26 Mar
2003
26 Mar
'03
6:36 a.m.
Hi Group,
I am thinking of buying a notebok or subnotebook. However I don't know
which one to get?
Here are some requirements the notebook should meet:
1. Runnable with Linux (of course!)
2. Reasonable sound support (recording and playback at least)
3. jack and adour should be able to run
4. WLAN (either build in or via PC-Card)
What notebooks do you use? What are your experiences?
Any help or advice is appreciated.
r(a)l.f
26 Mar
26 Mar
6:46 a.m.
Hi,
I'm currently running Linux on a Vaio PGC (PCG?) FX 701. Avoid it -
the, uhm, rather unique layout of the motherboard makes it impossible
to run ALSA on it.
Of course, if you're going to be using an external USB soundcard, that
may not be the case, but the on board Via sound chip (which isn't too
hot anyways) causes ALSA (which you need for Ardour) to freeze the entire
machine.
take care,
matthijs de jonge
http://devdsp.net - news and resources for computer musicians
Hi Group,
I am thinking of buying a notebok or subnotebook. However I don't know
which one to get?
Here are some requirements the notebook should meet:
1. Runnable with Linux (of course!)
2. Reasonable sound support (recording and playback at least)
3. jack and adour should be able to run
4. WLAN (either build in or via PC-Card)
What notebooks do you use? What are your experiences?
Any help or advice is appreciated.
r(a)l.f
From linux-audio-user-admin(a)music.columbia.edu Wed Mar
26 11:34:35 2003
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From: Daniel James <daniel(a)mondodesigno.com>
Organization: mondo designo
To: linux-audio-user(a)music.columbia.edu
Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Interesting audio software coming to Linux.
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Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 10:30:09 +0000
I wonder what the odds are that it supports ALSA, or
better yet, JACK.
There's still time to get in touch with these people, who are based in the UK,
and help make it happen! I think their pricing is reasonable for a
proprietary app of this kind, and there's a free beer trial for the current
version.
I'm guessing they wouldn't want to alienate a
good portion of thier users
(RedHat + ?) by requireing ALSA :(
Any serious music user would install ALSA, surely? If only for up to date card
drivers. It'll be interesting to find out what their target distros are.
I didn't send the info about this particular app to Sound on Sound, but I have
forwarded lots of other Linux-related audio/music announcements. If anyone
has specific Linux information they want to pass on to the magazine, please
let me know.
There should be a feature I wrote in the May issue (out in April) about
building a near-silent Linux box for studio use. It was supposed to be
completely silent, but it ended up having one speed-controlled 60mm fan due
to heat build-up with static air inside the case.
Cheers
Daniel
On Wed, Mar 26, 2003 at 11:27:11AM +0100, Ralf Haller wrote:
Hi Group,
I am thinking of buying a notebok or subnotebook. However I don't know
which one to get?
Here are some requirements the notebook should meet:
1. Runnable with Linux (of course!)
2. Reasonable sound support (recording and playback at least)
3. jack and adour should be able to run
4. WLAN (either build in or via PC-Card)
What notebooks do you use? What are your experiences?
Any help or advice is appreciated.
r(a)l.f
2:09 p.m.
Hallo Ralf,
all is well in K.?
Ralf Haller hat gesagt: // Ralf Haller wrote:
I am thinking of buying a notebok or subnotebook.
However I don't know
which one to get?
Here are some requirements the notebook should meet:
1. Runnable with Linux (of course!)
2. Reasonable sound support (recording and playback at least)
I bought a laptop recently and I had to face it: There are no
notebooks (except maybe the powerbooks) with reasonable/semi-pro
sound built in. So you need to add an external soundbox or PC-Card in
your calculation. There are cheap USB-cables like the one by Edirol.
3. jack and adour should be able to run
If ALSA runs, both of these should run, too. There are no new laptops
under the 1 GHz border anymore, so you are on the safe side anyway.
4. WLAN (either build in or via PC-Card)
What notebooks do you use? What are your experiences?
I have the Acer Travelmate 225 and it is a really nice notebook.
Everything I use is supported (not the modem), I use APM and it runs
more than 3 hours while playing mp3's with alsaplayer. It also is very
silent, only if I compile ardour or the kernel, the fan goes on.
I can recommend it. It's around 1000 Euro.
ciao
--
Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org__
4:38 p.m.
