Bob - Why are you doing laptop and not rackmount?

[swing]

Is it the battery options (hum/noise) or what?

swing

[Bob L]

It's the incredible concept of being able to take your entire control room with you... wherever you go... what a cool way to work.

The laptops allow me virtually the same power AND the ability to do my work in a hotel room... or backstage on a live gig... or out in the field on a video or film shoot... etc.

Nothing like it... of course this is for people who have made the complete jump to virtual mixing... all the way... no desire for faders and controllers anymore.. no desire for hardware reverbs and rack gear... for me... with my Sony V-6 headphones, I can generate the very same finished project results whether I'm in a hotel room, or the largest most equipped control room on the planet...

This kind of freedom is extremely refreshing, once you cross the virtual line completely. :)

Bob L

[swing]

I dig man:) But still you need some external gear in the recording situation like converters and stuff? And harddisk - swappable laptop ones or external?

swing

[brent]

It's the incredible concept of being able to take your entire control room with you... wherever you go... what a cool way to work.

The laptops allow me virtually the same power AND the ability to do my work in a hotel room... or backstage on a live gig... or out in the field on a video or film shoot... etc.

Nothing like it... of course this is for people who have made the complete jump to virtual mixing... all the way... no desire for faders and controllers anymore.. no desire for hardware reverbs and rack gear... for me... with my Sony V-6 headphones, I can generate the very same finished project results whether I'm in a hotel room, or the largest most equipped control room on the planet...

This kind of freedom is extremely refreshing, once you cross the virtual line completely. :)

Bob L

What hardware (cards, break-outs, etc) are you using with the laptop? Have there been any specific manufacturer's OEM'd Windows packages that work better or worse than others? Any laptops that you would/would not recommend?

[swing]

Hey man! I really like the way you break the rules - I'm also in for that making music out of the hardware chain. I used to have a rack with the samplers/sampleplayers/compressors und so weiter.... That's why I like the universal bus in Sonar - totally virtual. And the great softsynths that are out now. But - the cost of dead right arm - having to build a new mixer for every project (templates don't really cut it in the end - you still have to make adjustments on different pages that take their time to draw) - and that's why at first I felt a backward move diggin in at your concept because of it's hardwarelike design. And again - now I'm wiser and coming to realize that I'm probalby never going to lay may hands on a project that need more that 72 stereo channels. The tools you provide in SAWStudio is more than anybody can ask for and it is all rigged and ready to go. Start doing music instantly and don't get hassled by like 40 -60 mouse clicks before you press record. Mixing in headphones - hehehe - I love that! The purists may have nightmares but as long as it sounds so damn good as Steven Lee's album you really don't have to pay attention to any protests!

swing

[Bob L]

Obviously, you still need mics and so forth to get the signals down... but much of the work that's done on location can tend to be post production and mixing and editing. This can be handled completely with the laptop... if you have crossed the virtual line. :)

Also, the idea of traveling to do a location gig... in most cases, I would book a local studio... they have all the mics and converters... I simply bring my laptop... plug in the lightpipes and go... when the tracking session is over... I'm out the door.. WITH THE TRACKS... back to the hotel or wherever... to edit, mix and master... it's actually quite freeing. :)

I use the RME cardbus Hammerfall... and DigiFace... the stereo monitor output is all I need to drive my phones... its a great way to go...

The other beauty is... the mix never leaves the laptop until its burned to CD...
the laptop can travel anywhere for overdubs of players that are in different locations, and the audio data is not being shuffled around from one format to the next.. no analog noise, hum, or bad converters work their way into the project... except for whatever comes in on tracking... everything else is absolutely noise free.

In some cases, projects hardly even require tracking at all... VST synths... midi composition... perhaps a vocal or two... and that's it.

A lot of the work might be sound design and mixing... Studio's automation does the job beyond anything I could ever accomplish for that kind of work with the largest and most expensive console ever built... period. :D

Anyway... this is how I work now-a-days... I came up through the ranks too... 2 Track decks, 4 and 8 Track Teac/Tascam decks, 16 Track Stephens decks, 24 Track 3M, Ampex and Studer decks, multi-24 track decks... and I would not go back for anything. :)

Bob L

[brent]

I have been ITB for a few years, so I don't have to be sold on the concept of it. With so many manufacturers of cards, hardware and OEM versions of Windows, I was wondering if there were some to watch out for. For instance, Dell had a series of laptops that included a soundcard and Windows OS that would not work well with SIA SMAART. There are many, many instances of incompatible hardware and OS's for other native DAW's.

Is anyone using the RME MADI interface with SAW?

[dhise]

My laptop is why I started using SAW. I have an older compaq presario with an Athalon Duron processor hooked up to a firewire drive and a motu 896. SAW can handle all 18 inputs with no glitches or dropouts whatsoever! SAW is also the only daw that lets me handle the higher sample rates on my particular machine. Buying SS basic was certainly cheaper than buying a more powerful laptop to handle the competitors bloated software. I just wished I had found it sooner!

Doug

[Bob L]

Each laptop is different as far as compatibility issues. In general, the Compaqs, Dells and other mass market machines can give you the most problems to solve, in many cases, I believe, simply because of the commercial mass market Windows setups that come pre-installed in them. If a laptop is troublesome, sometimes a format and fresh Windows install will get things stable again.

I have chosen the ProStar laptops for most of the ones I do... they have been great systems as SAWStudio DAWs... no glitching problems... and they offer 2 internal harddrive bays, plus great hi-res screen options.

Bob L