Re: Looping with a PC laptop... which one?

[Catilyne <catilyne@icicle.net>]

At 09:25 AM 9/27/2003 -0500, Doug Cox wrote:

>*SOME* Dell's have a known issue with the grounding of the power supply
>jack, which causes hummmm in the USB audio output.... The fix?  Either use
>the battery, or put a 3-prong -> 2-prong adapter on the power supply cord.
>Someone can probably explain how that might be dangerous...  I'm an
>electro-peasant, so I don't know.

There was a discussion about this very thing over on the LaptopMozart 
group 
(laptopmozart@yahoogroups.com).  And I think there were a couple of people 
for whom even that fix didn't work.

>Personally, if I was starting from scratch, I wouldn't buy a Dell for 
>audio.

Ditto.  I'm typing on a 1.2Ghz Latitude right now (my laptop from 
work).  I've installed a bunch of my audio doohickeys on here so that I 
can 
do some 'real' work while I'm out on the road with my job.  Sometimes 
things behave, erm, strange -- lock up, slow down, etc., etc.  Parts of 
that can certainly be attributed to forcing the software onto Win2k, but 
not everything.  I never thought I'd say a Mac was more stable than 
anything, but I trust my TiBook more than I trust my Dell.  Despite the 
fact that they're great road computers, I likewise wouldn't buy a Dell for 
audio.

I've thought about bringing another PC laptop into my setup (like it's not 
complicated enough already).  I've got a 500Mhz Toshiba over in the corner 
that's been pretty stable with the audio plugs I've loaded, at least so 
far.  I'll let you know how that goes but I'm in no real rush to finish 
that project.

In addition, I've got a Sony Vaio that was my work laptop prior to the 
Dell, and it gave pretty decent results with my previous sequencer 
setup.  Other people on the LaptopMozart list have also recommended the 
Vaio (I guess it also doesn't hurt that Kraftwerk have jettisoned all 
their 
hardware and now tour exclusively with Sony's running VST's, or so I hear).

I've also heard pretty good things about the IBM Thinkpads.  I've still 
got 
one of the boxy little 150Mhz jobbies (running NT 4, no less) that I used 
to swear by.  It's not really fast enough to run anything modern though... 
a shame.  That little guy was bulletproof, and I had to push it quite a 
bit 
before it would even BSOD on me.

         -c-

_____
"i want to reach my hand into the dark and *feel* what reaches back"
                                                 -recoil