Buying an Audio Laptop On A Budget

[BastardoElectrico]

im shortly going to be investing in a new audio laptop PC and will be running i have around 3000 euro to spend and was looking for some advice on whether to get a custom built one from someplace like Red Sub or just go for a really powerful branded one.
Also lookin for some advice on what soundcard to get and a midi controller fopr ableton.

[xfive]

3000 euro is a budget?! jesus

That's a phat daddy laptop right there...

I'd go Apple but that's just me :)

I'm sure you can get more bang for the buck with an Asus laptop or something... DSP can shed some light on this.

[BRADLEE]

yeah man I wouldn't exactly call that budget either. You should be able to find something well nice for that sort of money.

[audioinjection]

yeah man, u can get a really good laptop for that money

get a laptop and a good audio interface

[massplanck]

Hi Jamie

get a laptop.. spend up to 1900e (thats plenty trust me)
get the m-audio FW410 soundcard - 450e
get the abelton + Ozone controller bundle - 650e

spend the rest on sweets.

You may want to opt for a controller thats full of sliders and/or knobs though. Its weird because abelton dont seem to be bundling these types of controller with live anymore.

http://www.ableton.com/index.php?main=shop

[BastardoElectrico]

Yeah well i was hoping id have a some change to buy some hardware,track down some old records ive been wanting and get some penny jellies so thats good news!
i went to Red Sub and i was looking at around 3500 euro for a decent one custom built which i thought was a bit extortionate thats why i titled this on a budget.
Cheers guys any more info on where to buy on the net etc. would be much appreciated.

[massplanck]

Yeah well i was hoping id have a some change to buy some hardware,track down some old records ive been wanting and get some penny jellies so thats good news!
i went to Red Sub and i was looking at around 3500 euro for a decent one custom built which i thought was a bit extortionate thats why i titled this on a budget.
Cheers guys any more info on where to buy on the net etc. would be much appreciated.

Thing is You CAN get a decent laptop for even 1000 if you look hard enough. I bought the Irish Times today and Dunnes Stores even have a Centrino m360 going for 700 euro :shock: Personally I think that there is no point sheeling out for a 3.2Ghz proc model when you know well that a 2Ghz is going to be well up for the job of playing live & making music. Especially if you want to make your money stretch.

btw try http://www.thomann.de & http://www.turnkey.co.uk for the soundcard & any hardware you may need.

[FIK]

For that kind of money I'd go for apple. Combined with a decent interface, you've got the mother of all laptops.

[carltaylor43]

if your not gonna get one from a specialist make sure you do you home work as you might run into all kinds of problems.

I got my PC from Carillon and ive not had 1 single problem with it since I got it (over 1 year). Though I will say their sales service was crap as they never rang me back once on about 10 different occasions, I was chasing them all the time, but I percisted because the price I got was really good, I think red sub was gonna be about 400 quid more for the whole system (including software and interface).

[Jimfish]

yeah ive had heaps of compatibility issues with laptops and audio interfaces.. so make sure you do your research well..

[stjohn]

yeah ive had heaps of compatibility issues with laptops and audio interfaces.. so make sure you do your research well..

so what would you need to watch for???

[RDR]

yeah ive had heaps of compatibility issues with laptops and audio interfaces.. so make sure you do your research well..

so what would you need to watch for???

That's the 64k question. You really need to check out the user forums for each piece of equipment you want to buy. The advantage of getting an apple laptop is that they dont vary in comparison to PC laptops, and driver issues are easier to locate and cure.

3500 from RED SUB??? thats no suprise - screw em, and digital village n all. stupidly expensive for **** all. IMO.

[carltaylor43]

yeah ive had heaps of compatibility issues with laptops and audio interfaces.. so make sure you do your research well..

so what would you need to watch for???

Its usually compatablity issues between PC components & any hardware you might want to use with it (Audio interface's / PC Firewire etc...) sometimes things just wont work, if this happens with a desktop you can hunt down the problem & maybe swap a part but with laptops you arnt really able to do that + I cant really see a standard computer shop letting you have your money back becuase you cant get your music set up working...

If you can find someone with a laptop and interface thats working really well maybe you could go with the same as them. I still think its worth the little bit extra to have a reliable no hassle system so you can get down to the job, but thats just my preferance, I hate messing about with PC trying to get them to work, not my idea of fun!

[MARKEG]

apple all the way for me on that budget.

but beware. if you're into cracked software, you're going to have one hell of a job finding stuff.