which laptop for pyramix/hapi

[DJS]

No more Lenovo anything for me ever again.
http://thehackernews.com/2015/08/lenovo ... e.html?m=1

[Pupo]

Hi Mark - sorry to butt in. Could I just ask you to expand a little on that point about Thunderbolt and Interval Zero? Like lots of others, we're restricted to Pyramix Native on laptops as we have MBPs. This is the first I've heard of Masscore working via ExpressCard, which is exciting (and I'd love to hear how well it works), but also of course we'd rather not buy a load of new laptops! Perhaps I ought to put Macbook Masscore on the feature request list!
K.

I suspect you will be waiting a long time for Macbook Masscore....The holdup is actually the RTX driver from Interval Zero (Not Merging). We've tried all the available Thunderbolt to PCIe adapters and they all have the fundamental problem of RTX not seeing the Merging Network card. There was a discussion over a year ago about trying to get Interval Zero to use an OEM Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter to work with the driver. There has been radio silence since then.

I run Masscore on my Lenovo W540 all the time. I found an passive (Has to be passive1) Expresscard to PCIe PCB on a Chinese website years ago. It is designed to allow use of an outboard graphics card on a laptop. The RTX sees the card just like an internal slot and it actually works pretty phenomenal on the Lenovo with the standard caveat about using onboard video. (High count DSD and DXD are not happy with Intel Integrated video) I recently recorded an opera with over 80 tracks of 192 on it and it works faster than my 2 year old silent builds. W540 also has Thunderbolt which I use for an outboard storage array.

I've ordered one of the Dell M4800 laptops with the integrated AMD Firepro graphics($1500 fully loaded). Will let you know how it works as soon as I get a chance to test it here.

All the best,
-mark

Hey Mark,
Did you finally compare the M4800 with the Lenovos?
Thanks,
José

[johndsadams]

Can someone clarify what the graphics requirements are for Pyramix v10 laptop use? I'm not sure if I should be specing a unit with AMD or Nvida or intel or perhaps it doesn't matter. Thanks.
-John

[mpdonahue]

Can someone clarify what the graphics requirements are for Pyramix v10 laptop use? I'm not sure if I should be specing a unit with AMD or Nvida or intel or perhaps it doesn't matter. Thanks.
-John

For Native it doesn't much matter. For Masscore you are well served using an AMD Firepro workstation graphics card for reliable high count/High Res projects.
All PC laptops to a greater or lesser extent utilize the internal Intel graphics when using the built in screen. This is why we have not found a laptop that works 100% reliably with Masscore for high track count material.
All the best,
-mark

[DCLR-Records]

This is all quite confusing...
I made a bad experience.
HP Zbook does definitely not work with PM and Hapi. It creates noise when reading files.
There seems to be no way out of this, according to Merging themselves.
Only solution, to get an appropriate PC.
I've had several older HP's during the 12+ years working so far with PM and before getting the Hapi.
Never any problem... But now I got the bad idea to get a ZBook at the same time as upgrading to V10 and getting a Hapi.

So now, simple question : which new laptop ready out of the box for PM native with Hapi ?

This is urgent, customers waiting for their recordings and I do not know what to tell them... And by the way I'll have a HP Zbook for sale, interested anyone ?

Paul
http://www.dclr-records.ch

[mpdonahue]

This is all quite confusing...
I made a bad experience.
HP Zbook does definitely not work with PM and Hapi. It creates noise when reading files.
<snip>
So now, simple question : which new laptop ready out of the box for PM native with Hapi ?
This is urgent, customers waiting for their recordings and I do not know what to tell them... And by the way I'll have a HP Zbook for sale, interested anyone ?
Paul

Paul,
I assume you are using Native.
Unfortunately, there is no laptop (or desktop PC for that matter) that will work flawlessly out of the box. There are some basic configuration things you need to do to all systems to make them run smoothly with Ravenna. I know of several users that use the Zbook for PMX and it works reliably. I personally run Lenovo laptops, but the issues are the same.
My first questions would be: have you disabled the wireless connection, configured the fire wall settings, disabled any Antivirus, and gone through the installation documentation for both Pyramix and Ravenna ASIO? Have you checked the Buffer settings in the ASIO panel against the chart in the manual? It is counter intuitive, but often reducing the ASIO buffer settings will cure the problem.
What OS are you using? Win 7, 8 or 10? Pro or Home? Have you removed all the bloatware that comes on the computer?
All the best,
-mark

[DJS]

Great advice from Mark. I have made over ten session and concert recordings now on my HP ZBook running PMX 9 and 10 Native and it has all worked flawlessly, including one DXD project and one DSD concert recording. Mind you, I tossed out the supplied HDD and reformatted a new bare bones OS onto the thing.

