Good but cheap laptop w/firewire for recording?

[petejt]

I FINALLY got my 'recording studio' set up again since I moved house. Amps, microphones, mixer and PA speakers are all setup and working great. I have plans to get two more mics but that is another story.



I'm wondering what is a cheap but decent laptop computer for recording music. I actually would prefer an Apple Mac of some kind or a Mac Mini, but it doesn't have to be.

The important bit is that it has a firewire connection, since that is what my mixing desk has (Alesis Multimix8 Firewire).

I would only use the computer to record music (to an external hard drive), play backing tracks and songs (probably iTunes), and maybe YouTube videos so it'll have to run the Internet as well. Though I don't think I'll get access as the studio is a downstairs room with thick limestone walls, so I don't think the house WiFi will get through.

I'm not sure what recording software to get. I used to use Audacity- great programme. Might use it again.

Anyway, what do you recommend? Anything under $500 is worth considering.

 

[vultures]

You're gonna want a lot of RAM (at least 4gb) and processor speed (at least 2.0+ghz). Stay away from AMD processors (IMHO, they are just crap compared to Intel).

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp ... 0computing

That one's a pretty good option, run through the customization so you can see what options you have, you can change whatever you want to suit your needs.. Downgrade some things you don't want to save a dollar or two.

EDIT: Oops, not sure if that HP comes with firewire. My last HP did, check around the different models, I was just giving an example.

 

[glassjaw7]

99.99% of entry-level laptops don't have FireWire ports anymore. You might have a tough time with this.

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

Yeah...good thread...I might be looking into a laptop for a second computer...

Just so others know...I have a desktop AMD64 with firewire 800 and only 2g mem....works fine. No issues for 8 years when doing audio.
I know the whole 64 bit new windows 7 has issues with plugins not working, so check with your software company to make sure they are updating that stuff.

Also...with Firewire, make sure the 800 port has the Texas Instruments Chipset.

 

[Spaceboy]

The low-end Mac Mini looks good for 600 bucks, BUT only has 2GB RAM. I would definitely upgrade that to 8GM, which won't cost much, maybe 70 bucks from OWC or Newegg. Then you can grab Logic Pro directly form the App Store for 200 bucks, which has everything you need stock for recording, and has excellent tools for songwriting and playing guitar. Logic supposedly has some of the best stock plugins out there, and are often preferred over "high end" software companies like Waves and NI (I'm too cheap for Waves, hence the "supposedly"). I use that and Pro Tools. Reaper is popular with the low-end crowd, which has a free indefinite demo version, and only costs 60 bucks for the full version.

I bought the Mac Mini Server recently, upgraded to 16GB RAM, and have been impressed with it's performance. I was running out of CPU constantly when using plugins on a MacBook Pro and Mac Mini looked like the cheapest route to get more power and stay away from PCs.

 

[joolzriff]

2nd hand white apple macbook w/ 4gb ram 2.16ghz

 

[petejt]

Hey guys, thanks very much for your advice.

I am leaning towards the Mac side of things. I have an older Mac Mini as a media centre for the telly upstairs (maybe I should just use that with upgraded RAM and buy a new media centre?)

I'll look into these options when I get back home early next week. But keep 'em coming!

 

[petejt]

I tried the Apple shop asking about refurbished laptops and they were a bunch of shitbricks.

On the way home I managed to score a decent deal for a new MacBook Pro at an Apple Reseller. Thought I'd just claim it as a work expense. I'm setting it up now .