Help Me Build The Ultimate Portable Music Studio.., ULTIMATE PORTABLE MUSIC STUDIO.. Options

[stewie7777777]

Hello...I'm a PC-recently-turned-Mac-Lover and Need some Advice...

I want to build The Ultimate Portable Studio that can also Handle playing Multiple Resource-Hogging Plug-ins (Virtual Instruments)...

So, Two Purposes for the laptop:
1) Music Production and Recording (Cubase, Pro Tools)
2) Live Performance (V-Stack)…so in essence A VST Beast!

I plan on buying:
The Akai MPC2500
M-Audio Semi-weighted 88 Keys

Can someone help me out of this overwhelming decision process with What laptop? what interfaces work best...etc...all this "wait-to-buy"..."buy-now- stuff" is crazy

Any advice is Hugely appreciated...

[bcatcho]

I'll just throw some simple advice out there: power book with multiple gigs of ram. The Akai MPC2500 is a very expensive tool and it frustrates me that they don't include a firewire connection (its USB which is not bad but a CPU hog at times). Other than that it's amazing.

Word of warning though: i'm not sure if you are used to playing real pianos or synths, but the keys of the m-audio keystation's are really cheap feeling and aren't heavy enough for my tastes. But for the money it is a great midi controler.

[stewie7777777]

Thanks for all the input...Hopefully there are others (Yes I'm talking to you =)...that would love to share their input as well...no Seriously your knowledge may seem like nothing to you but it means a whole lot to me at this point...

THE ULTIMATE PORTABLE STUDIO & VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT MACHINE =O

....Wow...is my excitement surpassing the speed of technology?...Is it possible?...anyone?...lol

[lepetitmartien]

I'd say go for the macbook (there will be other models by the end of the year) as you don't have legacy peripherals or software to run on it, it'd be a safe bet. But you'll have to wait a little for availability, including software.

Now the interface will be a problem… right now.

Now whatever the laptop: bcatcho is right… RAM! the more the merrier.

On the USB keyboard, I'd have a look at what's available, M-audio touch cheap but work usually, and now there's a load of controlers available everywhere, I don't know half of them.

On the high end, i'd look into the Korg and CMI direction… Now not everyone needs this stuff.

Now laptopists! it's your turn!