I am using Inspiron 8200 (Dell).
Powerful machine, everything is supported (even modem and custom
buttons). Dell support is also very good: I had originally an
Inspiron8000 at 850Mhz that I bought 2 years ago, then it broke down
last year and I got total replacement -- an Inspiron8200 at 1.8Ghz :-)
(definitely get a good warranty if you choose to go with Dell). I even
upgraded the video card myself -- something unthinkable in the portable
world. The only thing that I did not test is the firewire port (although
I think I saw somebody mention that it works).
The bad part about it is that it 's around 7+ lbs, so it's definitely a
hefty notebook. Other than that, it's fast, has great video card (Radeon
9000 or Nvidia GF4go), soundcard is decent (CS4205 with built-in
SPDIF-out -- something I did not get to test), but for any serious audio
work I'd recommend an external pcmcia card, such as rme hammerfall dsp.
All notebooks I've seen so far including powerbooks have problems when
hooked up to external power, and only using some extreme techniques are
you going to be able to get rid of the resulting noise. Inspiron also
has the problem when hooked to the power outlet, but it seems to be ok
when running on battery. Furthermore, it does have 2 a spindle design,
so you can easily plop 2 batteries in for a 5+ hour uptime.
Hope this helps!
Ico
-----Original Message-----
From: linux-audio-user-admin(a)music.columbia.edu
[mailto:linux-audio-user-
admin(a)music.columbia.edu] On Behalf Of Frank
Barknecht
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 1:01 PM
To: linux-audio-user(a)music.columbia.edu
Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Notebook for audio
Hallo Ralf,
all is well in K.?
Ralf Haller hat gesagt: // Ralf Haller wrote:
> I am thinking of buying a notebok or subnotebook. However I don't
know
which one to
get?
Here are some requirements the notebook should meet:
1. Runnable with Linux (of course!)
2. Reasonable sound support (recording and playback at least)
I bought a laptop recently and I had to face it: There are no
notebooks (except maybe the powerbooks) with reasonable/semi-pro
sound built in. So you need to add an external soundbox or PC-Card in
your calculation. There are cheap USB-cables like the one by Edirol.
3. jack and adour should be able to run
If ALSA runs, both of these should run, too. There are no new laptops
under the 1 GHz border anymore, so you are on the safe side anyway.
4. WLAN (either build in or via PC-Card)
What notebooks do you use? What are your experiences?
I have the Acer Travelmate 225 and it is a really nice notebook.
Everything I use is supported (not the modem), I use APM and it runs
more than 3 hours while playing mp3's with alsaplayer. It also is very
silent, only if I compile ardour or the kernel, the fan goes on.
I can recommend it. It's around 1000 Euro.
ciao
--
Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org__ 
2:50 p.m.
I've found that the midiman quattro works really well with my laptop, so i
don't have to worry about its crummy soundcard. All you need to make sure
is that the laptop has standard usb ports, a fast (>= 700mghz processor),
and enough ram (>= 256megs).
http://www.brianredfern.org
On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Ralf Haller wrote:
Hi Group,
I am thinking of buying a notebok or subnotebook. However I don't know
which one to get?
Here are some requirements the notebook should meet:
1. Runnable with Linux (of course!)
2. Reasonable sound support (recording and playback at least)
3. jack and adour should be able to run
4. WLAN (either build in or via PC-Card)
What notebooks do you use? What are your experiences?
Any help or advice is appreciated.
r(a)l.f
7:11 p.m.
And might add its also just as low latency as a pci card, even though
logically you might think its slower, in practice I've found all my
programs work the same, except I had to add an extra mouse buffer (from 2
to 3) in terminatorX, but pd and the other apps I use work the same if not
better, and definitely the audio quality of the quattro is very nice, with
the dac/adc exernal to the laptop case its really quiet.
http://www.brianredfern.org
On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Brian Redfern wrote:
I've found that the midiman quattro works really
well with my laptop, so i
don't have to worry about its crummy soundcard. All you need to make sure
is that the laptop has standard usb ports, a fast (>= 700mghz processor),
and enough ram (>= 256megs).
http://www.brianredfern.org
On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Ralf Haller wrote:
Hi Group,
I am thinking of buying a notebok or subnotebook. However I don't know
which one to get?
