Running Sonar X2 Producer with Laptop

http://www.adkproaudio.com/laptop3.asp

I have thought these looked tasty. I don't own one though.

Try to get one with either 8 GB installed, or one with 4 GB installed but with an open memory expansion slot.  (You can get a 4 GB memory strip for laptops for something like $20-$25).

Other than that, Intel i5 or i7 would be good for a CPU.  If you have a choice between a giant primary hard drive or 2 separate hard drives, go for the one with the extra hard drive.  That will speed up loads and improve things if you separate programs from data between the 2 drives.

If a second internal drive is too expensive, look for an eSTATA port and you can add a secondary drive that way.

Windows 7 is a fabulous platform for Sonar.  Windows 8 is also quite stable, it just has some things for you to either adapt to or bypass, depending on your personal choice, but it runs Sonar just fine.

I hope that helps - these are just some suggestions, but I think they are reasonable ones,

Bob Bone

I have combined my recording studio and performance studio into one machine. I have tried many combinations of machines in the past. I have maintained two laptops -one for performance and one for back up. I had laptops freeze and crash in the middle of a performance, blue screen, etc. I have thought through my current purchase before I made my current change. I currently run a ASUS G74S. It's a gaming laptop. Running W7 with 14 GB ram, Dual 750GB 7500rpm drives, i7 INTEL, high performance graphics. I have 4 extra drives that I use to mirror the c drive(os) and the second drive in the laptop that has all my sonar stuff. It takes me 5 minutes to change out a drive if needed. I backup every 30days or after a significant recording session. I also have an on line back up service and a wireless 2 terabyte home backup system that runs in real time. Can you guess what I value the most? You will never has a perfect system so you need to plan how to compensate for the unknown. Plan on $2000 for the laptop with these kind of specs and $400-500 for extra back up drives,. $100 or online backup per year and $250 for a 2 Terabyte home real time backup. You need to ask your self how much you would pay someone to restore your current system and sonar files if it died or was stolen? I've been there. The answer is "I don't care! I just want my stuff back!" Good Luck.

Go into the situation with realistic expectations... and you won't be disappointed.
IOW, Don't expect a $500 laptop to deliver the performance of a well configured $2000 tower.

The power-management features for laptops benefit the general-purpose user (greatly extends battery life)... but runs 180 degrees counter to what we're after (maximum performance).
You're looking for a laptop that has low/consistent DPC latency (not to be confused with audio latency).
The general-purpose user won't notice a high DPC latency spike while Surfing the Net... or running Photoshop.
However, that DPC latency spike can prevent audio buffers from being filled in time (causing dropouts/glitches with audio).
The lower the (audio) latency you want to effectively run, the more significant DPC latency becomes.
You'll want to use one of the better USB audio interfaces.

If you don't mind working at ASIO buffer sizes of 256-samples or more, you're odds of success are much greater.

If you have huge performance expectations (especially working at ultra low latency), that's where most laptops fall short.
Also, there's no real upgrade patch with a laptop.  You buy it... use it... and ultimately replace the unit as a whole.
For these reasons (unless traveling via plane), I'm not a huge proponent of laptops... so I choose to use a Cube for my live rig.  All the speed of a fast tower... with none of the limitation of a laptop.

Here is Cakewalks recommended computer page:

http://www.cakewalk.com/PCResource/default.aspx

That should give you a general idea of what to look for.

Here is the laptops section:

http://www.cakewalk.com/P...e/buy.aspx?Type=Laptop

but yeah... unless you absolutely NEED a laptop a tower or cube is far better and less expensive. If you are adventurous enough and have the time you can build your own to save a bit of cash too but you really gotta do your homework. Took me about 6 months of research, acquiring parts and then building/configuring. Spent about $1500 on a machine that probably would have cost well over $2000 otherwise.

gswitz


http://www.adkproaudio.com/laptop3.asp

I have thought these looked tasty. I don't own one though.

I have the 9000X. It's the bomb. I have three 750GB drives in it. And I run business applications on it too.


Of course I have a main DAW but if I had to take this on the road to record I know it would stand the test.