howdy

What's the general consensus on the new Dell Studio laptops? They seem too good to be true!

I'm looking at getting the top end 15 incher - 2.5 GHz Processer, 4 GB Ram etc etc blah blah

What's the motherboard like? I'm told this is pretty crucial to proceedings, but don't know much on the issue.

Thanks y'all!

(oh, if you don' think it's much cop, then would you be so kind as to offer an alternative that I can take a butcher's at? Ta budz)

Quote mkok:

---

It seems to me any decent laptop can work fairly well.

---

Don't you believe it mkok!

I devote a large proportion of my latest PC Musician feature 'Buying A Budget PC For Music' to the various problems that you can get with laptops and audio software, ranging from incurable clicks and pops due to controller chipsets, fan speed utilities, and the like, ground loop issues, power schemes...

Some people are lucky like you and get one that works well; others find they can only get their working if they increase the latency to 20mS or more to overcome audio clicks and pops, while some never get reliable performance from theirs.

This is the main reason I started this thread!

Welcome to the SOS Forums by the way.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Update on the Acer 5620-4428 I just got. It works great for music. tested it with some Cubase projects. It's just about as fast as my old Athlon X2 4400 with 2 GB of ram. The place I got it from just dropped the price by $100. Very happy with it's performance.

--------------------

Hi there

Laptop
ASUS F7F Dual-Core
1 Gig RAM
5 x USB 2
1 x FireWire (4 pin)
17" Display
Toggle switch for Wi-Fi On/Off
Around £450 new!

Hardware
PreSonus FireStudio 26 x 26
Master Station Remote
FaderPort

Software
Vista Home (Preloaded)
REAPER DAW
SoundForge 8
Har-Bal
EZ Drums

Seems to work really well - used mainly for location recording (8 tracks for now but looking to run 24 soon)

Cheers
Anton

--------------------
You see when I was a young kid Elvis was top of the charts - That's 'Presley' not Costello!

Be great if anyone can help and hope I'm not being too vague!

Need a laptop for use with Ableton, Serato and Focusrite Saffire, plus a couple of synths.

Want plenty of processor power, memory and storage space. Must have reliable and trusted firewire. £800 - £1000???

PC or Mac???

For info. Serato will only work with 32bit Vista.

Looked at Acer and Dell, but no real conclusion.

Any help appreciated and apologies if this has already been covered.

Cheers!

Hi guys, new member to the forum here.

What a godsend this thread has been (I've just finished reading through all 4 pages).

Despite this I'm not exactly sure which laptop will suit my needs best (if it exists!).
I was recording music onto my (slightly upgraded) Acer Travelmate 2700 orig spec of pentium 4, 3.0 ghz , 512 ram , 80gb ...
Using an EMU 1616m & all it's bundled bits cubase LE, Emulator etc.

I wouldn't say it was ideal but with a careful setting up & not running anything else I managed some pretty glitch free recordings.

However the Laptop has a serious fault which doesn't lok like it'll be worth repairing now (it has lasted 5 years trouble free use).

So I need a replacement.

The problems are that PCMCIA slots no longer appear on any new laptops within my budget (less than 1000 pounds) & EMU doesn't appear to work well with Vista.

My options appear to be get a dedicated music laptop like the CX55 plus an adapter from somewhere like music-pc.com but this is costly & seems somewhat roundabout & no one seems to know if it'll be stable or not.

Or buy a older reconditioned machine like a Dell D820 or an IBM T42 & configure it for music production.

Or try & scour the net for someone who's still got an new but older model like the T60 (there appear to be some still available.

Any advice greatfully received.

EMU is fine with Vista now they have updated drivers... and you can use an expresscard adapter like i do fine. it's not been the easiest ride (search for "1616 problems" and you'll find my big original thread) but things are very stable now.

--------------------
hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

Quote onesecondglance:

---

EMU is fine with Vista now they have updated drivers... and you can use an expresscard adapter like i do fine. it's not been the easiest ride (search for "1616 problems" and you'll find my big original thread) but things are very stable now.

---

Thanks, I'll check out the thread.

edit

Where is it?

i've had a bit of a search but cant find it.

Edited by Viramundo (19/08/08 10:41 PM)

http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=PCMus&Nu mber=586790&Searchpage=3&Main=586790&Words=1616+patchmix&topic=&Search =true#Post586790



--------------------
hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

What do people think of the Sony SZ series, premium models? Anyone tried them for a DAW?

