Looking for a laptop

Question

I am looking for a laptop which I can use in the studio or at my parent's holiday house. At the moment, I have to use 2 computers, a Power Mac G5 1.6 GHZ system for audio and MIDI sequencing, etc. and a PC for adding lyrics to melody lines in Sonar for backing tracks which I program for a local midifile company. I switch between the two with a KVM switch.
I have been quite interested in the new Intel laptops. Are they a lot quicker than my G5 for doing what I want to do? Could I sell my current G5 1.6 GHZ and get a laptop? Will my Emagic MT4 interface work on both OSX and Windows?
I have an internal drive on my G5 for audio purposes. Could I take that out and put that into an e-SATA enclosure and use an e-SATA Express card on my laptop so that I can use a much faster internal drive than a Firewire?
Last question. (Sorry for this long post) Is there a carrying bag that I can use to carry a laptop, my Mobile I/O soundcard, hard drives and extra accessories, etc so that I can easily set up and disconnect with minimum fuss?

Answer 1

hi,
any of the current intel mac laptops will completely toast your G5 1.6. they are all great machines for logic. as a rough guide, a core 2 duo 2.33 MBP can run at least the same number, if not slightly more plug ins than a dual processor or dual core G5 of the same clock speed. my C2D 2.33 MBP is clearly faster than my dual 2.0 Ghz G5.
I personally went for a MBP 17" because I wanted the biggest display size I could get without having to depend on an additional monitor to feel comfortable working with logic. I have not regretted that decision at all.
as for your drive going into an e-sata box.. I can't really say, although I don't see why it wouldn't be possible. still, unless you have very heavy track count requirements, FW would be more than adequate and a little less fuss. but, another advantage to going the e-sata route is that you totally leave your FW bandwidth free, so you won't be running into trouble if you have a FW audio interface that needs lots of bandwidth for lots of channels. or, if you wanted to use something like a liquid mix. btw, don't forget that these days, you'll actually get pretty extraordinary performance from the internal laptop drive (at least compared to the old days when it was not even an option), but this is still not the most recommended way to work.
as far as a carrying solution goes.. well, oddly enough I've been looking into the very same thing myself. I found a company called gigskinz that make bags for all sorts of musical instruments, small portable producer setups, DJs and the like. there are ones that have a laptop sleeve, extra storage for mics and other assorted gear. actually, the one that I saw that looked most usable for me on their site was a DJ/producer bag. it has the laptop sleeve, and then larger compartments for records and CDs, but I would use them for other gear. it is also fitted with wheels and a long handle so you can carry it like luggage if it gets too heavy. they all have padding and fluffy stuff inside to keep things from scratching. it looks pretty good. the thing is, I just happen to be in australia myself also (for family reasons) and I couldn't find a distributor for gigskinz in australia. I emailed them and got no response at all.. my cousin in LA is going to go check them out for me, but I may well pick one up next time I'm in LA or when I'm back in paris as I'm a little worried about getting the wrong thing if I don't see it first.
but hey, if you do some research yourself, I'd love to hear of any other options you come up with. FYI, I'd need to carry a MBP 17", a rode NTK mic and powersupply, a mindprint trio interface, a couple of lacie FW drives (including the double size 500GB one), and then a wireless keyboard mouse and other various little things, plus cables of course.
actually it might be a good idea to start a thread on this.. there have to be some users out there that have found the killer solution for transporting a portable logic rig.