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A suitable laptop for composing music...??

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golem
Registered User

Joined: 28 Dec 2003

Posted: Mon Feb 02 2004 20:02 A suitable laptop for composing music...??
Hi. I'm going probably to study abroad for quite a long time and that's why I'm concidering buying a laptop. My primary requirement from the laptop is that it is good for doing music. It should have an excellent soundcard, at least the level of SB-Audigy... could be even more professional. Can you recommend, which laptops are designed with a professional soundcard? Or is it so that such laptop doesn't exist and you have to buy an external sound card to get a good sound? My requirements are to be able to use madtracker perfectly and to be able to use Cubase SX. The laptop and the sound card should be able to hande at least 48-64 simultaneous mono audio channels with 44100khz and 16bit resolution... And I'd probably do mixing in cubase so it should be able to run 48-64 cubase channels... And also have some power for VST synths I'm not buying some professional workstation of 10 000 - 20 000 eur. My budget is 1000 - 2100 euros. I appreciate every opinion of doing music with laptops and laptop sound cards. If you recommend using an external, USB soundcard so say, which sound card would be cheap and good enough... It would be also good if the laptop is good quality in general and has worldwide support for maintenance (If I go to study to Japan as I'm planning, I want to be able to have a service for the laptop in Japan) Thank you for your help...

Elijah
Registered User

Joined: 20 Jan 2004
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada Eh?

Posted: Mon Feb 02 2004 21:31
Re: A suitable laptop for composing music...??

golem wrote:

Hi. I'm going probably to study abroad for quite a long time and that's why I'm concidering buying a laptop.

My primary requirement from the laptop is that it is good for doing music. It should have an excellent soundcard, at least the level of SB-Audigy... could be even more professional.

Can you recommend, which laptops are designed with a professional soundcard?

Or is it so that such laptop doesn't exist and you have to buy an external sound card to get a good sound?

My requirements are to be able to use madtracker perfectly and to be able to use Cubase SX.

The laptop and the sound card should be able to hande at least 48-64 simultaneous mono audio channels with 44100khz and 16bit resolution...

And I'd probably do mixing in cubase so it should be able to run 48-64 cubase channels... And also have some power for VST synths Smile

I'm not buying some professional workstation of 10 000 - 20 000 eur. My budget is 1000 - 2100 euros.

I appreciate every opinion of doing music with laptops and laptop sound cards.

If you recommend using an external, USB soundcard so say, which sound card would be cheap and good enough...

It would be also good if the laptop is good quality in general and has worldwide support for maintenance (If I go to study to Japan as I'm planning, I want to be able to have a service for the laptop in Japan)

Thank you for your help...

well right now im running a persario 2100 and its a little bit older than the newer machines (not the most intelligent thing ive said) and it cost me 1400 canadian. the sound is good quality and the cpu can handle almost anything.
as ive said its older so the new ones can definatly handle anything. as for the sound card. ive noticed that my brothers minitower has a little better sound quality but its not noticable.. i think its actually because its running thru an amp (computer speax) so this computer has been go for me so far.. im about to take a course in cubase and im HOPING this handles it. and i have a pretty good expectation.
compaq also has a good guarantee... im going to get my headphone jack fixed Very Happy

... shit happens. but its going to be covered by warantee. basically i think if you get a higher end laptop in your price range. then you'll be set for tracking. (i love the laptop because i can take it anywhere and whip it out when i get that sudden burst of inspiration... ya i take it everywhere Very Happy

)

theres my 2 sense

- Elijah

Blaster
Registered User

Joined: 04 May 2003
Location: Netherlands/Germany

Posted: Mon Feb 02 2004 23:16
Compaqs are a little bit overpriced imo. A cheaper brand is just as good (check the manufacturers sites for info about worldwide guarantee (mail them if unsure)). Acer, Jewel and Dell (ok Dell is overpriced too) are just as good a choice, but are not really cheaper brands . Try to find some laptop reviews online and check your local bookstore for magazines with reviews and see which gives best value for money. Get an external usb audio interface (the ones in the laptop are poor performance cards, especially when using lots of vsti's). The Tascam US-122 is great value for money (according to Computer Music Magazine). For everything else: lots of CPU and RAM are most important. Have at least 512mb ram (more is better). Don't forget to buy a pair of decent headphones if you don't have them already [edit] I just took a look at some of the Acer models. The Acer Aspire 1700 series are great laptops. Carrying pentium4 -2,66ghz, 80GB harddisk, 17" TFT screens and 512MB of ram. They're priced around 1600 euros.
united trackers

technoid
Regular

Joined: 21 Sep 2003
Location: Oregon USA

Posted: Tue Feb 03 2004 01:05
Any laptop will do providing it meets minimum spec of the music software you will be using... and then some. That is, tack on more memory and more harddrive space, if you can afford it. As another addition, a desktop bay can also be useful, so that you can use its ports rather than the laptop's output ports to keep wear & tear down. If you are going into professional gigging, many pro's use Apple G5's for it's OSX compatibility, stability and firewire. Intel is also coming up with some music boxen, but I think it's more of a minitower I think. I'm reading about Cubase SX 2.0 right now in Keyboard Mag and it's min specs are: - PC: Pentium3/Athlon (800 MHz), 384 MB, Win 2k/XP - Mac: PowerMac G4 (867 MHz), 384 MB, OSX 10.2.5 - Audio: CoreAudio (Mac); MME/ASIO (Win)
~techie

QBical
Registered User

Joined: 04 May 2003
Location: Utrecht , The Netherlands

Posted: Tue Feb 03 2004 13:21
I'm using a laptop when I do live preformances and dj'ing also I use it sometimes to make music... Just any laptop will do, just some recomendations : - Use a firewire Harddrive, the speed of your laptops hardrive is far more slower than your desktop HD, so a firewire disk will compensate that! - use a good external soundcard, I use the Esi-Pro 'Gigaport AG' with 8 outputs, this gives me the advantage that I can group several instruments together and then send it to an external mixer. But you might want to invest a bit more in a complete solution, my next purchuse is gonna be the Yamaha o1x mixer, wich features 8 in and 8 outputs, DSP fx-units, motorised faders and compatability with almost all music software ( like your cubase SX ). grtz qbical
PC: P4 HT 3ghz, 1gb ram, 500GB+ Storage, plextor DVD-rw, M-audo Audiophile 2496 Laptop: Apple Powerbook G4 15inch Other Stuff: Phonic MU802 mixer, Alesis M1 Active Mk2 Monitors, Ipod 2nd gen. 20GB, maxtor firewire HD 80GB

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