More laptop buying questions - processor and hard drive

Ozpeter's success with the nx8220 contributed to my decision to buy a 2Gig version. Follow this link through laptops, HP Compaq to product ID 119127, then click on the 'i' icon.

http://cworld.com.au/

Aussie dollars of course. The extra (free) 512MB RAM and carry case could be as much as 56 days away!

After making a few of the usual performance changes, I've just finished a 95 minute recording on 16 tracks, 44100, 24 bit, using Tracktion, with the Mackie Onyx 1620 (firewire) and an external hard disc (USB 2).

The lack of any reasonable level indicators in Tracktion is made up for by the quite reasonable level indicators on each of the Mackie channels. By soloing a Mackie channel, the main level indicators can be used for setting up, providing even better resolution.

I then transferred the external drive to my main desktop and played the files in AA1.5. The recording hadn't missed a beat.

Playback in Tracktion on the laptop was choppy for the first few seconds with files of this size. It was OK though with reduced track count.

it (Tracktion) seems very prone to stopping recording, eg if I simply click on a track.

Yes, I find the same - it seemed to stop recording for a number of unexpected reasons, and if there are some playback problems as well (but their cause isn't established yet), Tracktion might have to go. But I haven't yet ruled out operator error!

Cool!  Best add-on has been a logitech wireless  mouse with a little stubby usb receiver, which when plugged into the mouse base turns it off.  Having no mouse wire is handy when the table top is festooned with cables already!

How come it's so hard to find a good laptop alarm system for theft deterrent (I mean readily available in the shops)?  I've seen one on the net which fits into the card slot - neat idea - and another which is light sensitive and goes underneath, but they don't seem to be as widely distributed as such a desirable article should be.

[BTW Alan, there's a puzzled Onyx owner asking questions over on the Adobe forum if you happen to be passing....  ]

Last night I tried a 90 min, 16 track, 24 bit recording with AA1.5. This went very smoothly, felt much more stable than Tracktion (but I'm more familiar with AA) and although I've only played back parts of this recording, what I've heard is problem free.

BUT...

Each of the 16 tracks took about 4 min to save at the end. While 16 tracks/90 min is an extreme case, this rules out AA for recording live gigs. You can't even start saving and leave it for an hour - you are prompted for a file name for every file.

Another difference is that Tracktion saves as 24 bit, AA saves as 32 bit. Now, at this point 32 bit offers no advantage over 24 bit, but AA's files are 33% bigger than Tracktion's. This could be significant in this situation, although you only have yourself to blame if your external drive has insufficient space!

There's a couple of workarounds possible - simply shutting the lid of the laptop and saving back at base - and/or doing the trick of recording briefly, saving that, over-recording the real thing, then later I believe it avoids having to confirm save of each file.

Having said all that, I'm still sticking with Cubase SX2 for the location recording, then switching to Audition for post production.

Re metering in Tracktion or other vst host s/w - see http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1918.html for PPM vst, recently released.