They include both a cardbus slot and an expresscard 34 slot. (Cardbus is important to me, as I have both an Echo Indigo I/O card, and the E-Mu 1616M. (Perhaps I should get a new laptop with cardbus now, as in a few months, they may be completely extinct.)

They have TI Firewire chip, I think.

They come, in the premium edition, with choices of Penryn fast processors, such as 9300 and 9500. Also, the premium edition comes with a switch, to go between integrated graphics (better battery life), and dedicated graphics (better performance.)

In configuring these laptops, one can choose a 200GB 7200RPM HD.

Small (13.3" screen), thin and light notebook.

Looks good. Anyone here tried one?

Problem is--they are expensive--with the premium edition, all the high-end stuff, etc.

I think on the way out though. Sony has two new models with the same size screen as the SZ (which has been out for years, with various configurations). The new models, of course, do not have cardbus slots. I won't be surprised if SZ is soon no longer available. So maybe I should snap one up soon.

Anyone know of other small light laptops, that can be good for use as a DAW?

Just a follow-up to my past post. I mentioned looking for a small light laptop, that would function well as a DAW, and that includes a cardbus slot.

I mentioned the Sony Vaio SZ premium series.

I just discovered the Toshiba M700. It is actually a tablet-convertible notebook. (I don't know if I would use the tablet feature, but perhaps.)

Has the possibility of configuring with the same high-end processors available on the mentioned Sony. Can also be configured with 7200RPM HD, but only up to 160GB, whereas the Sony 200GB. Has a cardbus slot (but no express card slot-Sony has both). I don't know the FW chip.

Can be configured to come with turbo RAM--not sure how useful that is.

One spec not as good as Sony-graphics. The Sony SZ premiums come with both integrated and discrete graphics, with a switch to change between them. This Toshiba only comes with integrated graphics, like most laptops.

Does the difference between integrated and discrete graphics make much difference for a DAW?

Hi - I keep reading about ensuring the firewire chipset is Texas Insruments rather than say Ricoh (which is rather popular). Given that most laptop manufacturers do not make it clear what chipset is used, would it not get to the same result if you ignored the built in firewire port and instead got one of these Belkin cards:



It's the one used on Inta Audio Laptops and has the TI chipset.

That is, we don't have to care whether Sony/Toshiba/Lenovo etc use the TI chipset so long as we use one of these Belkin cards?

Am I missing something?

Len

--------------------
www.youtube.com/leonardngmusic

No, using one of those should be fine. It's just easier to have a built-in FireWire port that you know works well with audio interfaces, rather than tying up your one and only card slot


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Thanks so much Martin, that makes perfect sense (as usual).

I have been looking at a Lenovo Thinkpad R61, which I suspect has the Ricoh chip. I will be getting either the Echo AF4 or the TC Konnekt 6 or 24D. I will probably have to get that Belkin piece if the Thinkpad uses Ricoh chips, but since I won't be needing the slot for anything else, should be OK.

I will report back when I have acquired those items and let you all know how things get on.

Thanks again!

Len

--------------------
www.youtube.com/leonardngmusic

Do try your interface plugged into the internal FireWire port before buying an adaptor - FireWire chip problems aren't universal (in that no audio interface works with them). It's more likely that some have glitching problems, while others seem fine.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

FYI. I wrote to Acer UK to ask whether any of the Acer laptop firewire chipsets were by TI. The response I got was:

"Unfortunately none of our products feature Texas instruments chipsets."

--------------------
www.youtube.com/leonardngmusic

That's strange. My U.S. model definitely has TI firewire.


--------------------

I understand that manufacturers just change them without much thought, since for most purposes it makes no difference whether it is a TI chipset, Ricoh or other. Its only us picky musicians!!!

--------------------
www.youtube.com/leonardngmusic

My friend has a T61 thinkpad (similar spec to the R61, Ricoh chipset for Cardbus & FW). It works fine with an EMU 1616m (cardbus) - not sure about FW. It's a very well made, solid machine.

The only slight issue is a DPC latency spike (@500us) every minute or so. Can't seem to get rid of it with the usual techniques, though the overall DPC score is a very respectable 40-50.

