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I am about to purchase a copy of BIAB and a laptop for someone who has some health issues, I won't say further here, except he lives on the breadline. I have managed to get £600 UK (todays rates 973 dollars US).
It's not enough for the best package.
Do people have any recommendations for laptop/ which BIAB package?
I can't go second hand as receipts are required. This guy plays piano. He has a decent keyboard and I can probably give a USB sound card if the sound is not up to scratch. He is not on the internet at home, but we have access elsewhere for him.
Mac? anyone?
Win 11 64, Asus Rog Strix z390 mobo, 64 gig RAM, 8700k
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Zero,
900.00 plus bucks should be well enough to do a decent laptop and BIAB package. Just make sure you get the most RAM and largest harddrive you can for your bucks. I am thinking I paid around 450.00 (US) for the Lenovo I am currently using.
Later,
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469 dollars for the ultra pak
Mega pack does not seem to have the real tracks which are key to a good package.
what about processor i3, i5? are there any others?
Is 4 gig enough for a laptop - 64 bit?
thanks Danny for the input. I was thinking of a Lenovo anyone care to suggest a model?
No to netbooks I presume?
this guy is currently on a 486 running win 95
Last edited by ZeroZero; 10/02/13 02:31 PM.
Win 11 64, Asus Rog Strix z390 mobo, 64 gig RAM, 8700k
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Acer Laptop as second PC has worked fine for me. Only used PowerTracks on it tho. I've had one for about 4 years and works fine.... Prices are also right... Decent quality reasonable specs. http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng....l4=&veh=semFor ideas.
Last edited by seeker; 10/02/13 03:09 PM.
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i3 or i5 can run BB just fine.
So can any of the AMD offerings that have two or more cores to them, quadcore being likely the one to look at, and that can be an additional savings in purchase price so I'd likely look at AMD powered laptops as well for the purpose.
But the bottom line would be dictated by the best deal I could find at the time and in the location, either way.
I'd also stick with the wellknown brands that have track record.
If there are any with Win7 on them, there should be even more savings to be had and Win7 is now mature anyway, I wouldn't hesitate.
There are also refurbs and offlease bargains to be found, again, a good deal can be had that way as well.
--Mac
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Like Seeker, I've had good success with Acer laptops in the last few years. I've also seen many other brands do just as well.
I've bought three Acers in the last five years or so and they are all still going strong.
The oldest one still runs BiaB/RB just fine and all of them were about $459.
It's a dual core AMD (2.3 gHz) with 4 Gig RAM and 350 gig HD.
If it was me at this budget I'd look for an AMD processor dual core above 2 GHz speed (minimum), 4 Gig RAM (minimum), Win7, decent HD size, and then after purchase I'd clean it up.
To clean it up - take it home and spend an hour removing all the stuff you don't need that comes pre-installed.
Ditch the antivirus free 6 month trial (it ends up needing replacing anyway).
Ditch the 'toolbars' that waste resources
Ditch the Free Anything that you truly do not need.
Set it up/clean it up right after purchase and most current machines will work fine.
That's my experience anyway.
Make your sound your own!
.. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
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There's a neat and good working program out there for free that can streamline the process of "cleaning it up" that rharv refers to.
It is called, "Decrapifier".
Any good web search engine should be able to bring up the Decrapifier home download page.
This thing can remove all the manufacturer-installed bloatwares, ads, etc. in one mouse click.
That junk ties up CPU cycles when we are trying to use BiaB or other music creation/music practicing softwares.
Another thing I would do as a matter of routine for this fellow would be to remove any and all Antivirus that comes already installed on the new laptop, as these are not only typically bloatware, they also are typically "trial versions" that will stop working in a short time and then demand that the new owner spend money to upgrade to a registered version. These would be McAffee, Norton or the likes.
After thorough removal via Add/Remove programs in Control Panel, reboot, then head to one of the fine Antivirus program sites that offer free antivirus protection for home users, download and install that for the guy instead. AVAST! is one good one that I use for this. There are others. All he'll have to do after that is renew the free subscription once per year when the program prompts, and it is easy to do, just click on the prompt to renew. No $$$ needed. And Avast is very lean and mean compared to the commercial bloatwares, which often can cause problems when streaming music anyway.
--Mac
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thanks for all the replies. Yes I will get rid of the bloat. Virus wise, not much of an issue really, I don't anticipate him affording the internet. It's really strictly for BIAB and word.
Its really about the best laptop deal.
Mac: I will take a look at those processors. Yes win 7 if poss, I have win 8 and have gone back to win 7 myself.
So BIAB RT's run fine on 4 gig on a 64 bit win system, this is what I read into these posts.
Win 11 64, Asus Rog Strix z390 mobo, 64 gig RAM, 8700k
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You mentioned Word. Word is part of Office and that costs around $300. Office Lite or whatever it is is one of those free trial things on a new PC but then it expires and they want you to buy Office.
I use OpenOffice.org it's free and seems to handle most MS Office programs including Word. Toobars and menus are not identical but close enough, I managed to figure it out and I'm certainly not an expert with Office.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Any decent laptop should run BB & RB just fine.
I have an old Dell running Vista with 2 gigs of memory and a duo core processor and it only takes a few seconds longer to load a project or render the tracks than my new i5 Intel DAW.... aside from that, it works fine. The factory sound card does a good job and a nice set of headphones completes the package.
My headphones are a $30 set of Yamaha something or other cheap cans. I also use $15 ear buds. Sounds much better than the lappy speakers.
Spend the money needed to get as far up the PG music food chain as you can afford to go.
If money is really tight, check out the pawn shops in your local area. I watch the TV "reality" pawn shop shows and they rarely pay more than $50 for a used laptop that is in good working condition. So I think, you could probably get a nice used lappy for under $200 ready to roll.
Yeah, definitely take the time to go through any laptop and remove the unneeded software and bloatware. Remove the subscription AV stuff and get something free. I use Microsoft Security Essentials on ALL my computers and I have never had a single problem with viruses or malware.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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User Video: Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box®
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