PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Microsoft Surface

Anybody have one of these? I'd love to hear a review from a street level user rather than a test bench jockey. Those guys tend to get mired down in 6 decimal place benchmark numbers that don't really apply to real world usage. I want to hear about screen readability, keyboard tactility, how much clack it has, reliable network cards... not that the Intel runs .000342 faster than the AMD Ryzen.

Eddie

I do indeed have a Surface Pro 7 and I do use it for music. Mine is an i5 and has plenty of punch for VSTi's which I play live.

The screen has a resolution of 2736 x 1824 which is too small to read (for us older generation).This is easily fixed by scaling up to 150% which is close enough to 1920 x 1080 (give or take a few pixels).

The keyboard is fine for typing on. It is similar to most laptop keyboards these days in that it has the chicklet type keyboard. It give enough tactile feedback to know when keys are pressed. it is simple enough to use the surface with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse as I do as the keyboard in the cover can be removed.

Networking is fine with its inbuilt wireless. I do tend to use it with a USB3 dongle which has an ethernet type plug on it.

I think knowing what I do now, I may have gone for a larger storage option if I bought again. Mine has 128Gb which is fine and I can have most of my software installed on it. It has an SD card slot that I have populated with a 256Gb card and this means that I can install some software on that if need be. As SD cards get bigger (and prices more reasonable) I may increase the size of this card.

It has 8Gb of memory installed which is fine for most programs. This and the storage are not upgradable.

I run Cubase 12 with no problems. I have just acquired Steinberg VST Live which is great for playing live without other musicians and the Surface handles it well with backing tracks and live VSTi instruments and live input such as microphones plugged into my external sound interface. Band In A Box is no problem either as I run it on the external drive. I tend to use BIAB to generate tracks which I then play in VST Live.

If there is anything more specific you would like to know - just shout.


Kevin

Eddie.

just some 'non nerdy' suggestions. SO please dont jump all over me..lol.
as follows....
1..
given your needs eg keyboard etc etc, i dont think you can beat visiting some computer stores and see if you like the keyboards etc.
2..
the problem buying new computers is adware/bloatware.that drive people crazy. ive had friends buying new have this problem often.
lots of info on the net eg…

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-rid-a-new-pc-of-crapware

the other aspect is that normal retail new pc's are not optimised for music production.
just a couple of reasons i love refurbished off lease pc's.
all the junk has been removed. there are many other reasons also.

(note compared to new ive never ever had even the tiniest prob with a refurb. no windows probs nothing/zilch/nada. also note one of microsofts own employees pete brown with a big recording rig…if you read his blog has interesting comments re laptops viz desktops.
link below. )

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/windows-music-dev/author/petebrown/

3..
if you dont mind spending big buks over 1k then i would suggest you look closely at custom builders of laptops and desktops for recording studios that are optimised for music production.
(See gearspace.com for references etc etc )


with that i wish you the best. and i kept it non nerdy lol.

om out.

I have a Micro Center near me and I think I may run up there tomorrow and see what they look like in person. Given that this would be computer #7 it is not a particularly high priority, though I have said that before about other things and they seem to follow me home anyway. As far as money, meh. I put it on a credit card, then transfer that balance to a different credit card that has a 0% interest for 12 months balance transfer offer, so I pay 2% of the total once rather than xx% until it's paid off. Something that may approach $2000 would probably take me 6 months to pay off (and not stress out other cards that are my daily driver cards used for things like food and gas), so I would essentially be getting it for 0% interest. A $2000 purchase would cost me $40 to transfer the balance, WAY better than paying interest.

What makes this unique is that it's not like instruments. I can sell a guitar or keyboard for close to what I paid for it. Trying to move an out of date laptop would bring me a ridiculously low return. If I got a Surface it would replace a Dell that I would wipe clean and donate to a shelter for either veterans in need or abused women who escaped their situation. Fortunately I am rather adept at all of the techie stuff (My house. Oh, you should see my house. I use 32 IPs here.) and can handle that recycling myself. The Dell I am losing is an old i3 that does nothing more than run security camera software so I can watch some cams on an old 26" monitor.

So, we'll look at a Surface really soon.

Eddie.

that's a nice pic of your rig.

re budget // 'meh'

then i would definitely look at a company that specialises in turnkey music production pc's at that spend level….
on gearspace ive read soo many threads from studio owners very happy with this option. in fact ive seen comments like ' its boring.. this pc just keeps on going year in/out, on recording sessions'.

before making a decision i would give thought to this option. or start a thread on gearspace like 'what custom builder of music production laptops do you like' and get references.
the beauty of this approach is they install everything including music software and interface etc etc if the user wishes, and all you do is just press the power button and away you go into song production land.


yes this option is more expensive
but ive seen posts on gearspace about the years of service this option has given to a studio..
if you want a list of a few companies in building studio pc's..just go on gearspace. heres two of many vendors…

https://www.adkproaudio.com/

and another..of many.

https://pcaudiolabs.com/rok-box-daw-pro-audio-computers/


(in case your wondering i have nothing to do with any company at all. )

(i guess another option is apple. but i guess you dont wish to go this route.
for the first time i'm very very excited about what apple is doing cos of their new M series processors. )

happiness.

om

ps heres a laugh for you. one frustrated pc user / friend of mine….. i suggested he pay a few hundred buks for a 'refurb beast' …a desktop tho'.
he phones me next day lol…yelling 'blinkin heck' 'best pc ive ever had' he was yelling n' screaming how happy he was. made my day/week. lol.

