RFI: laptops

i have a 1ghz g4 powerbook that is the single best investment i have ever made in my life.

What software is best for creating music? I guess you can split it between easiest, and best...

MAX/MSP

I have a powerbook and ended up getting an extra external soundcard in addition to the built in one- you can get some pretty cheap/decent firewire or USB ones - less than $200 which is alot less than the difference between ibooks and powerbooks. M-audio makes a number of mac-compatible external soundcards from consumer grade to pro grade.

For the record, I have no idea what USB sounds like.

This?

www.google.com?

the screenshots don't really convey the coolness of drawing out your signal paths and of course there are just so many different modules you can use to munge your sound around or do whatever you want with: it's all numbers.

there's a windows version available now, but I wonder how well it works...

You can get pre-made MAX "patches" on user forums which are basically modules built by other MAX users for a specific function- like a midi clock/sequencer, tone generators, effects, etc..

Kit Clayton has been working for the MAX company (Cycling 74) for a while now and has been doing shows with a patch called "Jitter" that has been set up to do crazy stuff with Quicktime/Mpeg video files- weird fractal and feedback effects, completely unrelated to audio. I've also seen it used for making electrical sensors (switches, infrared sensors, etc) that will trigger midi commands- but for this type of thing you need a little extra hardware to convert the analog on/off to a digital 1/0...

a hairy banjo?

However, I've got some studio monitors with XLR and 1/4" outs and no cable. Do I just need to get an adapter to plug them into the 1/8" headphone jack of my laptop, and is this the best way to do things? I wasn't going to buy an external sound card because I'm just planning on doing editing, not recording, on this setup.

I'm computer-retarded.

Had this laptop since 2001/2 and it is now finally dying (outlook express can't open lol).

So I do need one. Had a Toshiba. Thinking about a Mac but never used one. Are there obvious things I should look out when transferring a few word docs and about 10 GBs worth of music to a new computer.

Thinking all I want it for is: email, interwebs streaming, basic word processing, er...torrents, if i ever figure that out.

Any links to guides of what is out there or tips wd be appreciated. Looking to complicate this. Certainly don't want to go down PC world and pick on whatever.

lolz I don't want to make music. :-)

You're doing very well if your laptop has lasted 8 or 9 years.

just get a bottom of the line macbook and you'll be good for another 8-9 years

also, if you're the type who'll use a laptop for 8-9 years, then it might behoove you to spend a little more at the outset to 'futureproof' it

get a macbook, j. i think you will enjoy it.

Today, I overheard a girl I work with explain to her dad on the phone how he needed to spend around $1300 on a Macbook for her mom for Christmas because the mom's laptop "is all buggy." And then they got into how expensive Christmas was getting this year. Ugh.

Apple computers are overpriced pieces of shit. Buy a Dell or whatever for ~$500 now, and another one in 4 years that'll be 8 times more powerful than the bottom-of-the-line Mac you can get for "only" $1000 now.

Thirding MacBook.

macbook

IMO the great thing about buying apple is OS X, but you can get that running on cheaper hardware if you want.

I have a MacBook Pro. It's ace - feels sturdy, more enjoyable to use than your average laptop, OS X is great. But obviously you have to decide whether the cost is worth it to you. Apple educational discount is nice (you just have to know someone at a university).

Apple computers are overpriced pieces of shit. Buy a Dell or whatever for ~$500 now, and another one in 4 years that'll be 8 times more powerful than the bottom-of-the-line Mac you can get for "only" $1000 now.

I get what you mean but I don't see anything coming up in 4-5 years that I'd use any extra power for (not into games). What I'm really looking for is something that will let me use basics + bit of d/loading but that will last well with appropriate care (but not too much of it, I'm not techy)

Thanks everyone! Having a laptop for nearly 10 years was a bit mad really. But I'd certainly want the next one to last 5-7 years so extra costs wouldn't bother me, to a certain extent. I'll have a look and see if the January sales will turn up w/anything.

there will, most likely, be macbook updates in mid jan but no sales on apple stuff really. best to get a student pal to go to the apple store with you.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

Wish I knew students anymore :-)

My younger brother might have a student pal. Unlikely.

Could bite the bullet, just need to think about it.

if mac i'd wait til mid jan for updates.

What I'm really looking for is something that will let me use basics + bit of d/loading but that will last well with appropriate care (but not too much of it, I'm not techy)

Anything you can buy can handle all the basics (web, email, office apps, a/v playback, etc) with ease. My opinion of Apple isn't that it's a bad system, they're just significantly overpriced.

ime they're more reliable than your average windows laptop, which seems to be a criteria to consider w/r/t xyzzzzz

i wanna hear Cozen's laptop music

I should know all about crap windows - my laptop must be the only one in the World with WINDOWS ME!!

my sympathies

"My opinion of Apple isn't that it's a bad system, they're just significantly overpriced."

This is going to be different for everyone but if having an apple saves you an hour of frustration or time a month over having the dell,
then over three years that's 36 hours x say you make $20/hr = $720 saved by going apple instead of dell.

the mac laptops i've had have definitely saved me no end of frustration but this was probably because I tried putting linux on my PC laptops.

~9 yrs is a good life for a laptop