Ableton Forum

I have a Traktor Kontrol S2 and Maschine coming my way soon, and have been toying with the idea of hooking them up to a laptop dedicated solely to audio work rather than my old 2.33 Ghz Core 2 Duo desktop comp that I use for internet, games etc. along with Ableton.

So I need a new laptop, and since I´ve been out of the PC specs loop for years now(my friend put my current comp together in 2007), I don't really know what I need to run the following:

Ableton 8
Traktor Pro 2
Maschine software

Comfortably together. I´ve got my eye on the following model: Toshiba Satellite C660D1D3http://www.tolvulistinn.is/vara/23236

So my question is really this: Would this comp be able to run the three programs above comfortably on a clean Windows 7 install with nothing else onboard, not hooked up to the internet, no games, no nothing? Is Toshiba generally reliable?

Also: How much of a difference would a Solid State Drive make to such a comp? I hear they are blindingly fast and not having moving parts would probably be great for a gigging laptop.

Would it be worth it to install the OS, the three audio-related programs and my mp3 playlists(for playing out in Traktor on a 60 GB SSD and rip the 320 GB SATA drive out and put it in some kind of standalone container?

For starters, I have an hp core 2 duo laptop that runs machine and Ableton quite nicely. My computer is a Little old.

With the ssd situation, I'd say put the OS on the ssd and probably the software, but samples etc on a second drive might be most beneficial. You get more storage for less. Your mp3's get rendered as WAC every time you load them in Live, you might want to make sure you have the space.

I would suggest looking for intel processors. And possibly being on the lookout for Windows 8.

Lastly, I love Maschine haha

yur2die4 wrote:For starters, I have an hp core 2 duo laptop that runs machine and Ableton quite nicely. My computer is a Little old.

I can run Live 8 quite comfortably on my Core 2 Duo with 2 Gb Ram, but since I use my desktop for everything else comp-related in my life, I´d like to have a laptop that is optimized solely for DJ-ing and production.

With the ssd situation, I'd say put the OS on the ssd and probably the software, but samples etc on a second drive might be most beneficial. You get more storage for less. Your mp3's get rendered as WAC every time you load them in Live, you might want to make sure you have the space.

The bolded part is exactly why I stay away from DJ-ing in Ableton and use Traktor exclusively for that.

yur2die4 wrote: Lastly, I love Maschine haha

Me too. I played around with one for like, 20 minutes and knew immediately that I just HAD to own one for myself.

I have converted this to be around 500 euro? If that is the case, you can get a way better machine for that. As previous poster suggested, you would be better off going with an intel i5 or i7 processor. I recently bought a machine for my parents (a Lenovo Thinkpad edge e520) with an i5 processor for well under 500 euro. They are supposedly one of the most reliable, though Toshiba definitely do not make the worst laptops either.

In terms of an SSD, if you have your OS on one then it does make a huge difference when it comes to the amount of time it takes for your machine to boot/close down, open applications etc etc. It will NOT help too much in terms of the amount of audio you can get running though. Just a nicer user experience. And again as the previous poster suggested, you would be better using that as your OS drive and using another for storage. If buying one, make sure to look out for the random read/write speeds rather than contiguous. Some cheaper drives can be very deceiving by having really fast read/write speeds but pathetic random read/write speeds which is far more important when running an OS on it.

trevox wrote:I have converted this to be around 500 euro? If that is the case, you can get a way better machine for that. As previous poster suggested, you would be better off going with an intel i5 or i7 processor. I recently bought a machine for my parents (a Lenovo Thinkpad edge e520) with an i5 processor for well under 500 euro.

I´m well aware that laptops(and most computer equipment) is way less expensive overseas than it is in Iceland. We recently had our entire banking sector crash in a major way and one of the ways in which the government is trying to close it's deficit is by really sticking it to the population when it comes to such frivolous luxuries as consumer electronics

So even if I were to order something online and have it sent to me, in the end I´d probably pay the same if not more than the list price from a local retailer - the toll rate and taxes are really friggin high in Iceland right now...

