Advie on laptop and sound card

liquidlove · Post by **liquidlove** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:49 pm

Hi,
I`m about to up grade my computer. I`m wondering if anyone out there can let me know what combination of computer and USA sound card they`re using with Ableton. I want something that doesn`t crash. Please give me the specifics! Thanks

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:17 pm

MacBook Pro, MOTU Ultralite.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:22 pm

Tarekith wrote:MacBook Pro, MOTU Ultralite.

+1

defenitely macbook or macbook pro, soundcards depending on leftover budget:

1, presonus firebox
2, motu ultralite
3, RME fireface 400

liquidlove · Post by **liquidlove** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:00 pm

I guess I should have mentioned but Im really not a big mac fan. Surly pcs there must be some pcs up to the task?

robbmasters · Post by **robbmasters** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:03 pm

liquidlove wrote:Surly pcs there must be some pcs up to the task?

That depends...

If you want to run a Firewire audio interface off bus power, then you'll need 6-pin Firewire. I don't know any PC laptops that provide this (though no doubt there are some - maybe some ThinkPads?) Note that 6-pin Firewire on a PCMCIA card will NOT do the trick.

If you want to run a Fireware audio interface at all, you'll also want to make sure your laptop has a Texas Instruments (TI) CardBus Controller (you can find this out in Device Manager, but that can be hard to do before you buy).

If you want a DVI connection to your monitor, you'll have to find one of the minority of PC laptops that provide one (most stick with VGA).

Of course, you can run XP natively on a Mac these days too. With BootCamp (free from Apple) there's no emulation or anything slowing it down, so it runs as fast as an equivalent PC. And you've still got OS X if you ever want to use any Mac only software.

But if none of these things are important to you (and they may not be) then there are lots of PCs out there that could fit the bill. Make sure you get dedicated graphics RAM, a fast hard drive (5400 RPM can be OK, 7200RPM is better), a workstation CPU (not a Celeron, for example), and of course plenty of RAM. I'd also suggest sticking with XP rather than Vista.

And if you want PCMCIA, for example, then a PC is probably your only choice (but this is somewhere else to make sure you get a TI controller).

davec1 · Post by **davec1** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 6:52 am

If you want to run a Fireware audio interface at all, you'll also want to make sure your laptop has a Texas Instruments (TI) CardBus Controller (you can find this out in Device Manager, but that can be hard to do before you buy).

my device manager only says: ohci compliant ieee 1394 host controller....

how can I find out more exactly? I do get little clicks and stuff sometimes...

robbmasters · Post by **robbmasters** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 8:03 am

davec1 wrote:my device manager only says: ohci compliant ieee 1394 host controller....

how can I find out more exactly?

Right-click on it in Device Manager and choose Properties.

See if the General tab tells who who it's made by (but it probably won't; it'll probably just tell you that the driver is made by Microsoft.)

So assuming it doesn't say anything useful, click on the Details tab.

Select "Device Instance ID" from the pull down menu (if that's not there try "Hardware Ids"; if that's not there try "Matching Device Ids"; if that's not there try "Compatible Ids"; if that's not there try anything that looks promising!)

Look for something that says "VEN_"

Make a note of the 4 characters that follow "VEN_" (the fifth character following "VEN_" should be "&")

Go to http://www.pcidatabase.com/vendors.php?sort=id and look for those four characters, e.g. "104C" = Texas Instruments, 1524 = "ENE".

That should at least tell you who it's made by.

If you also look for something that says "DEV_" near where you found "VEN_" you should then be able to click on the vendor name on the page above and find the details of the specific device (do a search, as they don't seem to be in order).

liquidlove · Post by **liquidlove** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 12:45 pm

I went to www.futureshop.ca. There seems to be a hung price difference between the 2.0 ghz and the 3. The difference is almost a 1000k! The difference between a 2.16 and a 2.2 is like $800. What am I missing here? Could someone go to that site and just take a look at the specs and tell me what the difference is between a 2.16 and a 2.2 that would justify the price difference...also, i saw that Boot camp for mac is in Beta, has anyone tried it ...what were the results.
Thanks

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:26 pm

Plenty of PC notebooks are up to the task if you don';t want to pay a premium for Apple PCs.

You sound pretty budget conscious so a MOTU Ultralite is probably more than you'd want to spend on an audio interface.

What are your needs re: computer and your needs re: soundcard (i.e. how many inputs/outputs, type of interface and such). On a new lappy you should be looking for 2GB ram and preferably seperate non integrated graphics by nvidia or ati. Integrated graphics usually steal RAM and it does make a difference in Live and other DAWS, especially with lots of tracks in a scrolling arrangement mode etc.

There are really good pcmcia and USB 2.0 interfaces for PC, but the previous poster was correct in saying that for firewire you should be looking for a Texas Instruments chipset and 6 pin for bus power. If you are just noodling around at home and don';t mind plugging in an interface to the mains then 4 pin firewire is fine. I would prefer this anyway, bus power can be flaky, especially on battery power.

Now isn't a great time to be buying a PC laptop, newer specs are coming soon re the Core2duo, quad processing is close, Vista will continue to suck a$$ for the short to medium future. Might be a good time to consider going Mac. Most people here seem to have no issues with Bootcamp, I couldn't tell you as I'm still running my nearly 3 year old Dell Inspiron 9100, it was a top of the range machine in 2004 and back then I tested it over a G4 powerbook, whose ass it kicked until there was no ass left to kick (Apple never put G5s in laptops or it would have been an interesting dual), but timing is everything, if I had to buy now, I would probably go Mac as the Intel powered Macbookpro is powerful AND stable, inspite of it's overpricing it still looks a good deal. You're taking a bit of a shot in the dark with PC laptops right now, I would probably go Mac or wait another 6 months to see what develops in PC World. The other thing to consider going Mac is plugins, there are quality plugins and some are cross platform but windows has more choice for vst plugins.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:35 pm

I guess I was lucky to buy my laptop at a time when it was a top of the ranger (along with the XPS). It has texas instruments pcmcia and firewire chipsets, dvi and vga outputs etc, and even though it has a battery life of about 12 minutes running it's juice sucking desktop Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz processor, so long as it's fed into the mains it can still perform really well with Live 6, Cubase SX3, reason etc. Anyone on a Pentium M the next range may get more battery life but much worse performance.

And pcmcia cardbus is dying out, people are getting cheap on firewire chipsets in PCs (firewire has always been a mac format, on pc it rarely gets a look in), as a result of this it seems any old crap will do as the firewire chipset in PCs these days, dvi monitor ports are rare except on top models, etc.

The Core2Duo at least is leaps and bounds above the pentium M for a/v work.

robbmasters · Post by **robbmasters** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:12 pm

liquidlove wrote:i saw that Boot camp for mac is in Beta, has anyone tried it ...what were the results.

Yeah, I was originally worried that it was beta. But I now use it daily for extended periods. You'd never know it wasn't a real PC. It's great.

jackjack · Post by **jackjack** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:06 pm

some comments:

i wouldn't worry too much about the dvi video. i recently updated to a dual dvi monitor setup and to be honest i see little difference/no from a vga connection.

also, your laptop lcd is digital anyway. unless you want an external monitor it doesn't matter

biggest issue of all should be that if you buy a mac you are buying into a close ended, corporate-controlled system. mac people like to think they are the free-spirited ones, but don't be mistaken. pc's are the real place for "open" hardware. apple controls mac with an iron fist. somethings do work more easily but don't trade a bit of upfront ease of installation for your freedom.

(i don't mean to be a troll)