Topic: RME Product advice & Laptop suggestions

Hey

So I'm looking to do some home recording.
Nothing crazy - some guitar, vox, drum machine, effects.
Mainly one or two at a time - nothing like full band or drum kit setup.

I'm looking for advice on a solid laptop (Windows 10) that can handle Pro Tools. ($2500 or less)

And I'm looking for an RME setup - Babyface looks awesome.
Any other RME hardware or other gear to make this complete?

Thanks

Re: RME Product advice & Laptop suggestions

I would advice you to get a turnkey system for audio to be on the safe side.
Or somebody would need to show up who can recommend based on a running system.
Of course you can simply buy based on technical data, but it's no guarantee to get a machine with low DPC latencies.

Protools btw is still sometimes challenging when coming over 30 channels, which is not the case with the Babyface Pro.
But this is just meant as a general remark.
With i.e. Cubase you have no channel limit and can use as many channels as are available, shall you later want to make use of a MADI setup.

If you need Protools to be compatible with somebody or because you like the strong standardization, ok .. no way out wink
But then you need to look not to come over ~30 channels IN and OUT.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: RME Product advice & Laptop suggestions

I'm only understanding a few things here.
1) I definitely want the laptop running Windows, and Pro Tools because I have a friend
who is going to help me with it.
I won't be doing more than like 16 tracks total. Usually more like 8.

Can I use the Babyface Pro as the interface with Pro Tools?
Do I need any other hardware?

In simple language please.

Thanks

Re: RME Product advice & Laptop suggestions

If you look at the product sheet, then you see that the BBF Pro has a fewer amount of Input and Output channels.
So you can use it for protools.

It was simply a general remark, that Protools "non-HD" has a channel limit of around 30 channels in and 30 channels out.
So if you would plan in the future to choose interfaces with more channels, then Protools would limit you.
I think AVVID wants to protect/push their HD system sales by this, if people require higher channel counts than 30.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: RME Product advice & Laptop suggestions

Ok that makes sense. Well it will be fine for my needs.
So I'm hearing that Babyface Pro would be a good fit for me.
Is there any other hardware that I would need other than a laptop and Pro Tools?

thx

Re: RME Product advice & Laptop suggestions

I would start with this setup and look later whether something is missing.
In regards to the BBFP you should take a paper and pencil and look whether it has all inputs and outputs that you require.
Otherwise you have 2-4 weeks depending on the shop to give it back shall you have the feeling you need smth bigger

BTW: If you do not necessarily need a laptop I would recommend strongly a desktop.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: RME Product advice & Laptop suggestions

It seems to have what I am looking for. But I'll ask my friend as well.
Can you offer a pro and con for desktop vs laptop?

Thx

Re: RME Product advice & Laptop suggestions

Desktop
- more performance, laptop is limited in CPU, Chipset, GPU to avoid heat
- can be finetuned for audio by i.e. disable energy saving which reduces / improves DPC latencies which makes the likeliness for audio drops less, if the CPU cores are quicker available to handle audio processes
- you can upgrade easily mainboard, CPU, memory, SSDs, disks
- you can more easily implement a backup concept by adding dedicated SSDs for OS and User Data, HD for backup (disk images)
- if you take AMD, then you can usually upgrade CPUs without having to change mainboard, because they stick to a CPU socket model for much longer time than Intel. With nearly every CPU generation of Intel you get new socket type and thus need a new mainboard, thats more cost intensive
- if you take AMD then you can use ECC memory which helps for recognize bit errors to correct and thus prevent data corruption.
- In the middle of this year AMD releases very interesting new CPUs, which are produced in 7nm structures. More performance, less heat. They use the same TR4 sockets on mainboards, thus people can easily upgrade. Eventually it only needs a BIOS upgrade from mainboard vendor.
- less heat production compared to Laptop, thus less fan noise
- possibility to deactivate Windows CPU core parking without getting heat issues
- possibility to build the system on your own if you know how to do it, with a laptop it's not easily possible not to say impossible for a normal customer.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13