Practicing with a PC. HELP

[Youngspanion]

I'm seriously considering buying a laptop soon to use as a practice tool. I need help in deciding what to buy. Here are 4 reasons or uses for a laptop that I think will be usefull to me.

1) A drum machine

2) A portable amp

3) Cut and loop features for picking apart songs. Songs that I put on the computer. Songs that I can play along with through the laptop.

4) Finally, a recorder. Something to record my bass lines along with the drum loops.

Are there any other applications that I haven't considered? Can these things be accomplished with a laptop? Some guys swear by the macBooks. But 1100 bucks? I don't think I need so much. I'm thinking that I can get away with spending $500 less. And besides, the first 3 reasons are the most importaint to me anyway. Recording is just some gravy. But even so. I gotta believe that recording some bass lines with a drum loop can definitly be achieved with a $700 pc. Right?

Thanks guys.

[lemur821]

It won't be much of an amp, especially not without a preamp to massage the signal first. You'll really want a pre for recording as well.

[Youngspanion]

What about the other 3 points?

[lemur821]

It won't take much power to synthesize some drums or slice up/speed adjust some audio clips. It's just that the audio interface in pretty much any laptop won't be happy taking a bass's input direct. It will want a pre to help it along.

EDIT: The preamp doesn't even need to be wonderful. I've got a cheap guitar amp that does a pretty decent job. It isn't as portable as the laptop alone is, of course.

[Dash Rantic]

I'd say suck it up and go with the Mac. Comes with software meant for all of that, and overall a vastly better computer than what you could get PC-wise.

I've used both, have and use both Macs and PCs, and vastly prefer my Macs for everything. You can get student discounts on them, if that applies to you, or you can get refurb units for a fair amount cheaper (That's how I got my current MacBook Pro for $600 off the new price--for a new computer.)

-Dash

[Youngspanion]

Originally Posted by Dash Rantic

I'd say suck it up and go with the Mac. Comes with software meant for all of that, and overall a vastly better computer than what you could get PC-wise.

I've used both, have and use both Macs and PCs, and vastly prefer my Macs for everything. You can get student discounts on them, if that applies to you, or you can get refurb units for a fair amount cheaper (That's how I got my current MacBook Pro for $600 off the new price--for a new computer.)

-Dash

Where can I get a refurb unit? This sounds like an idea.

[Dash Rantic]

Go to http://store.apple.com/ and scroll down a bit until you see the red tag that says "Save" (it's on the right sidebar). Click that, then click "Apple Certified - Mac) somewhere up at the top. That'll take you to a list of all the refurbished machines they currently have available for sale.

Keep in mind that most of the great deals are for the higher-end computers (Pro-line stuff), but I've seen some MacBooks go for pretty cheap. That stock changes pretty often, so keep your eye on it and check back every once in a while if you don't see something that catches your eye right away.

-Dash

[Youngspanion]

Originally Posted by Dash Rantic

Go to http://store.apple.com/ and scroll down a bit until you see the red tag that says "Save" (it's on the right sidebar). Click that, then click "Apple Certified - Mac) somewhere up at the top. That'll take you to a list of all the refurbished machines they currently have available for sale.

Keep in mind that most of the great deals are for the higher-end computers (Pro-line stuff), but I've seen some MacBooks go for pretty cheap. That stock changes pretty often, so keep your eye on it and check back every once in a while if you don't see something that catches your eye right away.

-Dash

Thanks brother.