What's the best laptop for digital audio work I can get for <$800?
May 1, 2018 6:32 PM Subscribe
I've been asked to buy a laptop for a friend on a budget who is looking to upgrade a home studio. My limitations are:
-it has to work with his existing PreSonus FirePod (FP10), so either FireWire input or an adaptable replacement for it.
-it has to run Windows software, preferably in Spanish.
-it should be as sturdy and reliable as possible for the money.
-I need to be able to order it in the U.S.
The top end of my budget is $800. Is this feasible these days?
I haven't bought a Windows machine in well over a decade and I'm unfamiliar with the current state of affairs in OS, brand reliability, etc.
General advice or recommendations for specific machines/sites to purchase would be appreciated.
I haven't bought a Windows machine in well over a decade and I'm unfamiliar with the current state of affairs in OS, brand reliability, etc.
General advice or recommendations for specific machines/sites to purchase would be appreciated.
Best answer: The audio interface is using DMA, so you can't just use a FireWire to USB adapter, you need something with Thunderbolt. The only one Presonus officially supports for the purpose is Apple's. Note the detail that it doesn't provide sufficient power to run the FirePod without the power adapter.
That's going to limit your selection to a handful of systems that are both $800 and have Thunderbolt. Here's one list with prices I found. Wikipedia has a different list but without prices.
posted by Candleman at 9:18 PM on May 1, 2018
That's going to limit your selection to a handful of systems that are both $800 and have Thunderbolt. Here's one list with prices I found. Wikipedia has a different list but without prices.
posted by Candleman at 9:18 PM on May 1, 2018
Best answer: I would drop the requirement to work with the FirePod FP10. Candleman already mentioned the issues with using firewire adapters, and on top of that the FP10 is discontinued and not officially supported on Windows 10. Even assuming you could get it to work it would likely break again when Windows gets an update, and the last thing you want is to try to buy a brand new machine as an upgrade but run an older OS on it to support old hardware.
I've discarded one Presonus audio interface myself for this reason (won't work under OSX Sierra) and the same thing happened to the one before it. The unfortunate fact is that audio interfaces have a limited lifetime as hardware and software platforms change.
If it were up to me I'd get the best spec PC I could find for $600, and then look at eBay and Craigslist until I found a good up-to-date USB3 audio interface that would work.
posted by mmoncur at 12:49 AM on May 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
I've discarded one Presonus audio interface myself for this reason (won't work under OSX Sierra) and the same thing happened to the one before it. The unfortunate fact is that audio interfaces have a limited lifetime as hardware and software platforms change.
If it were up to me I'd get the best spec PC I could find for $600, and then look at eBay and Craigslist until I found a good up-to-date USB3 audio interface that would work.
posted by mmoncur at 12:49 AM on May 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
FireWire audio and laptops make this task nearly impossible. When I bought a laptop 10 years ago that had firewire, it still didn't work properly with my audio interface. I had to buy a pcmcia firewire card with a specific brand chip in it to properly connect to my audio interface.
posted by noloveforned at 5:20 AM on May 2, 2018
posted by noloveforned at 5:20 AM on May 2, 2018
The only reasonably-modern laptop I can think of with a Firewire interface is the older pre-Retina Macbook Pros from about five years ago.
It looks like modern USB interfaces from Presonus are just a few hundred dollars, which is at least the premium you'd pay (in opportunity cost too!) trying to get an older, slower Firewire laptop running an obsolete version of Windows.
posted by neckro23 at 8:42 AM on May 2, 2018
It looks like modern USB interfaces from Presonus are just a few hundred dollars, which is at least the premium you'd pay (in opportunity cost too!) trying to get an older, slower Firewire laptop running an obsolete version of Windows.
posted by neckro23 at 8:42 AM on May 2, 2018
I am a huge fan of used ThinkPads. Rugged, great specs, business class. I seldom have issues with driver incompatibility or anything. Businesses lease them, when they go off-lease, they get bought up, cleaned up, reimaged, and sold on ebay. For 600 - 800, you can get a great laptop, a year or 2 old. I am on a rather older Thinkpad T410, really affordable, and it's better than the new Lenovo I had for a while. I am on a run of stupid laptop accidents, so I've had too much buying practice. Even the batteries have had decent life, which is a pleasant surprise. 'Business class' computers use better quality components, are made to be repair-able, are generally sturdier.
