Laptops for recording?

Old_Gregg

Old_Gregg

Member
Jan 18, 2010
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Ye Olde England
Hey guys, been lurking on these boards for the better part of a year now and I would just like to thank everyone in the community for making these forums so helpful (especially the production tips section!).

Now that I'm done kissing your asses, I just wondered if any of you fine tech-savvy gentlemen could help me out yet again?

Ive been using my crappy computer since I can remember now and I think its about time I got an upgrade. I wanna get a laptop for mobility convenience...and I'm definately not going to get a desktop so please dont suggest one.

I've borrowed my friends macbook pro before and I have to say I loved it so that was the first thing I looked at. After a little gander I found one that would set me back around £1,200.

Now heres where I ask for your help. From what I understand you can get an equally good laptop for about half the price of a mac...is there any truth to this? I am willing to spend the money but I definately wouldn't say no to paying a little less...

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/sony-vaio-vpcee2m1e-wi-06559666-pdt.html

Saw this on offer, and not knowing anything about computers, assumed it must be good seeing as it costs as much as it does...plus its on sale :cool:

But yeah I've rambled on for long enough as it is...any one here good with computers and willing to point me in the direction of a decent laptop for recording music?

BTW I use a pod x3 live, and when using my friends mac it usually sounded miles better plugging in the headphone jack into the macs input...when I use the usb on my computer it usually ends up crashing after a while...so an input with a good soundcard would be a plus I guess
 
Look for a Core i5 based notebook if you're not going Apple. The extra threads are nice, but not worth the premium and cooling issues with i7's in notebooks. Plenty of deals out there in the sub-1000 range.

Example: [ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pavilion-dv6-2105ea-15-6-inch-Notebook-Processor/dp/B0033PRQHE/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1285272766&sr=8-2-fkmr1"]HP DV6 Core i5[/ame]
 
I just got this one a bit more than a month ago:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220696

So far it's really awesome, especially for the price. It does run push out a ton of heat, but no overheating at all, which probably just means it's expulsing the heat effectively. I haven't been able to push it to its limit, but I can run something like 30 audio tracks with 6-8 instances of VST amp sims + cab, and about 4-5 tracks with my vocal chain (c1, rvox, readelay, rverb, reaeq x2), bass chain with Ampeg SVX, drum plugins and SSD without a single hiccup. Basically at least 4 times what my old Core Duo based computer was able to do plugin-wise.
 
Just remember to get one with audio interface-compatible firewire-port chipset (which means Texas Instruments). Or at least with an expresscard buss.

I got a dell laptop with c2d 8100 and 4 gigs of ram and can run pretty heavy loaded sessions (40+ tracks with various plugs).
 
my 13" M.B.P is amazing for mobile recording. Hell i've mixed plenty of records on that thing!
 
Hey guys thanks for all your input, but after much thinking I've decided I'd rather go for a desktop PC. I guess the budget is the same as before but I'd really like to spend around £700 give or take because I know you get more for your money with desktops.

Is firewire that important to have? I cant seem to find any computers that come with them standard, though I could always get one installed if need be.

But yeah...with this new information could anyone give me any suggestions?
 
Old_Gregg said:
Hey guys thanks for all your input, but after much thinking I've decided I'd rather go for a desktop PC. I guess the budget is the same as before but I'd really like to spend around £700 give or take because I know you get more for your money with desktops.

Is firewire that important to have? I cant seem to find any computers that come with them standard, though I could always get one installed if need be.

But yeah...with this new information could anyone give me any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Pretty damn useful. Most of the better interfaces use Firewire. Look for a TI chipset firewire card. For the PC, I'd say just build your own system, get 4 gigs of RAM and an i5 processor.
 
i bought my comp off of here, they are sweet, lots of choice an customisation, the deals they are doing now are far better than what i got a while ago, but i did get three texas instrument firwire ports, and two internal hard drives, which is excellant, stops my whole computer from bottlenecking cause i use one for audio samples etc, and one for programs hence the names program drive and audio drive i guess, this has a 500Gb program dirve and about 1TB of audio drive, ultra quiet cooling fans seem to be a standard with these too in case your recording in the same room as your computer,

wish i had waited untill the i3 i5 and i7 were out to get me one but i needed a new computer post haste,
this one is about you price range and you can add to it in the list below,

http://www.inta-audio.com/pc-builder/index/68

hope this is some help
 
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