I'm thinking of buying a laptop for live use, just to run Ableton Live & afew audio/midi loops, so I shouldn't be needing anything too high-spec.
However, most of the laptops I've seen in my price range have seemed somewhat limited in terms of soundcard options. None of them had firewire ports, so am I right in guessing that if I want a decent audio interface I'm going to have to use USB?
I've never really read anything positive about USB cards, so I'm kind of reluctant to get one - Is it possible to get a firewire port installed on a laptop?, If not, are there any other solutions?
Finally, if I am forced to go with USB, what problems am I likely to encounter & how can I go about minimising them?
And whilst I'm asking, can anybody give me an idea of how easy (or not) it is to upgrade a laptops memory? If a machine has, say, 128mb or ram, can I get it up to 256 by just adding another 128? Or will I have to replace the original 128mb with a single 256mb stick?
Cheers bluds.
However, most of the laptops I've seen in my price range have seemed somewhat limited in terms of soundcard options. None of them had firewire ports, so am I right in guessing that if I want a decent audio interface I'm going to have to use USB?
I've never really read anything positive about USB cards, so I'm kind of reluctant to get one - Is it possible to get a firewire port installed on a laptop?, If not, are there any other solutions?
Finally, if I am forced to go with USB, what problems am I likely to encounter & how can I go about minimising them?
And whilst I'm asking, can anybody give me an idea of how easy (or not) it is to upgrade a laptops memory? If a machine has, say, 128mb or ram, can I get it up to 256 by just adding another 128? Or will I have to replace the original 128mb with a single 256mb stick?
Cheers bluds.