New laptop help

Comments

• RJHMUSIC

  January 2011 edited 12:34PM

  A "NETBOOK" is not a "NOTEBOOK". It does not have the power, ram, HD space, Bus speed and Video reolution that you need to do music. I would not recommend any Net Book for music creation with audio. I have en HP Inspiron dv9500 Laptop that I bought a couple of years ago. Slammin machine, but had nothing but problems with musc do to RICOH Chipset in the controller busses and VISTA. Finally bit the bullet and bought a MACBOOKPRO 17" and all my problems went away immediately. If you cannot afford a MAC, then here are the minimum specs you need for stable music creation, and this is before we even start to talk about audio interface and latency.
  
  
  
  Minimum 2.5 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4.0 Gig Ram, 500 GB 7,200 RPM HD, 512 MB NVIDIA or compatible Graphics Adapter that supports at least 1680 X 1050 resolution Widescreen display. e-SATA express card slot to handle 3.0 Gbit e-SATA external fast HD for audtio samples. ANd FW 800. IN addition, a DVI port for an external Monitro would be nice.
  
  
  
  I started years ago thinking I was only going to do MIDI and maybe one audio device. Now that I have started doing VSti's, I can't stop. Trust me. You will want room to grow. Whatever you wind up with, make sure the computer has a TI or Oxford chipset, not RICOH, and make sure any external HD uses the Oxford chipsets.
  
  
  
  Lastly, in my opnion, the only computer to successfully do audio with no clicks an ops from the onbopard audio card is a MAC, period. If you want PC, invest in a MOTU Ultralite which will give you near 0 latency and a built in MIDI interface.
  
  
  
  Good Luck
  
  
  
  RJ
• pgill

  January 2011 edited 12:34PM

  RJHMUSIC wrote:
  
  
  If you cannot afford a MAC, then here are the minimum specs you need for stable music creation, and this is before we even start to talk about audio interface and latency.
  
  
  
  
  Thank you for taking the time to answer. I should add I have a 1.8ghz core 2 duo laptop 3GB Ram and an M-Audio fast track Pro external sound card and get no clicks and imperceptable latency (4.1 ms overall latency). I was only looking at the inspiron for busking size and ease.
  
  
  
  I accept it is probably underpowered, but thought I'd just ask. I will probably end up with a Mac Mini and an Ipod with Jaardu so the Ipod can control the "headless" mac.
  
  
  
  Thanks again Regards Pete.
• Phil999

  January 2011 edited 12:34PM

  yes it's not sure if this inspiron duo will perform well enough. However it is possible to play on a netbook, especially the saxes and the trombones. Still it is quite at the edge of its power, if you want to add a reverb it needs to be a very CPU-light reverb. But maybe this inspiron duo has more power than the older Atom CPU's. There are also netbooks with AMD CPU's, they should work better I think.
• RJHMUSIC

  January 2011 edited 12:34PM

  Yes, I agree, but again, The manufacturers are specific about NET Books. They are not designed to be Note Book replacement. That is why they are called Net Books. Their purpose is to do e-mail and surf the web, not perform intensive audio processes. Interestingly enough, I hear you about the reverb. Algorithems take a lot of resoources. I wrote a song in cubse 4 last week using XV-5080 MIDI, a MUSE Receptor playing string patches from EWQL Orchestra Plat, and using Trillian as VSTi, and Mr. Sax T as a VSTi withn Kontakt 4. Everything ran smooth until I luanched a third VSTi - Yellow Tools Independance. I loaded up an acoustic guitar using the built in Oragami Reverb plugin for Yellow Tools, and ecrything went down hill. Every twenty or so seconds I would get clicks and ops on the YT lougin, whihc sent my Cubase performance meter through the roof each time and then the tempo skipped about 3 beats until it setttled down. Using a MOTU 828 Mark II with 6,3 miliseconds of latency. After I reloaded the patch without reverb, the problem went away, but the sound sucks now!
  
  The MAC Book Pro has 4 gb ram and 2.54 Ghz Core 2 Dou in it. HD is a G-Tech 7200 drive with the oxford chipset, which is one of the most rock stable setups there is.
  
  
  
  Just goes to show you that no matter how much power you have, there are always going go be problems. Personally, I do not beleive these problems stem from the computer, but by porrly written software and drivers. So sorry, I hope I have not offended anyone, but every software update out there updates the software, not hardware.
  
  
  
  RJ
• pgill

  January 2011 edited 12:34PM

  I don't know if it is relative, but the Dell duo is described as a tablet convertible laptop. But surely the description of the unit is secondary to the processing power?
  
  
  
  As I said earlier it has a 1.5GHZ Core 2 Duo (Dual core) processor and 2GB of Ram. This is in a different power league to what I have seen in any previous Net/Note books.
  
