laptop issues. Please Help!

[Trace]

Recently I purchased and customized a laptop for audio use. However, I am running into more than a few obsticles. I first purchased a TC Electronics 24D Firewire audio device, only to find its' drivers to be buggy, and that niether the TC box, nor my external firewire HD wanted to sit at the end of the firewire chain.

So, I returned the 24D and baught an EMU 1616. Only, now I discover that my laptop, and most recent models, no longer contain PCMCIA slots. So the EMU card is a bust.

Does anyone have any experience using a quality firewire audio device and an external HD?

Is an USB 2.0 external HD fast enough for audio work?

I am using Cubase SX 4 as a host under Windows XP home on a core 2 duo 2.16 GHZ processor with 2 gig RAM.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Bela D Media]

I wish I could help you more but I wanted to put any fear to rest about USB 2.0. Our entire studio runs on 5 - USB 2.0 external HD's.

Audio
Sampling
Video

USB 2.0 ROCKS!

[Trace]

Thank you. That is really good news. Now maybe I can get a mackie atelite, and not have conflicts betwenn drive and audio interface.

Anyone know if there are inhearent problems with the onboard firewire controllers on Dell laptops?

Thank you.

[Bela D Media]

Hi Trace,

Now and again I would hook up my Digi002 (Firewire) to me Dell Laptop. No issues on that setup. Could be a good sign.

FB

[masimon]

Thanks for the info Francis, have you tried booting from one of these drive. I'm interested to know if this is possible and which system would be better for this USB2.0 or firewire.

[Bela D Media]

Do you mean booting the PC from an external drive? Never had the need. I would assume that the basic C drive is best for that.

[Trace]

I think the C drive is the only option for Windows. Quite a few mid to high-end laptop manufacturers will offer the option of a 7200 rpm drive as your C drive. This is a good idea if you are planning on using the machine for audio.

Thanks Bella for the info on the 002. Did you record direct to the Dell's internal drive, or did you use an external USB drive?

[Trace]

Also, does anyone know if the Digi interfaces: Mbox 2, 002, are ASIO compient. In other words, can I use them with Cubase?

[Pando]

Some laptop chipsets have a problem with running external audio boxes using the built-in firewire port. This manifests itself as static or pops/clicks on the output. If that's the case, the workaround is not to use the the laptop's built-in firewire port, but get a PC-Card (PCMCIA Cardbus) or ExpressCard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expresscard) firewire card.

[Trace]

Is there such a thing as an express card firewire card?

I've been searching for one, but have found nothing.

[Reegs]

Is there such a thing as an express card firewire card?

I've been searching for one, but have found nothing.

Yeah, for all the glory that the expresscard has been heralded to possess, the developers have been a bit slow on the manufacturing.

they DO make them though,

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=blended&field-keywords=firewire%20expresscard&results-process=default&dispatch=search/ref=pd_sl_aw_tops-1_blended_16358464_1&results-process=default?tag2=amd-google-20


on a related note, would a US-122 be a good buy for making a laptop recording friendly, and can the US-122 handle ASIO2 or otherwise have decently fast latency?

[Trace]

Thanks for the heads up.

What I would really love to see is a PC express to PCMCIA adapter of some kind. Elan makes one that uses a USB port, but it is only to be used with certain EvDO cards. I would think there would be a demand for this kind of thing.

[Bela D Media]

Also, does anyone know if the Digi interfaces: Mbox 2, 002, are ASIO compient. In other words, can I use them with Cubase?

Digi hardware can only be used with Digi software. The do have an MAudio version as well.

[Trace]

Thanks for the info on the Digi hardware. I guess it will be the Mackie unit. I really like Protools, and have an older system on my Mac, but I use Cubase on the PC for most composing. So, I don't want to get locked in to just using Protools.

[Trace]

Thanks for the info on the Digi hardware. I guess it will be the Mackie unit. I really like Protools, and have an older system on my Mac, but I use Cubase on the PC for most composing. So, I don't want to get locked in to just using Protools.

[Delusion]

Digi hardware can only be used with Digi software. The do have an MAudio version as well.


Actually, this is not true. There are ASIO drivers for Digi hardware allowing them to be used with non-Digi software.

The other way around is true though: you must use Digi hardware with Digi Software.

[Trace]

Just wanted to make a plug for the mackie satalite. This fantastic little box requires only five minutes to set up, and you are in laptop recording heaven. Plus, it has really good sounding mic pres and a control room section for monitor and suround control, plus two headphone outs. All at a street price of $399. It rocks!!

[svenni]

Also, does anyone know if the Digi interfaces: Mbox 2, 002, are ASIO compient. In other words, can I use them with Cubase?

The answer is YES.... I've been using the digi 002 Rack interface with Cubase SX 3.1 on a PC desktop. The only thing you have to do is connect the digi using the firewire cable and set up the Protools software that comes with it so the interface works. Now the most important thing... Turn on the interface (Digi 002) BEFORE you turn on the computer and the digidesign driver will show up as an option in Cubase..... if you don't do that then it will not show up as an option. It works great with Cubase, Reason and Steinberg's Wavelab and I had no problems with it.

I read this somewhere on the internet and it's interesting if it's true?

"As for "serious" studios running Protools... Well just read the news. Last February, Disney swapped all their ProTools licenses for Nuendo 2.0 ones. They didn't switch audio interfaces, since they had a great amount of investment already made in Protools HD interfaces (and these interfaces are great). But guess what... Nuendo/Cubase can use the Protools interfaces perfectly and software-wise it's one million years ahead of Protools. The sound engineers said: "Nuendo allows us to do the same things ProTools does in half the time".

[Trace]

Wow. Quite a quote. I really like Cubase. I have some limited experience with Nuendo, but it really seems to compare well with Protools.