Meant to feed this back a while ago.
I have a Acer travelmate 6492. After sorting out various issues with soundcard - Alesis i02 (drivers not stable - now have Edirol uA-25), and a Novation Automap problem (caused XP to crash on shutdown - got rid of it) - I then looked at the latency and found spikes everywhere when testing it with the latency tester.
On an obscure Acer forum (I forget where) I read a common problem was with the webcam. I disabled the webcam in device manager and hey presto - sorted! No spikes. latency about 34microsecs.

Only (non musical) thing I need to sort is why when running on battery does my connection to wi-fi disconnect every couple of minutes, only to reconnect again. A look at forums indicates a whole bucnh of possible reasons. Tried a few poss solutions but no luck so far.

Further update. I wrote to Lenovo/thinkpad in the UK to ask about whether they use TI firewire chipset. The response I got was:

"As far as I am aware all of our current models are using hte Ricoch ship set."

Me - I'm leaning back to Sony vaio, on the basis that Kraftwerk uses Vaio laptops live, and they use TC Electronic gear. And I'm looking at Konnekt 24. Maybe a big mistake, but I'll let you know!

Len

--------------------
www.youtube.com/leonardngmusic

One important subjct that Martin missed is - the noise generated by hard disks or the cooling fan

I have a Compaq Presario V5000
Processor: AMD Turion 64
RAM 2GB

The only sound the hard disk makes is a muffled clicking sound - not intrusive to your music, and there is no high pitched whine like my Compaq of (year) 2000, and other older laptops.

I'd be interested to know how much noise - and of what type (e.g. hard disk, system fan) - other people's laptops make.

Cheers, Paul

Hi All,

First time poster here.
I was wondering whether anyone has successfully set up and used the new Dell Precision series m4400 or m6300 for audio as yet?

I'm primarily a Pro Tools LE user, working off an Mbox 2.
I also use Cakewalk Sonar occassionally.

Up until recently I used and Inspiron 6000 and both packages ran reasonably well.

I wanted more power (don't we all) so upgraded recently to an M4400.

As digi's compatability list is out of date and contains no new models I went for this machine on the basis of two articles on the Dell website recommending these machines for audio professionals and explicitly referring to Pro Tools and Sonar.

However, I've had a nightmare since the machine arrived.
I have tried pretty much every tip I can find (so far, with the exception of the third party fan management app), but cannot get either app to playback audio for more than a second. In the case of PT it is the old holding off interrupts for too long message.

I've run the dpc latency checker and it suggests there should be no problem. However, when PT or Cakewlk is open the Process Explorer tool suddenly registers constant hw interrupts and DPC's.

I have not seen any articles or messages anywhere online that suggest a user has successfully used these machines for audio (except for those dell marketing pages I mention above).

I know Digi are currently testing these machines for compatability but don't want to wait indefinitely for results as I'm at a standstill right now.

I will report back on any progress but in the meantime would love to hear from anyone who is succesfully using one of these machines, if such a person exists!

Thanks.

I have a DELL Vostro Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz 1700. 3gb RAM, 2 x 7200 SATAII HD's running under XP, Cubase SX3 and using a Novation Nio USB soundcard + Evolution MK461C USB keyboard....

...and have to say its the biggest load of crap i have ever bought!

Early Midi recorded notes, OTT CPU performance with random spikes in audio due to this. MY desktop which is a lower spec dual core runs rings around it.

So, if you want a decent DAW, go with a desktop OR stick a desktop into a camera case...which is what im going to do to make it portable.

Apple Mac? Too expensive.

--------------------
www.frozenuk.com - Dance Music Collective

1. Make and model.
Toshiba Satellite P200

2. Processor type & speed.
Core2Duo 2.0GHz

3. Amount of RAM.
2GB

4. Drive(s) capacity.
250GB

5. Make and model of audio interface
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40

6. Interface connection type
FireWire

7. Main software used.
Ableton Live 7
Cubase SX3
Reason 4

Quote SJP:

---

I have a DELL Vostro Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz 1700. 3gb RAM, 2 x 7200 SATAII HD's running under XP, Cubase SX3 and using a Novation Nio USB soundcard + Evolution MK461C USB keyboard....

...and have to say its the biggest load of crap i have ever bought!

Early Midi recorded notes, OTT CPU performance with random spikes in audio due to this. MY desktop which is a lower spec dual core runs rings around it.

So, if you want a decent DAW, go with a desktop OR stick a desktop into a camera case...which is what im going to do to make it portable.

Apple Mac? Too expensive.

