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Music-making: Suggest a capable laptop, please!

Cantdosleepy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:33:57 -0800

Which laptop computer for making music? It's PC vs Mac with the usual provisos... I'm going to be getting a computer in the new year for making music. I'll most likely be using Reaper on it, perhaps Reason as well if latency isn't a killer, otherwise with a variety of VSTi and VSTs running simultaneously.

It'll be my main computer for my other roaming surfing listening to music needs so it has to be a laptop.

So the first question: Windows or Mac? I'm not interested in the ideological war - I have owned and used both in the past and am happy with both systems, so not interested in design or useability arguments. The software I'll be using is available on both, so that's not an issue, either.

Macs are A LOT more expensive - firewire (is that a must these days for musical stuff?) doesn't start on a Mac for less than £1000 (that's for a refurbed Macbook Pro with a poky 13.3" screen). Also if I get a refurb I can't choose my spec, so might have further costs there - if I'm recording audio I'll need a 7200rpm drive (presumably external). £1000 is the absolute limit to what I can spend, really.

But if I get a Windows computer will I have to spend a couple of hundred on an ASIO card/breakout box to deal with the horrible latency issues?

I could get a Lenovo for 2/3rds the MBP price with what seems like a pretty good spec: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/gbweb/LenovoPortal/en_GB/systemconfig.runtime.workflow:LoadRuntimeTree?sb=:000000F0:00000082:&smid=2BD61D210D4B420DB4A05F15220AEEF7 which includes a faster HD and the same amount of RAM.

I realise that this won't be as fast as the Pro, but I'm not interested necessarily in system-wide speediness. I want something that can handle simultaneous recording of audio and MIDI, and that won't fall over and die if I want to play with delay and reverb on four or five audio tracks with a couple of drum machine VSTIs and softsynths, as well as lasting as my lug-around-town regular computer for the next five years.

Any advice greatly appreciated - and if there are issues I've forgotten don't hesitate to flag them up!

If it makes a difference, I'll most likely be picking it up in the January sales.

Okay, so plate spring on vocals only?

Cantdosleepy — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:22:48 -0800

Please help get my old iBook to be as fast as possible! Hey all,

I've had an iBook G4 14" 1.42GHz for a few years now (bought it about a month before they switched to Intel chips). I haven't treated it super-kindly (the day-to-day account is also the admin account, since I didn't realise you were meant to make yourself a limited user account; I've installed and uninstalled all sorts of software of varying quality; and I've made it a bittorrent packhorse for days at a time) and the battery was on the point of dying. I recently put a new battery in, and now that I'm not permanently tethered to the wall I'm enthused about fixing the machine up to get it as fast as possible.

I've been using the DAW Reaper for a few months now and like it a lot. Unfortunately my computer isn't fast enough to do any audio effects work - every channel has to be clean or the program judders and overloads.

My goal for this project is to be able to use Reaper and Reason ReWired together for recording sketches in my bedroom. Nothing too ambitious - I'm not talking about running bitcrunchers, choruses and delays on dozens of channels - I'd just like the ability to use panning, compression and reverb on four or five tracks to make things sit nicely together.

So how do I squeeze out the speed? Will reinstalling the OS help? I've already got the maximum amount of RAM that this computer will hold. What processes run in the background that I don't need? Does the Quicksilver launcher eat up a lot of memory (I currently use it)? Would installing Leopard be a bunch faster, or would that money be better spent elsewhere? Can I tell the computer to prioritise one program at the expense of others? Should I set up a separate user account for recording that has almost everything disabled that isn't needed for ReapsonWire?

Aside from music making I'll be using this machine to cruise the internet, watch '.avi' files and write bits and pieces - so nothing too demanding.

Any and all tips considered. Thanks!

YAGFF (Yet Another Google-Fu Failure)

jpdoane — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:42:44 -0800

I read something online a few weeks ago about a new open source tool for audio recording amd processing. I have searched my RSS feeds and via Google, and haven't found it. It wasn't Audacity. I do believe its title was a single word, perhaps beginning with 'R'. I thought it was developed by the same guy(s) that did Winamp or Skype or something (but Googling with this fact hasn't helped me)

CostumeFilter: Scythe? No problem. Needing awesomest quality reaper cloak.

vanoakenfold — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 11:21:13 -0800

So I've been doing a watch-a-thon of Dead Like Me (theme) and would really like to get my hands on one of those reaper costumes, but all the ones I've found all look really cheap. Where can I find the uber-est quality reaper costume, notably with the little point in the back of the cloak's headpiece/mantle/whatever? Any liklihood of actually getting one of those pieces from the actual show's main titles?