Topic: Laptop tapers speak up!

[jebb]

So who's doing field recording via laptop and what all are you using?

I've been doing it for about 4-5 months now and would like to hear how others are doing the same, especially what hardware/software.

Thanks!

[Chanher]

I've been running either a tmod+ ua-5 > usb > compaq armada m300 PIII 2496 and 24/48 or wmod fw-410 > firewire > compaq armada m300 PIII 2496, or both at the same time.    If  I'm just doing 2 channel stereo, I always use Wavelab 5 to record. If I'm multi-tracking I've been using Kristal, but only at 16/44.1. I've been have MAJOR trouble trying to get 24/96 multi-track to work! I've tried everything!

[hzgone]

i'm running v3>vx pocket v2>fujitsu 2110.  Have been using sound forge to record and haven't had any problems with it.  the fujitsu is small and light and has the ability to hot swap batteries.  With the 2 bats i have in it it will run for about 6 hours.

[fsulloway]

My rig is listed under my avitar. I use one of Ian's custom cables into the vx pocket soundcard and Wavelab to record. My laptop is a vaio c1vp with a 20 gig drive. It's been very reliable so far(30 shows or so).

[kindms]

i haveeb been running m aptop for like 2years or more now i guess

[kskreider]

I have done it for a while too. 

I was running SKM140's>V3>Firewire 410>Sony PCG-K13>Wavelab when I lived in Ithaca, but recently have been running SKM140's>Firewire 410>Dell 700m>Wavelab.  I try to keep it at 24/96 when I can, but some of my first were using a VX Pocket which limited me to 24/48.

[dklein]

I've been running on a Dell laptop for almost 2 years.  Originally with a UA-5 and then with an Emagic A62 for multitrack.  Since going multitrack I've been using Kristal (freeware) for recording.  I used wavelab with the UA-5.

[jebb]

Guess I should have posted what I'm using heheh

I'm recording on a Dell Inspiron 8200 (P4 1.6m | 512MB | 60GB | 7200rpm HD | DVD reader/CD burner)

I use the little imic external usb soundcard which was modded by soundprofessionals.com, has two AT853 with subcardioid elements.

Software is Audacity (open source) doing 32-bit floating point projects, then I export to 16-bit @ 44.1 before tracking out for CD/flac

I'm quite pleased so far. For $420 on the mics/soundcard deal its worth the price and I havent needed any preamplification device either, it just works

[Phil]

24/48 > VX Pocket 440 > Compaq armada n410 (1.2ghz, 40gig 5200rpm hd,)  > Wavelab 4. The cool thing about this rig is it has dual battery slots.  An internal that gets about 45min and one that attaches to the back that gets about 1.8 hours then I take along another battery for the back that I swap at sets. This usually gets me the entire show without getting burned too often.  However now I have a valence battery due to getting burned one too many times. 

I run wavelab 5 on the desktop to author DVD-a's.

I hate the battery and bulkyness of the laptop, but love the 24bit. I'll drop it in a heartbead if the Flash Tracker proves to be all it can be.   

[jebb]

Phil, I also have two battery slots, each filled. I also have 2 spare batteries which are hot-swappable so I can get almost 10 hrs off a complete set of batteries.

[Phil]

Phil, I also have two battery slots, each filled. I also have 2 spare batteries which are hot-swappable so I can get almost 10 hrs off a complete set of batteries.

Nice..  my internal batteries used to get me much more but time has hurt them.  Love wavelab's "record to file" feature so I've never lost an entire show due to batteries.   

[mirth]

393 > ua-5 (stock) > toshiba 2950cdt (celeron 500, 64mb, 2k, 6gb) > CDWave.
Internal battery gets 2 hours (have 4 I can swap), have valence, also have external batteryspace universal laptop battery which gets another 1.5 hours.

cdwave rocks for recording, if only the meters were better.... thats why I have a SVU-1!

[dklein]

My Dell goes for almost 4 hours on the included internal battery (and that's powering my USB interface too!).

[jebb]

My Dell goes for almost 4 hours on the included internal battery (and that's powering my USB interface too!).

centrino?

[jason]

dual vxpockets > toshiba 3480ct, customized by jamie lutch.  4.5-5 hrs with both batts in, can hot swap too.  vegas 3 records >2hrs as .w64 without writing to a new file past the 2hr mark.  2 vxpockets lets me record two sources simultaneously at 24/48 or if I'm too lazy to resample/dither, I'll go 24/48 from ad2k and 16/44.1 from the v3.  Couple yrs old, no problems.

