Zoom Gear & Home Recording Forum

Last week I was at my local Staples store and was pricing and comparing laptop PCs. I told the salesman that I wanted it specifically for home recording and he showed me several models, but brought up something I never considered-Noise from the PC getting into the recording or playback. He told me that certain models were noisier than others in that respect, especially one that had a "radar" or satellite" little icon on it (Don't remember what that meant). Anyway, I thought I'd bring this up to my budds here and see what your experiences with this type of thing is.

Thanks for your thoughts

Don't know if I can help or not JB, but my laptop has the wireless card, & sometimes when using my Line 6 Guitar Port, I have a lot of noise (kinda like 60 cycle hum from a real amp, nosie gate won't remove all of it without making the sound of the "amp" crappy & weak), but it doesn't have it when I use my Tascam interface with the X3. I end up disabling the wireless card (my PC has a switch to do this) & that takes care of most of it.Hope that helps!!!

I reckon a noise gate would stop any noise most laptops make that a mic would pick up

I was referring to using Gearbox/POD Farm standalone, with lots of overdrive/distortion. (I keep forgetting not everyody is a headbanger ) Yep, you're right Tony, a decent noise gate should take care of any external noises a mic would pick up. ReaGate in Reaper does a good job at it, I'm sure there's a good noise gate in Samp 14 too JB, if not there are lots of freebies around that would work........

What sort of noise are you talking about?

Physical noise like fans, drives? Not normally an issue with laptops. I use a Compaq for work and it's virtually silent and certainly not loud enough to create any issues with recording

Electrical noise from components? I've never recorded using a laptop but Chas uses one all the time and I don't remember him ever complaining. I think Minerman's issue is possibly related to overdriven sounds (the same as any overdriven amp) and possibly picking up noise from the guitar pickup. I have to face away from the computer when I'm recording with the Strat as the single coil creates all sorts of unpleasant noises if I'm face on!

Dunno if this helps or not.

Cheers

Dick

+1 Dick,
My Strat does the same exact thing with the hum, & I can get rid of most of it by turning away from the screen. I've never really had an issue using a mic with my laptop though. (Dell Inspiron 1526, AMD Athlon 64 x2 dual core TK 57, 1.9 GHz, 4 GB RAM)

Physical noise should not be an issue with a laptop, my crappy old nosy clunker doesn't pick up any noise.

On the other hand don't buy your laptop at Staples. Check out Dell outlet or similar where you can get more for your money and better quality. I bought Staples style laptops for wife and daughter, they work great for their use but they have issues with cheap components that stop them doing anything more powerful such as music or video work.

Good advice there, I think Dell laptop in terms of spec and quality are some of the best and most reasonably priced laptops out there. (Especially when ordering on line direct from Dell)

Tony & Tony;
Thanks for the tips.
Dick & Jim-I really don't know what kind of noise the sales rep was talking about. Electrical hum, vibration, he didn't say.