an awful hurry. 30 GB will do, but you will be doing a lot of swapping and deleting in order to maintain adequate space.

Jim

Member
Since: Jul 07, 2004


Mar 06, 2005 03:37 pm

I think I've changed my mind now, the ibook seems a little limited in it's capabilities so I'm looking for a different laptop now, the others seem cheaper for more as well.

Is it worth getting the mbox? @ 700 australian it's a fair bit considering I could probably get a delta and a decent mixer for the same price I was reading something about ben lee who said he has a an ibook/mbox combo and it's all he needs, thanks for the responses guys.

SM7b the Chuck Noris of Mic's
Contributor
Since: Jun 20, 2002


Mar 06, 2005 04:11 pm

i had an Mbox for a short time and it worked well, but it was not worth the moeny for two inputs. I'd sugest most of the M-Audio USB or firewire roducts (the company Avid owns both M-audio and digidisign) , I just got a Lexicon Omega for my laptop, I have not used it yet but I'm looking forward to doing some on the go recordings. Plus most of the above mentioned cards have good pre-amps in em and are cheaper than good ol M-box .

edit0r
Member
Since: Aug 17, 2004


Mar 06, 2005 04:30 pm

I have a 800mhz, 240 ram laptop (recently purchased from mum) running cubase and a tascam us 122. I get no latency issues or anything like that. Works great for holidays! (viva las vegas :)

Cheese
Member
Since: Jul 21, 2004


Mar 07, 2005 11:36 am

I was wondering this as well...A lot of days I stay @ my Gf's place. Sometimes she works, but I stay @ her place because I live an hour from her. I wish I could bring my recording equipment with me so I could work on some stuff while shes busy.

I'm not sure if this has been asked, but Could I remove my Audiophile 2496 from my desktop PC and put it on my laptop? I'm just not sure if the laptop could handle it.

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Mar 07, 2005 11:38 am

if you have the internal PCI Audiophile, no, you can't put that in a laptop, you would need a USB or Firewire device.

Cheese
Member
Since: Jul 21, 2004


Mar 07, 2005 11:45 am

i figured...crap.

Cheese
Member
Since: Jul 21, 2004


Mar 07, 2005 11:52 am

Are there such things as extrenal Audiophile soundcards?...

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Mar 07, 2005 11:52 am

service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear

Cheese
Member
Since: Jul 21, 2004


Mar 07, 2005 11:59 am

hmmmmm....from those reviews, it doesn't seem too reliable. I'm not sure if they don't know what they're doing or it just sucks.

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Mar 07, 2005 12:05 pm

hahaha, never read those before...yikes...

Cheese
Member
Since: Jul 21, 2004


Mar 07, 2005 12:09 pm

wow, the delta 1010 is SWEET. *drools*

Well, I've got to see if there's an alternative soundcard. I maybe purchase parts and build a Laptop this summer...but I was to know if there's a GOOD soundcard that can be used thru USB or Firewire

Cheese
Member
Since: Jul 21, 2004


Mar 07, 2005 12:10 pm

geez, are there ANY inputs that use analog?! All the USB interfaces are MIDI...

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Mar 07, 2005 12:11 pm

Lexicon Omega gets good reviews from the mags I have read... service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear

Cheese
Member
Since: Jul 21, 2004


Mar 07, 2005 12:21 pm

that is nice! And it comes with Cubase LE for only $299...pretty amazing price. Ya, its got some good reviews.

Cheese
Member
Since: Jul 21, 2004


Mar 07, 2005 12:35 pm

Wait a sec, why can't I pull my 2496 out of my Pc and throw it in a laptop?

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Mar 07, 2005 12:38 pm

Cuz you can't "throw" componenets into laptops. They are proprietary systems and don't have expansion slots like desktops do.

Ya don't believe it, give it a try...and good luck with it.

Cheese
Member
Since: Jul 21, 2004


Mar 07, 2005 12:41 pm

lol...obviously.

I meant if I got one built for me, and gave the shop my 2496 to input into the soundcard slot...

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Mar 07, 2005 12:46 pm

you don't get laptops custom built like you can desktops. I mean you can customize hard drive size, amount of ram and such...but most of the componenets like audio and video are limited to what kind of motherboards the company has for laptops, cuz it's all integrated.

Cheese
Member
Since: Jul 21, 2004


Mar 07, 2005 12:51 pm

dang...

so i guess the only choice is a USB soundcard adapter.

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