Laptop or desktop for sound engineering?

Freddy Krueger

I have a laptop and it's incredibly slow. I would like to get rid of it and purchase a desktop. Is this a good idea? Are the desktops better for serious recordings? My laptop is acer 5610 and I have an HP Pavillion as well. One is worse than another. I have a phonic sound card-mixer and it's fantastic. It is just all that I need. (Condensers mics AKG, Rode, Dynamics Shure 57 and 58)

What do you think? Personally I had a desktop and I used to work with it 3 years before but since I relocated to Ireland I use only laptops. I think the desktops can give a better quality in the export, maybe they have better processor... or finally it;s in my head... but I could see better results especially when I use more plug ins...

So after that would u suggest me investing to a good desktop or maybe this would be a waste of money? If yes, then where can I find good desktops for music recordings? I hate the Windows vista. I run the vista to my ACER and the half of the plug ins or programs don't really work. It's a shame.

seannash

as far as i know desktops provide better value for money.you can get bigger memory and more ram in a desktop for the same price as a decent laptop.you can get a just as fast laptop these days as a desktop,its all down to specs really,not down to how its cased
that being said,and i hate to say this but if you want improvement with your computer,go mac:pac:

Freddy Krueger

seannash wrote: »

as far as i know desktops provide better value for money.you can get bigger memory and more ram in a desktop for the same price as a decent laptop.
that being said,and i hate to say this but if you want improvement with your computer,go mac:pac:

Cheers... Thanks very much but I cant really afford for mac. When I decide to go get a laptop... then something stops me... I hesitate. I dont really know if this could solve the problems of the "fake" or "thin" sound of the general sound processing in the final export...

seannash

Freddy Krueger wrote: »

Cheers... Thanks very much but I cant really afford for mac. When I decide to go get a laptop... then something stops me... I hesitate. I dont really know if this could solve the problems of the "fake" or "thin" sound of the general sound processing in the final export...

thats got nothing to do with your computer unfortunately

Freddy Krueger

seannash wrote: »

thats got nothing to do with your computer unfortunately

Maybe I will try to find better plug ins...

seannash

Freddy Krueger wrote: »

Maybe I will try to find better plug ins...

i dont know if that would be the case either,it could be bad mics,bad micing techniques,bad eqing etc.it could be just lack of experience(not trying to offend you)
what is your sequencer of choice

Freddy Krueger

seannash wrote: »

i dont know if that would be the case either,it could be bad mics,bad micing techniques,bad eqing etc.it could be just lack of experience(not trying to offend you)
what is your sequencer of choice

And now I am offended? I dont think go ahead I am not the greatest sound engineer of the world.

What is sequencer of choice? Sorry if this question is stupid but I dont really know a lot...

I think the mics are ok. I found my job good enough regarding the voices and the guitars, but I had to work with recorded drum tracks from a very good studio and I am still no happy with the results. The sound is not big at all.

seannash

Freddy Krueger wrote: »

And now I am offended? I dont think go ahead I am not the greatest sound engineer of the world.

What is sequencer of choice? Sorry if this question is stupid but I dont really know a lot...

I think the mics are ok. I found my job good enough regarding the voices and the guitars, but I had to work with recorded drum tracks from a very good studio and I am still no happy with the results. The sound is not big at all.

sequencer of choice is what programme do you use,cubase,pro tools etc.
i think its down to technique,not your computer or at this stage plug ins.
whatever programme you have im sure the supplied plug ins would be adequate enough to do a decent job.
im not clued up on live drums but maybe if you post up the recording people will be able to help you out with specific advice.it could be a compression issue,reverb or whatever.
basically its either youve got a **** recording or your technique isnt as good as you want it to be.sorry to be harsh about it.
im sure theres alot more qualified people who will chime in on this though

Freddy Krueger

seannash wrote: »

sequencer of choice is what programme do you use,cubase,pro tools etc.
i think its down to technique,not your computer or at this stage plug ins.
whatever programme you have im sure the supplied plug ins would be adequate enough to do a decent job.
im not clued up on live drums but maybe if you post up the recording people will be able to help you out with specific advice.it could be a compression issue,reverb or whatever.
basically its either youve got a **** recording or your technique isnt as good as you want it to be.sorry to be harsh about it.
im sure theres alot more qualified people who will chime in on this though

Dont worry you are fine.

I use Nuendo 2.

Neurojazz

Laptops can have problems with multiple firewire devices and windows... i had a year of nightmares trying to sort it via pci express slot devices etc... But, otherwise all other software ran fine - just the Firewire devices wouldn't work because even though i had the right chipsets there was an anomoly with the buss they were sat on (part of a flawed motherboard design).

Freddy Krueger

Neurojazz wrote: »

Laptops can have problems with multiple firewire devices and windows... i had a year of nightmares trying to sort it via pci express slot devices etc... But, otherwise all other software ran fine - just the Firewire devices wouldn't work because even though i had the right chipsets there was an anomoly with the buss they were sat on (part of a flawed motherboard design).

Oh you are so right. I have a mixer-sound card, fantastic machine, but it works with firewire. There is no firewire input in my laptop, so I got a FW card bus. It's a total nightmare. It clicks and pops all the time, even with the lowest latency. The sound card has zero latency but my gorgoous laptop makes everything as worse as possible. And here comes the worst: When I use internet and the card bus is connected, the computer locks up, or chrashes or gives me blue screen...

I run Nuendo 2. I used to work with Cubase. The second clicks all the time and sometimes the pop noises can be recorded. It was a hell... With Nuendo it looks better. I tried to install newer versions of those programs, they dont work with vista or they demand more CPU...

The sound comes thinner when I have recorded comparing to monitoring through cubase which proves there is nothing wrong with the audio card. The same problem I had with other audio cards. so... maybe there is something wrong with the CPU or the processors are not great at all

So well I have to options... wait untill the day where I will be out of control and smash it or just sell it and buy a desktop