Best Laptop for audio editing?

[himynameisbuddy]

I'm a musician who plays around with audio editing software quite a bit. I'm familiar with Audition, Sonar, a little Reason, and some others. I record songs every now and then (not directly into my PC), then transfer them onto my computer. Basically, I just need a laptop that will be able to produce the best sound quality (although I do understand that I may need to buy a separate sound card for this) for my recorded songs.

My question is: which laptop would be best for this kind of work? Not necessarily recording directly into the machine itself, but mostly editing on it. Everyone says Macs are best for this kind of thing, but nobody ever knows why? I'm looking at a Macbook Pro, along with a couple Alienware notebooks (I realize these are meant for gaming, but they do have top-of-the-line components and look pretty killer). Trying to stay under $2,000.

Thanks
BT

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Interesting Question. Very rarely do people review/buy laptops with audio and speaker quality being their chief priority...


I'm not sure which laptop has the best speakers (and if anything they'd be horrible for what you intend), so you'd probably be better off buying a soundcard (such as the Audigy 2 PCMCIA) and a really good set of headphones (I'm assuming you probably have a good pair already).

I'm not too familiar with he software your using, but with the market today they're no reason not to go with at least a dual core processor and 2GB of RAM for your uses. You may also want to opt for the faster HDD (7200rpm) since you'll be working with large audio files. The Macbook may be a good option. Alienware may be overkill seeing as they're more of a gaming laptop though.


Another question you need to ask yourself is portability and battery life. What size screen/amount of travel time do you want?

 

[himynameisbuddy]

I'm definitely going to buy speakers separately, and yeah, I've got a nice pair of headphones (a few pairs, actually). You're right about the hard drive at 7200... I didn't think about that. Screen size isn't too terribly important - I'd say at least 15", but I think that's what most have anyways. Battery life is a little more important - as long as possible, I guess. Hmmmm...

Thanks for the sound card suggestion! I've had no idea what to look at up until now .

*narrows down list*

 

[pukemon]

As it stands, basically any notebook made in the last year that runs Windows XP can be used without much issue. It only gets complicated should you decide to use software plugins and effects. If everything you use is outboard hardware then really you don't need a high powered machine - you'll want a stable machine. You will also want an external audio interface though, most people with a laptop setup use either USB or Firewire audio interfaces, although Echo and RME have Cardbus based audio cards. Personally I'd avoid the Creative card as it is primarily aimed for gaming and movies. It does have rudimentary ASIO support so if you insist on it, it will work. I use the Echo Indigo IO. Do note that most new notebooks don't have PCMCIA Cardbus slots, but instead have Expresscard slots. They are different.

Vista and pro-audio recording in terms of driver and application support isn't quite there yet, with the exception of Sonar 6 which supposedly runs well on Vista. I don't run Vista or Sonar 6 so I couldn't say from experience.

The deal with Mac notebooks (iBook/Powerbook/Macbook/Macbook Pro) is that they have low-latency audio with CoreAudio support built in. What this means is that you should be able to record audio without significant or noticeable delays using the built in audio, and without having to calibrate it. Also, In the case with newer Macs you get GarageBand included, which is actually a pretty decent entry level recording/mixing/loop construction application. Although my main machine is not my Macbook, I've found Garageband along with Audacity to be more than sufficient for "quick idea" recording. I just plug an analog mixer into the line-in jack and record.

 

[himynameisbuddy]

I do my recording without my computer, but I will need something that will run high-end audio editing software well (mentioned a few in my first post).

That's right, Macbook's have that built-in mic... I forgot about that guy. Hmm, that would be nice for quick little diddies. As of right now, I'm thinking the Macbook Pro is my best bet (right?). Thanks, also, for the sound card info . I will look into it.

...and I probably want to hold off on Vista for a while. Got it.

 

[pukemon]

The Macbook and Macbook Pro have a built in mic mainly to use with the built in iSight webcam. It's cool and all, but it sounds like, well, recording off a webcam or using "movie mode" on a digital camera.

For recording live audio, it's better to plug a "real mic" like a Shure SM57/58 for guitar and vocals into an analog mixer, and then connect the stereo output from the mixer into the line-in jack on the computer. Heck, for that setup, you don't need anything that special - I just use Audacity on a 4 year old notebook with the Indigo IO for that.

Either way, it's a long ways from using a tape recorder back in the day... Not even a 4-track, a crappy tape recorder...