break it down for me - protools on a laptop (1 Viewer)

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

i might drop cash on this in the next few months

what'd you guys reccomend?
how long is a piece of string?

ie - the different protools packages, what are the differences
this'll no doubt just be for dicking around at home / rehearsal / demo stuff

 

[the departed]

id say get one of the m-audio firewire pre amps which will come with a copy of protools m-powered.
cheap and cheerful enough.
id recommend protools LE 7 though. or i think theres an upgrade out for 7.3 or something. tried it out recently. has some nice new bits and bobs.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Any new PT will be 7.3
Get some M-Audio stuff, which one depends on how many ins and outs you need.
If possible, use it with a Mac laptop.
If not, you MUST use only a laptop on the digidesign compatible list.
NO EXCEPTIONS if you want the fucker to work properly.
SERIOUSLY.

Here's the hardware compatibilty link :
http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=54

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Speaking of which, I must buy the 7.3 upgrade.
Damnit.

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

guys - just looking at the spec of the HD of what i'm getting
5400 rpm
digidesign say 7200 minimum

options:
a> forget all about protools
b> get a usb 2 interface and get a firewire hd (usb hard drives are no good - thanks for nothing on that other thread, guys!)
c> risk it

what's audition like?

 

[Pantone247]

a> forget all about protools

FUCK PRO TOOLS

there are loads of other options out there, Mackies Tracktion is dirt simple and cheap and awesome... get yourself some Presonus interface action and BLAM! Your riding high in the hit parade...


what are you planning on doing anyway?

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

i feel i have at least one album of songs about you in me

- edit - read into that line as many ways as you want

 

[Pantone247]

i feel i have at least one album of songs about you in me

- edit - read into that line as many ways as you want

you should totally be putting down that singer songwriter shit you've been doing

 

[flashback]

guys - just looking at the spec of the HD of what i'm getting
5400 rpm
digidesign say 7200 minimum

options:
a> forget all about protools
b> get a usb 2 interface and get a firewire hd (usb hard drives are no good - thanks for nothing on that other thread, guys!)
c> risk it

what's audition like?

I dunno why they are getting all wound up about the rpm rate on the HD. Your machine should only be hitting the HD every now and again, and lashing everything into RAM, and working out of there.
If its working out of HD all the time, its going to be really slow.
Saying you need 7200 rpm over 5K is not really going to change much.
Look at the memory requirements and take it from there. They actually matter.
The HD requirements sound like bullshit to me.

 

[pete]

you should totally be putting down that singer songwriter shit you've been doing

i've heard a recording of him singing with guitar

let's just say i didn't (and still don't) believe it was him

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

I dunno why they are getting all wound up about the rpm rate on the HD. Your machine should only be hitting the HD every now and again, and lashing everything into RAM, and working out of there.
If its working out of HD all the time, its going to be really slow.
Saying you need 7200 rpm over 5K is not really going to change much.
Look at the memory requirements and take it from there. They actually matter.
The HD requirements sound like bullshit to me.

yeah, the machine spec more than meets whats on the digidesign site

i'm thinking of m-audio protools...anyway this isn't happening soon
just curious! i might email them about the diskspeed, but they'll
probably not say "oh go for it!" if their website says otherwise

 

[flashback]

yeah, the machine spec more than meets whats on the digidesign site

i'm thinking of m-audio protools...anyway this isn't happening soon
just curious! i might email them about the diskspeed, but they'll
probably not say "oh go for it!" if their website says otherwise

I suppose...

I mean, I run a linux box here, and I have a load of little windows in my toolbar, and one of them is a disk usage. It almost never comes on.
I use the hard disk to boot up, and to load up new programs, and then dont really touch it.
The RAM window is always almost used up by everything. And the disk just sits there doing nothing. So, unless protools is absolutely huge, and wont fit into memory, you shouldn't need to go rummaging through disks all the time.
It should be just there for you, in RAM. Then it would be reallllly slow though.

Who knows. Protools might be weird.

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

do you write multiple channels of audio to said linux box?
probably not a good comparison

 

[flashback]

do you write multiple channels of audio to said linux box?
probably not a good comparison

A file is a file. I dump files that are ~30 gigabytes fairly often. It being audio info or genetics info shouldn't make much difference.

You are probably right though... maybe its the writes that need to be done quickly rather than reads. You would be a bit fucked if it couldnt write fast enough, and the buffers filled.
If your machine has a spare PCI slot on it, you could get a SATA card, plug it in, and plug a 10K rpm SATA IDE drive onto that card.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

The HD requirements sound like bullshit to me.

What if you're playing back 32 simultaneous audio files?
The HD requirements are there for a reason, I've seen 101 posts on forums from guys asking why they're having dropouts and weird shit happening with low-rpm hard drives.

 

[Pantone247]

i've heard a recording of him singing with guitar

let's just say i didn't (and still don't) believe it was him

I did too, I think there was piano and all, it was pretty decent

song I heard was called "Sha na na na na, Pete Brady"

 

[Anthony]

get loadsa RAM

 

[Anthony]

http://www.thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=47622

 

[Pantone247]

I'm sitting her wondering should I phone my bank...

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

t'bump - ok i've decided against buying a new machine / laptop
for the time being and reckon i'll use the macbook pro that has
been sitting under my nose for the guts of the last year.

still wanna go the protools route, so what do you reckon i should
get soundcard wise? should i get one of thsoe nifty little firewire
mixers? they match up to what's on screen and all, right?

should i bump up the ram in the macbook pro? reckon there's about
2 gigs in there at the moment, but haven't checked.

mics - could i live on one of thos thomann t-bone's and an sm57?
is a pre-amp essential?

i'll mostly be doing t'improv electronics stuff as well as sketching
out proper songs....

what yer reckons?