Ableton Forum

Hi,

Can any one recommend me a laptop to use Ableton? I want crackle free performance in live situation whilst potentially running a few big VSTs.

PC suggestions would be best. I sadly don’t have the pennies required for a Mac.

I’ll be using an NI Audio Kontrol 1 which is having big problems on my existing laptop (crackles every few seconds) which I’m told exist because my current laptop has DPC latency spikes caused by the graphics card.

So can any one recommend me laptop that does not have DPC latency spikes?

Many thanks,
tris

I have used a Dell Vostro 1510 (Core2Duo t8100, 4Gb Ram, 250Gb HD, GeForce 8400 M GS gfx) together with a novation nio 2/4 interface for about the last year. I've done numerous live shows (live techno p.a.), lots of production and a little DJing with Abelton Live and never had any problems at all.

I recommend it. Much cheaper than a Mac. I paid £600 for it a year ago.

I know you want a PC but a MacBook is $1000 or less and I think will be much more reliable for much longer.

I think it's worth the extra loot to save aggravation, and to have a computer that you will be able to use longer before upgrading.

If you like the Windows/PC workflow though, by all means stay Windows/PC - not trying to start a flame war.

For reliability, you can't really go wrong with a Thinkpad T series. Sure its not fancy looking or anything, but it delivers performance and is pretty rugged.

i dunno about DPC spikes though, that's something you'd have to look into individually based upon your PC's components.

HP DV8000 series, XP Pro, no issues for 3-4 years now. one of the few laptops with two hard drives, very handy.

lenovo Thinkpad T series. I use the T500. Works great. I use NI's Rig Kontrol, which is like audio kontrol with a guitar footswtich stuck on it. I get crackle when I'm online, which I hear is common interferance (wifi) but I just disable the wireless connection when working on music. these laptops are affordable and very reliable.

pretty much everyone that uses Live. YOU THINK WE ALL DRAG DESKTOPS TO OUR GIGS

blah blah blah buy a mac. problem solved.

triss wrote:I’ll be using an NI Audio Kontrol 1 which is having big problems on my existing laptop (crackles every few seconds) which I’m told exist because my current laptop has DPC latency spikes caused by the graphics card.

i'm guessing you've used this to check that out?
[url]http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml[url]

i'm using a HP elitebook 8530w 2.8GHz and it plays fine with my USB (cheap phase26), firewire (old ESI quatafire) and internal (soundmax) soundcards using either asio4all or the cards own drivers. it's always kind of a crapshoot but a bit of research can help, best of luck with it - i know i took a while before i settled on this machine

Another vote for T series Thinkpads. My own ones are getting a bit old (I own three), but I have also used some newer models, and they still offer that certain robustness of operation. Just read a lot of reviews to zero in on a model that suits you best.

Geezus said they aren't fancy looking, but I definitely prefer their design too

I always had Toshiba laptops and never had any problems.

triss wrote:Hi,

Can any one recommend me a laptop to use Ableton? I want crackle free performance in live situation whilst potentially running a few big VSTs.

PC suggestions would be best. I sadly don’t have the pennies required for a Mac.

I’ll be using an NI Audio Kontrol 1 which is having big problems on my existing laptop (crackles every few seconds) which I’m told exist because my current laptop has DPC latency spikes caused by the graphics card.

So can any one recommend me laptop that does not have DPC latency spikes?

Many thanks,
tris

It's been a while since I had a PC and not sure exactly what a DPC latency spike is exactly but it sounds like your graphics card and audio interface might be sharing an IRQ in windows ? It can happen on any XP laptop regardless of price, it's down the the way XP handles your IRQ's, it doesn't appear to give any priority to audio interfaces and leaves them sharing IRQs with stuff like, mouse, keyboard, graphics card etc. Google it, it might help.

I was having this discussion with someone and they said laptops 'have a shelf life' so it's OK that his laptop is unusable now. is this a bullshit excuse? (yes, shelf life is the time BEFORE you buy it, but we know what he meant.)

Tone Deft wrote:I was having this discussion with someone and they said laptops 'have a shelf life' so it's OK that his laptop is unusable now.

Sadly, this willingness to accept shoddy products and planned obsolescence is just more encouragement for computer companies to release said products.

- Nick

If your going for a pc laptop, try to find one with a dedicated video card.
Without knowing the spec of your current laptop it sounds like an issue due to having shared memory for the video.

When i choose my laptop i compared the spec with a marketed 'music' laptop and found a comparable system that was a darn sight cheaper.
If you want to do the same make a note of the specs of these systems...and search around for the best you can afford, the way the economy is at the moment i would suggest you can find some bargains.

http://rainrecording.com/products/livebook/
http://www.pcaudiolabs.com/daws_laptop_ ... p?cat=comp

my laptop of choice is the same as tone deft which is a HP DV8000 series....no problems in 2 years except vista has issues recognising usb devices on it for some reason....gone back to XP and its fine.

Good luck