best laptop for playing live?

[himalaya]

Well...I chose this Acer: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Tra ... sion-1.asp

Here's why:
1. Sant Rosa spec ( albeit basic)
2. PC Card ( + Express Card for future proofing)
3. Huuuge screen resolution 1680 x 1050 on 15'4 ( this really makes a difference)
4. XP pro
5. 8 cell battery

All for £799. Similar specified Lenovo/IBM are around £1200 or more.

These are the main reasons. But, when I got it home, I found a pleasant surprise, a Texas Instruments firewire chipset. I didn't care for this as I was going to use Echo Indigo PC Card and it works just fine with the O2Micro PCMCIA chipset, but it's a good option to have !
Also, there's a DVI-D out in addition to VGA ( plus a serial port ?!?).

I could have chosen a faster processor, the T7300 with 4 MB cache memory, but not with that screen resolution for this price...still, compared to my old P4 2.4, I get to play with at least 7Ghz !

Things I want to improve. Buy 2Gb extra RAM to supplement the 1 giga already there.


I've seen a lot of negative comments online about Acer in general but when I spoke to people who used some, no one ever complained. My local pc engineer said Acer isn't worse than any of the big names. He gets more Toshiba's than Acers.

I suppose, time will tell. The actual build quality of this particular model seems to be first rate. The metal casing feels very solid. The touch pad is calibrated to perfection ( i've used some real nasty ones on new HP Pavillion laptops). There's also a joystick, like on Lenovo/IBM laptops, that feels great too. There's a series of similar models all using this latest case (some kind of alloy). The top right side feels positively cool, and the left gets very, very slightly warm after a while. The air vent is on the left side, in the corner, so the air doesn't blow down on your knees. Hot air blows when DVD is in use, otherwise it's warm. The underneath feels warm in prolonged use, but never uncomfortably so. No problems with keeping the laptop on your legs when sitting down. The fan is almost inaudible ( a sigh of relief !) The DVD is relatively loud when spinnnig, but that's to be expected.

I didn't post as I need to test this laptop in travel, which is going to happen this saturday.
I'm also going through software installation (cursing challange/response copy protection and seeing the benefit of dongles ! ).

So far, I haven't heard any ground loops, strange digital noises that others have reported with their Toshibas...so fingers crossed. But as I said, I will have a better idea in two weeks time when I get back. Right now, I'm very happy and as long as this Santa Rosa spec will perform well in a VSTi environment, it will be money well spent !

[BONES]

In real terms of power management, and of the size-to-portability ratio, I find my Macbook Pro to be superior to anything I can buy today. Granted the first criterion may be due to superior power management in OSX than in either Windows or Linux, but on the latter it definitely wins. I know I can get a sub-notebook, or a tablet, but I don't want a sub-notebook or a tablet. Other laptops the size of the Macbook Pro in its price range are less portable. To me, this is *everything*, because I can't use a computer that I don't have with me. I carry my laptop everywhere my knapsack goes, and it is simply not an encumbrance.

Interesting, because I dismissed a mac purely on the basis that to get any performance I had to get a large form-factor. My M1330 will match any MacBook Pro yet it is in a much handier 13.3" form-factor [the world's thinnest to boot]. If I had gone for the solid-state drive, it power consumption would also easily smoke anything else out there. Apple again lose because of their limited configurations.

he asked for the best laptop to play live, and a MBP is probably, and it will run XP/Vista, OsX or linux of your choice
and to play live, there is Live, and it's cross platform, so I don't see a problem in having a good laptop that doesnt weight a lot, and that is cool to look at from the crowd

So why are you recommending a MacBook Pro?

What I am most concerned about is the ground noise. I have a dell laptop and either that or the m-audio mobile pre usb is causing A LOT of horrible ground noise.
What do you all know about ground noise and laptops?

I know that you can unplug it and run on batteries. If you have mains hum, you need to get it sorted because it will probably happen with any machine you try to plug-in to the same source.

So anyway, have a look at Dell's XPS line. They are designed for gaming but that just means high performance. They are more configurable than anything else so you can tailor it exactly to your needs and not pay for any useless krap.

[griels]

Cheers himalaya... Would love to see some benchmarks at low latency (5ms or less) - perhaps from http://www.adkproaudio.com/benchmarks.cfm

(I hope Mr ADK doesn't mind this too much - we'd buy his laptops if he had a UK branch ).

[himalaya]

Yes, I've already donwloaded these projects. I'm very interested to see the result myself.
However, I'm not expecting great results as my Acer has a C2D 1.8Ghz with 2Mb cache memory. ADKs are running at at least 2Ghz with 4 MB cache memory. And obviously, there may be issues with the particular PCMCIA chipset affecting low latency playback.

we'd buy his laptops if he had a UK branch

I would, very likely. The only thing that would stop me is lack of a PC Card slot.
But then, I'd need to balance it against a machine that's tweaked for audio to perfection.
BTW. Speak to Millenium Music, they are open to specifying a laptop to your personal needs. Don't use the online customisation process. I belive they can even provide the latest Santa Rosa spec.
Obviously this will be rather more expensive than a similar off the shelf model.
I almost went this route, but I really needed a high resoltuion screen, and they are not able to provide that ( working with Tassman on a standard 1280 x 800 would be a nightmare !). So my laptop choice was a compromise, processor speed vs. screen resolution vs. operating system vs interface.

[griels]

As I say, I'm not so concerned about the minutiae of processor speed, as long as its a Core 2 Duo. The key thing is maximum reliability. I'm particularly interested in low latency performance.