Here are some requirements the notebook should meet:
1. Runnable with Linux (of course!)
2. Reasonable sound support (recording and playback at least)
3. jack and adour should be able to run
4. WLAN (either build in or via PC-Card)
What notebooks do you use? What are your experiences?
Any help or advice is appreciated.
r(a)l.f
28 Mar
28 Mar
5:29 a.m.
hello
rev A powerbook g4 400 here. 2yrs old and going strong!
1. Runnable with Linux (of course!)
yep thats all i run on it.
2. Reasonable sound support (recording and playback at
least)
no recording built in (why /did/ apple do that??) but more recent
powerbooks do have the audio in again. Also the older g3 pbooks have
audio in + out. i have a vxpocket 2 pcmcia pro sound card - linux
drivers are working well for playback but not recording yet. Haven't
managed to get jack running with this card yet.
3. jack and adour should be able to run
yep - they work. adour gets a few xuns but i'm hoping i can fix this
when i finally get round to building a low latency kernel.
4. WLAN (either build in or via PC-Card)
airport card well supported under linux AFAIK (don't actually have one)
What notebooks do you use? What are your experiences?
its a really great piece of hardware - well made, looks cool, nice
screen, it will never run windows ME ;) There are some issues with
endianess in certain audio apps - but these often get fixed by the
developers once they know! or maybe you could fix them etc...
cheers
matthew
6:35 a.m.
I'm using a Dell i8100 (1.2 ghz P3-M), my experiences are similar to
Ico's except the soundcard input in mine is pretty bad, and the spdif
doesn't work.
I can (or could, when they were new) get about 10 hours out of the
batteries. Its my main development machine as it has a great keyboard and
screen. The screen is better than anything I've seen on a desktop. OTOH
its so heavy that I had to stop carrying it home every evening cos it hurt
my back.
I've used WLAN cards in it with no problems, but the current Planet CCRMA
kernel doesn't have drivers for my card so it isn't working at the moment.
There are drivers for everything else though, including the graphics card.
- Steve
7:49 a.m.
I'm using a ThinkPad R31 as my music machine (and development, and everything
else)
The internal sound card is an Intel 810 which seems generally ok - duplex i/o
works in alsa, not in oss. Only mono microphone in.
I've recently got a m-audio quattro usb soundcard to use with it, for the
multiple i/o and midi.
Generally I really like it, and it's replaced my desktop machine (for
everything except cd burning and PIC asm programming)
I don't use the batteries much, but I have got 3 or so hours out of it under
normal use, maybe longer.
It's pretty small and light - but not too much so, the keyboard is exactly the
same width as a normal desktop one without the keypad, so it's not too hard to
get used to. It feels pretty solid and nothing's fallen off or broken in the 7
months I've had it for. :]
dave
29 Mar
29 Mar
12:59 a.m.
I will second the Thinkpad suggestion ;-)
I have an A31, the onboard intel8x0 chip works ok, stero line in, mono
mic. Built in WLAN supported in Linux. It also has the Ultrabay2000
slot. I currently use it for a second hd, but you can get hot swappable
batteries for it. Screen is great. Works with Ardour and Jack very well.
And when the cardbus firmware issue, on the RME hdsp card, get fixed I
will be able to do 24chs in and out.
On Fri, 2003-03-28 at 05:40, Dave Griffiths wrote:
I'm using a ThinkPad R31 as my music machine (and
development, and everything
else)
The internal sound card is an Intel 810 which seems generally ok - duplex i/o
works in alsa, not in oss. Only mono microphone in.
I've recently got a m-audio quattro usb soundcard to use with it, for the
multiple i/o and midi.
Generally I really like it, and it's replaced my desktop machine (for
everything except cd burning and PIC asm programming)
I don't use the batteries much, but I have got 3 or so hours out of it under
normal use, maybe longer.
It's pretty small and light - but not too much so, the keyboard is exactly the
same width as a normal desktop one without the keypad, so it's not too hard to
get used to. It feels pretty solid and nothing's fallen off or broken in the 7
months I've had it for. :]
dave
--
drh(a)niptron.com
Subject: Linux box finds it hard to wake up in the morning
I've heard of dogs being like their owners, but Linux boxen?
-- Peter Hunter <peter.hunter(a)blackfriars.oxford.ac.uk>
31 Mar
31 Mar
1:11 p.m.
