HI,

So I decided to stick with this Toshiba M305D-S4830 for my budget recording rig to go with my 16 channel Mackie 1640 and use the firewire setup to record band gigs of around 8-12 channels at any one time. Hopefully it's not going to be a mistake to jump into the realm of Vista 64 bit, I plan on using Cubase but am not tied down by it (if anyone has a better idea I'm all ears).

After driving myself up a wall, my wife said I should write to this forum.

Looking at either buying a laptop that I can use for mobile onsight recording, as well as use as a sampler live: either this dell http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8989008&type=product&id=1218006772494

I recently got a laptop, and was horrified when I tried recording for the first time. I am simply plugging into the mic jack on the front, and no matter what I have plugged in be it a microphone or guitar there is a terrible static. It starts with a loud pop at the beginning of the recording, and persists as very noisy static throughout.

I got my hands on the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R about six weeks ago and have yet to record a satisfying chunk of noise.

I'm using fireface 800 with Samplitude v9 on a vista home premium os laptop. I can't get channels 1 & 2 to route. Channel one (set to front and back) works with the instrument input but not the TRS. I'm guessing it's an easy fix but don't have a clue what to do. Any help is appreciated. Also a URL for a good OS optimization webpage would be cool. Thanks.

Hello everyone. I would like to record myself playing some instruments...guitar/accordion/piano. I have a super cheap mic from radioshack. The sound is terrible when I record, I always have to amplify it. I'm not knowledgeable at all in home recording. My friend has an Digidesign mbox, so I thought maybe I need one of those to improve the recording.

I generally play acoustic cover gigs on the weekends, but I was approached by a friend, a local bar owner who asked if I would be interested in DJ'ing every saturday night. I would, however, I would have to first get equipement.

I am trying to get a Digital Recording setup that will be serviceable. Nothing fancy, just decent enough to make an accurate demo tape. Also, the setup has to be laptop-based. I know it's nothing compared to a desktop-based setup, but it's the best I've got. Some caveats/existing and projected equipment questions:

How do I go about recording what's being sent to my laptop speakers (via the DVD player or a website, for example) if my sound card doesn't give me the option? Does it come down to a simple software download? Any suggestions would be great. I'm new so a big hello to all.