i have been using a roland vs1880 for the past few years, and am
considering moving to a laptop setup for remote work. i have an ibm
t40, centrino 1.5ghz, but only 4200 rpm drive.

1. i think i will jsut buy a second latop and deicate it to audio.
which is th best laptop for audio, and what specs do i need? (hdd
speed, ram, etc.)

2. what is the best audio recording software - best bang for buck? i
generally only use 8-10 tracks for the small ensemble acoustic work i
do. i want to be able to use plugins like the SIR convolution reverb.

3. it is nice having the roland worksurface for mixing and control.
i am wary of trying to mix using software only, using a mouse to
controls faders, etc. what is a good work surface, or do you find the
laptop control/work area to be adequate?

4. i have 8 channels of millennia media HV3 preamps, so i only need
line in on the interface. what is a good interface that can give me
4-8 line inputs with outputs to USB2 or firewire?

5. what else whould i know/consider?

thanks to all.

From: (jnorman)
Date: 11/29/04 11:31 PM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id:

i have been using a roland vs1880 for the past few years, and am
considering moving to a laptop setup for remote work. i have an ibm
t40, centrino 1.5ghz, but only 4200 rpm drive.

Thats plenty fast for many programs, but the hardrive is slow, I'd say atleast
7200RPM (preferably a 10,000RPM). How much RAM do you and can you have? RAM is
a big factor.

1. i think i will jsut buy a second latop and deicate it to audio.
which is th best laptop for audio, and what specs do i need? (hdd
speed, ram, etc.)

Thats a loaded question really, there are many good brands but what your used
to (seams to be an IBM) what you want to do and what you will be willing to
learn will matter the most.

2. what is the best audio recording software - best bang for buck? i
generally only use 8-10 tracks for the small ensemble acoustic work i
do. i want to be able to use plugins like the SIR convolution reverb.

Here's a search I did on that software, you can research it to find out what it
will and will not run on.
http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/search?...38526191C4F2FC
C526818C733B5311ECA&invocationType=smartbox_search &ie=UTF-8


3. it is nice having the roland worksurface for mixing and control.
i am wary of trying to mix using software only, using a mouse to
controls faders, etc. what is a good work surface, or do you find the
laptop control/work area to be adequate?

I did a search on the VS1880 and can't find anything at Rolands site, it's an
older version of the VS2000 right? Any-how's you can most likely send atleast 8
tracks via a digital interface (depending on what digital outs are on your
Roland).

Search if your laptop eats 2 HD's 1 for programs and memorydrive (there IS
going to be need for that even with 1Gb or 1.5Gb of RAM).

Now place second HD with at least 5300rpm (?) 2.5" or 7200rpm 3.5" if that
fits.
Noise is issue there.

Stick with INTEL chipset laptops like IBM and Fujitsu's some models. Most
Acer,
Asus and other seems to be either SiS or Via or Ali but dont know for sure.

Whats important with Intel is that there is certified USB, Firewire
controllers that
work with external devices and secondly USB Busmaster Speed with Intel is
certain
working thing.

..jukka


"jnorman" wrote in message
om...
i have been using a roland vs1880 for the past few years, and am
considering moving to a laptop setup for remote work. i have an ibm
t40, centrino 1.5ghz, but only 4200 rpm drive.

1. i think i will jsut buy a second latop and deicate it to audio.
which is th best laptop for audio, and what specs do i need? (hdd
speed, ram, etc.)

2. what is the best audio recording software - best bang for buck? i
generally only use 8-10 tracks for the small ensemble acoustic work i
do. i want to be able to use plugins like the SIR convolution reverb.

3. it is nice having the roland worksurface for mixing and control.
i am wary of trying to mix using software only, using a mouse to
controls faders, etc. what is a good work surface, or do you find the
laptop control/work area to be adequate?

4. i have 8 channels of millennia media HV3 preamps, so i only need
line in on the interface. what is a good interface that can give me
4-8 line inputs with outputs to USB2 or firewire?

5. what else whould i know/consider?

thanks to all.

"jnorman" wrote in message
om...
i have been using a roland vs1880 for the past few years, and am
considering moving to a laptop setup for remote work. i have an ibm
t40, centrino 1.5ghz, but only 4200 rpm drive.

1. i think i will jsut buy a second latop and deicate it to audio.
which is th best laptop for audio, and what specs do i need? (hdd
speed, ram, etc.)

Like someone else said, loaded question. 7200 RPM drive would be good for
your data drive. the 4200 should be alright to run the application/OS from.
For the 7200 RPM you could use an external firewire drive. Make sure you
test the device before you buy because some of the cases that house the
external drives are obnoxiously loud. If it's unavoidable you could always
put the external in a small seperate briefcase-like case for some sound
isolation (must be well ventilated).

2. what is the best audio recording software - best bang for buck? i
generally only use 8-10 tracks for the small ensemble acoustic work i
do. i want to be able to use plugins like the SIR convolution reverb.

I like Cubase SX (newest version is 3). I find it to be very stable. SX 3 is
retailing for ~$899. I use that software for the same type of 8-ish track
remote recording that you're talking about.

3. it is nice having the roland worksurface for mixing and control.
i am wary of trying to mix using software only, using a mouse to
controls faders, etc. what is a good work surface, or do you find the
laptop control/work area to be adequate?

I'm totally cool with mixing inside the box as opposed to requiring a
control surface. One thing i do very much like is a second LCD screen.

4. i have 8 channels of millennia media HV3 preamps, so i only need
line in on the interface. what is a good interface that can give me
4-8 line inputs with outputs to USB2 or firewire?

I'm using two MOTU 896's right now. Works very well. They are Firewire 400
devices. (daisy-chainable). Sample rates as high as 192kHz, and 24bit depth.
They may not be up to the same quality as the Millenia gear you're using,
but you never mentioned a budget. They go for about CAD$1750 each.

5. what else whould i know/consider?

Check out http://www.musicxp.net/ Good info on tweaking PC for audio.

Roach