[DCLR-Records]

Thanks a lot David and Mark,
I'll definitely try this out on Monday. My setup is at Merging Switzerland since last week as I live nearby. Their dealer seemed to tell me that there would be no way out other than getting another PC.
What do you mean by bare bones OS ? operating system ?
Are you using onother internal drive or just an external ?
Do you think it would help just working on a separate drive ?
Best regards from Switzerland..
Paul

[DJS]

What do you mean by bare bones OS ? operating system ?

I mean I installed the OS from scratch, in this case Windows 8.1 Pro without all the nonsense provided on the laptop from the manufacturer. I also remove/disable/uninstall all unnecessary devices and drivers. I later updated this to Windows 10, and although it is not officially supported, it has been completely reliable running Native for session and concert recordings.

Are you using onother internal drive or just an external ?

The reason I chose the HP ZBook 17 is that it is one of the few laptops that has a second native SATA interface for a second audio drive. This is compelling. It has a 250 MB SSD for the OS (C drive) and an internal 1TB spinning drive for audio files (D Drive).

Do you think it would help just working on a separate drive ?

I would never trust an external drive for audio during recording, using USB or Firewire connections. A native SATA interface is what I prefer.

You are so lucky living so close to Merging!

Regards
David

[DCLR-Records]

Thanks a lot David. I will ask Merging to help me wit this next week as my set up is in their offices right now, I am sure it will be fine. I'll tell you how it goes...

[Little tribeca]

Maybe it would be nice to make a list of laptop that works for people with pyramix.

It has to be detailed though, not only saying the brand and model.

i will write down my set up which works very good with pyramix 10 native. i will post it soon

All the best

[DJS]

Maybe it would be nice to make a list of laptop that works for people with pyramix.

It has to be detailed though, not only saying the brand and model.

I don't think this would be of much use. Laptops change so frequently and internationally things can be different.

What is more important I think is the principles of getting a laptop to work with PMX. Which OS configs, whether a reinstall of OS is required, removal of manuf spam, which devices and services disabled, in other words a more detailed set of instructions than Merging offers in the installation guide.

All laptops should work when the OS is cleaned out. PMX is just a windows application, it is nothing "special" from that point of view.

[Crismartin2145]

nice post

[reusetek]

I also recommend you to use thinkpad and HP laptops which are one best choice almost.

[stephanc]

Hi Mark and colleagues,

I wonder if there has been any update in the past two years regarding Masscore on a laptop. There are new PCI Express adapters released, and I wonder if you've further investigated in this matter. Now with Merging advertising on their website the support of the late MBP models with v11 and stating that Macbook Pro's of the last generation "seem to be the preferred laptop for on location recordings". I wish Masscore on a laptop would become reliable reality.

Thanks for any input,


Stephan

I suspect you will be waiting a long time for Macbook Masscore....The holdup is actually the RTX driver from Interval Zero (Not Merging). We've tried all the available Thunderbolt to PCIe adapters and they all have the fundamental problem of RTX not seeing the Merging Network card. There was a discussion over a year ago about trying to get Interval Zero to use an OEM Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter to work with the driver. There has been radio silence since then.

I run Masscore on my Lenovo W540 all the time. I found an passive (Has to be passive1) Expresscard to PCIe PCB on a Chinese website years ago. It is designed to allow use of an outboard graphics card on a laptop. The RTX sees the card just like an internal slot and it actually works pretty phenomenal on the Lenovo with the standard caveat about using onboard video. (High count DSD and DXD are not happy with Intel Integrated video) I recently recorded an opera with over 80 tracks of 192 on it and it works faster than my 2 year old silent builds. W540 also has Thunderbolt which I use for an outboard storage array.

I've ordered one of the Dell M4800 laptops with the integrated AMD Firepro graphics($1500 fully loaded). Will let you know how it works as soon as I get a chance to test it here.
All the best,
-mark