compact sequencer or music making tool

i've got my eee pc 701 set up with xp and it's quite abit more powerful than i thought.

So I was I thinking i could get a cool little DAW on it. Ableton seems like it's too heavy, especially if I'd imagine to use any VST synths with it.

Anyone have any good advice? A tracker or something could be cool, I'm interested in anything that helps me make fun little tunes.

audiomulch?

max/msp or supercollider?

a tracker? many are quite light

older (and hence lighter) version of something like cubase, logic?

renoise, highC, reaper, and nord modular

Yeah, Reaper if you want a Sequencer / DAW. Renoise or Schism Tracker (previously known as Impulse Tracker) or Modplug Tracker if you want a tracker (Buzz may be a little too heavy on your system). Cool Edit Pro if you want a good wave editor.

I agree with all the responses so I don't have any more suggestions to make, but I've actually been thinking about getting one of those for music making myself...

Have you tried Ableton on there? I'd be really curious to hear how it ran if you did try it. I mainly like the format of being able to manage the loops and everything, can you have a few tracks of operator/impulse going, or does it die after one or so?

I use an eee 901 for gigs with ableton 7 as the sequencer (I use a USB asio soundcard - the internal soundcard doesn't work properly yet with asio4all) works well and it fits nicely into my handbag when the gig is over.

would we have been offended by your masking tape?

he doesn't want to give away his midi mapping.

buzz is fine on an eeepc, i use it on my 4gb oldskool one.

  blicero said:

he doesn't want to give away his midi mapping.

why, because we might sell the information to the chinese?

  Tamas said:

I agree with all the responses so I don't have any more suggestions to make, but I've actually been thinking about getting one of those for music making myself...

The thing is it was going for half the price at the store because it was a returned item, so I would've felt stupid not buying it when I don't have any other computer. I've gotten a slim version of xp on it and a few minor tools for managing resolution etc, as well as an external HDD to keep the internal drive as clean as possible.

My main idea was to get it while I'm saving up for a real music machine, but I'm trying to push the limits of it and see what it can do music wise.

This thing can even play vice city without breaking a sweat, so regardless of it's music making or synthesis capabilities I feel that I've gotten more than my money's worth. It's way small and way easy to carry around (until you hook it up to several USB devices, heh). But hook it up to an external monitor and you've got full resolution.

  Quote

Have you tried Ableton on there? I'd be really curious to hear how it ran if you did try it. I mainly like the format of being able to manage the loops and everything, can you have a few tracks of operator/impulse going, or does it die after one or so?

I haven't tried it but i will. I haven't modified the PC at all except clocking it to 1GHZ with eeectl (which is entirely safe, everyone seems to do that). A guy in the dorm room has modded his to use 2gig ram which is quite a difference to my 512mb. But I used a 2ghz 512mb ram to make music with ableton a year or so back, so I can't imagine it being impossible to run. I'll post the results.

  mcbpete said:

Yeah, Reaper if you want a Sequencer / DAW. Renoise or Schism Tracker (previously known as Impulse Tracker) or Modplug Tracker if you want a tracker (Buzz may be a little too heavy on your system). Cool Edit Pro if you want a good wave editor.

Haha cool edit pro's got nothing on goldwave :P Thanks for the tips i'll try reaper out, audiomulch looks abit intense. I have to be honest, i don't get along well with trackers, i'm open for it if it means I'll be able to make a larger variety of music in a simpler environment. But I'll see what I can dish out against the DAW's first.

cheerio

  hahathhat said:

would we have been offended by your masking tape?

:O)

just removing any identifying features

901's Atom is much more powerful than 701's celeron

  kokoon said:

901's Atom is much more powerful than 701's celeron

not by much, I think it's equivalent to an 800mhz celeron when running at 1.6ghz. The atom is more power efficient and runs cooler than the celerons though. (I got this info from tom's hardware)

but it's still enough for me to run 4 tracks of audio + 4 EQs + 2 send effect + 2 vsti tracks for my gigs

Interesting ... I might pick up an EeePC and try this ... would be good for travelling

anyone else with advice? Reaper and/or EnergyXT sound like good routes to take ...

Ok EnergyXT works great but i dont like the interface. Reason runs well, a tad slow at times but you can definitely make a track with it.

  chimera slot mom said:

Ok EnergyXT works great but i dont like the interface. Reason runs well, a tad slow at times but you can definitely make a track with it.

wow, i didn't even think reason would run on an eee pc! i'll have to give it a try.

ABLETON WORKS PERFECT

amazing how versatile that program is... Yesss. But the CPU can't handle a giantass amount of effects, but a couple of synths are NO PROBLEM at all! See YLC for proof.