Just curious what you guys are doing if you're mixing with headphones on a laptop. Are you using an external soundcard, or do you just use the onboard audio?

I'm doing a lot more production work on my MBA lately, but I like to keep a very minimal setup - lappy, headphones, and a tiny keyboard controller. I've been contemplating a small USB interface (e.g., Apogee One or Focusrite Forte), but I'm not recording audio (i.e., no audio inputs needed) and I haven't really had any problems with my onboard card's performance, so not sure it's worth the money/hassle. Also, it would take up one of my two precious USB ports, and I'd either need to power it or use bus power, which would drain my battery faster. What do you guys think? Any experience with those interfaces?

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Yeah, Mike is using external soundcard on his laptop and I would recommend that also!

Darek

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headphone out is totally fine imo for like 90% of the process, except for the occasional interference which is slightly annoying (2010 mbp but also happened on the macmini i bought from the same year) Pretty much the only way I mix now except with the laptop keyboard. Logic's capslocks keyboard has awful timing issues, sorta sucks but im obsessed with the idea of the totally portable studio rig

Onboard never been a problem. Clean mixdowns always.

Thanks for the input, guys.

quote:

Originally posted by TranceLover007 Yeah, Mike is using external soundcard on his laptop and I would recommend that also! Darek

Which one is he using, Darek? Is he using it to connect his monitors, or just with headphones?

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I'd always go for external, especially if you're using a macbook or macbook pro. Mine's audio out isn't that great, it's loud, but not very clean.

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That's also why I am happy with my 4 year old mbp, it still has an express card 34 port. I had a good experience with the echo indigo although it's not the best soundcard I'm sure. Cables are important too, mini-jacks must be good quality

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quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik Thanks for the input, guys. Which one is he using, Darek? Is he using it to connect his monitors, or just with headphones?

Hi is using Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 for his headphones and also help him take some load off his processor.

Cheers Dave.

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I like the idea of the new Apogee One - it's compact, cheaper, has a built-in mic, and would work with my iPad. OTOH, I would prefer something that would also work my PC laptop (just in case) and I'm not sure how much I'd use the One's mic or use it with my iPad anyway.

For you guys who are using an external card, are any of you using it with USB power and, if so, how much does it decrease battery life? That's a big concern to me (much more so than noise/sound quality from the internal card) because I use my laptop mostly for scratch tracks (not final mixes) and I'm usually running it off battery power.

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quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik I like the idea of the new Apogee One - it's compact, cheaper, has a built-in mic, and would work with my iPad. OTOH, I would prefer something that would also work my PC laptop (just in case) and I'm not sure how much I'd use the One's mic or use it with my iPad anyway. For you guys who are using an external card, are any of you using it with USB power and, if so, how much does it decrease battery life? That's a big concern to me (much more so than noise/sound quality from the internal card) because I use my laptop mostly for scratch tracks (not final mixes) and I'm usually running it off battery power.

This all deeply depends on a lot of different factors like your laptop settings, your battery power (Amp), your active programs usage (how many and what kind of programs you are using) a specially that ones which will required massive graphic support - but yes USB power soundcard will draw some juice of your laptop.

Cheers

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Last edited by TranceLover007 on May-23-2013 at 20:11

I'd go with the Apogee One and make the decision not to use the PC laptop.

Unless you already know it'll work fairly well with audio, it probably won't. Most of them don't.

The other consideration is that if you're using headphones and mixing on the MBA, it's unlikely you're going to be going for the final mixdown, so why not just use the onboard sound with core audio, it's probably up to the job of a basic mix.

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quote:

Originally posted by tehlord The other consideration is that if you're using headphones and mixing on the MBA, it's unlikely you're going to be going for the final mixdown, so why not just use the onboard sound with core audio, it's probably up to the job of a basic mix.

That's what I've been doing and haven't had any problems with it, so I'm leaning toward just keeping it that way. I haven't run into a situation (yet) where I've had a need to reduce my CPU load, aside from maybe bouncing a CPU hog like Diva to audio on occasion. I guess I'm not convinced that an external card is worth the $$$, reduced battery life, more cumbersome setup, occupying a USB port, etc., at least not for my situation.

I don't use my PC laptop much for production anyway. I've got it loaded up with PT and Sonar, but it's a 17-in beast, not exactly the portable/minimal studio that the MBA is.

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