Laptop change?!!!

D

D.Callens

New member
What up FP?! I've been doing music on my PC for some years now. I've been using Pro Tools since I began recording music. Now I'm at the point where I want to become more mobile with my music.. i.e. being able to take my sessions of beats that I may have created, or songs that I may have recorded to various cities with me.. since my PC isn't portable enough to do that.

I am considering purchasing Apple MacBook Intel (core 2duo processor, 2GB memory, 250GB hard drive). Would this be capable of producing music like I was doing with my PC, while giving me the ability to take it with me? Or should I consider having a Laptop specialist build me a laptop to accomodate the specs to run protools, my m-box, and the plugs ins that I have?


Your feedback is needed and greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in Advance!
 
D.Callens said:
What up FP?! I've been doing music on my PC for some years now. I've been using Pro Tools since I began recording music. Now I'm at the point where I want to become more mobile with my music.. i.e. being able to take my sessions of beats that I may have created, or songs that I may have recorded to various cities with me.. since my PC isn't portable enough to do that.

I am considering purchasing Apple MacBook Intel (core 2duo processor, 2GB memory, 250GB hard drive). Would this be capable of producing music like I was doing with my PC, while giving me the ability to take it with me? Or should I consider having a Laptop specialist build me a laptop to accomodate the specs to run protools, my m-box, and the plugs ins that I have?


Your feedback is needed and greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in Advance!
Click to expand...

Whether those specs will work for you depends on the complexity of your projects (number of tracks), synths, ROMplers, etc.

As a general rule, if you're wanting to use a larger number or higher complexity of synth, you need a more powerful CPU. Same goes for effects (reverb, compression, etc.).

If you're wanting to use large multisampled libraries (i.e., any East West library, Omnisphere, Trilian, most Kontakt libraries), you're going to need as much RAM as possible. 2GB won't cut it. My laptop has 4GB and I usually have to involve workarounds sometimes to cut it -- Trilian's full electric bass patch with all articulations is 2GB alone! Also, you'll need a large hard drive to store these massive libraries.

The Mac that you specified is a good starting point for an "average" beat-making computer running maybe 5-6 modern instrument plugins and a few effects.
- Increase your processor performance if you anticipate running more synths and effect plugins.
- Increase your RAM and Hard Drive size if you anticipate running several Kontakt libraries, East West instruments, etc.
 
Yeah, Salem really gave you a good foundation there.

It's all based on what software you're using. What VSTs are you looking to run? If you're using just say Reason/ FL, stock sounds, and simple synths and soundfonts... that's more than enough. But for any heavy duty stuff... you'll want better specs. Not to say those specs are bad by any means..... but it'll be a limited setup.
 
Thanks for the feedback Salem, its greatly appreciated. And thanks to you to CPhoenix.. I am just going to be running pro tools 8, kontact, and battery, for now.. prob will upgrade eventually.
 
4 GB of RAM would be a good idea w/ the kontakt libraries. You'll probably want the extra cores on the CPU as well for future upgrades.
 
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