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#416551 - 02/11/16 04:36 PM Re: need advice on purchasing a laptop [Re: rphillipchuk]
Stephenm52 Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 04/13/05
Posts: 5126
Loc: USA
Originally Posted By: rphillipchuk
Originally Posted By: hammer
Take a serious look at the MacBook Pro. The 2016 version will be released in March and rumors say it will have a touch screen.

Deane


Go with Mac and you will never look back....


Plus one !

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#416600 - 02/12/16 08:29 AM Re: need advice on purchasing a laptop [Re: kaimei19]
Jerryghr Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 01/14/02
Posts: 1497
Loc: Buffalo, NY
Originally Posted By: kaimei19
Hi Mark,

Here's a document attached explaining my setup with a Dell laptop/tablet 2-in-1. And the way I've arranged it to display scores automatically on selecting a registration. I've nearly 4000 scores loaded on it now. The computer is more than capable of handling any tasks. My keyboard = Yamaha Tyros 4


Cheers,
Phil



Phil

Thank you very much for sharing the information.

I have a Dell Inspiron All in One 20" touch screen computer, which has replaced my Music Books. It now has taken the place of the books on my music stand. I will now be able to control it from my Tyros.

The 19.5" "all in ones" start at $299 on clearance. Since the screen is large I can view my files in landscape mode.

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-TouchScreen-Desktop-Computer/dp/B00THDYRWI/ref=pd_sim_sbs_147_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=41Xz2oqGhSL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0QS6HRQS9TBTKW5TYQFG

I also have my fake books on the device, and can look up a request in record time, resulting in happy customers and increased tips.

Regards,

Jerry Ryan


Attachments
Music Stand.jpg

Dell.jpg




Edited by Jerryghr (02/12/16 09:47 AM)

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#416653 - 02/12/16 09:56 PM Re: need advice on purchasing a laptop [Re: Bachus]
Mark79100 Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 10/23/06
Posts: 1661
Loc: USA
Originally Posted By: Bachus
First you need to know what you are going to do with it.. what DAw, using VST, will you do audio edditing or just midi.. what other programs will you run?


Bachus......One thing I definitely do is edit wave files and I'll probably buy a MIDI notation program. I don't think I want to go into DAW and VST....just not enough time.

I originally planned on just using it to browse the Internet with a good anti-virus rather than use my XP Pro computer with NO anti-virus. Then I thought about musical performance. Why not change my routine, and take it on the job to sing Karaoke like everyone else is doing. I have 2,000 Karaoke tunes from when I was doing that.

Question: HOw do you get decent sound out of (probably) a cheap sound card that's integrated into the motherboard. One of the techie's said you "bypass" the internal sound card and run the signal out to some kind of an audio box. Then THAT signal goes to your mixer and external speakers. What do you think?


Originally Posted By: Bachus
Choose an audio interface with a multiclient ASIO driver, whichj allows you to get audio from several sources at the same time if you for example would like to run Band in a box, varranger and a DAW at the same time.. tere is so many options possible, all depending on how you are going to use the laptop and the audio device..


Yes, this is starting to get complicated when you're spending close to $1,000. I'm starting to think about what Gary said. Just buy an everyday laptop and enjoy yourself with it!

Mark

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#416656 - 02/12/16 10:20 PM Re: need advice on purchasing a laptop [Re: abacus]
Mark79100 Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 10/23/06
Posts: 1661
Loc: USA
Originally Posted By: abacus
Don’t put too much reliance on screen resolution as there is more to a usable screen than that, and as always the best way is to try the screen out in store with the type of documents you are using to see which one suits.


I didn't think much about screen resolution, but I was in the store looking at the 1028's. Then I saw a Dell with a 1920, and then I saw a 2300 resolution. I could really buy into looking at my photographs with that kind of a resolution!

Originally Posted By: abacus
Go for a laptop that has an SSD (256GB is fine for most use) and USB 3 which will allow you to add an external HDD/SSD if you do need a higher capacity.


But I'm noticing that most laptops come with 128 GB SSD. Only one I saw had 256 GB. Anyhow, I have 120 GB of songs I need to put on there so I'm going to have to get 256 GB. They're expensive though.

Originally Posted By: abacus
If you use the keyboard/touch pad a lot, try this out as well as they vary considerably in quality.


Yes, I can feel the difference in the touch of each keyboard. That's a definite factor.

Originally Posted By: abacus
Go for a minimum 4GB Ram (8GB if using VSTi) and at least a dual core CPU.


I'm shooting for 8GB of RAM and an I5 processor.

The Mac is a fine machine, but all my programs run on a PC and I need to migrate the data.

Originally Posted By: abacus
Finally go for the best you can afford, as this will be money well spent in the long term.


Yes, definitely, I thought about that. Better to have more than you might need than less than you WILL need.

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#416659 - 02/12/16 10:33 PM Re: need advice on purchasing a laptop [Re: travlin'easy]
Mark79100 Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 10/23/06
Posts: 1661
Loc: USA
Originally Posted By: travlin'easy
No sense in spending a bundle on a PC or Mac if you're not into gaming or complex graphics. Most of the stuff we do doesn't require much speed or memory.


