There are different modes of operation. Running a full orchestra is clearly resource intensive, but can still be achieved without crackles by running slaves if your project has the budget. What makes it impractical to view it as a "live" implementation here is high audio latency plugins which I can't produce a produced sound without.
If a laptop being used for audio can't be used to play say a modern electric piano VSTi or a string ensemble to work out ideas etc. then my anecdotal account would be that it's below the standard required to make it usable as an audio laptop as it can't be used as a musical instrument. Agreed it's not precisely defined but I'd suggest that would a absolute minimum standard for most users. Each to their own, but I find clicks, pops and crackles an effective way to destroy inspiration.jancivil wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 2:07 pm 'this is the antithesis of what is considered acceptable for an audio laptop' is rather over the top.
"an audio laptop" is not defined, there is only anecdote. It's a generalized term which is supposed to do something rather more specific, which isn't workable. There is no such thing, it's a laptop that's been optimized to peform better for the task than this "barebones" notion, it's not dedicated to doing virtual instruments in real time unless it's one of these boxes which use of is now pretty much deprecated, which were windows boxes with most everything superfluous to the task turned off.
To me the production process migrates from the initial tracking latencies where the computer is more of an instrument to a high latency mix. I'm fortunate enough to have recently upgraded both a main DAW and laptop so both machines can handle lots of instruments at reasonable buffer settings meaning things are still playable by removing PDC. The point I was making is that you don't have to accept the effects of poor DPC latency and erratic thermal throttling when there are proven alternatives.jancivil wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 2:07 pm "You wouldn't accept a keyboard or synth module that periodically crackled when being played, so why would you accept a laptop crackling if it was bought primarily to use for audio?" No one is ever going to do what I do on a computer live. These are two quite different things, which is incredibly obvious: the latter has to introduce latency by its nature, processes are waiting in line, the former has nothing to do with its time except be a hardware instrument.
In the context of posting on this forum (rather than say, Redit for example) my working assumption has to be that the majority of users have audio computers that are used as virtual studios. By "primarily for audio" I mean that usage would comprise both instrumental performance and full on production using a range of virtual instruments, virtual effects and recorded audio tracks. There are clearly measurable characteristics of a PC which impact the ability to perform throughout all parts of this spectrum which minimise clicks, pops and crackles.jancivil wrote: ↑Mon Sep 21, 2020 2:07 pm I don't use mine 'primarily for audio', which is not the same goalpost, I use it for virtual, soft instruments and FX plugins which playback as audio and finally render as audio files. It's not very different than saying we should have the same expectation of any setup with a DAW and vi + DSP plugins as we do of winamp or iTunes. Using just audio, my 2009 Mac Pro could handle probably thousands of audio tracks at very low latency. Making it process dozens of sample-based instruments which use up most of the RAM or then one may have 3-minute envelopes in Absynth to process is clearly not the same thing as simply 'audio'. I can't recall dropouts in a project that was all audio files. I only remember one in late 2009 which had to be already rendered audio because there were 5 different setups for 5 sections and there was just no way to load all of them, so much will have to have been frozen it's time to render anyway.
One can't know what other people do, and one might be advised that relating an anecdote is never sufficient to hinge a broader argument on.
