Hi everybody, I just received my Scarlett 18i6 and I am planing to use it record my band next week.
 
So far I ran a few tests on my desktop PC and I am really satisfied with it.
Unfortunately I cant bring my desktop with me but I am going to have my old lap top. It s really old but it runs fine.
 
Here are some specs: Toshiba Satellite M55-S331
 
Notebook with 14-inch TruBrite display
1.73 GHz Intel Pentium M (Centrino) 740 processor, 2 MB L2 cache
250 GB hard drive, + Glyph 1T external HD via FW
1.5 GB of RAM, 4 X USB 2.0, one FireWire (TI),
Dual Boot Windows XP Home edition, SP3/Windows 7 Home
 
Installed and been using for years with no problems, is Sonar 6 SE, Sonar 8.5 SE, Pro Tools 7.3 + MBOX2
 
I have recorded stereo with the MBOX2 for years with no problems but now I need to record 8 tracks simultaneously for hours.
 
- Do you think my lap top is going to be able to do it?
The XP boot is optimized for studio work only (mostly tracking and basic editing)
 
- Does the old processor play a major role for recording 8 tracks? or the low memory?
 
- Should I better use Sonar 6 instead of 8.5? (may be less resources?)
 
- Should I use Windows 7 instead of XP?
 
Thank you all in advance

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You should have someone hit CTRL-S during the recording or have autosave turned on otherwise if it crashes during the recording, you may have trouble recovering it. 

You should test it with the laptop that you're going to use. Test it just like you plan to use it and record 8 tracks of something for 2-3 hours and see how it holds up. I'd be a little concerned with just 1.5 GB of memory and only 250GB hard drive. 


8 tracks x 10MB per minute x 60 minutes = that's about 5GB per hour plus paging space and temporary files. I'm not sure if the 2GB file limit applies to XP, but if it does, you could be in trouble. You really need to run some tests. 

 First of all thank you for your response!
 
Saving during recording, do you mean literally during recording? No pops no clicks?
 
Because I dont have 8 signal sources at the moment, I recorded just silence from the 8 inputs for about 30 minutes and it seems fine.
 
I am going to use the Glyph (1TB) for "Audio Drive
 
So memory is the major problem? Thanks again!

Firefox is the cause of missing paragraphs. Anything newer than vs. 3 doesn't work well with the forum software. Chrome, IE and others are ok.

Kalle Rantaaho


Firefox is the cause of missing paragraphs. Anything newer than vs. 3 doesn't work well with the forum software. Chrome, IE and others are ok.

Thank you!! Havent used IE in years! lol

I have a Toshiba Satilite A40  P4 2.4Mz with 1.5 gig RAM,, I did upgrade the Hard drive to a 7200 RPM 100 Gig which is the most critical component when streaming audio. CPU and RAM have very little effect if under powered. The audio is written directly to your hard drive, so you can see why that's the most important item to optimize. 
Anyhow you will be just fine, I've recorded 12 tracks and CPU never leaves the basement. I have been doing this for 10 years on this computer and before that an even worse Acer 1.5Mz. Centron. 

Some tips.  Run DPCLAT meter.. This will tell you if all is good. Any yellow of red spikes need to be dealt with or you could have a dropout.  
Kill these in Device Manager:
Wireless adapter
Battery management 
On board Sound card
Use 44.1/ 24 bit. 48/24 might work too. but don't try any higher. 

I also keep the hard drive under 40% used and will defrag before the session. Just get rid of all your crap to a external drive. 

For the session make a template with the amount of tracks you need and name them. Set all the inputs etc. DON"T add efxs at this point. or Bypass the bins. 

Then for each song your going to record perform a "save as"  of the template , rename, and put each song in it's own folder.  These folders should be in an Album folder too. This will make it simple to drag and drop this folder to transfer to your desktop DAW later. I always include the date in the title of album folder.  
Make a few extras just in case your band writes a new song that night! Seriously! 

The night of the session you can open all those projects and minimize to tray. I had 14 projects open the other night and my RAM never choked. This makes it easy on you as the night progresses you can quickly be ready for the next song. 

Once a good take has been made SAVE it right away. 
If you decide to make a second take, just record over the other one and do a "save as" take 2 when done. 

DO not use auto save. it's too scary for me.  

Use the OS that has the best drivers for your audio interface. 
The version of Sonar makes no difference. I've used from 6 to 8.5. They all record audio the same as always. I'd stick with 8.5 if that's what your editing and mixing will be on later.  It's when you add VST and efxs that things need more CPU power and RAM. Straight audio needs very little resources. If your hard drive is only 5400 RPM I'd stick a 7200 in there for sure. 

And as long as your only recording one song at a time and then save it you'll never go past 500MB. It's only an issue if you recorded a 1 hour show without saving. 

Because I dont have 8 signal sources at the moment, I recorded just silence from the 8 inputs for about 30 minutes and it seems fine.

I don't think that's a very good test. Why not record 8 tracks from the same input for the sake of testing? 


Edit: I'm running a similar test now and my disk is at 50% and the CPU is at 52%. I'm using X2 Producer on a QuadCore with 8GB  of memory and a 7200 1TB drive. 


Edit: Well I turned the input all the way down so that it recorded silence and that didn't lower the CPU or Disk % used so maybe your test was ok. What were your CPU and disk #s? 

Thank you guys!! I knew I could count on you!! Thank you very very much!

@ daveny5, thanks for the tip I will give it a try once I get home

@Cactus, I dont know how to thank you for your tips.
First of all, my OS drive is 5400, unfortunately I wont be able to replace it for the time being with a faster one... I will have to bite the bullet. My audio drive is 7200 RPM 16MB cache. Not an ideal situation but that s what I have to deal with right now.

I will run the DPCLAT utility as soon as I get home tonight.
How long should I let it run if it doesnt find any glitches the first few minutes?

The session is going to be a live show recording. I wont be able to fiddle much with the lap top since I ll be playing too.
16 bit 44.1 KHz will be my choice.

No EFX or Soft Synths or anything other than direct audio to disk.

There is a very good possibility where I wont be able to touch the lap top for over an hour or so, may be 2 hours. So those files will be huge.

I am not fan of the autosave function but I may look into it a little more.

I will go with 8.5 version then.

I am not sure which drivers are better for the 18i6. The unit is fairly new to me so I havent had time to compare. If anyone has any experience I would love an input here.

Thanks again and I will report probably tomorrow my test results