Just a quick thank you to all on the forums - after a week of reading endless reviews and forum comments, I am close to making excecutive decisions on a new portable system.
My List
-Must be within budget;
-17" max-res;
-Smallest MIDI controller I can find;
-XP stability and compatibility over Vista eyecandy and gadgets (waiting for XP.SP3!)
-HP COMPAQ 8710P C2D-T7500 2.2GHz, 3GB, 250GB, 17.0" WUXGA WVA anti-glare (1920 x 1200 Res & 16M Col) with XP*
/considered the Sony VAIOs
/I dont do digidesign so MAC was not ever considered - besides I like 2 buttons on a mouse - thats just me; -Echo AudioFire 4
/considered the FA-66 + Firebox
-EDIROL PCR-M1 (I know.. its only because its the smallest and thinest controller
- I have been told by some IT people that XP will dramatically go up in price soon.. should come as no suprise. (rumour) so dont flame me!
Hopefully I shouldnt go to wrong with this setup when i commit - that said by the time VISTA is up to a service pack 3 in a few years time we will already have USB3 and Transtestical Octocore chipsets! lol
acidkills
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Apr 4, 2008 20:12
Fujitsu Siemens laptop, Cubase LE and u are ready to go.. After u make something, copy project to main workstation and finish it there..
No MIDI.. I was thinking to get roll-up piano but I sequence by hand when out and play melodies and do MIDI automation at home
http://www.myspace.com/djacidkills http://soundcloud.com/acidkills/dropbox
MadScientist
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Posted : Apr 4, 2008 20:26
Quote:
On 2008-04-04 18:47:04, x101 wrote:
/I dont do digidesign so MAC was not ever considered - besides I like 2 buttons on a mouse - thats just me;
"Have you ever had that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming?"
"Hmm, yeah... All the time, man - it's called mescaline. The only way to fly!"
I despise Mac for their business practices and would recommend to stay away from their products if only to not encourage the kind of customer hostile practices they indulge in. But in all fairness a couple of comments of the pros of a MacBook:
First of all Mac now have two mouse buttons. I guess a lot of OSX software still don't make proper use of the two buttons and for some strange reason think it's user-friendly to have to press the option key while you click to for example open a context menu.
Windows on a Mac will be like normal if you have a mouse with two buttons.
But with the laptops you don't have a right click button stupidly enough, so you have to use an external mouse or do some much less intuitive operations to make a right click.
Secondly one problem with PC laptops and firewire interfaces is that the 4-pin connections is very unreliable and doesn't provide power, and 6-pin connections is very rare.
Mac's do have the 6-pin so that is a big advantage if you really want a firewire interface.
Otherwise I would rather go for USB, especially if you plan to play live with it, but even for studio use the 4-pin is just substandard.
If you have a PCMCIA slot you can get a card with 6-pin. it won't supply power but will give you a reliable connection.
But I guess it's almost impossible to find that on modern laptops, and express cards seemed very problematic to run FW interfaces from last time I checked up on it.
In my experience DELL's high end laptops are very good, but I have not used the current models so I cannot vouch for if they have any issues one needs to be aware of.
But I would definitely look in to the top of the range Inspirons and Vostros if I was in the market for a new laptop.
MadScientist
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Posted : Apr 4, 2008 23:25
whats the problem of using an external mouse? I wouldnt use that damn touchpad anyway, even if it had 6 buttons...
oh and I find it truely funny that you mention business practices of apple here...I know, microsofts business practicesses are much better do you even know much about those business practicesses of microsoft? in history, where they stealed that whole windows interface style for example, and recent ones with the tcg (formerly tcpa) and the tpm chip? apple is as one of the very few companies that are not part of the tcg, and thats already a reason for me to prefer their products...sorry but I couldnt resist since you started about business practices https://soundcloud.com/hazak
"Have you ever had that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming?"
"Hmm, yeah... All the time, man - it's called mescaline. The only way to fly!"
I agree...I prefer using a proper mouse so it's not a major issue.
When it comes to business practices MS never forced me to buy a brand new computer to run software I own.
