Optimizing a Laptop for Audio

[judas_beast]

Just got my mits on a new shiny new Dell Inspiron. Dual core, gig of RAM, ideal. However, it being a Dell, its chock full of annoying little 'add ons', ie Google desk top etc.

Im going to use it for Ableton sets, so what can I do to optimize it in order to get the most juice? What should I disable/enable etc.

Cheers.

[messyfuture]

format the hard drive and reinstall windows and have a look at these links too

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Mar02/articles/pcmusician0302.asp

http://www.musicxp.net/

[dan the acid man]

format the hard drive and reinstall windows and have a look at these links too

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Mar02/articles/pcmusician0302.asp

http://www.musicxp.net/


what he said ^^

[Miromiric]

you can divide your laptop in 2 sections - one for your DAW, chatting away with teenagers on icq, porn surfing etc and other section which you would use only when playing out.
you want this other section to be as clean as possible, without any, and i mean ANY unnecessary processes. what you can do about it is to change the default windows shell (better known as explorer.exe) with ableton itself. so, each time you boot this windows OS, ableton will start up automatically and as the only existing process. this means absolutely all the memory will be free for ableton and that there will be nothing loaded in the system that can cause a crash.

so, install 2 separate windows systems; reboot, choose one of them, log in and install your soundcard. open the run command (start - run). type gpedit.msc, which will bring you to a console 'Group Policy Editor'. under 'User Configuration' / 'Administrative Templates' / 'System', there is a setting called 'Custom user interface'.
select enabled and paste a path to your ableton program file (like this C:\Program Files\Ableton\Live 6.01\Program\Live 6.01.exe).

reboot.
behold.

100% working, tested, never had a crash, while the same program crashed in normal windows mode on few occasions.

if you wish to revert this, hit ctr+alt+del - run new task - gpedit.msc and tick disabled under 'Custom user interface'.

[judas_beast]

you can divide your laptop in 2 sections - one for your DAW, chatting away with teenagers on icq, porn surfing etc and other section which you would use only when playing out.
you want this other section to be as clean as possible, without any, and i mean ANY unnecessary processes. what you can do about it is to change the default windows shell (better known as explorer.exe) with ableton itself. so, each time you boot this windows OS, ableton will start up automatically and as the only existing process. this means absolutely all the memory will be free for ableton and that there will be nothing loaded in the system that can cause a crash.

so, install 2 separate windows systems; reboot, choose one of them, log in and install your soundcard. open the run command (start - run). type gpedit.msc, which will bring you to a console 'Group Policy Editor'. under 'User Configuration' / 'Administrative Templates' / 'System', there is a setting called 'Custom user interface'.
select enabled and paste a path to your ableton program file (like this C:\Program Files\Ableton\Live 6.01\Program\Live 6.01.exe).

reboot.
behold.

100% working, tested, never had a crash, while the same program crashed in normal windows mode on few occasions.

if you wish to revert this, hit ctr+alt+del - run new task - gpedit.msc and tick disabled under 'Custom user interface'.



Sounds good man. Cheers.

[MARK ANXIOUS]

very good advice indeed. i would say musicxp.net too. and then dont forget to buy an external hd to ghost (clone) your system. for pc i use norton ghost and for mac i use superduper. basically it means if you system goes down it's a 10 minute job to get it back to a state you were really happy with (essential if you have live gigs imho)..

[MARK ANXIOUS]

OFF TOPIC: PS Judas, i notice you didn't reply to the pm about the mixer. Sure I'm a tight northern ass but in the end i decided to keep it (the back power bit comes off and flips underneath, making it smaller on my desk which is now perfect for me). :cheese:

[judas_beast]

OFF TOPIC: PS Judas, i notice you didn't reply to the pm about the mixer. Sure I'm a tight northern ass but in the end i decided to keep it (the back power bit comes off and flips underneath, making it smaller on my desk which is now perfect for me). :cheese:

Sorry man, busy ''winterval'' period! Got an 01x on the cheap from someon in the end.


/me invests in portable hd.