I do it for my personal projects which make money so I guess I can say that I do it and make money from it ;) go for it!
I think it's a great idea to put together a mobile crate with the compressors and mixer and preamps to input into your laptop. my only question is whether a laptop will have the power and speed to really reliably do multichannel recording. I suppose it could but you could put a full-on PC in the same rack of interface gear you'll need to do it right.
bgc

I'm not really making money with recording, but I've got a mobile rig that's earned me a little here and there. A laptop is totally up to the task. I use an RME Hammerfall DSP system, which allows you to run quite a few channels, and you can do a monitor mix for the video people on the side. In fact, I use this setup for all my work (but I'm not a professional).
j

Hello,

I use a laptop for "special services", usually I make recordings on studio, but with my laptop I can set a studio anywere, I don't make a lot of money with this device, but is another posibility for my clients.

My laptop are a Dell Inspirion 8200 1.6 MHz, 512 RAM and a 30 Gig HD for system and another HD of 40 Gig on the media bay (Sonic Foundry products can't work with a Firewire external HD in this machine, but other brands works) my track count with the small 2.5" drives are 53 tracks of 24/48 with Nuendo and 36 with Vegas 3.

I use a RME Hamerfall DSP cardbus with a Digiface and a AD/DA RME ADI8DS, and for lines and mics, I use a small 1 RU 8 ch preamp and mixer from ATI (8MX2). This setup only uses 3 RU. For monitoring I use a pair of Genelec 1030 (Genelec make a very nice bag for transport this speakers).

I have a smaller setup, using a Sound Devices USBpre 1.5, but only for two tracks (No AC).

I hope help you

Cheers

Whoa -- that's my choice of computer (great screen) -- and I am counting on firewire external hard drive and SF VV3-4 long term. What on earth is the problem???

John

Hi XGENEI,

Vegas (Or Acid) + Inspirion 8200 + Firewire HD = Don't work. Sometimes the Vegas (Acid) freezes, and show a display like "unable to mix, audio timeout", always the same, with diferent sound cards (I have the problem with RME, USBPre and internal sound card), ins't a sound card problem (I believe). The same Firewire external HD works ok in my old computer (Dual P3) (I tried three diferents Firewire HD's), the same firewire HD works ok with the Inspirion and Nuendo (+50 tracks).

My partial conclusion, SonicFoundry + Firewire HD + P4 + Laptop = No work.

Solution, additional HD on the media Bay (IDE)

Cheers

Hi edna:

Not making any loot. But I too have gone mobile (to some extent). I am using the Layla 24/96 for studio recording on a Desktop PC. However, The Layla system also
has an optional PCMCIA card module for running system and recording with a Laptop.

Layla Laptop works pretty good for me. Drivers, setup, and SF applications
run rock solid on previous recorded projects, editing, and some
multitrack pre-mixing.

For me, the big advantage to some kind of laptop setup, is it allows you to
work on stuff while in airports, on travel in your hotel room, or while the
car is being serviced, etc. (i.e. It keeps the project moving. Espcially when
family, home obligations, and every force in the universe seem determined
to stop it)!

One down side is mixing. I have to just get as close as you can using headphones
and then do low end mix tweaks back in the studio.


Laptop

ProStar P4, 2.0GHz,
512MB RAM, 40GB HDD
Internal 24/8/8 CDRW DVD

(Kind of pricey but has "everything". Except the extra $1000-1500
for the four letters " S o n y ".
(Kind of heavy also...but so am I).

there are 2 cautions though:

Most laptops have HDD speeds rated at 5400rpm. But all Audio Recording SW
recommends at least 7200rpm. So maybe a firewire based system might be best
if you plan to multi-track with the laptop. Others welcome to comment here...

Finally, I discovered that multi-track playback with lots of effects was a
problem while on battery. That's because the system down-cycles or clocks
down to conseve on battery power. I was able to change this in BIOS. So all is
well with my system.

However, I believe a similar approach is used to save on power in the Intel
"Mobile" processors). If this is the case, I believe this function would
then be something in the chipset driver and thus you may not be able to
disable it). I would be careful here and do a little more research first.


hope this helps


Rahman

I use a Toshiba PIII 1.1 laptop with an Edirol UA-700. It works extremely well. For the first year the performance sucked on the Toshiba because of a bios issue where the computer would slow down every time it heated up. Last August Toshiba released a flash bios update that totally fixed the problem and I've had great performance ever since.

Laurence Kingston

I'm making some do-re-me, but, I don't use a laptop. I use the equivalent of a DAT in the field. Way less fuss, no chance of screw-ups. I make a copy of the resultant files on my computer and manipulate them into the final product using a combination of Vegas and Wavelab. Probably could eliminate either Vegas or WL, but, habits are habits.

For mixing multiple takes, nothing (in my stable) works better than Vegas. For final tweaking, fades, etc., I've grown accustomed to WL, and so, I use it to do make the final adjustments before burning a CD. I also use WL's montage to assemble the CD, even though I know I could do the same with VV. Just personal preference, nothing more.

Both programs serve their respective purpose for me, and, I do make some $$.

Caruso

Hi Ramallo:

RE: Dell Inspiron + Firewire + Vegas = Don't work

Rahman & Laurance address a very common issue. Timing problems in audio will freeze a program that is running real-time (like with DX). And it seems to be the most likely cause. Have you tweaked your bios and Windows settings to eliminate power-saving?

This could also be specifically a firewire chipset issue (or improbably a zapped component or something). Question is if this is a problem common to the model 8200 (therefore a non-compatible chipset), or not. If shutting off the power saving doesn't fix it, it would be interesting to shut off the firewire interface and run a cardbus adapter to see if that eliminates the problem.

The irresistable advantage of the 8200 is the 400:1 contrast UXGA screen. This quality isn't available in any other laptop AFAIK. Most laptops are at 150:1 and the image looks washed out. Also A/V ghosting tends to be a problem. Therefore I'd be interested in any other comments concerning the 8200 or other laptops with a high-contrast screen.

John

Hello,

I don't tweak the bios (Factory settings), but I go to see if the parameters are correct.

The firewire chip are Oxford 811, I tried two diferent HD's with the same chipset, Lacie and "No brand", the two with a 7200 HD, I tried with a Cardbus Pyro Firewire, with the same results, the Dell chipset are Texas instruments. Another thing are: the Nuendo works well in real time, with the same computer and HD

I have the AVS UXGA and is great, 170º of view angle (Like CRT), uniform bright, superb colors (I don't sen before any TFT like this), and enougth contrast for work well at dayligth, but 1600 x 1200 (To small for a 15).

Cheers

Hi Ramallo,

You'd be a better advertisement than "Dude -- you're getting a Dell!"

I had some experience with an incompatible setting (24 bit recording using an audigy) in VV3 causing a mysterious freezing. Your problem is limited in VV3 to using a firewire drive versus a media bay (IDE) second drive. And Nuendo works with the same Firewire setup while VV3 freezes. That's a pretty narrow set of parameters for an error -- so it may be that VV3 is simply not tolerant of some faults that Nuendo automatically works around (or that you might get a glitch in your recording over instead.) Therefore I still think you need to at least test with those power-saving features OFF rather than make sure they are the default settings. Have you read the article on tuning XP for recording? That is at least 90% comprehensive.

Very yours,
John