Sure they have been adopting the graphical GUI, just like apple did when they copied xerox....are they evil because their OS is not command line only?
Sure they have been involved with the media industry and DRM, but Apple is surely worse when it comes to that.
Not only when it comes to iTunes, but in fact their whole OS is DRM'ed to only run on their hardware.
I cannot think of any other company that has DRM as such a central part to their business as Apple.
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MadScientist
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Posted : Apr 5, 2008 00:55
apple also doesnt force you to buy a new computer to run your software...I know lots of folks who are still running everythin with g5s
I agree about that drm in some way tough, but its not such a big deal imo...you can easily put everything that you want except for a cpu and motherboard afaik.
https://soundcloud.com/hazak
"Have you ever had that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming?"
"Hmm, yeah... All the time, man - it's called mescaline. The only way to fly!"
I was more referring to the practice buying up software with the intention of trying to force PC users to buy their hardware if they like to keep using a current version of the software they bought a license for.
But also for mac users they try to force them to buy new hardware.
Remember back in the Motorola days how they didn't provide upgrades for users that would have liked to get a faster CPU?
It appeared some overpriced 3rd party solutions, but why did Apple choose not sell CPU upgrades themself?
Would it be that they hope that the customers is gullible enough to buy a whole new system even if all they actually needed was more CPU power?
Same way they hope that if customers is gullible enough to buy a complete system from them even if they might want to swap some of the parts?
I guess you are right that most part can be changed, but if your happy with your PSU, chassie HD's etc. and just want a new mobo and CPU...will they sell it to you?
I really have trouble understanding how some people can see MS as evil and that Apple would in any way would stand for more consumer friendly ethics.
But enough of my Apple hatred...I actually initially posted to say that if you look past the business practices of Apple the MacBook is actually not a bad option even if you want to run windows.
I would be embarrassed to be seen with one, but they are not bad value, seem to be decent build quality and most importantly have 6-pin FW.
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« .....www.ResonantEarth.com..... »
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"Have you ever had that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming?"
"Hmm, yeah... All the time, man - it's called mescaline. The only way to fly!"
I have been thinking about an apple notebook, however for the same money you can get a nice powerful PC notebook, custom built and all. Speaking of which, does anyone know a company that custom builds laptops for audio, and I mean solely for audio? I have heard there are some that built laptops with Desktop hardware, does anyone know?
Upavas - Here And Now (Sangoma Rec.) new EP out Oct.29th, get it here:
http://timecode.bandcamp.com http://upavas.com http://soundcloud.com/upavas-1/
On 2008-04-05 05:18, Upavas wrote:
I have been thinking about an apple notebook, however for the same money you can get a nice powerful PC notebook, custom built and all. Speaking of which, does anyone know a company that custom builds laptops for audio, and I mean solely for audio? I have heard there are some that built laptops with Desktop hardware, does anyone know?
Actually very few companies build notebooks.
Of the big brand names the only one I know that actually make their own is ASUS, the other like HP and DELL buy them from a manufacturer and then just stick in the HD and RAM.
So I doubt you find any that is actually custom built for audio, more like custom branded.
With laptops you don't have the same choice when it comes to parts...you get a chassis with a CPU soldered onto a mobo and usually GPU as well as one package and choice of chipset, mobos, CPU and GPU is very limited.
So instead of buying a specialized audio machine you can probably find the exact same machine but with different design and branding for a lot less from one of the brand names.
If you do find someone that actually build their own laptops I would think they would be extremely costly.
I heard that some of the old DELL Inspirons was using desktop motherboards, but I doubt that that's still the case with current models.
@x101
Many models have a connection to plug in a power supply to them, but the PCMCIA bus does not provide anywhere near the power that is expected from a FW connection.
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novation xiosynth is a USB-bus powered synth, soundcard & midi controller all in one. get a 25-key version and a small tough laptop and you're about as portable as can be.
Mike A
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Posted : Apr 5, 2008 12:14
Dunno about you, but my MOTU UltraLite has a DC power plug for cases when you can only use a 4pin FW connection.