---

just to point out that my Dell Vostro 1500 doesn't have any problems with MIDI or CPU spikes. so it's not across the board.

--------------------
hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

I wanted to check back in with you to give you an update...

Success!!!

After a serious amount of pain I have now got the machine performing well with audio.

Note, what is between the broken lines here did not achieve success for me with the MBox2 running PTLE 7.0, but I did make these tweaks before I achieved a solution, so they may have had a positive impact, you can always make them and when up and running undo one at a time of the ones you'd rather not change, such as disabling of different services.
You can't undo the switch from AHCI without a windows repair or reinstall after - back up everything if you want to risk that one.

---------------------------------
I have switched the machine (Dell Precision M4400) to ATA from AHCI in the BIOS (required windows repair or complete reinstall, i did the latter).

I had performed all the standard tweaks Pro Tools requests and many more besides garnered from other forums.

Some of these here:

in the Nvidia Control Panel -> Advanced Settings -> Base Profile ->
set vertical Sync to "Always Off"
Turn off windows Firewall

Most of these (courtest Boards.ie music production forum):

Right-click on My Computer and select 'Properties.' Click on the Hardware tab and select Hardware Profiles - you should see a list with your computer's default profile. This profile will become the Pro Tools optimized profile, so you can rename it accordingly. Click Copy to create a duplicate profile before the changes we'll make - this will be your computer's access to the internet and other applications, so name it accordingly as well (i.e. Pro Tools (Current) and Default). Then make sure that 'Wait until I select a hardware profile' is checked. Close the Hardware Profiles dialog.


Disabling non-essential devices:

You should be back in the Hardware tab of System Properties - click on Device Manager. Click on the '+' symbol next to Network Adapters. Double-click on the first device listed and select the 'Do not use this device in the current hardware profile (disable)' option under Device Usage. Close that device's properties dialog and repeat the last step for the next device listed. All items under Network Adapters, Ports, and any default or built-in soundcard listed under Sound, Video, and Game Controllers should follow suit (disabling your network adapters will prevent you from using the internet).

Open the Universal Serial Bus controllers, and for any USB Root Hub, do the following: Right-click and select 'Properties.' Click on the Power Management tab and uncheck the 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' option. Click 'Okay' to go back to the Device Manager.

If you have any external firewire drives, open the Disk Drives list and right-click on the icon of that drive to select 'Properties.' Go to the Policies tab and make sure the device is set to 'Optimize for Quick Removal.' Click 'Okay' to go back to the Device Manager.

You can now close the Device Manager and go back to the System Properties dialog.

Note: Combined with the previous step, you will now have two Hardware Profiles to choose from during boot. The 'Pro Tools' profile will now have these devices already disabled, whereas the 'Default' profile will not (i.e. your internet will still work on your ‘Default’ profile).


Disabling non-essential startup tasks and services:
lick on the Start menu and select 'Run.' Type "msconfig" in the prompt and click 'OK.' This will bring up the System Configuration Utility. In the General tab, click the 'Selective Startup' radio button. Uncheck everything but 'Load System Services.'

Click on the Services tab, and you'll see a 'Hide all Microsoft services' checkbox at the bottom - ensure this box is CHECKED, then select 'Disable All.' Now uncheck the 'Hide all Microsoft services' box, and you should see the list of services refresh with some default services and a green check in their box. Click 'OK' on the System Configuration Utility window to close. It will ask you to restart - do so.
Note: If you want to go back to your normal startup, simply run 'msconfig' again and select 'Normal Startup.' Also, this step will disable most anti-virus software (this is a good thing when running Pro Tools).

Enter the BIOS:

Disabling Speed-stepping:

This option is referred to as AMD Cool n' Quiet in AMD processor motherboards, and can show up as various things in Intel-based boards. Sometimes it simply shows up as 'speed-stepping.' If your motherboard has this option, disable it, as it can cause major conflicts with the processor scheduling of Pro Tools and the USB bus. It's usually found under the 'Advanced' tab.

This option is usually disabled by following the steps in the ‘Getting Started Guide’ that’s supplied with your product by setting your Power Options to the ‘Always On’ scheme (found in the Control Panel - for some Dell laptops, this can also be called Dell Quick-Set Performance Mode). Some manufacturers supply their own power management system - please confer with those manufacturers to find the correct option, or follow the step above to bypass their management and turn this off directly from the BIOS. Also, sometimes the manufacturers limit your access to the BIOS and you cannot disable speed-stepping - if you cannot set Power Scheme to ‘Always On’ or disable speed-stepping on a laptop.

