So here's the scoop. I'm trying to figure out the easiest and most cost effective way to be able to track my vocals in another room without have to haul my entire DAW around. It's mainly just for vocals as I'm a little shy when I'm trying to hammer out parts and don't want the neighbors to hear me squeaking and croaking away. I've considered elaborate set ups involving long cables to hook up peripherals and mics from the DAW into the other room but that costs a bit of money and will be a bit of pain as I couldn't leave them hooked up. I also don't have a second desk in that room to set up another workstation for this and where the current desk in that room is is too far and in an awkward spot for all that cabling.

I figure the easiest way to go about it is to use my laptop and just install my USB interface onto it and record my vox that way. However the laptop is WAY below the minimum specs for even X1. I'm just wondering how many of you guys have tried running on underpowered systems and how much success you've had. I know this is obviously not advisable but it's all I've got for now so here's what I'm thinking to keep resource usage down.

*I'd export the backing tracks of what I'm working on down to a single stereo track (or even a mono track if that somehow would reduce power consumption). 

*I'd only be recording one or two tracks at once. 

*Obviously I'd optimize the system as best I can for audio (can this be done in a second user profile?). 

*I'd push my latency buffers up as far as I can without causing the latency to be too unbearable to work with and/or use the 0 latency monitor setting on my interface (I don't need FX). 

*I'd have absolutely no FX or any extra fiddle faddle in the project. 

*I would like to keep things at the original sample rate/bit depth (I use 96k/24bit) but maybe there is a way to lower those without effecting quality and then importing them back into the original project at the correct settings (will this be a bad idea?).

*I would use Sonar X1 on the lappy as it's required specs say dual core whereas X2 wants quad core and then I'd just open the new clips up in X2 on the main DAW 

Is there anything else I should be trying to do to make this work? Will this work at all? There is a fellow Shawn (trustmedia) on here who said he's had some good results with his laptops with the right tweaks and set ups but I'd like to see if anyone else has tried this kind of thing.

Here are the laptop specs:

*Acer Aspire

*AMD Dual Core E300 running at 1.30GHz (this is the main limitation of the system as far as I can tell)

*3 GB DDR 3 RAM

*1 single 320 GB HDD (not sure the RPM and don't know where to check for that info but I'm assuming 5200RPM or less)

*Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Service Pack 1

*Interface is a Focusrite Scarlett 18i6

So what do you think? Am I living in fantasy land or is this doable? I've also considered using other recording software that might not be as demanding. I have Pyro Audio Creator and I think I can record into that but it's 32 bit and I'm not sure if that will make things screwy. I've also thought maybe the free version of Reaper could do this (gotta research more) but I have no idea how to operate it. Just so many different paths I could take here and not sure where to start. I would very much rather use X1 though as I'm already familiar with it.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for any input.

Cheers. 

How about a portable recorder that has 1/4" or Xlr inputs with a good single channel preamp for your mic? Just wanted to mention it in case you haven't considered that option.

A sub-spec laptop is probably not a good idea, unless you use a lighter weight app to do the recording. Chances are you project will not play back on a weak laptop.

In either case (sub spec laptop with other software or a portable multitrack) you will need to mix down your project, since neither a low powered laptop or portable recorder will not play back you Sonar project as-is.

  Hi. Yeah, I'd love to have a Zoom unit or something but can't afford that kind of investment right now. If I could afford one though I'd probably just pick up a more powerful laptop or maybe a tablet instead because I'd be able to use them for other things too. 

Cheers.

I was thinking more along the lines of one of the Tascams, such as the DP04 or the DP08/DP03.

Right on. I haven't really been looking at standalone recording devices like that in recent years but it's always good to look at what's out there. Still can't afford them though. Cheers.

Hey Beepster, you can do it's simple.  

I have been recording live gigs with circa 2004 laptops for a few years now and it works fine. The ONLY thing we need the horse power for is VST's. So just stick to audio and you can be recording anywhere you wish with any laptop. 

Instead of messing with a backing tracks it would be just as simple to copy the entire CWP file. 
 The beauty of all this is you also get a killer back up system for your tunes. 

I make folders for overall projects like a live band session or say originals. In that folder is everything to do with that set of songs. I make a folder for each song in that folder and in there is the CWP and the audio folder. This is the bullet proof way to do it.  There will also be MP3 versions of cover songs or rough ideas, Lyrics etc.

So all ya gotta do is copy to a external storage device  ( back up #1) and then to the second computer ( backup #2 ) 
Make sure to date the containment folder to keep track. 

" Originals Jan-16-12" 

To record on the Laptop bypass all efxs ( Ctrl Y )
If a lot of synths are involved bounce to tracks and create audio versions which will reduce CPU load, You can probably run TTs-1 on that laptop. 

I have recorded 12 tracks of audio and MIDI in one pass on a 1.4 Celeron 1.5 Gigs of RAM.. I will say that I always have used a 7200 RPM HD which is the most important spec for streaming.  CPU and Memory are not involved much with audio. 

Sing your heart out , SAVE and transfer back to external, and back to original computer.  Either overwrite or re name ( Laptop Jan 16 -21 ) 

One thing is best if you use the same interface so Sonar does not re assign inputs and outs, But not a biggy if so. 

Another thing is screen resolution. If your first computer has a higher resolution the file might open with edges off screen so might have to re size before saving.    

I just got a Tascam DR 40 for my birthday and it is an option too. The DR 40 is the only one that has both 4 track and XLR inputs for $160.  The others all have mini jacks at this price point and most are only 2 track. 
 
I have never had to change the default settings in Sonar other than set up my Audio device and MIDI. I have never changed buffers what ever those are. I just By Pass the EFX bins and go at it. THat Laptop with W& is much better than anything I have used so I don't see a issue, Just check it out with DPCLat meter first. 

@Cactus... That is REALLY good to know, Johnny. Thanks for the insight. Shawn was telling me not to worry too but I'm a worrier. lol

I'll definitely be using the same interface. I made sure to snag a USB one so I could swap it between computers easily. I hadn't actually thought of that routing issue but yeah... shouldn't be a problem.

Well I feel a lot better about this now. I thought it was gonna be a nightmare but that all makes sense. Nice to know that it might be a good option for live off the board recordings as well if I ever get back out onto the club circuit again. Thanks, dude. :-)

Oh and I have some REALLY old XP systems kicking around that I pretty much figured were scrap at this point but maybe I'll see what I can get going with those. I wonder if Win 7 will install on them. I've got the disc from my DAW build. Wouldn't be able to register it but I don't think that would matter. If it won't X1 supposedly works with XP anyway AFAIK. Cheers!

if you have an old pc, just use wavsaur / audicity etc. if it's solely for tracking as I doubt either will be cpu hungry compared to a DAW 

If you use the folder system with the CWP and audio file in it, you will seamlessly transfer back and forth. 

There will be little difference working on either computer other than screen size. 

I even use a 4 GIG USB flash drive sometimes for transfers. 

Another option is using a shared folder system and  Ethernet ( faster) or wireless connections ( none internet ) between machines.  
An old router ( free-$20)  that is unplugged from the outside world is all you need. People forget that the original use of Ethernet was inside office buildings.