Subject:Laptops

Posted by: herrdue

Date:6/9/2004 5:24:11 AM

Do any of you folks use a laptop for music production with Acid? Is that a rediculous notion? I've had some people tell me that I'll not get the best sound card (although I have the el-crappo factory card in my current desktop anyway and get descent performance). Others say it shouldn't matter. I'm looking for any "watchouts" before I buy a laptop.

My situation is this: I started a charity last year that takes computers to military bases where we record the children of deployed military personel as they sing along with pre-recorded Christmas/Holiday tunes. We then burn a CD to mail to the soldiers in time for the holidays. We do the same thing for kids who are stuck in hospitals during the holidays. Acid is an integral part of this service. To expand our services, I'm considering buying an additional laptop computer and was wondering if I should put the extra buxx (that I don't really have) into getting one that could replace my desktop as my main production tool. I just don't know if this is feasible. My typical need is to record tunes with Midi, multiple VSTi's and maybe 20-50 tracks of audio (guitars, bass, etc). Assuming the laptop meets the specs on the box, should I be worried?

PS - I would like to compliment Sony for extending my liscense so that I could put multiple copies on several laptops for these events at military bases. We could not afford to buy 4 copies of Acid. Sony's generosity helped us record nearly 150 kids during two events last year. We hope to double that this year. Thanks Sony!!!

Subject:RE: Laptops

Reply by: DKeenum

Date:6/9/2004 5:32:25 AM

Wow! I'm impressed! You provide a wonderful service.

The PC laptop has some iffy qualities about sound. I have an old dell 1 gHz that runs acid just fine. There are other people that seem to have all kinds of trouble with their laptops and acid. I don't know. I think the main complication would be the sound card, and I think echo has a pretty nice card for a reasonable price.

Subject:RE: Laptops

Reply by: spinweb

Date:6/9/2004 6:24:36 AM

I have an IBM T30 1.8 GHz, 512MB RAM and I run ACID just fine, usually. Sometimes I need to close down other apps to keep my RAM available for ACID. I recently bought the ECHO IO soundcard, which is 24 bit. However, for what you're doing, the factory sound card may be fine.

In short, no using a laptop for ACID music production is not a crazy notion. I'm doing it successfully.

Inspiring project you're working on. Best of luck!

Rick

Subject:RE: Laptops

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:6/9/2004 11:41:50 AM

What a very sweet effort, Mike!

I don't use a laptop myself, but you might want to consider a good quality laptop like those from Alienware if performance is a worry for you. (Their products are on the expensive side, but you get what you pay for.)

Choice of soundcard can definitely help with performance. As spinweb noted, the soundcard that comes with the laptop may be all you need.

Godspeed!

Iacobus
-------
RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid
mD's ACIDplanet Page
Guitars 4 Kids

Subject:RE: Laptops

Reply by: herrdue

Date:6/9/2004 1:19:52 PM

Well, if you folks would care to see more about the project, please visit http://www.duepoint.com. Thanks for the kind words of support.

Subject:RE: Laptops

Reply by: spesimen

Date:6/9/2004 1:37:39 PM

my only suggestion as something to look out for is that some of laptop hard drives do not spin as fast as PC drives (which are usually 7200 these days) due to heat issues. i do believe they make 5400 laptop drives but many use 3200rpm drives, so be careful to look at the specs.

when streaming a lot of tracks at the same time it could be an issue. maybe you could convince somebody doing it on a laptop to try a test with all 50 tracks...also keep in mind that the bandwidth needed depends on the type of tracks...if they are mostly loops you are probably fine, i believe those are played from RAM, but 50 tracks of long oneshots or beatmapped files could be a bit much for a slower drive to handle..

Subject:RE: Laptops

Reply by: dorkus

Date:6/9/2004 5:55:10 PM

I've used about 5 laptops with Acid - all fine depending upon the size of the project. My latest laptop - Sager, 3.4 ghz, 1mb ram, 2 internal 7200 rpm drives, Indigo IO card (@$2700 total) works better than my desktop.