And then sometimes I think about it that way. There's just not enough time in the world to look for perfection....in anything!

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#416660 - 02/12/16 10:50 PM Re: need advice on purchasing a laptop [Re: Mark79100]
Mark79100 Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 10/23/06
Posts: 1661
Loc: USA
After a week of looking at laptops, I've narrowed it down to Toshiba and Dell. But I'm thinking more Dell...prettier to look at, nice design, good feel under my fingertips, nice specs, reasonable price, etc.

But, would you believe, I called Dell to inquire about having a custom laptop built, and the communication with them sucks......I don't know how else to say it. The salespeople are all in India, they speak "Ind-glish" (a nice way of saying their English leaves a lot to be desired), don't know anything about computers except for how to take down an order, are not interested in your inquiries if you tell them you're not buying now, and are generally rude and probably bored out of their minds over there. I had to call three times. On the third call, I made up something like this. "I want to speak to a supervisor. I just called Dell corporate headquarters here in the United States and they told me to to get the names and ID #'s and note the time of the call for each instance you have trouble." Of course, it wasn't true, but it certainly got me a little more respect. So what happens......they give me a supervisor and she was just a "blah" as the rest of them.

That's putting me off Dell somewhat because if that's how they talk to you when your "buying," imagine what you'll have to go through if you need warranty service.

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#416661 - 02/12/16 11:07 PM Re: need advice on purchasing a laptop [Re: kaimei19]
Mark79100 Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 10/23/06
Posts: 1661
Loc: USA
Originally Posted By: kaimei19
Here's a document attached explaining my setup with a Dell laptop/tablet 2-in-1. And the way I've arranged it to display scores automatically on selecting a registration.


Phil....thanks for posting this. I forgot all about accessibility to my song sheets. I have a couple of thousand scanned into my computer as pdf's. I'm tired of getting up and down from the piano to look for music.

So, with that in mind, I'm definitely going for a high-resolution screen!

Mark

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#416662 - 02/12/16 11:20 PM Re: need advice on purchasing a laptop [Re: J. Larry]
Mark79100 Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 10/23/06
Posts: 1661
Loc: USA
Originally Posted By: J. Larry
For a first class laptop, take a look at the latest Dell XPS 15, with 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad Core, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD, upgradeable to 1TB SSD. May be overkill, but should be able to handle anything.


Larry.....that's a lot of machine.....a "dream machine!" It's more than I can afford or want to afford. But I forgot about looking at Dell's online. I'm going to sort through these and others.

Dell Computers (link)

Mark

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#416663 - 02/13/16 12:47 AM Re: need advice on purchasing a laptop [Re: Mark79100]
Bachus Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 03/02/06
Posts: 7143
Originally Posted By: Mark79100
Originally Posted By: Bachus
First you need to know what you are going to do with it.. what DAw, using VST, will you do audio edditing or just midi.. what other programs will you run?


Bachus......One thing I definitely do is edit wave files and I'll probably buy a MIDI notation program. I don't think I want to go into DAW and VST....just not enough time.

I originally planned on just using it to browse the Internet with a good anti-virus rather than use my XP Pro computer with NO anti-virus. Then I thought about musical performance. Why not change my routine, and take it on the job to sing Karaoke like everyone else is doing. I have 2,000 Karaoke tunes from when I was doing that.

Question: HOw do you get decent sound out of (probably) a cheap sound card that's integrated into the motherboard. One of the techie's said you "bypass" the internal sound card and run the signal out to some kind of an audio box. Then THAT signal goes to your mixer and external speakers. What do you think?


Originally Posted By: Bachus
Choose an audio interface with a multiclient ASIO driver, whichj allows you to get audio from several sources at the same time if you for example would like to run Band in a box, varranger and a DAW at the same time.. tere is so many options possible, all depending on how you are going to use the laptop and the audio device..


Yes, this is starting to get complicated when you're spending close to $1,000. I'm starting to think about what Gary said. Just buy an everyday laptop and enjoy yourself with it!

Mark


For what you want to do with your PC anything with an intel i3 and up will probably do.. i would go for an i5 with 8GB memmory to be future proof...

You also want to go for windows 10, it comes with a great antivirus tool build in..

I still would go for an USB audio interface, its nothing more then a soundcard running outside your laptop that offers you high quallity sound..



This one is under $100, and blasts you away with its soundquallity..


the only thing you now need to decide on is vissibillity versus portabillity.. i.e. big screen all in one versus small formfactor Laptop and everything in between..

another tip, go for a build in SSD, that really speeds things up, atleast 256GB to be futureproof..



EDIT: do you want physcical midi, or is midi over USB sufficient?


Edited by Bachus (02/13/16 12:48 AM)
_________________________
Yamaha Genos, Roland Jupiter 80, Ipad pro.

http://keyszone.boards.net

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#416666 - 02/13/16 02:26 AM Re: need advice on purchasing a laptop [Re: Mark79100]
abacus Online   content
Senior Member

Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 5386
Loc: English Riviera, UK
Here are some links that may help

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
Link 5

Bill
_________________________
English Riviera:
Live entertainment, Real Ale, Great Scenery, Great Beaches, why would anyone want to live anywhere else (I�m definitely staying put).

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