D R Holsbeck wrote on Fri, 28-Mar-2003:
I have an A31, the onboard intel8x0 chip works ok,
stero line in, mono
mic. Built in WLAN supported in Linux. It also has the Ultrabay2000
slot. I currently use it for a second hd, but you can get hot swappable
batteries for it. Screen is great. Works with Ardour and Jack very well.
And when the cardbus firmware issue, on the RME hdsp card, get fixed I
will be able to do 24chs in and out.
What is the status of the HDSP via cardbus (what is the firmware
problem)? Also, what is the status of a TotalMix workalike capability to
use the matrix mixer for zero-latency monitoring? Is it human resource-limited,
or a hardware-spec limited?
As for the Thinkpad A31, what about noise level, internal fan,
heat? Any latency problems (when you had the HDSP working)?
How did you make the decision to go for the A31? What
other machines did you consider?
I'm also considering going the laptop/RME hdsp/firewireHD portable studio
route, and looking at my options. High resolution ( >= 1400x1050)
and quiet operation are my priorities. I'm trying to decide between
the Thinkpad (A31), Sony VAIO GRS/GRX 700 (or another of the dizzying
array of models), or the Dell Inspiron 8500. Built-in firewire not
a requirement, as long as 2 Cardbus slots are available.
jlc
3:58 p.m.
What is the status of the HDSP via cardbus (what is the firmware
problem)? Also, what is the status of a TotalMix workalike capability to
use the matrix mixer for zero-latency monitoring? Is it human
resource-limited,
or a hardware-spec limited?
Jesse,
I'm assuming this is the same issue as my HDSP 9652. If it's not, then
disregard the following.
1) RME released new firmware for a number of the cards in the HDSP line a
couple of months ago.
2) Some people are getting this firmware when they purchase new cards, HDSP
9652, DigiFace, MultFace, HDSP.
3) Some dummies like me had cards with supported firmware, but updated to
get better support under Windows and broke their Linux systems.
4) Paul did a patch for this new revision of firmware, but it hasn't yet
been committed to CVS.
5) There is work going on (by Thomas I think) to do a Total Mix clone. It is
unclear which HDSP cards will be supported and which will not. Paul did get
some code from RME, so I don't think we're spec limited.
6) There does not seem to be a schedule to get any of this into CVS. I guess
it will happen when it happens.
Maybe there's more status somewhere, but I don't know it.
Cheers,
Mark
7 Apr
7 Apr
7:32 a.m.
Hi Guys,
thanks a lot for your replies. According to your mails there are indeed
noteboks with decent build-in sound capabilities. Since I need FM-radio
quality only, I don't need a highend external sound card. Running Linux
and WLAN should normally be no problem.
Since I don't want to spend much more than 1000-1200 EUR ThinkPads etc.
are no option. Dell looks good however.
I'll keep you updated.
r(a)l.f
Mark Knecht wrote:
What is the
status of the HDSP via cardbus (what is the firmware
problem)? Also, what is the status of a TotalMix workalike capability to
use the matrix mixer for zero-latency monitoring? Is it human
resource-limited,
or a hardware-spec limited?
Jesse,
I'm assuming this is the same issue as my HDSP 9652. If it's not, then
disregard the following.
1) RME released new firmware for a number of the cards in the HDSP line a
couple of months ago.
2) Some people are getting this firmware when they purchase new cards, HDSP
9652, DigiFace, MultFace, HDSP.
3) Some dummies like me had cards with supported firmware, but updated to
get better support under Windows and broke their Linux systems.
4) Paul did a patch for this new revision of firmware, but it hasn't yet
been committed to CVS.
5) There is work going on (by Thomas I think) to do a Total Mix clone. It is
unclear which HDSP cards will be supported and which will not. Paul did get
some code from RME, so I don't think we're spec limited.
6) There does not seem to be a schedule to get any of this into CVS. I guess
it will happen when it happens.
Maybe there's more status somewhere, but I don't know it.
Cheers,
Mark
7902
days inactive
7914
days old
linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
12 comments
11 participants
participants (11)
-
Brian Redfern -
D R Holsbeck -
Dave Griffiths -
DevDSP Info -
Frank Barknecht -
Ivica Bukvic -
Jesse Chappell -
Mark Knecht -
Matthew Yee-King -
Ralf Haller -
Steve Harris