Disabling C-State Transition and Optimizing Integrated USB Hub:

This option is specific to Core Duo laptops. If you see C-State Transition anywhere in the BIOS, be sure to disable it. Also, find the Integrated USB Hub and set it to High Speed. Note that not all computers or BIOS will have these options.


Other optimizations:

Aside from the steps above, here are some optional settings to get maximum performance.


Display Performance:

First, right-click on My Computer and select 'Properties.' Go to the Advanced tab and select 'Settings' under the Performance section. In the Visual Effects tab, select 'Adjust for best performance' Then click on the Advanced tab and set both Processor Scheduling and Memory Usage to 'Programs.' Close the Performance Options and System Properties windows by clicking 'OK.'


DEP Fix:

This option disables execution prevention, a feature of Windows Service Packs that can sometimes cause errors. This won’t harm anything, but also isn’t always necessary. To do this, right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on the Advanced tab and select ‘Settings’ under Startup and Recovery. In the Startup and Recovery window, click on the ‘Edit’ button. This will display a text document with system execution parameters - we want to find the part of the text that reads: “ /NoExecute=OptIn “ and change the “OptIn” to reflect “ /NoExecute=AlwaysOff “ - note that the ‘A’ and ‘O’ are capitalized and there are no spaces. Then go to the file menu and Save the document. Close the document and click ‘Okay’ in Startup and Recovery.


-------------------------------------------------------------

The other day, having purged and reinstalled drivers I got Cakewalk Sonar to run successfully with a number of plug ins, though not with the MBox2 (with a Sapphire).

Then I uninstalled PTLE 7.0 and installed 7.4.
It works, in fact it works incredibly well - PTLE 7.4, Reason 3, multiple, resource heavy third party plug ins and about ten channels of audio (plus about eight tracks fed from Reason to PT channels) all working smoothly.

Despite having only a single HD at the moment it also bounced to disk first time, no problem, even though this was a frequent headache on the old Inspiron 6000 with
PTLE 7.0.

I have to run some recording tests tonight and will let you know if these throw up any issues.

For now though I would say that the Dell Precision M4400 can be configured to run audio well and with a good deal of power.

I think that the latest version of PTLE (7.4, 8 is being released soon) may be required though (possibly to do with better support for dual core chips).

I hope this spares someone some pain and some time.
I should point out that Digidesign were very helpful in resolving this.

Edited by Wrcm (09/12/08 12:27 PM)

Hi I have noticed that the price of Sony Vaio computers have come down a lot does anyone have any advice/experience on setting up and using one for music production.

At present I am using a desktop but I want a laptop for live work runnning Cubase/RMX Stylus etc

Thanks Gerald

--------------------
www.myspace.com/sonicspells
www.clingmusic.co.uk

Hi Gerald, and welcome to the SOS Forums!

I have a friend who has used a Sony Vaio laptop for years live, but wanted to upgrade to a more powerful model.

He was disappointed at the reduction in build quality on the new one, and has had more problems with it than he ever had with the old one (which just keeps soldiering on).


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Hi Martin and all

(I have posted a similar post to this one in the guitar forum but asking for real world experiences anyways)...

At the moment I have a Toshiba A200 with 4 gig of ram on vista 32.

Santa will bring me a Steinberg MR816CRX thanks for the recommendation and review Martin.

I am just wondering what laptops are capable of running these days.

I want to run Abelton Live, Guitar Rig 3, trigger a kick drum sample and run an dmx lightshow from the one laptop! That is all at once running a show/gig! Can this be done? Can I do this with my current lappy?

What can we expect from Latops these days?

I know it's out of the usual range of expertise on this site, it being for audio matters but some of us musos want to edit video as well. I want to run Premiere and After Effects too. What are the differences between laptops spec'd for audio production and video editing?

Peace,
octopussy

Edited by Octopussy (19/12/08 01:17 PM)

Hi guys just bought a HP Pavilion DV6700.

Intel Core Duo 2.0GHz processor
3GB RAM
250GB HD with external 500GB 7200rpm HDD
Vista Home Premium 32bit (replacing with Windows 7 BETA)
Dedicated graphics 256MB NVIDIA Geforce 8400M
Lightscribe

Cost £540 new

At the moment I'm running Cubase SX3 and Reaper with no problems. Latency is a little high in Cubase but that's to be expected I guess. I just use this for mixing though so it's not a problem.