One of the things I didn't mention earlier is that the Surface Pro is not a heavy tablet and as such can sit on a keyboard music stand without straining it. If you have pdf lyric sheets then this is a good solution for viewing them.

As I said I control my whole performance from this one computer which sits on my keyboard stand.


Kevin

The big boss figured IT was going mobile, so our department was an early adopter some years ago.

There was a heat problem with them, and over time the screens buckled on many of the machines - mine included.

I didn't like the small screen, the flat keys or the touchscreen.

So I locked it in my cabinet and connected a full size monitor, keyboard and mouse to it.

I'm sure the hardware defects have been resolved by now, and it seemed like an adequate machine for the tasks. It just wasn't a good fit for me.

This wouldn't be a music making computer. Just a nice new toy to maybe lay in bed and browse on as I watch TV. I truly have so many excesses and repetitions that I don't know why I am even thinking about this. I have all these toys I don't need and I rarely use most of them. I think it's because I lived so poor for so long that now I can afford toys so I buy them. My living room TV almost never gets powered on anymore since 2019 when out of boredom while laying in bed after knee replacement, with a laptop and a credit card (bad combination) I decided that $268 was a great deal on a 50" Android 4k flat panel, so I bought one to replace the 32" that was in there. That 32" became my studio monitor. The old studio monitor came down here and is now that monitor I watch the security cams on. That 32" is not the TV in the spare room I made up there and the studio PC has a new HP 27" monitor on it.

And it gets worse. I keep adding, changing, tweaking... I have a computer connected to the bedroom TV with movies and concerts and such. For internet usage, wireless worked just fine, but no no no. I had to have it on the 1gb ethernet network so I needed a switch. I also have the TV and the Roku plugged into that same switch. That cable runs under the floor and into my router. This bench has 4 computers and a printer, all plugged into another switch that again runs under the floor and into my router. My outside cameras performed like pigs on wifi so I bought an 8 port switch for the garage and a 100 ft CAT6 cable that I ran into the house and again to the router. It's a mess, and probably 75% unnecessary. But like most nerds...

Because I can.

I have given away a half dozen lesser quality tablets and digital cameras to people with small grandkids who otherwise would have no tablet or camera at all, taken in sick PCs and repaired them for donation, often adding RAM and video cards. Once again...

Because I can.

I think donating things is how I justify it in mind. If I buy a Surface that will turn into a laptop I can donate to the Veterans temporary housing facility out in Kent when I replace the 5 year old Dell i3. Shelters of any kind always need computers so people can job hunt and such.

It's truly a sickness. When I think of how much money I have wasted.. LOL!!!

GAS isn't just for guitars.

AMEN brutha!!!

Always looking for the latest, greatest, mo' bigga, mo' betta...

A Surface is a nice toy.
I recently got an HP Envy but would trade it in a heartbeat for a Surface.

We had programmers running those many years ago, running Visual Studio and SQL server locally (which is a task on any system) .. and they were still using them for many other things at home like streaming etc. Seem to be nice workhorses to me. Especially the portability aspect.
You can take it over here to this room, hook it up to a couple monitors and a mouse and away you go.

/I still prefer mouse over any touch pad I've used, but that's probably just me being old.
//I still am not used to the touch screen aspect of the Envy or other stuff I have here.

If you are thinking of a Surface, I wouldn't talk you out of it. My experience with them (and from others that use them) has been positive.
How's that for not scientific??

I've got a Surface Pro. I purchased the add-on keyboard and prefer a mouse over the touch-pad, just like rharv.
It really is a nice unit, but you need to adjust your driving style.

Just buy it Eddie and enjoy it, earlier in the year I wanted a Quest 2 VR headset, despite the research that a new one was coming out next year and I should wait, I thought to myself, God knows where anyone will be next year.

So I just bought it and don't regret it, using it every day, the sweetner is as well that I got it before it increased £100 in price.

Just buy that Surface and enjoy it!

Decided to hold off on this until I get a few other things paid off. Maybe there will be a sale around Christmas and Santa can buy it for me.

Hey Eddie, there's a nice classic DX-9 waiting for you in Illinois..... hehe

Soon, now that gas doesn't require a 2nd mortgage!

I have been researching more about these and despite almost every photo showing that little magnetic keyboard that is an extra 200 bucks. We'll be sticking with my Dell 2 in 1 for a while.