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Best laptop for recording ( $500 max )

#21
Wow! Lot's of useful information that I definitely will keep in mind. That HP Pavilion dv6 looks tempting I must say.

So basically I should be good running Reason and Cubase on todays laptops. That is very good to hear. This will be my first laptop and yes, portability is the reason why I'm leaning towards a laptop rather than a desktop.

Thanks for all the information and keep it coming guys!
 
#22
I have a Pavilion DV7 for general use, but I'm sure it would be just fine for recording if I set up for it. I'd do a totally clean and fairly minimalist install of Win7 64 bit, stick Reaper 64 and a few decent plug-ins on there, stay off the Internet as much as possible with it and be pretty much good to go (after disabling any software services or hardware devices that weren't being used, of course). The lack of a Firewire port would be an issue for me as I don't know which USB interface would be the best option - maybe someone else could advise in that respect. I'd seriously consider upgrading the internal HDD to 7,200 RPM and maybe also using a small portable drive (quite probably USB 3.0) for recording to, especially if I was aiming to do a lot of simultaneous audio tracks or working with 24 bit/96 kHz rather than 16 bit/48 or 44.1 kHz (for examples). These upgrades can be done pretty cheap.

You should be able to run pretty much whatever software you want, IF you have the machine optimised for it. Be aware that getting any new machine straight out of the box and just sticking your music software on it is not likely to give you the best set up for recording, as I said. Will it be used just for your musical activities like recording and mixing? What sort of recording to you want to do? I'm guessing live bands either in rehearsal studios or on gigs as that's one of the obvious reasons for wanting a portable setup.
 
#23
No, nothing of that nature. I just want to be able to peacefully record as I'm going off to college and need to sell my desktop so I'm switching to a laptop. The laptop will be for school but I want to make sure it'll be able to handle recording my music.

I'll be plugging in a M-Audio Fast Track Pro into it.
 
#24
bassAddict05 said:
No, nothing of that nature. I just want to be able to peacefully record as I'm going off to college and need to sell my desktop so I'm switching to a laptop. The laptop will be for school but I want to make sure it'll be able to handle recording my music.

I'll be plugging in a M-Audio Fast Track Pro into it.
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"My music"? As in, a bit of bass, or the occasional guitar with vocal tracks, et cetera? In that case, for those sort of light recording duties you should be fine, although you might want to take a close look at anything eating up your RAM (like AV, Aero, software updaters, going offline by turning off the wireless card and so on) while the machine runs and work out how to shut them down if you need to. But with a decent processor and 4GB or more of RAM you may not need to even bother with that.
 
#26
bassAddict05 said:
My music meaning full on tracks, sometimes I'll have up to 17 tracks opened up. Bass, guitar, vocals.

Check it out if you ever have time

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Cool stuff - some very polished sounding recordings in there. Well done!

As far as the laptop goes, it's not how many total tracks you've got that matters (you could have hundreds), it's how many you want to record simultaneously. If you're only doing small numbers at a time, you're not going to run out of processing power with something like the HP.

A computer can struggle on mixdown if you have a lot of tracks all playing simultaneously with lots of FX plugs running or whatever, but there are very easy wasy to cope with that. For example, you can render the tracks with FX in small groups and then mute the originals (without deleting them) or save as a new project. I'm sure you've used these sort of tricks yourself before, but some folks might like to find out a bit more about how to get over problems caused by machines straining under the load - I'd suggest the book "Guerilla Home Recording" by Karl Corvat for folks who think their system hasn't got the power to cope with what they're asking of it, it's full of useful tips for getting around problems.
 
#28
chatterbox272 said:
no, a laptop with the same/similar specs as a desktop will have the same/similar performance. That CPU/RAM/Hard Drive doesn't care what kind of case it's in, it's like saying that a full tower desktop will run better than a smaller form factor with the same hardware.
Click to expand...

it's not the question of box size, but chipset used for laptops and motherboard design. desktop machines don't really care about heat generated and power consumption.
 
#30
Honestly - the cheapest one you can find. I frequently see great deals on slickdeals.net if you care to snoop around for good prices. You'll get much more hardware per dollar if you choose PC over Mac, but some people prefer the user-friendliness of Mac OSX and bundled software to be worth the disparity. Your choice.

Any i3 / i5 with 4-8gb of ram in that range would be overkill if you're also using a quality audio interface.

I run reaper on a 10 year old Dell D420 and it works perfectly fine. Specs:
1.2 ghz dual core cpu
2.5 ghz RAM
80 gb 5400rp hdd
Win XP
 
#31
I paid $150 for my current computer which is a Compaq CQ60 off ebay. Came with a Intel Celeron 900 and 2gb ram. Did some research and found compatible processors. Finally settled on a Intel T8300 core2 duo 2.4ghz. Upgraded to 4gb of ram. Upgrades cost around $80 bucks. Got an external hard drive and an interface(Tascam US-800).

When I record, I turn my power settings on to performance, turn Vista's visual effects off and turn the wifi off. Reaper runs flawlessly on my system. When I track drums I am recording 8 tracks with no problems. I can run live VSTi's and VST effects. So far the most tracks I've run have been around 25 and I haven't had any problems with glitches, freezing, etc.

If you don't mind opening a computer up, Finding a good system and upgrading could be an option.

I become quite fond of my budget recording rig. :D
trackin.jpg


IMAG2005.jpg
 
#33
#34
HP 630 (A7J87UT#ABA) Notebook Intel Core i3 380M(2.53GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi Intel HD Graphics

I'd go with this one because it's a fast 2.53 GHz. The other two are less than 1.6 GHz. Your gonna need the faster chips to lessen the latency recording.
 
#35
#38
You near a Costco?
Get one there, look at their online store,
You get a 90 day, no hassle return
Heck yes you need this. You don't know enough until you get into your applications if your limited somehow. Even things like the touchpad, battery life, or fan noise, can drive you nuts or have you flying.

Fastest CPU is not always the fastest.
More memory may be better for you than cpu speed. Many laptops come maxed out in slots so you have to throw out sticks you have now to upgrade.

Anything you buy now will be obsolete in 3 months. You at least have a little buffer with a great return policy.
 
#40
This may sound like a silly question, but since the audio interface is the workhorse, won't he not need much in the way of a soundcard, and really only need a fast processor and RAM? (and some storage space of course)
 

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