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Thread: Recording on a laptop?

  1. #1
    Forum Member Power_13's Avatar
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    Recording on a laptop?

    So I'm finally upgrading the old PC...this one has been around for about five or six years so it's beginning to show its age ;)

    At first, I considered a laptop - with that, I'd be able to sit anywhere in the house. It gets cold and lonely in this room y'know! Also, it would offer an easy recording system - I could store lyrics, chord progressions and soundfiles on it and take it wherever I needed for reference.

    The thing is, I've been out of the PC technology fold for years (the guitar stole my attention from the PC world, ironically). I know that laptop PCs are powerful these days (even more powerful than my current PC), but I wondered if anyone had any comments on their use for recording?

    Currently, I just run my guitar through my amp, then run a cable between the headphone socket on the amp and the microphone socket on the PC. The sound is recorded via Internet Tapedeck, which I've used with very few problems for ages. Are there any differences between desktop PCs and laptop PCs when it comes to recording?

    Thanks for any help :)

    PC_13
    i bet this really annoy's you if your a grammar freak.

  2. #2
    ZoneFiend photoweborama's Avatar
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    I know a guy that works a local guitar store that does it that way. He makes a living at it. He can just pack it and move it to a client's location and record a track.

    Sort of a "have studio, will travel" sort of thing....
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  3. #3
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    I intend to start doing it quite soon.

    I've been doing recording on a desktop computer for a few years, and just got this new Gateway laptop with the intention of going portable with it. In about a month I'll be getting a Digidesign 002R (with ProTools LE) to work with it.

    If you check out the music production and recording forums, such as Digidesign's DUC or even Harmony Central's discussion forums, you'll see that tons of people are doing recording on laptops now.

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    Forum Member r-senior's Avatar
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    A big advantage of a laptop over a desktop is the TFT screen, which won't sound like a bee in a biscuit tin when you get your single-coils within range to start/stop the recording. I guess the main downside of a laptop is the relative difficulty of upgrading components, especially the soundcard. You don't need a top-notch card but you do need full-duplex so that you can monitor what you are recording simultaneously with playback.

    Other than that, disk speed, CPU, memory on a modern laptop is more than capable of digital multitrack recording. If you plan to use the laptop for mixing and editing, the bigger screen you can get the better. Some sort of CD-writer is useful for archiving and for burning audio CDs.
    Last edited by r-senior; 12-08-2003 at 02:22 PM.

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    Originally posted by r-senior
    A big advantage of a laptop over a desktop is the TFT screen, which won't sound like a bee in a biscuit tin when you get your single-coils within range to start/stop the recording. I guess the main downside of a laptop is the relative difficulty of upgrading components, especially the soundcard. You don't need a top-notch card but you do need full-duplex so that you can monitor what you are recording simultaneously with playback.

    Other than that, disk speed, CPU, memory on a modern laptop is more than capable of digital multitrack recording. If you plan to use the laptop for mixing and editing, the bigger screen you can get the better. Some sort of CD-writer is useful for archiving and for burning audio CDs.
    The Digidesign MBox is a top-notch USB audio interface that will work fine with a laptop, given an adequate hardware setup.

  6. #6
    Forum Member MIKEH's Avatar
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    Pete,
    What do you think about the Digi 002? It's a little pricy, but it seems like this would be the ultimate portable recording setup if you have a recent model laptop with firewire.

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    Forum Member Power_13's Avatar
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    Thanks for all the help so far :)

    Ok...I have another question...it may seem a silly question, but I'm a silly man ;)

    The silly question is *fanfare*...
    What is full duplex?

    I went into town today and asked two sales reps at Comet and Curry's (UK electrical stores). They both said that it'd be something to do with the software. But when I got home and looked in my recording software's manual, it mentioned a "soundcard with full duplex capability" as a requirement for it to work. I think the second fellow that I spoke to wasn't on the same tracks as me, since he was talking about using Windows Sound Recorder and having to install software that will record and play back at the same time. So that's left me even more confused than before :O

    Once again, thanks for all your help :) Hopefully I'll be able to record some stuff and post it here sometime soon (that's a hint to get your earplugs out;))
    i bet this really annoy's you if your a grammar freak.

  8. #8
    Forum Member MIKEH's Avatar
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    Full duplex refers to the soundcard's abiltity to record and playback simultaneously. This is pretty much a requirement for digital multitrack recording on a computer. Most modern soundcards are full duplex.

  9. #9
    Forum Member Power_13's Avatar
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    Thanks for the help again...I've been to most of the PC stores in this area, and I've been asking about the full duplex. I've had a range of answers, from "They all come with full duplex" (Gibson Computers) and "Full duplex is being phased out of new laptops, you'll have to buy a £99 external soundcard for it to work" (PC World, surprise surprise ;))

    Is there any way to ascertain the type of soundcard in a laptop? Some of them say "Half duplex" in the system properties box for the soundcard, but some don't.

    Also, I'm just wondering if anyone knows whether or not the AC97 from Realtek is full duplex? It's used in quite a few good PCs that I saw, and if it is then I'm sorted :)

    Thanks again again
    i bet this really annoy's you if your a grammar freak.

  10. #10
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    Originally posted by MIKEH
    Pete,
    What do you think about the Digi 002? It's a little pricy, but it seems like this would be the ultimate portable recording setup if you have a recent model laptop with firewire.
    Very little, haven't used it. We're recording in Feb on a TDM system in SF so that won't be much help either but I imagine it's pretty cool.

    One caveat: You need a LOT of computer in order to uyse it. I would not think about it unless I had at least a 1ghz G4 and a gig of RAM. recording 16 tracks at once is going to suck CPU big time. Firewire would be the only way to go.

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