[PlanetCCRMA] Laptop recording

[Mark Knecht]

Hi Henk,
   Just some quick comments:

1) I think there are some good USB interfaces out there. THey probably
work fine as long as you don't require too many channels all running
at the same time. Record 2 at a time and have a couple of output for
your monitors and USB will likely be OK. Try to get 26 in/26 out,
etc., and it likely won't be.

2) The best supported interface today, I would think, would be the RME
DigiFace or MultiFace with a pcmcia interface. Unfortuantely it's
about 4x the cost of the Behringer you quoted so probably that's not
interesting to you.

3) For Firewire there is *very* limited support through FreeBob

http://freebob.sourceforge.net/index.php/Main_Page

Check the list of supported devices. The list is small and will never
include some of the most popular 1394 devices. FreeBob supports only
the 1394 chipset from BridgeCo. and nothing else. That said there are
a few good things here in the $300-%500 range if you're willing to go
that far.

As for laptops I love my Compaq. 1394 works well with Linux. I
recommend getting 3-5 Live CDs - Knoppix, Damn Small Linux, etc., and
booting each and every one of them. If they all boot, and if the
hardware is very general, such as TI chips for the 1394 interfaces,
then most likely you'll be OK. Buying a laptop used it's harder to do
this unless the seller is local.

good luck,
Mark

On 7/30/05, Henk Jansen <burley@zonnet.nl> wrote:
> I'm planning to buy a laptop (2nhand perhaps) mostly for audio
> purposes only (recording) and running the CCRMA softwares suite on it.
> A music expert from a local renown music shop told me that the standard
> soundcards on laptop computers are of poor quality for recording purposes.
> Therefore, USB or FireWire connected Audio/MIDI devices seems to be the
> way to go. That shop only sells M$Windows related FireWire stuff (he says that
> USB 1 "was too slow" causing unacceptable latency and "USB 2 hardware support
> is hard to get"). Therefore, I've been looking for affordable,
> cost/effective digital recording devices, such as the Behringer BCA2000
> (http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i-BEH-BCA2000--brand-29.html)
> which connects to an USB2 interface. I have the following questions:
> 
> 1) Is such a device a good option, and is it supported by the CCRMA
> software? Or are there better alternatives?
> 2) What should I look for in particular when buying a 2ndhand laptop mainly
> for audio purposes? (Intel/Centrino, AMD, Athlon, ...?)
> 
> Any suggestions are welcome of course.
> 
> Thanks for your advice,
> 
> --Henk
> 
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