So yeah, these prices probably seem outrageous to you guys, but over here they are the norm.

trevox wrote: In terms of an SSD, if you have your OS on one then it does make a huge difference when it comes to the amount of time it takes for your machine to boot/close down, open applications etc etc. It will NOT help too much in terms of the amount of audio you can get running though. Just a nicer user experience. And again as the previous poster suggested, you would be better using that as your OS drive and using another for storage. If buying one, make sure to look out for the random read/write speeds rather than contiguous. Some cheaper drives can be very deceiving by having really fast read/write speeds but pathetic random read/write speeds which is far more important when running an OS on it.

I´m planning on having the OS, the three programs(Ableton, TP2 and Maschine) on the SSD, along with whatever factory content comes with Maschine(when I eventually get it), and my mp3 collection on a seperate detachable hard drive. Depending on how much space I have left after that, I might also put the more choice parts of my sample library on the SSD too.

EinarF wrote:
I´m planning on having the OS, the three programs(Ableton, TP2 and Maschine) on the SSD, along with whatever factory content comes with Maschine(when I eventually get it), and my mp3 collection on a seperate detachable hard drive. Depending on how much space I have left after that, I might also put the more choice parts of my sample library on the SSD too.

If you're going to be using a large external drive look for something that uses USB 3.0 and make sure that your new laptop has at leat one USB 3.0 port on it. It makes a huge difference.

EinarF wrote:I´m well aware that laptops(and most computer equipment) is way less expensive overseas than it is in Iceland. We recently had our entire banking sector crash in a major way and one of the ways in which the government is trying to close it's deficit is by really sticking it to the population when it comes to such frivolous luxuries as consumer electronics

So even if I were to order something online and have it sent to me, in the end I´d probably pay the same if not more than the list price from a local retailer - the toll rate and taxes are really friggin high in Iceland right now...

So yeah, these prices probably seem outrageous to you guys, but over here they are the norm.

Ah, fair enough. While I know it is a different situation, I live in Ireland and feel your pain in terms of the banking sector issues!

One thing I would say though, as much as SSD's are great, they don't add too much in terms of raw performance - their real benefit is making your user experience quicker. Personally, I would spend the same money on a better processor - you can still always upgrade to an SSD later.

One thing I would say though, as much as SSD's are great, they don't add too much in terms of raw performance - their real benefit is making your user experience quicker. Personally, I would spend the same money on a better processor - you can still always upgrade to an SSD later.

The main reason why I want an SSD is not to be able to use more audio tracks in a project or whatnot(I know tha's mostly a CPU issue), but in order to be able to quickly preview and load tracks into Traktor, and quickly browse through samples. I imagine anything to do with loading data from the SSD into memory would be a lot quicker than a regular hard drive, correct?

Yes correct.
I have used ssd's with ableton. Previewing/loading samples and navigating folders is instantaneous.
I miss em on my new mac. Gonna get me one again. init.

EinarF wrote:

One thing I would say though, as much as SSD's are great, they don't add too much in terms of raw performance - their real benefit is making your user experience quicker. Personally, I would spend the same money on a better processor - you can still always upgrade to an SSD later.

The main reason why I want an SSD is not to be able to use more audio tracks in a project or whatnot(I know tha's mostly a CPU issue), but in order to be able to quickly preview and load tracks into Traktor, and quickly browse through samples. I imagine anything to do with loading data from the SSD into memory would be a lot quicker than a regular hard drive, correct?

Yep, absolutely. As long as you are storing everything on that SSD and not an external/standard hard drive.

If you do not think you are going to run into performance issues judging by the amount of audio/plugins you generally use, then I guess the laptop you are talking about will be fine. Just bear in mind that fast search time is useless if your machine is not capable of doing what you want it to do processor-wise! I'm not dissing SSD's at all - I love mine. Just saying a better processor would be higher on my list of priorities. Best of luck whatever you go for!

mickybeautron wrote:Yes correct.
I have used ssd's with ableton. Previewing/loading samples and navigating folders is instantaneous.
I miss em on my new mac. Gonna get me one again. init.

Ah Micky, 'tis yourself!

yes t'is myself after all Trevo.
Do you come here often?
See you at joe's.
Boom.