Buying a laptop? It's a minefeild

Buying a new laptop for music is a minefeild. There are literaly thousands of laptops out there and many promising excellecnt performance for music use. As many of you know sorting through them to find the right one is a case of tedious research, research, research. Just when you’ve found one you think is right you find a compatabilty issue or a massive flaw.

For most first time buyers it’s an even bigger task as most have no idea of what CPU, RAM, hard drive, size, weight or even operating system they need in a laptop. It’s one of the most asked questions in the forum. So i’ve decided to create this guide.

Laptops for music – A guide to buying a laptop for music production and performance 

The guide covers what CPU, RAM, hard drive and operating system you will need. The weight and size issues are covered as well as a mini guide to buying, price, second hand and refurbished laptops. Theres plenty of tips so get reading if your thinking of buying a new laptop.

Zander

Computers buying, CPU, guide, hard drive, laptop, live performance, Music, Operating system, production, Ram, refurbished, second hand

Dell Precision M6400 front

Quite randomly i discovered the Dell Precision M6400 covert laptop or mobile workstation as Dell calls it. This computer is a powerhouse, possibly the most powerful laptop i’ve ever seen. Made from Anodized Aluminum tinted in orange and weighing in at a massive 8.5 lbs/3.86 kg this is not your average net book but a serious music, video, graphics and game design machine. Check out the specs.

Processors availible

Intel core 2 duo 2.66 GHz

Intel core 2 duo 2.93 GHz

Intel core 2 extreme 3.06 GHz

Intel core 2 duo dual 2.26 GHz

Intel core 2 extreme 2.53 GHz

Ram availible

Up to 4 GB with on a 32 bit OS

Up to 16 GB with 64 bit OS

Hard drives

The Dell precision M6400 covert supports two hard drives. Raid 0 & 1 is also supported if you want to use it or you can have a separate data and app drive.

Ports

4 x USB

1 x eSata

1 x firewire (6 pin)

1 x VGA

1 x LAN

Screen

17″ WUXGA (1920×1200) 100% Adobe^® Color Gamut UltraSharp RGB LED Edge To Edge Display

Other extras

Full scale numerical keyboard (backlit)

NVIDIA^® Quadro FX 3700M Graphics with 1GB graphics card

8 in 1 card reader

fingerprint reader

Expresscard pc card port

Wireless 802.11g
Battery

9 cell battery

Check out the size of the charger

Dell precision M6400 covet AC adapter

More photos

Dell Precision M6400 covet back

Dell Precision M6400 covet cloased

Dell Precision M6400 covet

Wow

This machine looks pretty good too, not to mention the massive power, size and weight. Can you actually imagine using this for music, it would be amazing. Anyway at a starting price of $3000 you probably won’t ever buy one but i think i might have found the greatest PC based laptop for music, or anything else in that matter.

Zander

Computers Dell, laptop, M6400 covet, photos, Precision, specs

This is an interesting video interview with Air’s live guitarist Steve Jone’s. He talks about how he uses guitar rig to craft his guitar sound.

Music, Software, Video Air, Guitar, guitar rig, laptop, live performance, Music, setup, Software, stage, Steve Jones, synths

American experimental rock band Battles play Atlas on Later with Jools Holland. Love them or hate them Battles are kind of interesting to watch from a live performance point of view. Check out what they do with the samplers and laptops. I was very surprised to see a band so experimental on Jools Holland. Anyway enjoy & merry christmas & happy new year.

Music, Video Battles, Computers, Jools Holland, laptop, later, live performance, Music, samplers, Video

Korg nano controllers

Korg have released a series of nano controllers the nanoPAD, nanoKEY and nanoKONTROL.  The controllers are designed to be small and compact for use in live performance.

Korg nanoPAD

The nanopad is a drum pad controller similar to an Akai MPD or korg padkontrol. it has 12 drum pads and an X Y touch pad. I must admit it looks like this could be very useful, especially the X Y pad for Ableton live.

Korg nanoKEY

The nanoKEY is a 25 note, velocity sensitive, 2 octave midi keyboard with mini, button like, keys. Not sure about this one although it could be useful in some situations but i would even attempt to play it.

Korg nanoKONTROL

 The nanoKONTROL is a control surface with nine faders, nine knobs, 18 switches and a full transport section. this could be very useful for a lightweight control surface whether it’s for live work or in the studio.

Bundled software

All the nano series come with bundled software, with the nanoKEY you get korgs M1 LE synth, with the nanoPAD you get  Toontrack’s EZDrummer Lite and with the nanoKONTROL you get a discount coupon for Ableton live LE software. All the nano series come with a parameter and midi CC editor/libary which would be useful for custom control setups.

Price

Perhaps the most attractive thing about these products is the price, the nanoPAD retails at about £40 ($60), the nanoKEY about £35 ($55) and the nanoKONTROL £40 ($60). In comparison with other midi controllers on the market these are very cheap, which makes me worry about the quality but i’ll find out very soon as at £40 for a lightweight drum pad controller, i couldn’t resist and ordered one.

Conclusion

The nano series looks to be a promising product due to the size and weight of it making it ideal for live performance. The price is also very attractive but i’ll wait and see whether Korg have skipped out on the quality of the product. I’ll be reviewing the nanoPAD very soon and probably the nanoKONTROL too. In the meantime heres a video review of the nanoPAD.

Merry Christmas

Computers, Midi controllers, Video, hardware Ableton live, Computers, hardware, Korg, laptop, live performance, Midi controllers, Nano controllers, nanoKEY, nanoKONTROL, nanoPAD, review

It’s nice to see a big music software company showing a little bit of Christmas generousty and in this case it’s Native instruments. They have relesed the Kore sound pack compliation Vol 1 which you can download for free. To use it you’ll need the free Kore 2 player which also has some sounds bundled with it. The sounds range from synthesizers, acoustic instruments, percussion, groove construction kits and multi-effects patches and are taken from 12 different Kore packs.

Kore free player

Although you might not like the sounds this will be a good way to test out Kore 2 which is aimed to be used live.

Download Kore sound pack Vol 1

Download free Kore player 

Free software, Plugins, Software christmas, download, Free, free download, Kore, laptop, live performance, Native instruments, player, plugin, Software

How to maximize your laptop battery life for music

Fed up of your laptop battery not lasting long enough? Are you having to switch to mains power half way through a gig. Well this tutorial will show you how you can maximise your laptops battery life for music.

Read full tutorial

Computers, Tutorials, hardware battery, Computers, hardware, how to, laptop, life, Maximize, Music, tutorial