RE: why a laptop at all?

["Paul Weissman" <paul-mailinglists@nioterra.com>]

i play out every show with some combination of:
- traktor
- live
- reaktor
- software i'm developing

just thinking about carrying the equivalent amount of hardware (not that
there is equivalent gear) makes me shudder.  ;)

paul

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mark [mailto:sine@zerocrossing.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 4:19 PM
> To: loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Subject: why a laptop at all?
>
>
> I'm all for having a nice small laptop be one's rig.  Hell, it would
> make all our lives easier.  Here's my question:
>
> Why?
>
> It seems they're riddled with issues, including noise and latency
> issues.  A Sony VAIO is going to run you about $1500, an Apple Titanium
> Powerbook is going to be $300 more.
>
> Tack some software on top of that, and you're easily looking at $2500.
> Now, add a midi controller and say we're in the neighborhood of $2700.
>
> Now, you can easily pick up something like the new roland V synth, Korg
> Triton or another work station style keyboard for $2200 that will kick
> that laptop's ass in terms of capabilities and sound quality and leave
> you almost enough money for an EDP leftover.  Rick's already got a
> Repeater and an EDP.  He could spend the extra cash on a decent
> multi-effects processor
>
> Now, I'm not saying that all of these things are equal.  I'm sure there
> are software packages that will do things that no hardware box will do
> alone, and visa versa.  It just has always seemed to me that if you're
> looking for bang for the buck, hardware wins... though it's starting to
> get closer.  I guess I'm not aware of capabilities, but my guess is
> that a high end Sony VAIO or TiBook is not going to give me enough
> power to run Live, a VST software synth, with a few vst effects on it
> all at the same time with an acceptable amount of latency and no
> glitches.  Am I wrong?  My company is always looking for a way to do
> realtime video presentations from a laptop, and as far as I can tell,
> it's not possible with the quality we need.  A G3 tower with an Aurora
> video card is the closest we've gotten.
>
> Mark Sottilaro
>
>