For any laptop, either get 8 gb RAM to start, and SSD, or budget to add them. I just saw a 500 gb SSD for @125. Adding RAM is dependent on what's in it. If it has 4 gb, it might have 2 2gb stcks, and you'd buy 2 4 gb sticks. If it has 1 4 gb stick, you's save by just adding a 4 gb stick. Adding RAM is trivially easy. Migrating to SSD, less so. SSD (solid state drive) is significantly faster.
posted by theora55 at 8:58 AM on May 2, 2018
For any laptop, either get 8 gb RAM to start, and SSD, or budget to add them. I just saw a 500 gb SSD for @125. Adding RAM is dependent on what's in it. If it has 4 gb, it might have 2 2gb stcks, and you'd buy 2 4 gb sticks. If it has 1 4 gb stick, you's save by just adding a 4 gb stick. Adding RAM is trivially easy. Migrating to SSD, less so. SSD (solid state drive) is significantly faster.
posted by theora55 at 8:58 AM on May 2, 2018
"It looks like modern USB interfaces from Presonus are just a few hundred dollars"
Their FP10 has 8 preamps. It looks to me like comparable replacements from Presonus starts around $400 new, which eats up half their budget. A quick search isn't finding a lot of interfaces meeting those requirements on the used market, but I may just not have figured out how to look....
posted by floppyroofing at 12:22 PM on May 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Their FP10 has 8 preamps. It looks to me like comparable replacements from Presonus starts around $400 new, which eats up half their budget. A quick search isn't finding a lot of interfaces meeting those requirements on the used market, but I may just not have figured out how to look....
posted by floppyroofing at 12:22 PM on May 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks for all the advice so far!
He uses the Firepod (and the mic preamps) to do live multi-track recording of mainly acoustic instruments, so I don't think b1tr0t's clever lateral solution would work. And it does look like some people report that the Win7 drivers for it work okay in Win10, but obviously with no guarantees and the lack of continuing support is a serious concern.
I may just have to convince him that the Firepod isn't worth all the kludging /handicapping of a new machine to make it work.
In which case, if I can re-formulate the question: what's the cheapest decent mobile (laptop plus any necessary interfaces) setup I could put together that can run at least 6 channel recording of acoustic instruments? Assume I've got all the mics and cables I need.
posted by dr. boludo at 6:18 PM on May 3, 2018
He uses the Firepod (and the mic preamps) to do live multi-track recording of mainly acoustic instruments, so I don't think b1tr0t's clever lateral solution would work. And it does look like some people report that the Win7 drivers for it work okay in Win10, but obviously with no guarantees and the lack of continuing support is a serious concern.
I may just have to convince him that the Firepod isn't worth all the kludging /handicapping of a new machine to make it work.
In which case, if I can re-formulate the question: what's the cheapest decent mobile (laptop plus any necessary interfaces) setup I could put together that can run at least 6 channel recording of acoustic instruments? Assume I've got all the mics and cables I need.
posted by dr. boludo at 6:18 PM on May 3, 2018
Best answer: I may just have to convince him that the Firepod isn't worth all the kludging /handicapping of a new machine to make it work.
Recording six channel simultaneously isn't very CPU intensive, so you could certainly consider just pick up an old ThinkPad that has FireWire and Windows 7 on the cheap, and use that as a stopgap to give some more time to save for switching to a more recent audio interface.
what's the cheapest decent mobile (laptop plus any necessary interfaces) setup I could put together that can run at least 6 channel recording of acoustic instruments?
You might be better off asking this at a more recording-centric site as well.
If I were trying for cheap but usable, I'd probably look at the AudioBox 1818VSL. The nice stuff costs quite a bit of money.
posted by Candleman at 12:38 AM on May 4, 2018
Recording six channel simultaneously isn't very CPU intensive, so you could certainly consider just pick up an old ThinkPad that has FireWire and Windows 7 on the cheap, and use that as a stopgap to give some more time to save for switching to a more recent audio interface.
what's the cheapest decent mobile (laptop plus any necessary interfaces) setup I could put together that can run at least 6 channel recording of acoustic instruments?
You might be better off asking this at a more recording-centric site as well.
If I were trying for cheap but usable, I'd probably look at the AudioBox 1818VSL. The nice stuff costs quite a bit of money.
posted by Candleman at 12:38 AM on May 4, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Sebmojo at 9:11 PM on May 1, 2018 [1 favorite]