Making music with a netbook?

those intel atom CPUs are low power. they are slow.

any older desktop that costs the same will be better.

you can get a dual processor (not dual core, but two seperate cpus) pentium 4, with 2 to 4 gigs of ram for like 300 now... you gotta look around.

you run xp64 on that thing, or vista 64, and fl 9.. you are set. I would not suggest blowing 300 on a netbook that is designed for youtube and emailing.. online poker and small stuff like that unless the portability is an absolute must.


though some stripped down linux build may be a thing to look into, though I doubt the support for netbooks is that likely... it will be hard getting some of that integrated stuff to work maybe.

mr_debauch wrote:those intel atom CPUs are low power. they are slow.

any older desktop that costs the same will be better.

you can get a dual processor (not dual core, but two seperate cpus) pentium 4, with 2 to 4 gigs of ram for like 300 now... you gotta look around.

you run xp64 on that thing, or vista 64, and fl 9.. you are set. I would not suggest blowing 300 on a netbook that is designed for youtube and emailing.. online poker and small stuff like that unless the portability is an absolute must.


though some stripped down linux build may be a thing to look into, though I doubt the support for netbooks is that likely... it will be hard getting some of that integrated stuff to work maybe.

I wanted it more for a portable solution. I was thinking of getting it just to loop up stuff in FL Studio. I make sampled based productions so no synths or plugins etc...

I dont see it happening, however... maybe running little to no effects and nothing with higher then 16bit wav (ie: no kontakt and battery) ... maybe you could pull it off. test it out at best buy. put the install file on a key drive and some samples... and install it on a display unit at best buy.

mr_debauch wrote:though some stripped down linux build may be a thing to look into, though I doubt the support for netbooks is that likely... it will be hard getting some of that integrated stuff to work maybe.

plenty of netbooks work fine with linux, I run fedora on my eee pc

I'd never use it for music though - the CPU is far too weak, and you can't expand the RAM beyond 1GB

like gaming, pro-audio is one of the few reasons you need a good computer - netbooks are made for the vast majority of people who don't need anything more than email and a web browser. I think trying to run a daw on one is a bad idea

Pastor-of-Muppets wrote:

mr_debauch wrote:though some stripped down linux build may be a thing to look into, though I doubt the support for netbooks is that likely... it will be hard getting some of that integrated stuff to work maybe.

plenty of netbooks work fine with linux, I run fedora on my eee pc

I'd never use it for music though - the CPU is far too weak, and you can't expand the RAM beyond 1GB

like gaming, pro-audio is one of the few reasons you need a good computer - netbooks are made for the vast majority of people who don't need anything more than email and a web browser. I think trying to run a daw on one is a bad idea

I am going to have to agree. you know what gets me though, remember 10 years ago when we had that boom 1.8 athalon, with 512ram ?? we were able to run music gear great back on those.... now that aint shit and you cant even do basic stuff with those specs hahaaha.. well you know what I mean.


as for fedora, were you able to find working wireless drivers and all that stuff? the transport buttons are easy to set up, but what I meant was for some features it may be hard to find the drivers. I suggest taking a look at some of the linux forums to see if anyone made drivers for the machine you want to set up... (ie: netbooks, laptops, stuff filled with integrated proprietary hardware)

Anyone try out ubuntu studio (maverick 10.10 is out) ??

mr_debauch wrote:I am going to have to agree. you know what gets me though, remember 10 years ago when we had that boom 1.8 athalon, with 512ram ?? we were able to run music gear great back on those.... now that aint shit and you cant even do basic stuff with those specs hahaaha.. well you know what I mean.

yeah, that's just the annoying thing about all operatings systems - they expand to use up all the resources they can!

I have a quadcore desktop at home and it runs like a dog because of a dozen browser windows with goddamn FLASH adverts everywhere. how can frikkin flash use so much processor time?! that really boils my piss!

mr_debauch wrote:as for fedora, were you able to find working wireless drivers and all that stuff? the transport buttons are easy to set up, but what I meant was for some features it may be hard to find the drivers. I suggest taking a look at some of the linux forums to see if anyone made drivers for the machine you want to set up... (ie: netbooks, laptops, stuff filled with integrated proprietary hardware)

I have the very first model of eeepc netbook, so it's been around ages, long enough for the drivers to be in all the distros, and the wireless works fine in fedora

in general I'd agree though, it's definitely worth checking what's supported by the OS you want to run.

