Re: Laptop for Audio Recording
- From: "Mike Rivers" <mrivers@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 17 Nov 2005 07:03:08 -0800
Arny Krueger wrote:
> The symptoms fit a laptop that can't communicate with its
> PCMCIA slot at high speed without I/O errors. The potentical
> causes of the errors could be timing-related. Possibly,
> updated PCMCIA slot drivers could address the problem.
Possibly, but this is a computer we're talking about, and a consumre
computer, not one that the Military bought 30 years ago that they
expect to be maintained forever. There is indeed one PCMCIA driver
update (called a "system" update) which I installed. It seemed to only
address issues with USB. Given that the computer is three years old, I
don't expect another update, ever. It's just the way life is.
As I said, I was pretty amazed that they told me that they would have
updated the hardware under the externded service contracct. But when
buying an $800 computer, I don't usualy give any thought to adding
anouther $300 or whatever it cost to extend the warranty. I didn't
expect anything to break during the time that I planned to use it
(which will probably end when something breaks) and indeed nothing has
broken. At the time the computer was designed (probably 18 months
before I bought it) people weren't using external disk drives through
Firewire, in fact, they were hardly using Firewire at all other than
for video cameras.
I was trying to look ahead and really wanted to buy a computer that had
a Firewire port in anticipation of new and upcoming audio applications.
However, the combination of features (including Firewire) that I wanted
just didn't exist until I hit a price point 50% higher than what I
expected to pay, so I caved. I figured that I could do what I did, and
use the PCMCIA slot for Firewire when the need arrived.
When the Mackie Onyx Firewire card arrived, that's when I got the
PCMCIA adapter, and after fixing the network driver issue, it works
just fine. It was only when I tried to use an external disk drive that
I ran into the brick wall.
I guess that $25/month for three years to own a laptop computer isn't
too much. Today I could probably get more for less, but it's a
different combination of "more" and so far nothing I've seen has
tickled all of my fancys. If I was really committed to using a laptop
computer for recording, I'd look for something that met those needs
without much regard for size and weight, but for me, recording using
the computer is just gravy, when it's not lumpy gravy (like for
recording 6 tracks or fewer). Otherwise, I'll just take my Mackie
HDR24/96. It's really not all that much more bulk than a laptop
computer, particularly if there's already a place to plug in to get
audio. Or the Jukebox works fine for 2-track recording.
Since my real application is to have a computer for real life things
when I travel, size and weight will probably be the prime selection
factors when I decide that I'm tired of lugging this nearly 7 pound
Dell around. If I can record audio with that one, fine. If not, I won't
let it bother me.
.
- References:
- Re: Laptop for Audio Recording
- From: T Maki
- Re: Laptop for Audio Recording
- From: Mike Rivers
- Re: Laptop for Audio Recording
- From: Arny Krueger
- Re: Laptop for Audio Recording
- From: Mike Rivers
- Re: Laptop for Audio Recording
- From: Arny Krueger
- Re: Laptop for Audio Recording
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