Re: looping with a netbook

[Dennis Moser <sinsofmachaut@gmail.com>]

Netbooks, et alia ...

As for the 13 " MacBook and the 5400 rpm drive, you can replace that
quite economically with a larger, 7200 rpm drive from OtherWorld
Computing and put the old dive in a pocket sized housing, which can
then be used for pretty much all kinds of things.

I have, for the past 8 or so months been working with two Dell Mini
Netbooks: a 9" and a 10", which have been hacked and are running Snow
Leopard/Mac OS X. SooperLooper and Mobius both work, I use Kore
Player,  and I'm using bidule. Granted, I record off of the mixer to a
TASCAM DR100, but bidule would also let me record if I chose to do so.
I master in Reaper later on a Mac G5.

If done right, the Dell Mini or the Lenovo equivalent can do quite a
good job for this kind of thing. And it's still less money than buying
a new "official" Mac. But you do have to think about it and work it
out.

Best,

Dennis

On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 12:27 PM, Rafael Nunes <supersimples@gmail.com> 
wrote:
> Just actually realized that the 13 in MacBook Pro's only work with 5400 
>RPM
> or SSD Hard Drives. Makes sense, but it's a shame. That might throws a
> wrench into the whole thing...
>
> On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Rafael Nunes <supersimples@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> It is possible to record in Live. I don't do it because I need the 
>looper
>> plugin that I first use for each new song to automatically set the 
>tempo for
>> it. That means stopping the session between songs, which means pressing
>> record everytime, which would be mildly annoying for me, cause I come 
>from a
>> live audio recording background, and prefer to capture full shows, 
>silences
>> and all.
>> What I was saying was that essentially you CAN do it in a laptop, a
>> netbook might be stretching it but it might be possible. I wouldn't try 
>it,
>> but you can risk. A small laptop however, is definitely plausible.
>> Say, one of the 13 in MacBook Pro's, without a doubt are strong enough
>> machines to make it work.
>>
>> On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 8:24 AM, Nadia Salom <nadia.salom@gmx.de> wrote:
>>>
>>> hey thanks, this is all very helpful. love the reggae music... great
>>> video
>>>
>>> my macbook pro was stolen two weeks ago so I am still very 
>frustrated...
>>> since now I see how much easier things were when I still had it...!
>>> actually I do want to still record midi and audio from the mic on 
>live. i
>>> have songs with lots of midi tracks playing simultaneously. it doesnt 
>seem
>>> possible.
>>>
>>> thanks, any more info is appreciated... looking into  this still
>>>
>>> best
>>> nadia
>>>
>>>
>>> -------- Original-Nachricht --------
>>> Datum: Sat, 5 Jun 2010 10:04:50 -0700
>>> Von: Rafael Nunes <supersimples@gmail.com>
>>> An: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>>> Betreff: Re: looping with a netbook
>>>
>>> I bought a custom built laptop, from ADK pro Audio, about 2 years ago
>>> now. This machine still runs like a champ, I use it to run Live 8, 
>with Kore
>>> 2 running most of my midi sounds, and some soundfonts and Lounge 
>Lizard for
>>> MIDI sounds too. I run a live mic, and an acoustic into an M-Audio Fast
>>> Track pro, with 128 ms of latency. All of my live playing(midi or 
>guitar)
>>> runs through Guitar Rig 4. I then have 5 looper plugins running in 
>synch,
>>> feeding off of my vox and Guitar Rig channel. I run all of this in 
>ReaRoute
>>> ASIO mode, so that I can record an output from Ableton Live into 
>Reaper. The
>>> result is this:
>>> http://vimeo.com/11499020
>>> I was also recording the screen capture during that performance. I've
>>> also recorded a live webcam, while playing through Live and recording 
>in
>>> Reaper.
>>> My specs:
>>> Intel-Pennryn T8300 2.4G 3MB Cache 800 FSB Processor
>>> Seagate 160GB 7200RPM SATA2 8MB NCQ Notebook Hard Drive
>>> 4 Gigs DDr2 RAM
>>> As Per stated, the thing I had to do however was decide what I wanted 
>my
>>> setup to be in order to maximize potential sounds and enjoyment, and
>>> minimize CPU latency. For example, everytime I unmute one of my MIDI
>>> instruments, I also activate it, and deactivate it everytime I mute. 
>That
>>> way the CPU is never processing more than one sound at once. Likewise I
>>> can't really add instruments during a song. I can go into Kore2 and 
>change
>>> an instrument from a slot, but even that takes time. That said, I've
>>> performed countless times live with this setup, and have had more 
>analog
>>> cable problems than computer glitch problems to be honest with you. As 
>long
>>> as there is a MIC not going into my setup on stage, I can always make 
>jokes
>>> while my system restarts. Seriously though, performing and playing and
>>> looping with a laptop is HIGHLY possible!
>>>
>>> Rafa