  
  
  It would be nice if someone had tried this or something similar. Remember I only want 1 instrument at a time and all my effects/Reverb etc are done with external hardware effects units. My backing tracks are also external on a MiniDisc player.
  
  
  
  The Operating system would be loaded with everything but whats essential for samplemodeling, I won't use it for the internet etc. Plus my soundcard would be an external M-Audio Fast track Pro.
  
  
  
  Thanks for all the advice but if anyone has more specific knowledge, please share.
  
  
  
  Regards Pete.
• pgill

  January 2011 edited 12:34PM

  Phil999 wrote: yes it's not sure if this inspiron duo will perform well enough. However it is possible to play on a netbook, especially the saxes and the trombones. Still it is quite at the edge of its power, if you want to add a reverb it needs to be a very CPU-light reverb. But maybe this inspiron duo has more power than the older Atom CPU's. There are also netbooks with AMD CPU's, they should work better I think.
  
  Phil, could you expand on your experience please. When you say at the edge of its power what do you mean? and what was the netbook and specs you used?
  
  
  
  As I said I want a bare back OS only 1 instrument at a time and backing music, effects/reverb, soundcard will be external.
  
  
  
  The above being said I would not accept higher latency or dropouts etc.
  
  
  
  Regards Pete.
• Phil999

  January 2011 edited 12:34PM

  you are right, with a dual core CPU there shouldn't be any problems. We are still used to think of netbooks with Atom CPU's that are 'at the edge' for music software in general, but in reality the border between netbook and notebook is not so clear anymore. These newer models with faster CPU's are not really cheaper than comparable notebooks, but they are smaller. A useful thing for the traveling musician.
  
  
  
  I have two Aspire One netbooks that I use surprisingly often for music production. Only with one or two plugins running, and equipped with an USB audio interface it can be used as effect box, sample player, VSTi host, or even for recording as a mini-DAW. To play Samplemodeling instruments with acceptable latency, it is 'at the edge' so to speak, but it works. Bouncing a part to audio and recording a new part, etc. The trumpet is a bit too heavy, but you can still record the trombone and switch the instrument later for bouncing.
  
  
  
  This inspiron duo may be an excellent Samplemodeling host. But this depends also on the audio driver/card, and the computers USB chip. So in such cases we have no other choice to try out if it works, or if somebody else has succeeded. I'm also thinking about getting a tablet computer, but as long as the netbooks do the job, I can wait. This monday I found a dual-core notebook in the public trash, fully working. Now I have one netbook too much, I have no use for it at the moment. So if I would buy a tablet, it must be really good.
• pgill

  January 2011 edited 12:34PM

  Phil999 wrote: you are right, with a dual core CPU there shouldn't be any problems. We are still used to think of netbooks with Atom CPU's that are 'at the edge' for music software in general, but in reality the border between netbook and notebook is not so clear anymore. These newer models with faster CPU's are not really cheaper than comparable notebooks, but they are smaller. A useful thing for the traveling musician.
  
  
  
  I have two Aspire One netbooks that I use surprisingly often for music production. Only with one or two plugins running, and equipped with an USB audio interface it can be used as effect box, sample player, VSTi host, or even for recording as a mini-DAW. To play Samplemodeling instruments with acceptable latency, it is 'at the edge' so to speak, but it works. Bouncing a part to audio and recording a new part, etc. The trumpet is a bit too heavy, but you can still record the trombone and switch the instrument later for bouncing.
  
  
  
  This inspiron duo may be an excellent Samplemodeling host. But this depends also on the audio driver/card, and the computers USB chip. So in such cases we have no other choice to try out if it works, or if somebody else has succeeded. I'm also thinking about getting a tablet computer, but as long as the netbooks do the job, I can wait. This monday I found a dual-core notebook in the public trash, fully working. Now I have one netbook too much, I have no use for it at the moment. So if I would buy a tablet, it must be really good.
  
  Thanks for the advice, I am thinking also that the Dell Duo might just swing it, however I will give it a few more months as I won't start busking until late spring or early summer and maybe something a bit more powerful and small may appear to, be on the safe side.
  
  
  
  Thanks again for sharing your experiences.
  
  
  
  Regards Pete.
• Phil999

  January 2011 edited 12:34PM

  yes, this is a good strategy. Only buy at the very last moment when there is a real need for it. Because next week there will be a new offer that is better . . .
  
  
  
  Concerning netbook/notebook/tablet, I think a model with two displays might be interesting for musicians. A notebook is heavy, while a netbook is sometimes too small to display all kinds of plugins. Maybe such a dual-tablet has enough screen size and the small form factor.