Laptop in live gigs?

[leandrusi]

Hi, talking about live sounds for gigging I hear "with a laptop you can get the best sounds ever" a LOT. Everyone advices to get a laptop and a midi controller, but noone seems to be able to answer me when I ask about specific models, brands or software (that WONT crash during the gig!)

Do you happen to actually USE a laptop or similar in live gigs? Or may be you know something about it and will like to tell me about, because I dont know a thing about this.
Im looking for a good model of a laptop thats stable and power enough to deliver nice piano sounds and not chrashing during a live situation. Leave your thoughts! THANKS !

 

[jmemcse]

The Dell Latitude is a commercial grade laptop that is affordable. Get one with at least a core i3 proccessor; core i5 or i7 is best, and at least 2GB of RAM - 4GB is way better. Make certain you get Windows 7 on it.

I'm the tech director for an organization of about 500 people, and I deploy a lot of laptops. My experience has been the Latitude series are physically more durable, and require less tech support for user problems than other brands I have used.

What I tell people that ask me for advice on a laptop purchase is "you can't go wrong with a Dell Latitude".

The Dell Inspirons are OK, but they're consumer grade - not pro grade like the Latitude. There are other commercial grade laptops available - from the HP Pro Elitebook, to the Panasonic Toughbook, however, the Latitudes have worked really well for me.

You can see my Latitude in the background of the video I attached below.

Hope this helps.

- Jim

 

[Burn4Him]

If your going to use a laptop live (and i know this will spark controversy) but go Mac! and mainstage (part of the logic suite) will work plus you can buy whatever virtual instruments afterwards.

 

[goz211]

Did just over 100 gigs on a laptop plus midi controller. Back to hardware after the second crash.

Hardware for live/gigging, software for recording.

Good companies/brands (that I've purchased from) -
Native Instruments
Sonivox
Truepianos

NI do a cut down free version of their Kore software, Sonivox and Truepianos have usable demos.

Lots of free stuff available too - ask over at KVR. Post back if it's just strings/EP/organ you are looking for - I can suggest some inexpensive options.

 

[b3maniac]

I have to agree. Don't depend on a laptop as your only source for gigging. I have an older Dell Latitude I used for VST organs, but do have a Yamaha Motif to fall back on
if the laptop ever crashes.
Don

 

[Burn4Him]

thats a great point Don! i do the same thing just in case!