Re: looping with a netbook

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 10:18 PM, Dennis Moser <sinsofmachaut@gmail.com> 
wrote:
> Per,
>
> I installed a 500 GB 7200 rpm HD in my "work-issued" MBP 15". It had a
> 320 GB 5400HD originally. I don't usually use it for
> looping/performing, but it DEFINITELY improved the studio usage
> (again, using bidule, KORE Player, and some other soft synths), as
> well as generally enhancing the overall performance and response.
> Going to a faster drive AND maxxing out the RAM is always an
> improvement as you are increasing all the means of data access for the
> machine (well, at least the ones we can actually change...not much you
> can do about basic bus speeds!). And drives are getting more
> affordable in price all the time (with significant increases in
> capacity!).


Thanks. I recon you are using quite different software than I use, so
our experiences with drive speed are not really comparable. For the
most stuff I do I still prefer the slower drive for the convenience of
less noise and less heat. But then I think most live performance stuff
I use the laptop for are RAM based. When producing and mixing recorded
music I set samplers to pre load samples into RAM and so far I have
never had the need of using larger patches than fit well into 4 GB
RAM. Bus here runs at 800 MHz - another reason I give priority to
buying more external drives, for work and backup speed to optimize
working hours, rather than a faster system drive.

Per