Been away for a while, need help with new setup.

Neil · Post by **Neil** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:53 am

Hello all, I used Live back in the day of 1.0, upgraded to 2 and 3 but sold off my setup and midi controllers and amps.

Im looking to get back into the groove by buying a new laptop and stuff, just wanted to see whats up to date and what has changed since then.

Previously I had a 2.0ghz laptop(which ran hot) with a EMI 2/6 soundcard. Im looking to get either a pc or mac. Back then, pc's were the way to go since latency time were much less. So first question, pc or mac. Need some suggestions on my big buy.

Secondly, soundcard. Have they made improvements in soundcards for laptops? PCMCIA? USB? Firewire? which is the way to go with all the improvements?

Third, midi. Which midi controllers have come out that have ease of use with live? Im looking for lotsa buttons and several slider to control my sounds. Back then, novation, beherenger and others were starting to come out with midi controllers that were cool. Allot of concept ideas.

Havent made/produced anything since almost 2002, so any help would be appreciated! I do plan on using the upgrade option to getting the newest upgrade (6.?). Trying to keep the cost of everything under 2k(including new monitors). Thanks in advance for any replies.

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 5:02 am

Download the Live 6 demo, it's limited but Live 6 is something to see.

PC vs. Mac is a flame war, BOTH platforms run great with Live, get what you know how to wrench on so you know how to optimise it. 1 Gb of RAM is average.

Check the sticky on top of this forum re: Vista, there have also been some recent threads on A LOT of new PCs being sold 'only with Vista', and some shady marketing (they push vista but you can ask for XP and get it.) Get XP, not Vista.

PCMCIA, firewire, USB in that order of speed. I run USB and have never had problems, up to 8 channels in, 2 out. Check out ASIO4ALL, it's a free driver for ASIO sound cards (PC) and it gets lower latency than all/most stock drivers. Plus you can run 2 cards at once (internal laptop card and external USB).

BCR2000, BCF2000, Novation SL series, UC33e, Trigger Finger, FaderFox series, and a few others are popular, lots of cool options, read up on "Automap" and "Universal Automap". Check peoples' signatures for chosen gear.

<cue Welcome Back Cotter theme song>

Neil · Post by **Neil** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 5:14 am

Yea, I have been reading that live has a problem with Vista, xp is no problem to get. For pc's tho, pentinium or athlon tho? These dual core processors confuse me. Does Live work better with them? And glad to hear the flame war still continues, lol! I have always used pc's, because of the ease of optimisation. But Macs look cooler, especially in a "live" setup.

I do plan on getting a soundcard to keep the latency lower, thanks for the info on the asio program. I wanna keep the hickups as infrequent as possible.

Im gonna check out those midi controllers on google

<cue Back in Black acdc>

btw. im loving how all these toys i gawed after are selling so cheap on Ebay! i loved the roland groove gear!

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 5:24 am

Dual core support in Live is awesome, huge improvement, I'd say dual core should be the focus of your computer search. Check the sticky in the Tips n Tricks section fo a link to the Live 5 Performance Test thread. It's Live 5 but there's lots of Live 6 test results in there.

cue Rock and Roll By Led Zep.

Neil · Post by **Neil** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 5:33 am

Wow! Novation actually made keyboard controllers like that! sliders and knobs! Im getting gitty with joy now, I used to have midi slider and a novation keyboard with knobs on different controllers all controled by a midiman input. always had a problem with syncing them all to the audio tho.

Does the syncing problem still exisit?

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 5:44 am

What syncing problem are you referring to?

Just to add to the already great advice by Tone D, I would also say stay away from Vista. If you need fancy graphics, get a Mac.

Also, many newer PCs don't have PCMCIA, but instead have Express 54. From what I've read, most laptop guys are going with USB or Firewire. My personal preference is Firewire, simply because the bandwidth is more consistent and there are a lot of well-tested sound cards. Check out Presonus Firebox for a cheap ($300) but excellent firewire card. Of course, if you have the cash (and the shaved gigantic balls), go with RME.

One last recommendation - I just helped a friend configure a Sager laptop. These things are rockin'. My sager (specs in sig) has lasted almost 3 years, and I still haven't hit the top of performance. These machines are prced competitively, and they kick ass.

Good luck...welcome back...let us know what you got.

Neil · Post by **Neil** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 5:52 am

syncing wise, i used to have turntables my partner played while i went with him in a mix, pretty much he had to adjust frequently to accomidate the sync(to avoid trainwrecking

) might have been my soundcard, or laptop or both. dunno, just could never get it right.

Thanks for the info on soundcards and the laptop, definatly gonna check em out. glad to hear RME is "STILL!" expensive as hell, lol

old horsey hasnt changed!

Neil · Post by **Neil** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 6:49 am

one more thing before i go for the night. the shaving the balls thing after reading various post, lol, i just dont get. funny an all, but wasnt there when it began. seems like a chuck norris joke kinda thing.

i remember the days of goofing off technotoys (those of you that dont know, it was one of the first midi programs out there that actually help make music).

gotta allot of researching to do, ill let u all know what i end up getting gear wise. leaning toward getting a pc for price, decent sound card and a controller to kick boot.