Small Portable Laptop for editing my Axe At Rehearsals & Gigs?

Paulg2uk

Paulg2uk

Power User
Hi guys,

I was thinking of investing in a small portable laptop just in case i ever need to edit any patches or sounds at rehearsals or even if something goes horrible wrong at a gig. I just wondered do any of you carry one around with you at all? If so what do you recommend?

I'd prefer a mac as that's what i'm used to. I'm sure I could get a small macbook air or something off of eBay for cheap. What sort of spec should I look for? Its only gonna be using 3 programs max. Axe edit, Fractalbot and RJM GT editor.

Thanks in advance

Paul
 
HI Paul,

just been through the exact same process, looked at Macbook Air on offer at Currys, but i'm not really a mac person, looked at their small netbooks, but they were under specced for the money, only 2Gb ram and Windows 10 needs 1Gb just to run. Ended up getting one built by PC Specialist just around £500. 8Gb Ram, 14" matte screen, 256Gb SSD hard drive, windows 10, and its only 15mm thick and weighs just under 1.4Kg.

I also didn't want all the bloat ware that PC's come with from brands like Acer, HP etc.

I will be using Microsoft Ondrive to sync al my stuff with the main PC and the laptop. Laptop will be dual purpose, use for the Axe and for our Soundcraft U16i mixer which is wifi controlled.

Hope that helps
 
Maxsys said:
HI Paul,

just been through the exact same process, looked at Macbook Air on offer at Currys, but i'm not really a mac person, looked at their small netbooks, but they were under specced for the money, only 2Gb ram and Windows 10 needs 1Gb just to run. Ended up getting one built by PC Specialist just around £500. 8Gb Ram, 14" matte screen, 256Gb SSD hard drive, windows 10, and its only 15mm thick and weighs just under 1.4Kg.

I also didn't want all the bloat ware that PC's come with from brands like Acer, HP etc.

I will be using Microsoft Ondrive to sync al my stuff with the main PC and the laptop. Laptop will be dual purpose, use for the Axe and for our Soundcraft U16i mixer which is wifi controlled.

Hope that helps
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info that's a big help. I've seen some HP's with windows 10 on the curry website for £399 but I'd prefer a mac if i'm honest I've had my problems with pc's over the years and I just won't use them unless I really have to. It looks like £500 will get me a decent macbook air 11". The 13" ones look a better spec for the same price though.
 
Paulg2uk said:
Hi guys,

I was thinking of investing in a small portable laptop just in case i ever need to edit any patches or sounds at rehearsals or even if something goes horrible wrong at a gig. I just wondered do any of you carry one around with you at all? If so what do you recommend?

I'd prefer a mac as that's what i'm used to. I'm sure I could get a small macbook air or something off of eBay for cheap. What sort of spec should I look for? Its only gonna be using 3 programs max. Axe edit, Fractalbot and RJM GT editor.

Thanks in advance

Paul
Click to expand...


I use a fully loaded 11" MacBook Air for rehearsal recordings and all my software editors for my music hardware (like my AxeFx and FX-8) that I'm really happy with.
 
I would love a mac for my editing but really can't justify the mac price for an editing machine. I have been looking into getting a cheap 2 in 1 windows based system just to do editing if needed and hold it as a tablet
 
Paulg2uk said:
Thanks for the info that's a big help. I've seen some HP's with windows 10 on the curry website for £399 but I'd prefer a mac if i'm honest I've had my problems with pc's over the years and I just won't use them unless I really have to. It looks like £500 will get me a decent macbook air 11". The 13" ones look a better spec for the same price though.
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, I am a hardcore Windows and PC fan as I am in the IT field and know what works for enterprise environments. But I do leverage a MacBook Air for AX8-Edit/Axe-Edit with GarageBand in the personal world. I just found that if I have a dedicated interface that is convenient, fast and portable similar to what you are looking for, it makes my world easier. I would recommend a MacBook air for edits on the machine because of the lightweight design and consistent experience.

I love Windows (7, 8.1 and 10), but man, sometimes those updates get annoying... Same is true in Mac OS if you choose to update, but I found it's just simple to use for specific tasks like this.
 
I love axe edit at home, but to carry the lap top and guitar and axe fx. A little time with the front panel to get used to its operations would be my recommendation. I have been using my XL now for a year and a half and never have had any settings go wrong. I am not saying I am against the laptop to make edits, but if worried about the need for it I would say there is none.
 
Try to get an old used MacBook or MacBook Pro that runs at lest 10.8, you might get one cheap especially if the battery is bad and you need to constantly run it with a charger. I have an 2006 MacBookPro that I use for gigs now and then, works fine, even with GarageBand for synths, good investment!
 
Google for a refurbished HP Elitebook core i7 if you like Windows. Around $230-$250. I picked a couple up for my college kids, they work great and are fast. Another $20-$30 for a warranty. Comes with windows 7 pro.
The only thing I did was replace the hard disk drives with SSD drives, and they scream!

Google search found them on Amazon, with prime free shipping.

I am also an IT pro, and have liked HPs. Oh, and they come with a refurb Win7 license and no bloat ware!
 
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I have a cheap Toshiba 13" laptop for this very purpose. I think I paid a couple hundred for it quite a while ago. 4 GB ram, 250GB hdd, cheap machine, but gets the job done. It's the laptop I use for all of my rig editing, AxeEdit, LiquidFoot editor, Line6 stuff, my Korg workstation software, Digitech editor, etc.
 
I bought a refurbished AMD Quad-Core powered Lenovo Think-Pad on Ebay for less than $200 shipped.

It's small, convenient, built like a tank, and has been rock solid for me for the same use case you describe.
 
paranoid said:
I love axe edit at home, but to carry the lap top and guitar and axe fx. A little time with the front panel to get used to its operations would be my recommendation.
Click to expand...
^^^ THIS ^^^
Knowing your way around the front panel is ALWAYS going to be useful, and for a quick tweak at a gig, far more cost effective and efficient than connecting Axe-Edit.
 
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