Laptop for live rig suggestions? (not apple)

[Lern2swim]

I am planning on moving to a laptop>interface>power amp>cab setup for my rig. Long story short, I've fallen in love with the amp sims (hence not wanting an apple product) I'm using and the near endless possibilities the setup would allow.

Now I need to sort out what a good laptop for this purpose would be. I want something reliable, that won't get bogged down if I throw in a bunch of vst effects, won't get used for anything else, and is fairly inexpensive. Any suggestions?

[Razzy]

Originally Posted by Lern2swim

I am planning on moving to a laptop>interface>power amp>cab setup for my rig. Long story short, I've fallen in love with the amp sims (hence not wanting an apple product) I'm using and the near endless possibilities the setup would allow.

Now I need to sort out what a good laptop for this purpose would be. I want something reliable, that won't get bogged down if I throw in a bunch of vst effects, won't get used for anything else, and is fairly inexpensive. Any suggestions?

Lenovo Thinkpad. Smartly priced and can take a beating. You can get an SL510 and upgrade it to 4GB's of RAM for under $700.

[MaxOfMetal]

Originally Posted by Razzy

Lenovo Thinkpad. Smartly priced and can take a beating. You can get an SL510 and upgrade it to 4GB's of RAM for under $700.

Those Thinkpads are tanks.

For live use I'd get all the RAM you can as well as go with the resilience of SSD HDs.

[Razzy]

Originally Posted by MaxOfMetal

Those Thinkpads are tanks.

For live use I'd get all the RAM you can as well as go with the resilience of SSD HDs.

Good call on the SSD. I didn't even think of that.

[MaxOfMetal]

I'd also remove/disable any wireless/network adapters. By keeping it a closed box you'll be able to run Windows much more lean. That'll save SSD space ($$$) as well as keep a lot of the update and security software out of your processes and RAM.

[Albionic]

Just a heads up you can get mac versions of the lepou stuff now. dunno if that makes a difference.

[Lern2swim]

Originally Posted by Albionic

Just a heads up you can get mac versions of the lepou stuff now. dunno if that makes a difference.

Not really. My home computer is a PC and, while I'd love to switch over to Logic, that's an entirely separate investment that I'm not looking to make right now.

So, this one look good?
Amazon.com: ThinkPad Edge E520 11433BU 15.6" LED Notebook - Core i3 i3-2310M 2.10GHz - Matte Black: Electronics

or should I step up to this one?

Amazon.com: ThinkPad Edge E520 11433FU 15.6" LED Notebook - Core i5 i5-2410M 2.3GHz - Matte Black: Electronics

[Albionic]

Also worth noting is the lepou stuff (I assume that's what you are running by your other thread) is very processor hungry so make sure you get a fast one

[Lern2swim]

Originally Posted by Albionic

Also worth noting is the lepou stuff (I assume that's what you are running by your other thread) is very processor hungry so make sure you get a fast one

Yep. So, the 2.1 or pay the extra for the 2.3?

[MaxOfMetal]

I'd pay the extra $70 for the i5.

I'd also rip out that 500GB 7200RPM drive (which is pretty nice, you just don't need the weight or frailty of mechanical drives) and slap one of these in: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148447.

[Razzy]

Originally Posted by MaxOfMetal

I'd pay the extra $70 for the i5.

I'd also rip out that 500GB 7200RPM drive (which is pretty nice, you just don't need the weight or frailty of mechanical drives) and slap one of these in: Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) with Transfer Kit.

The i5 is worth the extra money.

[Blasphemer]

+1 for the thinkpad

I'm a mac user, but my friend had a TP, and that thing never stopped working. One time, he dropped it, and the screen wouldn't hold itself up, anymore. It was just limp, but it kept on ticking...

[MaxOfMetal]

Thinkpads have a nice, solid metal frame on them, not the typical thin, pressed sheet that the mobo is mounted to on cheaper (or even on much more expensive) laptops.

I was actually thinking of making a portable, digital, PC based rig recently.

I was going to take a Thinkpad X220, and mount it to my Furman SPB-8C pedal board. I'd use my Guitar Rig Rig Kontrol as a controller and interface, and use a compact power amp like the SWR amplite 400. That way I'd be able to carry my entire rig, including guitar with two hands and a gigbag on my back.

