Doing Right by your Laptop Studio

One of the most fascinating developments in recent electronic music history is the blossoming of 'laptop studios'.  The introduction of high-performance CPUs, higher density hard drives, excellent displays and standardized external connections have turned a minority constituency of producers into a well-publicized bleeding edge.   A few years ago, the few of us using laptops for music production seemed like kooks - now, Moby (the flavor of this quarter) promotes laptop production as the second coming.

I remember, more than a few years ago, struggling to find a MIDI interface that would work reliably with a 386sx PC ultra-laptop.  A few years later, I was trying to get 4 tracks of audio to stay in sync on a Powerbook.  Perhaps people will just accuse me of jumping the gun on this, but I neeeeeded the power of a small studio with the size advantage of a laptop computer.

So now, all of the planets are lining up and the dream of a laptop studio is pretty much a reality.  Audio interfaces, like the Digigram VXPocket, MOTU 828 and Digidesign MBox all work exceptionally.  USB-based MIDI interfaces are now starting to hold their own, and the prevalence of Firewire is making external hard-drive connection affordable for everyone.  If you've every ached for a portable studio system, your time is NOW!

So, now that you can build a laptop studio, what should you know about working efficiently with it?  I have a few suggestions:

1. If possible, pick your software before you pick your hardware.  Hardware is transient - if you don't like what you got, you can get a different one.  However, if don' like the software, you've lost most of the time you spent on learning it (as well as the songs you created on it).
   
2. Once you pick out some software, focus on hardware by the same folks (when possible).  If you've decided on Digital Performer, carefully consider the MOTU audio and MIDI interfaces.  Same with Cubase and Logic.  This isn't a solid 'rule', but at least a strong starting point.  At the very least, focus on the MIDI interface from the software manufacturer - they often have improved timing, but only for their software packages.
   
   If you choose software without a hardware counterpart (like Max/MSP, Live, Reason and Sonar), ask people in their user's group for suggestions.  For myself, I've found the Digigram VXPocket and Midiman 2x2 devices to be excellent options for these software packages.
   
3. Be picky about your plug-ins.  Not everything is worth the effort, and too many plug-ins can just divert your attention from the process of producing music.  For example, on my Powerbook, I limit myself to Pluggo, the Waves bundle and a few Native Instruments and Steinberg VST instruments.  There are a ton of other plug-ins that I like, but I've gotten these things to work reliably, and am familiar with them - so I'm able to make a lot of music with very little hassle.
   
4. Know the copy-protection characteristics of your software, and prepare for problems.  Copy-protection is an (apparently) necessary evil for music software, but it doesn't have to monkey up any of your plans.  Some software requires occasional insertion of the original CD, while others have a computer-specific serial number.  The nastiest software requires the use of diskette keys, so you need both a diskette and a disk drive (trouble for Mac users).
   
   Whatever the case, make sure that you are covered if you are taking your laptop studio on the road.  My road-survival kit includes an Imation diskette drive, a few key diskettes, a small case containing the necessary CD-ROM's and a printed copy my serial number/registration code combos.  It seems that, whenever I forget these essentials, I suffer a registration problem.
   
5. Spend the time to tune your machine for music.  If you need help - there are a ton of resources on the net; Sound On Sound also has had a number of articles focused on tweaking your system for music.  It takes a little time, but it hugely worthwhile.
   
6. Feel free to print to disk.  An old trick from the days of hardware effects, synths and tape decks is printing to disk - getting multiple use of your machines was important when you didn't have many.
   
   Well, in 'virtual world', the limited commodity isn't effects processors or instruments - it's your CPU.  If you want to get the most out your machine - lay a good track down into audio and disable the live playback of instruments and effects.  You can normally disable the 'power' to the plug-ins, but still keep the track in case you need to change something later.
   
   I've been able to use tons of effects and instruments on laptop tracks using this technique.  The end result is 20-30 audio tracks that are cheap (CPU-wise) and generally easier to mix.
   
7. Don't fear the internal audio card.  Although the internal Mac or PC soundcards are seldom excellent, they actually will come in handy if you are doing battery-powered composing.  Almost any other host-powered audio interface will greatly reduce your battery time - a killer if you are on a plane at the time.
   
8. Get yourself an external hard drive.  I recently got a Glyph Firewire drive, and the track performance is exceptional.  The internal drives found on laptops are chosen for their low power consumption - not performance.  You will feel the bite if you start increasing your track count.
   
   At the very least, you need to get an external drive.  In most cases, it's probably worth the extra coin to get an audio-focused drive like the Glyph.
   
9. Not everything has to hit the road with you.  On my main laptop-based system, I have a second monitor, dual external hard drives, external CD-ROM burner and several audio interfaces.  When I go on the road, I generally take no more than an external drive and a single audio interface.  I can almost always wait to burn CD's until I'm home.  Additionally, the less I take, the less likely I'll lose something important (or have it stolen).
   
10. Backup your work.  I hate havin to say this, because it ought to be second-nature.  But if you aren't doing backups on your laptop system, you are a fool...

So, there's a starter set of 10 hints for successful laptop studio work.  There are probably a thousand more hints I could throw out there, but that's at least a good start.  Expect more articles about this in the future - I'm a dedicated laptop studio-head, and I love talking about it...

[ddg]
Darwin Grosse