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HELP ! Hw suggestion ... (another newbie's question)

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Magneto66
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2019 6:36 pm

HELP ! Hw suggestion ... (another newbie's question)

Post by Magneto66 »

Hi Everybody ... I purchased Magic Music Visuals (Performer edition) some months ago and i'm starting to prepare a live show ... Since i'm a musician, i'll use two notebooks on stage (plus some hardware synthesizers, devices, etc ...) : the first notebook runs Ableton Live (i guess that many of You knwo it !) and one hof his MIDI tracks will drive Magic Music running on the second notebook, sending MIDI notes and CC messages in order to launch scenes, modify effects, etc etc ... I think they will be connected by a MIDI cable since in don't trust WiFi but that's not important ... I just would like to get about the second notebook that i still have to buy, in order to install Magic Music and i want it to be very powerful ... i probably use some video clips mixed with special modules (GLSLShader, Fractal), geometry, color etc etc ... In Many cases i'll have a video file with "green screen" (that i will remove with ChromaKeyFast) and a GLSLShader (or fractal) as background and of course i will also apply some other fxs, using MIDI CC ... and i will pass from one scene to another following the different parts of my songs SO of course i want a fast response from the notebook ... (i will also use a projector and a screen !) Any suggestion about its configuration ? I was thinking about one of these hi-level "gaming" notebooks with very poweful 8-core processors, 32 GB RAM, etc etc ... they are obviously very expensive and perhaps i could even exaggerate, buying one of them ... or not ? P.S. since the notebook running ABleton is a Windows machine, i thing that the second one should be, too ... Thank You in advance and Best Regards
Marcello
mpr128
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2018 8:06 am

Re: HELP ! Hw suggestion ... (another newbie's question)

Post by mpr128 »

I'm in a similar boat to you.
I've Magic to run on my 2013 MacBook Pro and it was flatlining the CPUs, so while I'd love to buy a late model MacBook, that's beyond my budget, so I'm shopping for a Windows laptop.
I've read all the specs, but it's a nightmare translating that into a model number that I can go shopping for.

So, I'm looking for suggestions for specific Windows laptop with more horsepower than my 2013 MacBook Pro and at least a couple of video ports.

cheers
sameloop
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2016 5:58 pm

Re: HELP ! Hw suggestion ... (another newbie's question)

Post by sameloop »

Well, I use an Asus GL702VM and it handles all the stuff you're talking about well. Something like that is going to cost at least £1000/ Euro, but you need something similar once you start running multiple 3d shaders with effects and video. There's loads of choice at that price point, obviously, so look around and make sure, as well as it being powerful enough, that it has a good reputation for reliability, as you don't want it crashing during a gig.

So spec-wise, I would recommend at least a GTX970 (older laptops will have this) or GTX 1060 (for current machines) graphics card, a Core i7 (4 or 8 core) and an SSD for the main OS. Whatever you do, don't go for integrated graphics (main CPU handles the graphics without a dedicated card) as this just won't cut it.

If you go the older route, you might be able to shave off quite a bit of money and still have a capable laptop.
mpr128
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2018 8:06 am

Re: HELP ! Hw suggestion ... (another newbie's question)

Post by mpr128 »

Thanks, that gives me a good start.
I've also learned to look for USB-C that supports Displayport (not all USB-C does this).
Magneto66
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2019 6:36 pm

Re: HELP ! Hw suggestion ... (another newbie's question)

Post by Magneto66 »

sameloop wrote:Well, I use an Asus GL702VM and it handles all the stuff you're talking about well. Something like that is going to cost at least £1000/ Euro, but you need something similar once you start running multiple 3d shaders with effects and video. There's loads of choice at that price point, obviously, so look around and make sure, as well as it being powerful enough, that it has a good reputation for reliability, as you don't want it crashing during a gig.

So spec-wise, I would recommend at least a GTX970 (older laptops will have this) or GTX 1060 (for current machines) graphics card, a Core i7 (4 or 8 core) and an SSD for the main OS. Whatever you do, don't go for integrated graphics (main CPU handles the graphics without a dedicated card) as this just won't cut it.

If you go the older route, you might be able to shave off quite a bit of money and still have a capable laptop.
Thank You very much, You have been very nice ... i actually found some laptop whose processor is i7 9th or 10th Gen or even i9 (!!!) but i didn't know much about graphics card and Your advice is really precious ... But WHat about RAM ? Notebook on sale tend to have at most 16 GB ... Do You think it could be enough ? I Thought that i needed at least 32 GB of RAM for my purposes, if i'm wrong, all the better :-) !!!
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