Minimal laptop for live tracking

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

Yes. This is ONLY for live tracking, getting the 18 tracks from USB interface onto a disk. I don't want/need an extra monitor, keyboard, mouse, or disk space for more than a few hours of recording (a 3hr gig would yield 20GB or so). The tracks will be transferred to a more capable computer for anything further.

The second hard drive isn't for space, it's to greatly reduce the chances that some other process running in your operating system screws up your a disk write when recording. I would suspect a modern full-speed SSD may reduce this risk.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

The second hard drive isn't for space, it's to greatly reduce the chances that some other process running in your operating system screws up your a disk write when recording. I would suspect a modern full-speed SSD may reduce this risk.

Ah, good point. I am going to post this same question on the Reaper forums, where there are a lot more computer hardware geeks. I'll make sure to include that consideration.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

Thanks, I did consider it but it didn't make the cut for various reasons, including footprint.

I've looked over lots of options (thread here) and settled on the XR18 for features, quality and portability. I'm not really interested in alternatives at this point, all I want to know is what is the smallest, least expensive computer I can get to hook up and hit "Record".

No problemo!

My personal experience with using an interface and computer is that as soon as you make the commitment to doing that you end up spending a lot of time with technical issues instead of making music.

The hardware that's designed from the ground up to capture audio is better at eliminating all the fiddly bits that distract from what we really want to accomplish.