>>> On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 7:30 AM, Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 3:18 PM, TR <tomrollison@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> > I was running it on a Gateway with 2 gigs of Ram and a 1.8 Ghz dual
>>>> > core processor. Seems that this particular machine could either run 
>virtual
>>>> > instruments OR record/playback but not both.
>>>> > I should add that I was running mics in through an TC Electronic 
>audio
>>>> > interface as
>>>> > well as my guitar. My hope is to be able to do realtime remixing and
>>>> > dubbing and looping.
>>>> > I honestly don't think there is a laptop (let alone a notebook) with
>>>> > the resources to pull this all off.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I have to agree to that. But only if you mean it in the sense of how
>>>> you would do "looping, dubbing and remixing" by using the traditional
>>>> tools like a mixing console, various audio sources for input and
>>>> various external effect processors routed in effect send loops around
>>>> the console. Some years ago I tried to achieve that "in the box" by
>>>> MIDI clock syncing two laptops and piping audio between them digitally
>>>> (SPDIF and optical ADAT). But it still wasn't enough processing power
>>>> and I don't see any modern laptops that provide the power needed.
>>>>
>>>> So what to do then? The solution is to simplify your setup to bring
>>>> down the burden of the CPU. This pretty much disqualifies Ableton Live
>>>> because it is designed to meet the remix concept where all options are
>>>> instantly accessible. But you can still use Live though, if you
>>>> restrict the numbers of effects active within the session. Think about
>>>> what exactly you need to do in your performance and set up Live only
>>>> for that. You will have to sacrifice the freedom to be able to do
>>>> whatever comes to mind with your audio, but since only you know what
>>>> you are excluding from your performance it won't be an issue for the
>>>> audience.
>>>>
>>>> One typical example of this minimize-CPU-load strategy is to use the
>>>> same dub delay circuit for all channels and send audio there by
>>>> channel send knobs. The simple Ping-Pong delay in Live is very CPU
>>>> efficient and it can sound pretty cool if placed with "feedback = 0"
>>>> in a effect Return Track loop that is using its effect send knob to
>>>> send signal back into itself. After the Ping Pong you may put a
>>>> limiter or compressor. That's it as for CPU taxing. The rest is usual
>>>> control strategies like assigning some knobs or sticks to sweep the
>>>> Ping-Pong's filter range and its tempo division. And you may add a
>>>> button for its Freeze loop function.
>>>>
>>>> Another example of "low CPU cost" techniques in Ableton Live that may
>>>> sound very advanced is to utilize MIDI Clips for control data
>>>> targeting any plug-in parameter. Now, you may be thinking that it is
>>>> not always possible to send MIDI directly to a track or a track's
>>>> plug-in from a MIDI Track, but there is a workaround for that! Send
>>>> MIDI through the computers operating system! If using OS X there is
>>>> the built-in IAC Bus system and for Windows XP I remember I was using
>>>> the third-party hack MIDI Yoke. Not sure how to go here if you are
>>>> using Vista or W7, but regard this a lead and look into it!
>>>> http://www.midiox.com/
>>>>
>>>> Myself I have chosen a different solution; to not add effects to
>>>> tracks. Instead I add effects PRE looping and create loops where
>>>> different effect treatments are recorded with the source sound. This
>>>> might seem to restrict your options, and it actually does in a
>>>> technically theoretical way. But as I see it it increases my
>>>> expressive options when performing. For example, a command to cut and
>>>> mutilate a loop will not only change the source sound but all effects
>>>> as well - and this does  give more "listener experienced" power under
>>>> your fingertips. Ableton Live is designed to offer many options in
>>>> parallel and I stopped using Live and went with the free software
>>>> Plogue Bidule (it has a price tag today, but still low for what you
>>>> get) where I could build a system that lets me use an almost infinite
>>>> number of effect processor chains for my source audio input. Later on
>>>> the software Mainstage was launched by Apple and since I found it to
>>>> be a replica of my Bidule setup replaced my old pc with one from Apple
>>>> that could run both the Windows XP Bidule rig and a Mainstage rig
>>>> according to the same functionality and performance strategies.
>>>>
>>>> Greetings from Sweden
>>>>
>>>> Per Boysen
>>>> www.boysen.se
>>>> www.perboysen.com
>>>> www.looproom.com internet music hub
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Nadia Salom
>>> http://www.ubetoo.com/nirmala07
>>> http://www.nirmala07.net
>>>
>>> GRATIS für alle GMX-Mitglieder: Die maxdome Movie-FLAT!
>>> Jetzt freischalten unter http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/maxdome01
>
>



-- 
http://myspace.com/usrsbin
http://audiozoloft.com
http://usrslashsbin.angrek.com/