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Thread Laptops for songwriters

7 replies
3 participants
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First post

1 Posted on 06/15/2008 at 18:19:30

Hi there,

Looking for a good laptop to reorganize my DAW. Let me give you some background information in order not to make the question too general:

What for?

- Songwriting, arranging
- I would like to go as far as I can with each song, but ultimately. I will bring the project to a studio to re-record vocals, drums, maybe bass and mix.
- I will thus try to do the final tracking of my guitars. Acoustics may be miked in the studio too.
- In short, I won't have a lot of tracks in my projects.

What gear?

- I'll upgrade from Cubase SL1 to Cubase Studio 4 (Vista mandatory... problem?)
- Audio Interface will be TC Konnekt 6 (alt Firebox, EMU 1616M)
- Amp Modeling, probably Peavey Revalver (alt Amplitube)
- Virtual Drums, Addictive Drums or BFD2
- I also have Sampletank2, but shouldn't use it too much
- Controller, AlphaTrack

That should be about it!

I know that CPU and RAM are crucial, and I wanted to go for IntelCore2 and at least 3Go Ram and a hard drive at 7200 rpm. DELL has amazing discounts right now, and I was thinking of Inspiron 1420 or 1525 for less than $1,000, even maybe less than $900).

But I also read that BIOS, chipsets, not only on motherboard but also FW chipsets (Texas Instrument being the best) and a lot of less obvious characteristics were very important. Pro-Audio computers companies are often the ones who try to scare everybody off the "big brands" on the forums:

I thus would have liked to know if anybody has a good laptop for this kind of typical songwriters needs!

Thanks+++

Olivier

NO - Few notes of Blues, a zest of Funk, a tear of Soul... in French | My Website | MySpace

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mobile2worldlimited

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2 Posted on 06/16/2008 at 13:13:18

Hello,

I will like to inform you that we have the Dell inspiration available forsale also we can offer you good price,kindly reply back to my e-mail address,this will enable me send you the price and specification on the require Laptops.

Here is my contact e-mail as well: mobile2worldlimited@mail2world.com

Waiting to read from you.

Thanks
Henry.

cdanddvdpublisher

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3 Posted on 06/16/2008 at 20:11:29

A lot of it, unfortunately, becomes a personal preference thing. More than that, I guess I'd want to know whether or not you'll be using the laptop for other things or just music.

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4 Posted on 06/20/2008 at 06:49:58

Thanks, no I wouldn't use it for anything else. Actually, maybe for Adobe graphic applications (photoshop, illustrator..) that I use for my promo material... but I wouldn't use everything at the same time!

NO - Few notes of Blues, a zest of Funk, a tear of Soul... in French | My Website | MySpace

cdanddvdpublisher

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5 Posted on 06/20/2008 at 14:26:40

Makes sense. I had a Dell completely burn out on me when it was about a week past it's warranty coverage, but I know many people who swear by them. If you're going to only use it for music, and the system has what you're looking for, then I'd definitely say go for it. Either that or, well, I've heard good things about the setups from Sweetwater (other than they tend to be pricey)

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6 Posted on 06/20/2008 at 20:22:31

Thanks. I actually heard good things about ADK rather than Sweetwater, or Sonica... but any of these system are definitely pricey, and I don't know if it really is worth it for the type of work I want to do.

Do you know anything about what I was mentioning regarding the BIOS, FW chipset?

I read a lot of things on this on Studio Central, but it gets a little confusing and/or complicated.

Thx!

Olivier

NO - Few notes of Blues, a zest of Funk, a tear of Soul... in French | My Website | MySpace

cdanddvdpublisher

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7 Posted on 06/21/2008 at 19:54:43

Yeah, Sweetwater can get pricey... I've heard a lot of people who swear by them complaining some about the cost, but I can also see the merits of having someone who focuses on recording and writing music putting the machine together.

I've also heard great things about ADK, but am not all that familiar with the BIOS FW chipset... wish I could help you out more, but the only PC I have is for editing web sites and some basic day to day work stuff...

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8 Posted on 06/22/2008 at 07:30:22

Thanks for your reply. I agree that it's good to have companies focused on recording, but my opinion is that they should maybe try to increase their volumes of sales rather than the price of their machines!

Anyone with good PC laptop experience?

Thx!

O

NO - Few notes of Blues, a zest of Funk, a tear of Soul... in French | My Website | MySpace

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