Logic on a laptop

Dudes,

I'm really enjoying the laptop method, though there are drawbacks. I deal with the limits of my CPU by freezing tracks, which has been working great. I put on tons of effects and things that make the computer work hard, then I freeze it, and it gives my CPU a rest. Without this feature, the song overwhelms the machine and stops working.

I was having a trouble with my keyboard instrument recordings overwhelming the CPU. I can't freeze the piano parts, etc. But I've found I can edit them and quantize them as instruments, and then convert them to audio files, which can be frozen and better managed.

The advantages of a laptop are very cool, though. I can record 3 takes of a vocal at home, and grab the computer and go. Then when I'm stuck at work or somewhere waiting to give my kids a ride or something, I take out the laptop anywhere I am and edit away. In other words, I don't need to be near my gear most of the time. I'm finding that about 25% of my time is spent performing and recording. The rest is fiddling, and the laptop is killer for doing that wherever my wife, um, my life sends me.

I have not gotten a replacement external hard drive. Comp USA screwed me over. They won't take the failed one back. Jerks. The internal drive is working so smoothly that I've decided to go with that for awhile. It helps me be portable, as mentioned above. This may be a huge mistake, but it seems fine for now. We'll see.

I have started to be more picky with my synchronization, and to notice variations from the Click and do something about them. I have learned to chop up the parts of my drummer's performance where small off the beat variations occur, and edit them so they sound smooth, and not chopped up. If you go to my latest mixes on http://jimsmart.blogspot.com/, and compare aMinor2 with aMinor3 (my latest version), you'll hear what I mean. I had to start over and used aMinor2 as a template. I had thought it was fine. But when I analyzed it with a loud, clear click, there were discrepencies that I'm figuring out how to overcome. aMinor3 is a pretty tight foundation to put solos and things over, I think. I've been microediting the performances to be "right there". It's fun, in an obsessive sort of way. I could never do it for other people's music, though. Maybe if the pay was good.