Move from PC to Laptop

The new system specs look quite good, except for the audio "card". What do you plan to use for your recording interface? How many simultaneous inputs are you planning on using? Which type of interface will you use? (PCMCIA, USB or Firewire) Does your laptop have Firewire or PCMCIA?

PCMCIA is the best interface for laptops, Firewire is 2nd best, but there's are possible problems with it. laptop firewire ports don't come with power on a 6-pin connector - even if they have 6 pins, there is no power on the power pins. typically they only have 4 pin connectors. this is a problem because that means you have to use an external power supply for your interface and that could possibly cause ground loop problems. USB is the worst interface for sound recording and while they will work for most applications - if you plan on recording your band with 16 simultaneous inputs, you MIGHT have problems with USB. You might not, but I wouldn't count on USB for heavy loads, myself.

just my 2cents.

Thank you Beagle...all very good questions that I had not considered...and new info for me as well.

I had been using a Echo Audio Mia PCI in my desktop untill just recemtly I bought a Black Box from M Audio. I had really only bought it for the effects and amps and thought I would only use it as an input via the SPDIF on the back but just for fun I installed it as an audio interface connecting only with the USB cable. It really is working great. Although it is only USB 1 (which I was concerned about) it is performing beautifully. I only record one sound source at a time so I guess that accounts for it. Solo songwriter. The PCI Mia had an additional amout of extra noise when listening via headphones and this Black Box is dead clean sounding. So to sum up I would like to contunue using the USB Black Box with a new Laptop.


Thank you OffAnAirplane for the info as well
" It outperforms my old desktop, which had a 3.4Ghz P4 with 4Gb of fast RAM."
This gives me a comparison to go from. That is just fantastic!

Regards,
Kryon

ORIGINAL: Reegs

From the looks of the new lines, it appears that the PCMCIA slot is being phased out. Neither Dell nor HP ships new notebooks with the cardbus typeI/II slot. The all have expresscard slots now.

lol I didn't even notice that until you said it, but you're right. Not that it really matters to me. The only PCMCIA card I've got is a firewire adapter, and this laptop has a firewire port, so I don't need that anyway.