Cant go the linux route, I wouldnt know where to begin. I didnt think FL Studio 8 was the power hungry. I dont plan on using anything but stock plugins and Fl slicer and stuff. I think that the limitations might make me a beast I dont think the netbook can be as limited as an MPC 60/ S950 .

jjbing3 wrote:Cant go the linux route, I wouldnt know where to begin. I didnt think FL Studio 8 was the power hungry. I dont plan on using anything but stock plugins and Fl slicer and stuff. I think that the limitations might make me a beast I dont think the netbook can be as limited as an MPC 60/ S950 .

well true, I am thinking maybe if you had a stripped down OS with all resource going to fl studio... you should be good.

let me put it to you like this. back on fl6 my average project would take up around 75,000k which is shit all... now my projects on fl 9 often take up 800,000+ k ... there is just more running in programs these days.

and I totally agree about flash. EVERYTHING these days uses flash. why? I have no idea. It certainly is not faster then the alternatives..

All depends on the specs!

Bottom line is the answer is NO!!! but to each his own

i guess i would say "netbook....maybe, but decked out 13 inch, yes"

point is, you can get some really powerful 13" laptops that can get the job done and are just as powerful as normal systems. so if size is the issue, then yes, you can get a small ass laptop to produce. however, its gonna cost you.

now if you are looking for small, cheap, and powerful...then id say maybe.

personally.........this area is where i think akai could kill the competition. imagine if they built one of thier controlers to flawlessly work with an akai software designed to run on a netbook, taking into consideration netbook size, workflow, power etc. and replicate the standard mpc features, but on the netbook. maybe the controller would be a bit more advanced with soundcard built in....essentially replacing the processing on the mpc with a netbook. i think it could be a winner. you could even have the netbook dock into the controller.

the goal would have to be to recreate the mpc workflow and simplicity, but open up the doors to incorporate it with host software. not unlike maschine, but instead of copying maschine, go the akai route and make it super mpc simple. know what i mean?

I think the answer's already in this thread but nobody's really pointed to it - you can as long as you limit your program choices.

As several have mentioned people were making music on computers just fine in the early 2000s and even the 90s.. get an XP netbook, tweak the OS and run software from circa 2002 and you should be ok. I got the Compaq $150 black friday special from Best Buy and have been running apps such as Photoshop 7 and VideoSpirit (video editing) with no problems, and I haven't even upgraded the ram yet (1gb currently, 2gb limit). I've produced complete HD videos for Youtube (720x404) including graphics and music with no issues, using nothing but the stock netbook.

Contemporary software offers some nice upgrades but also a lot of bloat; most of what's really necessary was already achieved years ago, but they have to push the new releases to stay in business so they pile on more crap every year to get those sales.

studiorecordingtools wrote:...you can as long as you limit your program choices.

Welcome to the forums, studiorecordingtools. You might want to run that sig by Tutor though. I'm pretty sure he has a no compete rule when it comes to the game of selling sounds.

Anyways, I have an EEE PC 1000h with 2 gigs of ram. It runs Soundforge 9 very well. I tested Reaper and it started falling apart after 4 tracks during playback with no plug ins. However, Audacity played back about 5 or 6 tracks (no plug ins) with no problem. I didn't bother trying to record with it.
Like with any computer, you can tweak the settings to help with performance, but don't expect too much of a boost with the netbooks. Programs like dpclat and rattv3 (google them) will help identify and isolate some problems.
My 2 cents: If you want a mobile music production platform, save up for a Mac Book Pro or a high end PC laptop. There's also the MPC 500 and the SP 303/404 if you want to go the hardware route. Any of these choices would be money better spent for mobile music production, in my opinion of course.

Ocular wrote:

studiorecordingtools wrote:...you can as long as you limit your program choices.

Welcome to the forums, studiorecordingtools. You might want to run that sig by Tutor though. I'm pretty sure he has a no compete rule when it comes to the game of selling sounds.

Anyways, I have an EEE PC 1000h with 2 gigs of ram. It runs Soundforge 9 very well. I tested Reaper and it started falling apart after 4 tracks during playback with no plug ins. However, Audacity played back about 5 or 6 tracks (no plug ins) with no problem. I didn't bother trying to record with it.
Like with any computer, you can tweak the settings to help with performance, but don't expect too much of a boost with the netbooks. Programs like dpclat and rattv3 (google them) will help identify and isolate some problems.
My 2 cents: If you want a mobile music production platform, save up for a Mac Book Pro or a high end PC laptop. There's also the MPC 500 and the SP 303/404 if you want to go the hardware route. Any of these choices would be money better spent for mobile music production, in my opinion of course.

I thought about getting the SP303 or 404 but that means learning a new tool which is time consuming. The high powered laptop is money consuming and just a tad too big to pack in my backpack and go with for comfort. The mpc 500 sounds like a good option but its still a bit pricey and at least with the netbook you can do other stuff with it and make music, so I dont know.

asus ul-20a. dope, tiny tiny little laptop that's got 1 foot in netbook's door. powerful, completely capable of running intelligently programmed, lightweight programs like Reason or Reaper + vstis.

http://www.amazon.com/UL20A-A1-Light-12 ... B002PAQXAE

prices have risen from october, when i got mine, from 520 to w/e it is now.