Advice needed: old laptop for midi recording

Posted by: Agent428

Advice needed: old laptop for midi recording - 03/14/00 02:43 PM

I just bought a Yamaha S80. While I'll use it immediately for live performance, I want to get into midi recording, something I've never done before.

I have a computer, but it's not convenient to use with the keyboard ... so am thinking of buying a cheap laptop to use exclusively for sequencing purposes. Having just sunk $1800 in keyboard stuff, I'd like not to spend much money.

Appreciate any advice on whether a cheap laptop, say 133 MHz, would be suitable for the purpose I described above, i.e. is a low processor speed okay for sequencing purposes? Any watchouts or points I may want to consider before going down this low cost route?

All advice appreciated. Thanks.

Agent 428
Posted by: WS

Re: Advice needed: old laptop for midi recording - 03/15/00 07:01 PM

You don't even need a 133 for midi. However, you will probably need to find an older version of software such as Cakewalk or Cubase. These you can find for very cheap at www.harmony-central.com
Posted by: Korgasm

Re: Advice needed: old laptop for midi recording - 04/02/00 05:35 AM

Have you thought about getting an old Atari ST? These a dirt cheap and you can generally find one with a copy of Cubase or Notator included in the price. I used my Atari 1040STE with 1MB or RAM and Notator 3.1 with little problems and it only crashed a few times in a couple of years (NB- all computers crash at some stage!!!!). If you can get an Atari with 2 or even 4MB of RAM all the better. I now have an Atari Mega STE with 4MB RAM and a 40(!)MB hard drive. I run Notator and Cubase from it with no problems (except that it doesn't work well with my Korg Z1 or Triton Moss board- it seems to randomly change parameter values at the start of a song and then goes back to normal after a few seconds!!!!) Otherwise, NO PROBLEM.

All Ataris have a built in Midi interface which saves you more money buying a separate one on a PC or Mac.

Fact remains that many home (and even pro) studios are still using Ataris because they are reliable and get the job done- AND THEY ARE CHEAP!.