I have to say I'd want a screen of 1280x1024 at least ideally.

When I'm not out and about with it I'm planning to using it as host with my desktop slaved via FXT so I should have plenty of grunt when it's all rigged up

[griels]

Someone offered me a sweet deal on this:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Asp ... ersion.asp

Don't suppose anyone's tried it with audio stuff?

[griels]

Bumptimus.

Anyone know a site that benchmarks laptop audio? I think we need one.

[griels]

Just spotted this going cheap:

http://www.cyberindian.net/2007/09/19/a ... tebook-pc/

Yes, another Acer, but I can get it cheap (£500) and it has a Santa Rosa processor and dedicated VRAM (256MB).

Wonder how it would work out with my Echo Layla. Guess I could try it and send it back before the cooling off period if it didn't work out..

[griels]

One more addition to this solipsistic saga... I just saw a Thinkpad T60p going cheap.

It appears to feature a Texas Instruments Cardbus chipset:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showp ... cat/myprod

The T60 seems to have the same chipset:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=37153

Does this mean it should be a solid audio laptop?

I'm going to take the plunge for something... Real Soon.

[thecontrolcentre]

I want to use a laptop PC for playing a live show. What would you recommend getting that is most reliable?

I'm mostly concerned about ground noise.

I picked up an HP Pavilion dv8372ea for £799 about 6 months ago. PC world are doing them for around £650 now. I'm very happy with the performance so far ... it's handled everything I've thrown at it in Live6. Good build quality and no ground noise problems when connected to my X-Station. Just spotted thisone on EBay ...

[griels]

I picked up an HP Pavilion dv8372ea for £799 about 6 months ago. PC world are doing them for around £650 now. I'm very happy with the performance so far ... it's handled everything I've thrown at it in Live6. Good build quality and no ground noise problems when connected to my X-Station. Just spotted thisone on EBay ...

Nice... Are you using it at low latencies, e.g. 5ms or less? What audio interface are you using?

What's the screen resolution? 1440 x 900?

Enquiring minds need to know - I'm a gnat's tadger away from dropping the cash on the Thinkpad..

[Newbie Brad]

I bought a HP dv9543cl yesterday. HP support tells me I can't install Vista 64-bit on it, I'm going to have to learn about that, don't know if it's true. Also have to learn about installing additional ddr2 ram. Anyone know about these? I want to set it for best live audio performance and find out if there's any weaknesses I should be aware of. Also what the best setup is for my goals.

EDIT

Later same day: was informed by local technicians today that my lappy cannot be ram expanded with either faster ram or more ram than the 2 gig it came with. Feel betrayed. The store I bought at assured me it could be expanded to 4 gig. So you might not want to buy this model if you want to expand for greater performance.

EDIT

a week later: HP support informed me there were chips available to expend to 4 GB after all. Presonus Firebox seems to run well. Adding memory soon.

[thecontrolcentre]

I picked up an HP Pavilion dv8372ea for £799 about 6 months ago. PC world are doing them for around £650 now. I'm very happy with the performance so far ... it's handled everything I've thrown at it in Live6. Good build quality and no ground noise problems when connected to my X-Station. Just spotted thisone on EBay ...

Nice... Are you using it at low latencies, e.g. 5ms or less? What audio interface are you using?

What's the screen resolution? 1440 x 900?

Enquiring minds need to know - I'm a gnat's tadger away from dropping the cash on the Thinkpad..

I can get 2ms latency with my X-Station. Screen resolution is 1440 x 900

[gunnare]

What about the asus Eee that is intended for developing contries? The CPU is 900mhz and 512Mb ram. It ships with linux, but windows XP can be installed. Price: 250 dollar!

Should work fine with light VST instruments. Depends on what you are doing live. I guess most people do complete playbacks live, and just do some minor adjustments with the mouse. (boring - boring). In that case you need a powerful computer. I saw "the presets" this summer doing some great live shows with 2 analog Korg MS20. They did most programming and plaing live and had a real drummer. If I see another guy just moving the mouse a couple of times in each song I want my money back. Last time I left a concert after 2 songs was yesterday.... I was so disappointed. It was the swedish band "Familijen". I follow the booking to the summer festivals now. They really want to book electronica artists, but it is a challenge to find good live acts.

When you use the computer as a synthesizer and dont rely on samples, you can just choose light VST-instruments. FM7 comes to mind. People always think they need 2-3 ghz CPU for live use, but that is simply not the case. If you plan well and have a good ASIO driver you can get a rock solid performance from a 900mhz.

But if you do complete songs in Abelton-live get a 3ghz CPU. But if you just burn the song on a CD it will save you a lot of money!

[BONES]

The Eee has a 7" screen. I don't see that as being terribly handy for anything. And whilst I agree that you can get by without the latest, stonkin' dual-quad-core machine, I think 900MHz is stretching it a little, don't you? I could probably get by one one core of my Centrino-Duo 2.2 but anything less than that would be pushing it, methinks.
I saw a Presets gig on TV a couple of years back. I thought it was OK for the first 15 or 20 minutes but got boring after a while. The trouble with things like the MS20 is that you can't really go to town on different sounds as its too hard to get them back once you've moved on. You at least need some kind of preset bank to work with.

FWIW at this stage, I am supremely happy with my new Dell XPS M1330. It has surpassed my expectations in every area. Latency is the same as my workstation but the CPU load is lower. Even the on-board Audigy sound with ASIO4all gives me good results. The 1280x800 screen is a little low-res but mostly its hooked up to a 20" widescreen monitor, via HDMI, so that is no biggie.