Seems well built, battery lasts around 2 hours, nice 15.4 wide screen with good resolution. Pretty fast too.

Seems to get mixed reviews but does the job for me i.e. runs the programs I want it to without any fuss

--------------------
Josh McArdle

Hi ,

i' m a new user into this great forums.

I have XPS M1710 with Sigmatel Chipset Audio and ricoh chipset for firewire...

is good for home music?


In the case, I would want to sell this XPS in order to buy a new notebook. What advised me?

thanks


PS My friend have bought a clevo m860TU is a good laptop for home music (cubase ).

Hi! Has anyone some experience with the Dell studio laptops? I'm looking for a mobile solution for recording of live concerts (I'm also doing PA work), 16 tracks of audio into Cubase or Reaper through an MR816 FW interface.

Best regards,
Eric

--------------------
dB Studio - recording, mixing, transfer
www.dBStudio-Liege.net

Quote harsan:

---

PS My friend have bought a clevo m860TU is a good laptop for home music (cubase ).

---

Hi,
I hope your friend's clevo doesn't have a Jmicron firewire chipset, it doesn't like firewire audio interfaces.
As for ricoh you could try this http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=974

Regards,
Alex

--------------------
Laptop: ADK 1Q MV

Quote maggotspawn:

---

That's strange. My U.S. model definitely has TI firewire.

---

Aye Acer have a history with TI going back abut 10 years.
Acer Travelmate, Acer Extensa typically have TI firewire, (But NOT acer aspire) one of the few off the shelf that still do, apart from sony.

hi all, bit new to all this.....
Basically i'm revamping my old studio that hasent seen the light of day for a number of years.
First thing i want to do is purchase a new laptop, i have read through all the posts which have helped but im still unsure what to but as they all seem to have different problems for different people.
I'm swaying towards the idea of a HP but havent decided a model yet. (looking to spend around £600)
If anyone could recommend a set of questions i need to address, i.e. chipset, firewire etc... Also do i need to decide what interface and/or software i will be using beforehand?
Any advice appreciated,
Thanks M

Hi Marley1, and welcome to the SOS Forums!

Unfortunately it's not quite as simple as having a list of chipset, firewire controller, and so on. Common laptop issues do include ground loops and firewire chip incompatibility, but such problems pale into insignificance next to those relating to laptop CPU throttling/fan cooling schemes, which on some models result in audio dropouts when they ramp the processor clock speed up or down to suit demand. Unfortunately, some laptop fan cooling schemes can't be disabled (I've noted on-line grumbles about certain Dell and Toshiba models for instance), which can be absolutely infuriating.

Unfortunately, you can't generalise about one laptop manufacturer being bad and another being good, since this problem may only affect particular models in any manufacturer's range.

Choosing the audio interface beforehand may help narrow down the most sensible Firewire controller chip, but in general it doesn't help very much.

Overall, the only reliable way to buy a laptop for making music that you can guarantee won't be an expensive mistake is to let someone else try it out first, to check for any incompatibilities. Buying one from a specialist music retailer removes such uncertainties but will cost you a bit more, and of course the DIY route doesn't exist as it does for desktop machines. In my experience the only other real way to avoid your purchase ending with tears is to get a recommendation from another musician who has already tried the make and model you're interested in. This is the main reason I started up this sticky thread.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

hi Martin and thanks for the welcome and advice.
after more research and thought i'm now thinking about a mac (not sure if thats a swear word on this forum). It seems the best hassle free way of achieving my goal even if it does cost me a little more in the beginning. Thanks again, if i do go for a pc and all is well i'll be sure to come back with some details.
cheers, Marley.

OK. Good luck!


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Hi,

With a total budget of £1000 I'm looking at getting set-up for home recording. I'll be recording guitar and keyboard.

With this budget in mind I've been looking at laptops and have seen this one;

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@21270 25415.1236603131@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccefadegjgmhlgecflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&am p;fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=992087&category_oid=-27749

Would this spec/make be sufficient or can anyone recommend a laptop/hardware interface combination that would work well with reaper? I've had a play with Reaper and it should be sufficient for me to get started. Out of the budget I need to get a decent guitar mic too.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Paul