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Topic: Portable Digital Audio |
Bunky Markert
From:
Rehoboth Beach, DE, USA
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Posted 27 Oct 2005 7:27 pm |
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| I've been wandering around the pool for years and I need to jump in and get with the digital audio program. Part of my reluctance has been watching the continual obsolescence of hardware and software, but I believe things have settled down now, have they not? The other is I don't want to be limited, and even though I am a novice, I don't want to get something too basic. That's my fear with BIAB. The other issue is I need portability, we have a second place we visit most weekends which is where I expect most of my noodling will take place. So what would you do? Money isn't a big issue, but I don't want to get more than I can ever use. I was looking at getting a powerful Dell laptop and a MOTU Traveller running Sonar. Good idea? I probably won't be recording a lot of tracks at once, but I want fidelity. I already have a VLZ Mackie mixer. I'd appreciate your advice and comments. |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 28 Oct 2005 2:30 am
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A note on the Dell laptops. They do not have an aduio "line in" - only the mono mic input. They do not have firewire, either. I just saw a post on the Dell users forum of someone "pleading" for Dell to add firewire for those that do recording.
The only option you have for a Dell laptop is to use USB connected devices. |
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Gary Shepherd
From:
Fox, Oklahoma, USA
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Posted 28 Oct 2005 2:22 pm
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Yes on the Sonar. I love mine.
If you get a laptop, get the fastest one you can afford at the time. Digital audio is a HUGE CPU hog. My Athlon 64 bit system chokes from time to time. I use Sonar 4 and just got Sonar 5. I'll be reinstalling any day now.
For the digital audio converter, try an outboard box with a firewire or USB port. Unless you're planning to record and entire band in one pass, you'll only need a converter that does 1 or 2 tracks. Personally, I have a MOTU 24I/O and I can do 24 tracks in and 24 out. But I've never had to use that many at once.
If you're recording yourself, you'll probably never record more than one track at a time. Maybe a guitar and a vocal track at the same time - two tracks in.
I think M-Audio has some pretty good outboard boxes for digital conversion and they seem to be pretty cheap.
Send me an email or a phone call if you want to discuss any of this digital audio stuff. I've been doing it for a few years and can probably answer any questions you may have.
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Gary Shepherd
Carter D-10
www.16tracks.com
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Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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Posted 28 Oct 2005 8:00 pm
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| BIAB isn't really a digital audio program. It's not something you'd want to use for anything other than practice accompaniment. |
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Bob Martin
From:
Madison Tn
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Posted 29 Oct 2005 6:03 am
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I have a Sony Vaio with a P4 pentium m 1.6 ghz processor and 512 mb of ram. I use it to record all the time it has firewire and usb2 and I use the usb2 for recording. I use Sonar 4 too and was thinking about upgrading to vs 5 please let me know how you like your new vs.
Well anyway with a setup like mine you could easily record 8 tracks at a time while playing back 16 without any hiccups. I have used mine to record live bands in the club and it worked great.
I have been thinking about upgrading my Sony to a newer model mine is couple of yrs old and only had a 40 gb hd. but I really don't know why LOL it works just fine.
Well I just thought I'd throw those figures at ya so you might know where to start as far as power goes. If you can afford a more powerful laptop I'd go with the most powerful one you could find because you can never have to much processing power but like I said if you want to save a few bucks you could get by with a 1.6 and probably even less.
Bob |
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