Jon Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 The thread i started a week and a bit ago seems to have been deleted due to that hack on the site so i'll start it again. Here's the laptop i'm looking at:click here has updatable ram up to 4 gig, comes with 1 gig installed. 1.66 processor. going to be using it for ssl, reason and mutlitrack shizzle can it do the job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deft Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 None of those types of programs are massively processor intensive, because you can't really load them up with millions of plugins. Make sure you get a good audio interface with decent drivers for the production stuff and you'll be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 Make sure you get a good audio interface with decent drivers for the production stuff and you'll be fine.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Can you elaborate? Sorry I can work things but have no tech knowledge of stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 I think he means a good external sound card. Decent drivers will minimise latency. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 ok. i think the laptop has a soundblaster pro sound card. so you're suggesting i use an external one for recording for better quality? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Laptop sound cards are usually not very good, although I don't know how good the Soundblaster Pro is. I guess you'd have to try it and see. My PC has a shitty old Soundblaster card in it and I get no noticeable latency at all and the sound quality is fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 i have a soundblaster on my home pc which is fine. but i see deft's point Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deft Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 You should notice a decent increase in sound quality, plus you will get more (and better) in/out options/connections. I'm guessing you'll want to be using a MIDI keyboard or similar with Reason, so again a suitable external interface will make that hookup easier.Like Steve said, good drivers usually mean lower latencies are possible - and are attainable without as much processor strain.It depends what other gear you intend to hook up really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 yeh i'll probably have a trigger finger and a midi keyboard in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Firstly, look around at other brands, my ex had an Acer built with that exact chassis and it was imo very poorly assembled -the build has caused numerous problems (spoke to her the other day, it's now been sent back under warranty AGAIN I think the heatpipes are leaking). So I'm not a fan, I would warn against Acer as you really do have to treat them like fine china -this aside, you get a fair bit of hardware for your money and that laptop, specification wise, will be more than adequate. Definately get an external card. The onboard sound provisions on pretty much ANY laptop is very poor; an externtal card will benefit you no end. Creative external cards are very cheap but have no or poor asio driver support so look around first. Third party ASIO soloutions work very well for some Creative devices, poorly for others. Having said this, though, I've heard that Serato will soon be getting ASIO drivers of it's own, enabling the use of Serato as an external soundcard. So perhaps you should hold fire for a bit and see what happens... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sketchy Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 get a mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 Having said this, though, I've heard that Serato will soon be getting ASIO drivers of it's own, enabling the use of Serato as an external soundcard. So perhaps you should hold fire for a bit and see what happens...<{POST_SNAPBACK}> thanks for the advice Liam. I have serato but no pc to run it on atm.i'll look at other brands. i looked at dell, a company i have had good success with with my desktop, but theyre a bit too pricey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 I have an Acer laptop - and to be fairly honest, I'm not sure I'd buy the same brand again. I've had one very serious incident with this laptop, which I guess has kinda killed most of my trust in the brand "Acer". One fine day, about two weeks before my exams started, I was finishing up a fairly big summary of one of my textbooks. Suddenly, out of the middle of fucking nowhere the screen went blank. I tried to start the laptop, got into windows...and then it died on me again. After that, my laptop was dead. What happened, was that the HD overheated and the arm, that reads the disk had somehow melted and gone was my beautiful harddrive...Now luckily I had made backups of my summaries, so I only lost three days of total work (I don't back up on a regular basis)... But nicely enough, the HD was replaced without any cost and this within about a week, so that kinda made up for my situation. However if I were you, and you wanna make music on your laptop...get a dell, ibm or mac if you got the cash... As for cheap, very good soundcards for laptops use INDIGIO I/O...it's fucking great. pee.z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 my mate told me he has a deal on ibm's so i'l check out their laptops. thanks for the advice bubba Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ripple Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 I'm using a mac (ibook g4, basic model), never had any probs with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 No probs rusty. Thing is I'm kinda two hearted about Acer...on the one hand it's a good deal for the money, on the other - see below. What I forgot to add was the following: Somehow during the 4 years that I've been using this laptop, you start to notice "the small differences". There is a reason why Acer is cheaper than others...it's just the craftsmenship behind. Sometimes you just notice, that the final touch is missing...the soundcard isn't great, the grafic card is mediocre, the whole insulation of this laptop feels kinda shitty (really warm typingkeys after a while) you occasionally hear this nice "humming" in the background, when you have the laptop hooked up to the powerstation etc... I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you wait a while, and spend that extra bit of cash, you get something which initially may not seem to be evidently better than let's say an Acer or an HP, but in the long run you notice these fine differences that make your life soooo much easier. As for manufacturing quality I'd say that mac has done the best fucking job....their soundcards are decent, the integration of an external soundcard into the system is fucking amazing, grafic cards are bloody excellent and hell with the new dual-core processors you could fucking run windows on it if you wanted to...it's just the better end of the deal. If I ever have the cash, I'ma replace this laptop with a fucking new amazing mac... But in all honesty, my laptop is a bit older (got it in 2003) so maybe acer is doing better these days. My specs: Acer Travelmate 634LCMobile Intel Pentium Processor 4 - 1.8 Ghz1 Gig ram (updated - off the shelf it was 512) 30GB HD (now that's waaaay to fucking small, but those were the days, got a 160GB external firewire HD)And yeah as I said my soundcard is a PCI-connectable Indigo i/o...excellent SC for not too much money and I love the quality... pee.z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 my mate told me he has a deal on ibm's so i'l check out their laptops.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Definately do. Thinkpads = tanks. Definately a good choice for gigging. Very good aftercare, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
$a!n+ Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Just about any decent machine made in the last few years will run Serato fine. Just get what you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Saint - mosdef. Sure I gather serrato's been built that well that it can run on almost any laptop. I guess I kinda deviated away from just commenting on that topic, to just spending money on laptops generally. On IBM my bro has one cuz he works for them...seem to be really fucking sterdy...so guess that would be an option. Pee.z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 4, 2006 Author Share Posted July 4, 2006 i've been advised by a couple of peoplem to opt for a macbook instead. my only problem with that wud be, if i get a mac with office xp, can i use the word files i make on a mac on a windows pc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 4, 2006 Author Share Posted July 4, 2006 bumpy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
$a!n+ Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 i've been advised by a couple of peoplem to opt for a macbook instead. my only problem with that wud be, if i get a mac with office xp, can i use the word files i make on a mac on a windows pc?<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Unless you already have macs or you work around macs or your school has macs, I would stay with a pc. I think macs are great and I think pcs are great but they don't work well together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 4, 2006 Author Share Posted July 4, 2006 school use windows. is it possible to work on something then transfer it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 school use windows. is it possible to work on something then transfer it?<{POST_SNAPBACK}> It's almost always possible. But it'll fuck you right off when it isn't. And software is harder to find. (note: find = steal) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 4, 2006 Author Share Posted July 4, 2006 I know reason works on bothso does seratodoes anyone know about cubase and nuendo?also i'm lookign for an alternative to wavepad for basic recording, but nuendo or cubase wud work fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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