Computer Recommendations for Ableton and No Money?
August 13, 2010 3:22 PM Subscribe
Minimum specs for a computer running Ableton Live?
I've got around $400, and need a computer to run Ableton Live. I won't be recording any orchestras, but will be recording my violin, hopefully along with vocals and an electric guitar or two. Oh, and I also have a Guitar Hero controller that I'm using as a midi controller, thanks to Zeal's cool software.
What do you suggest? Further ideas:
1) It seems like a laptop would be cool; ideal, in fact. However I just don't know if the $400 laptops can handle Ableton. I really have no clue how strenuous the software is, actually--maybe you could run it on a netbook, for all I know!
2) Also I'd need advice about audio in. I have a Delta 1010LT that could go in a desktop machine, but if I got a laptop I'd need something else.
I bought an UGM96 USB adapter which works well enough, except that there's some crazy conflict with the aforementioned Guitar Hero controller--when they're both plugged in, it just produces terrible noise.
So, if you think it will run well enough on a cheap laptop, could you also recommend an audio adapter?
I've never owned a Mac, largely because I've never been able to afford them. I suspect that this is still the case.
I've got around $400, and need a computer to run Ableton Live. I won't be recording any orchestras, but will be recording my violin, hopefully along with vocals and an electric guitar or two. Oh, and I also have a Guitar Hero controller that I'm using as a midi controller, thanks to Zeal's cool software.
What do you suggest? Further ideas:
1) It seems like a laptop would be cool; ideal, in fact. However I just don't know if the $400 laptops can handle Ableton. I really have no clue how strenuous the software is, actually--maybe you could run it on a netbook, for all I know!
2) Also I'd need advice about audio in. I have a Delta 1010LT that could go in a desktop machine, but if I got a laptop I'd need something else.
I bought an UGM96 USB adapter which works well enough, except that there's some crazy conflict with the aforementioned Guitar Hero controller--when they're both plugged in, it just produces terrible noise.
So, if you think it will run well enough on a cheap laptop, could you also recommend an audio adapter?
I've never owned a Mac, largely because I've never been able to afford them. I suspect that this is still the case.
I can't really speak to the system requirements of Ableton live, though I'm pretty sure they're not that high.
If at all possible, look at a firewire interface over a USB one, and avoid M-Audio. Their pci interfaces are solid (I'm running several of them) but their external ones, particularly USB have given me nothing but trouble and the company has been completely uninterested in providing any meaningful support. A lot of cheap laptops don't have firewire through, so you might be stuck with USB.
Mark of the Unicorn and Presonus both have some nice options for not too expensive interfaces.
posted by jjb at 4:08 PM on August 13, 2010
If at all possible, look at a firewire interface over a USB one, and avoid M-Audio. Their pci interfaces are solid (I'm running several of them) but their external ones, particularly USB have given me nothing but trouble and the company has been completely uninterested in providing any meaningful support. A lot of cheap laptops don't have firewire through, so you might be stuck with USB.
Mark of the Unicorn and Presonus both have some nice options for not too expensive interfaces.
posted by jjb at 4:08 PM on August 13, 2010
Best answer: Any more than about 3 tracks causes serious clipping.
Are you sure you mean clipping? Because clipping has to do with pushing the volume too high and that has nothing to do with your PC.
If at all possible, look at a firewire interface over a USB one,
You don't need a firewire interface, and I'd recommend not getting one for a cheap laptop. In my exprience, firewire drivers and interfaces are difficult at best in windows laptops, and everyone seems to be moving towards USB 2.0 anyway.
If at all possible, look at a firewire interface over a USB one, and avoid M-Audio.
FWIW, I've had an M-Audio firewire card for years and have used it to play live gigs and have never had a problem with it on my Macbook. I could not get it to work on a windows laptop, though.
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Basically, I'd be looking for something with 2 gigs of ram and at least a core duo processor. What is really going to be your limitation is hard drive access speed.
If you can at all afford a used macbook, i'd consider it. My 3 year old black macbook runs it flawlessly, and it looks like the one I have is running for about $500 or $600 on ebay.
As far as recommending an interface, I dunno. You may not even need an interface at first, if you just want to play around with it. You can download the ASIO4All drivers and cut your latency down to near zero, as long as your CPU can keep up with it.
posted by empath at 8:09 PM on August 13, 2010 [2 favorites]
Are you sure you mean clipping? Because clipping has to do with pushing the volume too high and that has nothing to do with your PC.
If at all possible, look at a firewire interface over a USB one,
You don't need a firewire interface, and I'd recommend not getting one for a cheap laptop. In my exprience, firewire drivers and interfaces are difficult at best in windows laptops, and everyone seems to be moving towards USB 2.0 anyway.
If at all possible, look at a firewire interface over a USB one, and avoid M-Audio.
FWIW, I've had an M-Audio firewire card for years and have used it to play live gigs and have never had a problem with it on my Macbook. I could not get it to work on a windows laptop, though.
--------------------------------
Basically, I'd be looking for something with 2 gigs of ram and at least a core duo processor. What is really going to be your limitation is hard drive access speed.
If you can at all afford a used macbook, i'd consider it. My 3 year old black macbook runs it flawlessly, and it looks like the one I have is running for about $500 or $600 on ebay.
As far as recommending an interface, I dunno. You may not even need an interface at first, if you just want to play around with it. You can download the ASIO4All drivers and cut your latency down to near zero, as long as your CPU can keep up with it.
posted by empath at 8:09 PM on August 13, 2010 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by AltReality at 4:01 PM on August 13, 2010