Is notebook enough ?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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KLON
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Is notebook enough ?

Post by KLON » Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:10 am

I just started playing with LIVE4. Seems like I have many problems with performance (data transfer, latency, sounds routed from REASON distorted and garbled). My main idea using LIVE4 is:
1. Prerecord parts/sequences, samples on my FANTOM-S
2. Rerecord them (as MIDI) into LIVE4 on my notebook
3. Rearange and do necessary corrections
4. Either send it back into FSNTOM as MIDI for live performance or just use my notebook as my arranger station whlie playing live.

Can someone anlighten me please if this could be done without loosing any performance, droping notes, gaps etc.
?
a) with my notebook
b) is LIVE4 best suited forthis type of work, especially concerning notebook sound card capabilities, or I would rather use another software ?

I use AVERATEC 3200 (AMD2000, RAM-512M, HD40Gig + USB/MIDI cable interface)
Happines is the state of the mind, so you don't have to be rich to be happy :-)

sqook
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Post by sqook » Wed Feb 02, 2005 4:47 pm

Your laptop should have more than enough processing power to run live... I suspect either a certain bottleneck exists hardware-wise (what soundcard does your laptop have?), or there is some type of grave system misconfiguration...

kennerb
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Post by kennerb » Wed Feb 02, 2005 5:09 pm

Just for starters head over to musicxp.net and follow their recommendations for optimization. Another thing to consider is that you will have much better performance with an external drive to work off of. Lastly, how many VSTs and effects do you have running. If you load your set up with tons of those then you may have a pretty big performance hit.

Hope this was at least a little bit helpful

http://www.musicxp.net/tuning_tips.php
3ghz Pentium 4 (Prescott), XP Sp2, 1gig Ram, Dual Monitor with Matrox Millenium, MOTU Traveler, Event EZ8 Adat card. Also IBM THinkpad t40 1.6 1 gig ram

spiderprod
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Re: Is notebook enough ?

Post by spiderprod » Wed Feb 02, 2005 5:21 pm

KLON wrote:I just started playing with LIVE4. Seems like I have many problems with performance (data transfer, latency, sounds routed from REASON distorted and garbled). My main idea using LIVE4 is:
1. Prerecord parts/sequences, samples on my FANTOM-S
2. Rerecord them (as MIDI) into LIVE4 on my notebook
3. Rearange and do necessary corrections
4. Either send it back into FSNTOM as MIDI for live performance or just use my notebook as my arranger station whlie playing live.

Can someone anlighten me please if this could be done without loosing any performance, droping notes, gaps etc.
?
a) with my notebook
b) is LIVE4 best suited forthis type of work, especially concerning notebook sound card capabilities, or I would rather use another software ?

I use AVERATEC 3200 (AMD2000, RAM-512M, HD40Gig + USB/MIDI cable interface)
it sounds like you are using the on board soundcard , invest in an external soundcard & it will work fine .

KLON
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 3:35 am
Location: CHICAGO

Post by KLON » Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:19 pm

What means 'on-board card' ???
Every notebook has some kind of sound card build in. I really don't know what you mean by saying external card ? Can you please explain ?

...and BTW, when I was testing LIVE4 there were a few applications installen on the notebook, however nothing else was running (no plugins, no other program using sound,....)
Happines is the state of the mind, so you don't have to be rich to be happy :-)

drush
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Post by drush » Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:25 pm

the sound card that's built-in to your laptop won't handle the throughput of all that audio which is what causes the dropouts and other problems. you'll need to invest in a professional or semi-professional card that will interface with your laptop either via PCMCIA, firewire, usb 2.0, or usb 1.1. order of preference of connection type is probably in that order.

check out the m-audio and echo indigo card lines for some of the most common & reliable options.

alternatively, you can try using the free asio4all.com driver with your internal stock card; this may give you reasonable results for the time being.

KLON
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Location: CHICAGO

Post by KLON » Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:46 pm

thanks for the tips, I will check this and will get back after some time with the results. Art
Happines is the state of the mind, so you don't have to be rich to be happy :-)

KLON
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Location: CHICAGO

Post by KLON » Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:57 pm

is Digidesign M-BOX the same type of product with build-in soundcard into the interface ?
Happines is the state of the mind, so you don't have to be rich to be happy :-)

KLON
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Post by KLON » Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:58 pm

I don't have a FireWire connector in my notebook, are there any external cards with USB2.0 connectors ?
Happines is the state of the mind, so you don't have to be rich to be happy :-)

sqook
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Post by sqook » Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:03 pm

KLON wrote:I don't have a FireWire connector in my notebook, are there any external cards with USB2.0 connectors ?
Yes, quite a few. Check out m-audio's website.

Also, you can get a PCMCIA firewire card for a laptop (I actually have one for sale/trade if you're interested...).

drush
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Post by drush » Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:22 pm

KLON wrote:is Digidesign M-BOX the same type of product with build-in soundcard into the interface ?
the m-box is a soundcard/interface so yes. in that case you're also buying ProTools LE which may or may not be something you want/need.
KLON wrote:I don't have a FireWire connector in my notebook, are there any external cards with USB2.0 connectors ?
yes there are. look at m-audio and edirol interfaces. also keep in mind that PCMCIA-based cards offer a lot of throughput, even better than firewire.

and usb 1.1 interfaces will do if you're only trying to get a stereo signal in or out of the computer.

distraub
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Post by distraub » Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:42 pm

you may also want to try asio4free
It performs really well on my laptop, almost as well as my maudio firewire 410

http://www.asio4all.com

it is an asio driver for most onboard cards.

-d
WinXP 3GB RAM
Motu Traveler
Live 8.1

forge
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Post by forge » Wed Feb 02, 2005 11:50 pm

sqook wrote:
KLON wrote:I don't have a FireWire connector in my notebook, are there any external cards with USB2.0 connectors ?
Yes, quite a few. Check out m-audio's website.

Also, you can get a PCMCIA firewire card for a laptop (I actually have one for sale/trade if you're interested...).
I use a PCMCIA firewire card and find it's more reliable than the crappy 4pin firewire most PCs have

KLON
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Location: CHICAGO

Post by KLON » Thu Feb 03, 2005 6:10 am

what types/brands of PCMCIA cards would you recemend ?
Happines is the state of the mind, so you don't have to be rich to be happy :-)

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