Topic: Whats a good laptop setup?

[originalskankin]

I am thinking about purchasing a new laptop.   What types of things should I be looking for in a laptop should I want to start recording shows?

[cpclark]

at least 500mhz pcu, at least 128 ram, 256 recommended, 20gb HD but anything above 10 would suffice, a compatible usb chipset for whatever interface you are using if it is usb and not pcmcia.  the smaller the laptop the better, a sony picturebook, maybe a small fujitsu lifebook, but any laptop will do, there are tons of ibm thinkpads with specs better than i iisted above on ebay for around 500 or less
-chris

[originalskankin]

right on,  thanks man.   what about software?.  Is there a specific one you recomend?

[Simp-Dawg]

so many factors to think about...
1. minimum specs - you'll want at least a 400mhz processor, 128 mb ram, and at least 6 gb free space on your drive for recording and editing...any new laptop far exceeds these requirements, i'd recommend getting a 20-40gb hard drive so you can do multiple shows without having to offload all your data each time.  a 24/48 recording will be about 1hr = 1gb, double that for 24/96.
2. size - how much do you want to carry and leave sitting out at the show?  smaller footprints are better for taping as they leave less to be stepped/spilled on.  also smaller screens use up less battery power although if you have it closed most of the time it won't make much difference
3. power - most internal batteries are not enough to last through a show, except for models like the sony picturebooks or fujitsu lifebooks (both are really well suited for taping) that you can get extended capacity batteries for.  otherwise you'll need to get a laptop with hot-swappable batteries (ie. 2 bays that batteries can be inserted into) and multiple batteries or an external battery like the valence n-charge (my battery of choice) or electrovaya powerpad.
4. ports - smaller laptops may be lacking in some connections, or older models may suffer from this too.  depending on the interface you choose to run with it, you'll need either pcmcia, usb, or firewire.  pcmcia will be on every laptop.  some older laptops may not have a usb port, but most do.  many newer laptops, especially by sony, will have a 4-pin firewire port on it which you'd have to get a 4-pin>6-pin adaptor to run a firewire audio device on it...not too many laptop have full sized 6-pin firewire ports, though a pcmcia card adaptor can always be purchased to give you this capability.

[cpclark]

right on simp, software recs any of these would do - soundforge, wavelab are the clear choices among windows users

[Simp-Dawg]

also n-track, sonar, or even cd-wave would work.  i think.
you can also go mac and use many of the same interfaces as pc users, you'll need different software though.  and i can't help you with any mac stuff.

[Ed.]

i have a 696mhz celeron, 64mb ram, and a 6gig hdd (bought it cheap from a friend who had to pay rent).  Not even enuf room to partition the drive.  I wouldn't suggest this at all, but I've done about 10 24/48 recordings with it flawlessly.  Granted each recording was only an hour long, and i have the bare essentials installed and thats it, but it did work.  I don't think I'd ever take it to a real show and tape with it, but its fun to play with when my friends play at the local venues.

ed

[dmonterisi]

i have a fujitsu lifebook p2120 that i used for the first time for taping sat. night.  ran 24/96.  i use a nuendo digiset for digital interface and a liberated version of wavelab.  seems to have worked flawlessly.  laptop specs are 966mhz pentium crusoe processor, 256mb ram, 40gig hd.  i have the extended main battery and the modular bay battery  for the lifebook.  after 4 straight hours of recording with the screen closed (i left it running during breaks for test purposes) and about 20 mins extra time before the show started, i had just over 40% of my battery life remaining.  pretty good.

however, i tried to convert one of the 1.8 gig wav files to flac the next morning.  after about 5mins, it was about 8% finished with the compression, so i gave up on it and will attempt to transfer the wavs directly to my home pc.  I do not plan to use this laptop for anything other than taping and web browsing.

[Joe w.]

what was the damage on the lifebook + batteries and all the trimmings?

[dmonterisi]

lifebook + batteries + shipping ~ $1500

you still need the digi-interface, vxpocket just over $200, digiset ~$650-$700 new.