[dklein]

centrino?

Nope - plain old 'cheapest one I could find' model.  $750 about a year and a half ago (I think there was some rebate action in there).
Dell Inspiron 1100
Celeron 2.0 / 14" screen / 256 MB / 30 GB 5400rpm / stock battery

I've optimized a bit by dropping the screen brightness but nothing else was done for power consumption.  Having the 14" screen instead of 15" may contribute but it's interesting that with the screen dimmed down there doesn't seem to be a huge difference compared to running dark.  I can't remember the test results but I'm pretty sure I was around 3.5 hours with the screen on and around 4 with it dark.  Hard drive is set to never shutdown when I'm in recording mode.  The software I use for recording (Kristal) is also very low CPU.  The fan usually kicks on regardless.  The stock battery is a 96 watt hours 14.8v (that's the equivalent of 6.5 amp hours)

But I do have one beef with Dell - the screen was replaced under warranty and since then I can't have it switch on or off without creating a recording glitch.  So I decide in advance - is it staying lit or dark.  After tons of tech support it was determined that there's a hardware difference that just can't be beat.  Really pissed me off since the only reason it was replaced was for a sticky latch.  They replace the whole damn assembly and had I known, I never would have gone for it.  No opportunity to get an 'old one'.  In the end, the settlement was they sent me another battery since I told them I now needed enough juice to run lit the whole time.

[jebb]

Thats pretty strange, I wonder if the same would happen after a format/reinstall? (not that I'm actually suggesting such)

[Steve J]

...I can't have it switch on or off without creating a recording glitch.

Yeah...been there, had that irritation. That, and the fact that the monitor would shut down with the lid closed (no matter what the power settings and BIOS were set to), were some of the reasons I went to a Powerbook. I just got tired of the quirks that would pop up for no apparent reason.

[fsulloway]

centrino?

Nope - plain old 'cheapest one I could find' model.  $750 about a year and a half ago (I think there was some rebate action in there).
Dell Inspiron 1100
Celeron 2.0 / 14" screen / 256 MB / 30 GB 5400rpm / stock battery

I've optimized a bit by dropping the screen brightness but nothing else was done for power consumption.  Having the 14" screen instead of 15" may contribute but it's interesting that with the screen dimmed down there doesn't seem to be a huge difference compared to running dark.  I can't remember the test results but I'm pretty sure I was around 3.5 hours with the screen on and around 4 with it dark.  Hard drive is set to never shutdown when I'm in recording mode.  The software I use for recording (Kristal) is also very low CPU.  The fan usually kicks on regardless.  The stock battery is a 96 watt hours 14.8v (that's the equivalent of 6.5 amp hours)

But I do have one beef with Dell - the screen was replaced under warranty and since then I can't have it switch on or off without creating a recording glitch.  So I decide in advance - is it staying lit or dark.  After tons of tech support it was determined that there's a hardware difference that just can't be beat.  Really pissed me off since the only reason it was replaced was for a sticky latch.  They replace the whole damn assembly and had I known, I never would have gone for it.  No opportunity to get an 'old one'.  In the end, the settlement was they sent me another battery since I told them I now needed enough juice to run lit the whole time.

So did it work properly before? For some reason I thought other people with Dell's were having this problem.

[dklein]

So did it work properly before? For some reason I thought other people with Dell's were having this problem.

It was fine before the new hardware (screen) and required BIOS update as a result.  I did the full O/S reinstall just to be sure.  The deal is that there's a capture of screen data when going dark and it very briefly grabs the CPU or bus and causes the glitch.

I've always had to leave the lid slightly ajar but it could go dark/light without glitches.  Alternately, I could close it up before the band came on.  I heard the powerbooks need to be kept open for cooling though, which isn't much better.

[kindms]

I also chose my laptop for the fact it could run 2 internal batteries.  I have a swap-able dvd-rom for the bay and sawp it with the 2nd bat when recording. I also have 2 N-charge Valance 10-hour (ha!) I get about 3hours or more each withthis power hungry p4 and then the internals a litlle more than 1 hour or so. I estimate low to be on the safe side

Cant wait to see if the M-audio thing worj\ks out it would be nice to switch

[jebb]

Curious, what M-audio thing? 

[tonyvt]

I run a 12" G4/800 iBook with 60gig drive and 640mb of RAM with Spark XL.
This computer has been rock solid for me and is now about 1.5 years old.
About a year ago I sold my CCM 41's and now have a pair of MBHO's running into a UA-5.
Next big outing will be the Greyfox Bluegrass Festival next month.