Essentially:


+



+



Mounted on this:



Using one of these as the speaker:

[Lern2swim]

I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to do interface-wise. If I was working with Guitar Rig, I'd just go with the Kontrol; considering the rather fluid state of what I'm using (Lepou through Revalver for now) I'm not sure what my best bet would be. Obviously, I just need 1 input, but I want to make sure it's a high quality one.

[MaxOfMetal]

Well, what you can do is get a regular, MIDI capable recording interface, and then get a separate MIDI board that offers the controls you need. If all you need is simple UP/DOWN scrolling you can get a really small, compact unit like the Rocktron Midi Xchange. If you need TONS of control, the Behringer FBC1010 is actually really solid, enough so that AxeFx users were using them before the Liquidfoot or MFC101 came around.

[Lern2swim]

Originally Posted by MaxOfMetal

Well, what you can do is get a regular, MIDI capable recording interface, and then get a separate MIDI board that offers the controls you need. If all you need is simple UP/DOWN scrolling you can get a really small, compact unit like the Rocktron Midi Xchange. If you need TONS of control, the Behringer FBC1010 is actually really solid, enough so that AxeFx users were using them before the Liquidfoot or MFC101 came around.

I meant more about the interface than controller. I hadn't even gotten to the controller thought process yet.

[Albionic]

I have a program called pedalboard2 that hosts cat's and lets you switch between vst chains using midi it was free but not sure if it's still available if not I'll upload it somewhere tomorrow.

[Wookieslayer]

Originally Posted by Albionic

I have a program called pedalboard2 that hosts cat's and lets you switch between vst chains using midi it was free but not sure if it's still available if not I'll upload it somewhere tomorrow.

this it? niallmoody.com - Pedalboard2

[Lern2swim]

That looks pretty similar to Audiomulch, which is the one I came across the first time I looked into doing this (I was less enthusiastic as I was using GR rather than LeGion).

[Wookieslayer]

would there really be that big of advantage to using a program like the one I posted lets say, compared to running Legion/LeCab in Reaper?

a laptop rig running a click track and automatic MIDI changes just seems really cool!

[Lern2swim]

Originally Posted by Wookieslayer

would there really be that big of advantage to using a program like the one I posted lets say, compared to running Legion/LeCab in Reaper?

a laptop rig running a click track and automatic MIDI changes just seems really cool!

Well, I don't intend to do any automation like that, although the idea is a nifty one.

As for the choice of program, I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to use to host everything yet. I'll most likely try out a few options and pick the one that works best. The program you posted has the advantage of not having a bunch of extra functionality that I wouldn't be using for the purposes of this rig.

[Albionic]

pedalboard basically saves a vst chain as a patch and recalls it at the touch of a key or pedal it tells you how much of the cpu you are using at any one time as well bear in mind all patches will run simultaneously meaning if you use different vst's for clean rythm and lead they will all be running all the time. you can also set it up to control functions of the vst amp such as channel switch etc. via midi.

[WolleK]

Sorry for highjacking this thread

Following question:
I really like the sound of revalver and especiall overloud´s th2 through my headphones... but through studio monitors (Behringer Truth B2031) i think the sound sucks (sounds just too flat for me)

So is there a way of amplifying the output and give it a more guitar amp reaction/ response/ feeling ... something like the old atomic amps (Hopefully you know what i mean).

[rotebass]

Originally Posted by WolleK

Sorry for highjacking this thread

Following question:
I really like the sound of revalver and especiall overloud´s th2 through my headphones... but through studio monitors (Behringer Truth B2031) i think the sound sucks (sounds just too flat for me)

So is there a way of amplifying the output and give it a more guitar amp reaction/ response/ feeling ... something like the old atomic amps (Hopefully you know what i mean).

You need something that models the response of a guitar cab, I'm not too familiar with revalver, but I do use a Line 6 Toneport through a set of Behringer B1031's and it sounds pretty good to me.

P.S. How do you like the 2031s? I picked a pair of 1031 over a pair of 2030 after comparing them both, I really liked the extra bottom end from the 8" woofer, too bad there wasn't a set of 2031 to compare with as well. I really dig mine though, I also compared them to a few known brands in the same price range, no competition imo.

[EtherealEntity]

WolleK, yes try disabling the cabs and just using Revalver for the amp itself, and run into some impulse responses (see the sticky on those). Usually much higher quality than most cab sims