Is anyone using a laptop?

[Old Vantaa Man]

Please, I'd like to know what your machine, interface and general setup is.

I'm mostly concerned about soft synth latency.

xx Matt

[AlexHall74]

Matt,

I have a Dell Inspiron 1700 equipped as follows:

Dual Core Intel 1830s, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB/7200 internal hard drive, DVD writer, 6 USB 2.0 ports, 1 4-pin FireWire port, 1 ExpressCard expansion slot, etc...

I use the Mackie Onyx Satellite for my audio interface.

I have used this Dell notebook for 2 music related purposes: (1) Mobile recording rig, and (2) Mobile DJ rig.

Both are handled very well by this notebook. While recording I typically run Stylus RMX, Wusikstation, and Albino III in Tracktion 2 as my sequencer, no pops/clicks/latency issues.

I've recorded a friend's guitar chops and a few vocal odds and ends, no problems.

The only issue I had was that the 4-pin FireWire port went on the fritz on the only way to fix it was to have the motherboard replaced, which is not a big deal as it was under warranty. A guy came to my house to fix it, it took one hour.

Originally I wanted this notebook to be my primary DAW, but it becomes cumbersome having multiple FireWire external hard drives attahced to it, the Mackie, my M-Audio MIDI Sport Uno, etc...

Hope this info helps...

-Alex

[Old Vantaa Man]

Thanks Alex

So, just the one hard disk? And you can run RMX, Wisi and Albino all at the same time?

[AlexHall74]

I have an external 250 GB Western Digital 7200 RPM FireWire hard drive that I store all my VST sample libraries on.

Yes, I'm able to run all three VSTs at the same time. The CPU meter runs between 30% and 75% most of the time. Near-upper limit CPU spikes can occur from time to time if layered presets with alot of sustain are used (Albino III) but none have been a showstopper yet.

Again, this is a secondary rig for me. It's what I can take out of the house with a good blend of portability and power for not too much money. I paid $800 for the laptop 1 year ago. It's primary use is DJ work, for which it kicks ass running Virtual DJ 4.xx...

Hope this info helps...

[logo80]

an old G4 powerbook... with a motu traveler. 1.33GHz CPU, 1.25GB ram. Digital performer as audio unit host. I can use one or two softsynths without hearing latency or suffer from processor problems. Anyway I still prefer hardware... can't gig with a computer at all.
Regards, Lorenzo

[Timo]

Hi Matt

If you plan to use a firewire interface with the laptop for low-latency music stuff then avoid all laptops that don't have a TI (Texas Instruments) firewire chipset, or ascertain as to whether the soundcard is compatible with any other specific computer firewire chipsets.

Unfortunately it's getting harder and harder to find laptops with TI firewire chipsets inside them as laptop manufacturers are turning to other fw chipset manufacturers such as Ricoh (the Dell laptops use these), O2 Micro (and these), NEC, ENE, etc. which are less stable (clock wise) and have a lower throughput (limiting the number of channels that can be used at lower latencies), unless your soundcard explicitly states they are compatible with those brands.

For the newer laptops with PCI-ExpressCard slots, the PCI-ExpressCard buss also uses the same controller as the firewire, so you can't get around the problem by merely buying a Texas Instruments PCI-ExpressCard and plugging it in and using that. Everything on that buss (cardbus/firewire) must be native TI, or whatever other firewire chipset the soundcard manufacturers exclusively state is compatible with that particular soundcard. The older PCMCIA slots (as opposed to PCI-ExpressCard) with any make should be ok with a TI card, though.

I got absolutely piss bored by looking into it as pretty much all the bigger 17" laptops I was looking into at the time have non-TI based FW/PCI-x chipsets/controllers, so it's ending up that I'm building my own desktop instead for making choons and will probably get a cheapo laptop for non-music purposes. I have a Motu Traveller firewire soundcard.

[It's all gone a bit Ricoh crazy]
[Discussion on various makes/models and chipsets]
[Crappy Dell firewire]

Also the Apple Macbook Pro laptops (Apple being one who used to use TI exclusively) will be changing their TI chipsets to another manufacturer some time soon (if not already), and I believe also the standard Macbooks may do too, so no-one's safe.

Of course if you have a USB interface, then ignore the above.