[krebsy]

I took my maiden voyage with my new Powerbook the other night. I was running a UA5 at 24/48 via USB with Audacity. I did get a couple of odd glitches, but other than that it worked quite well. Of course power is always an issue, but I had access to AC, which was nice.  I don't know if I would want to deal with a laptop in a crowded section, but I can see myself using this setup on occasion. 24 bit stage tapes are pretty sweet!!   

[silverbullet]

TLs>V3>FW410>sony vaio with centrino>wavlab 5.0a 24/96. Ripped a couple of 24/96 dvd-audio discs with wavelab with no problems. My Sony laptop has a fairly large screen so I don't use it much b/c I usually have limited space where ever I tape. That and my vaio has limited on battery power in the field so unless I have plug in power or I'm just taping for an hour or so I leave the lappie at home.

The FW410 is sort of big also and it either needs a battery or plug in power. It won't run off a four pin firewire connection from the lappie or even a converted 6pin from the pci slot (I think). I'll be getting a used m-audio transit soon so I will test that little baby out soon. Now I just need to down size my laptop.

Just on the safe side of things... I usually record to a JB3 from the V3 as well usually the xlr outputs on the V3 to line in on the JB3. The signal will be very hot so I use a little volume control between the V3 and JB3 to lower the levels just right for the JB3. I do this just in case my laptop battery dies or something; I'll still have a descent backup recording on the JB3.

[kindms]

Curious, what M-audio thing? 

The M-Audio Micro Traker or fast Tracker whatever they are calling it these days. Check the "Recording Gear" section there is about 4 or 5 topics about. 24/96 capabale hand-held (about the size of a jb3) CF cards. Has RCA and COAX digi-in. If the thing does the digi-in correctly the laptop will stay at home or in the car for festivals.

I hope that the thing is out by August. I would love to have it to take the 414's way FOB for the Gathering of the Vibes. Just isnt practical witht he lappy. to much to defend

[creekfreak]

when I have the space to do so I have been running V3-->m-audio firewire audiophile-->Gateway 450 lappie, did a little 24/96, but went back to 24/48 since I couldn't really tell a big difference and the files are much easier to work with.

[lostinaustin]

so is there any particular reason why no one multitracks using a firewire /mbox>>protools? dont have any experience with wavelab, just Cubase.  seems like it would be super easy to track and master with a visual grid....but does this kinda recording "overstep" boundaries for tapers? i mean no board outs, just mics to the interface (phantom bus powered)??

[Chachi420]

SBD > HP Pavilion 5200

[rustoleum]

MiniMe -> usb -> Vaio C1Vn -> WaveLab for about 2 years... mostly with success although of late the USB has been giving me intermittant problems.

Just picked up a VxPocket V2 off of ebay, though... no more finicky USB connection for me!   

[TenoRichards]

dpa 4060>mic2496>Audigy 2 zs notebook via pcmcia>Wavelab @ 2496

I know most don't want to go w/ the Audigy, but I'm just blown away by what I'm getting. The definition at 2496 for classical is staggering. I DO notice a diff between 96 and 44.1. Strings just jump out at you. You can hear the bow on the string, even in a large hall.

MY problem is that I really need a mme's compression scheme, I think. My dynamic range is just too wide. I spoke w/ a sound engineer in NYC and he suggested I not use more than 25dbl difference for orchestra recordings and what I'm getting WAY more than that. Makes mastering very hard for my purposes.

[Weekendshooter]

So who's doing field recording via laptop and what all are you using?

I've been doing it for about 4-5 months now and would like to hear how others are doing the same, especially what hardware/software.

Thanks!

Started using a laptop early March myself...

15" 1.67GHz G4 Powerbook, 2 gigs RAM, 100 gig HD (will sometimes run an extra external hd), 10.3.9

Digital Performer or Audio Desk

Motu Traveler (done single mics up to 8 line-ins so far)

About the same time, I also picked up an M-Box with ProTools but resent how PT doesn't work unless the h/w is connected where as DP will let you work without its h/w connected so the M-Box and PT may be going on e-bay.  Dunno...

What's nice about this setup is that I'm able to import tracks recorded off of other gear, get them synch'd and get some post production work done in the park or at the pub.  Also able to lug the laptop around to various other monitors & playback systems--alot cheaper than buying more monitors!