an0va
Offline

Just acquired a nice refurb PC Laptop from our friend Oxygen/Radlib/Rolly/Sadnes/Steady/Star (thanks Carl!). Here are the basic specs:
30GB HD
768 mb ram
Windows XP fresh install

Now as I'm booting it up I just realized: I haven't used a PC for anything but Office for about six years, but in the past I've always complained about PC-only stuff. Unfortunately, I didn't make a list during this time and I'm impatient to let those thoughts come back! So considering the specs above, I'd like to make this into a nice simple music machine for sketching out ideas and very basic stuff. Here are some possibilities I've come up with so far...now some of these aren't strictly PC-only, but if I'm missing something you think would be useful on a lil machine like this, hit me up:

Essentials:
Google Chrome
LSDJ Backup software
Dropbox (only syncing to very minimal folders, such as my LSDJ sav backup folder)

Trackers:
Famitracker
TFM/PGM/Deflemask
Vice + SID Wizard

General MIDI:
TabIt
PowerTab
(looking forward to getting my guitar chops back in shape)

Audio Production/MIDI Sequencing/VST Hosts:
??? (i dunno, maybe an older version of Ableton Live since I'm familiar with it?)

VST & VSTi:
SQ8L
Hexter

Other:
??? (maybe some software for visuals?)

Any suggestions? I'm open to all kinds of ideas!

Alpine
Offline
UK, Leicester

I would recommend getting FL Studio for using those VSTs, but with 30gb, it may take up a little too much room. It's pretty decent as long as you aren't doing anything really complicated, I've got an XP laptop, but with a 111gb HD, and 512mb ram, and FL sometimes hangs.

Video making may be a bit of a problem, rendering anything is painfully slow on mine, although it will obviously be faster on yours.

Also Audacity

an0va
Offline
Alpine wrote:

I would recommend getting FL Studio for using those VSTs, but with 30gb, it may take up a little too much room. It's pretty decent as long as you aren't doing anything really complicated, I've got an XP laptop, but with a 111gb HD, and 512mb ram, and FL sometimes hangs.

Video making may be a bit of a problem, rendering anything is painfully slow on mine, although it will obviously be faster on yours.

Also Audacity

Yes, Audacity! Good call. I thought about FL studio too, perhaps a legacy version, but I hesitate to bother learning a brand new DAW when all I would be doing is using it as a VST Host to sequence MIDI and bounce the stems to my other more capable computers to mix.

_-_-
Offline

Pure Data, Processing (visuals? smile) ... It's a shame Ardour isn't available for Windows, it's a really good open source (although not 100% free) DAW
I would check out any open source software that looks promising.

LMMS is available for windows: http://lmms.sourceforge.net/
It can host VSTi's and spit midi.

Buzztracker?

Reaper is practically free and it's a really good DAW. Better than most "top" ones.
http://www.reaper.fm/

Last edited by _-_- (Jul 7, 2013 10:52 pm)

bryface
Offline
vancouver, canada

buzztracker is not a bad addition except in my experience it's among the harder pieces of software to maintain and is kinda crashey if you don't machines/VSTs that don't play nice.  also the later versions i believe get rid of the groundwork that makes it compatible with XP?

- schism tracker is good to have on your winXP machine though, it's basically an impulse tracker clone running off the modplug playback library.  that, or modplug tracker / OpenMPT.

- VSTHost is a program worth toying around with if you play around with your laptop to see if it's a viable effects rack for lives and stuff.

- i recommend using Google Drive for PC (the program, not the website) to have folders that potentially auto sync to folders on your other computers.  it's practically an instant-backup solution and you can work across different machines relatively easy.  this is what i use to keep my LSDJ SAV's consistent across all my computers running GB emulators.

Last edited by bryface (Jul 7, 2013 11:35 pm)

SketchMan3
Offline
NC in the US of America

+1 LMMS free DAW FLStudio-ish thingy. It has a bunch of chiptune based plugins, too. It can't output midi files, but it can output midi signals.
Trackers
Most tracker's are small and lightweight in general anyway. MilkyTracker, HivelyTracker, Beepola, p5tracker, etc... (I don't think any of those are popular, haha). OpenMPT can do VST stuff.

I download every single pc tracker I can get my hands on, haha.

General Midi
Jazz Midi Sequencer is a pretty great and powerful simple light little midi sequencer. I have version 4.0, which I think was the last proper release before it changed hands and went into development mode and stopped distributing full featured binaries.

For a really user friendly but-basic free midi experience Anvil Studio is nice. It takes some leg-work to get fancy effects going without paying $$$ for the "optional accessories", but if you aren't trying to push the capabilities of the format, it should be fine. It's easier to use than Jazz, but it doesn't grant ready access to all midi parameters. You can still do a lot with it, though.
Muse score can print sheet music.

Other
Paint.NET is a nice free graphics editing program. I think many people here swear by Grafx for pixel art, though.
DOSBox
One Must Fall 2097
GNUitar


Audio Production/MIDI Sequencing/VST Hosts:
Sound Club: If you want a really really quick way to sketch out ideas that isn't tracker based, I can't think of anything quicker than http://bluemoon.ee 's Sound Club (found in the "History" timeline). It is light, quick, and even can export s3m files. It has unlimited polyphony and stuff, not to mention the included samples are nice. The only "effect" it has is portamento, but it does have volume, tempo, and pan parameters.
ZynAddSubFX
Reaper

Essentials:
Google Chrome

I highly recommend you install the OneTab and The Great Suspender add-ons. They will make your browsing experience sooo much easier.

XyNo
Offline
Joliette, QC, Canada

Madtracker 2

sandneil
Offline

goldwave

jefftheworld
Offline
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Klystrack!

Last edited by jefftheworld (Jul 8, 2013 4:31 am)

Bit wish
Offline
New Albany Indiana

768 mb ram

If you plan on running a clock this should be sufficient

an0va
Offline

Wow, thank you so much for all the wonderful and fabtastic posts guys. Keep em comin!

Bit wish - wha? You mean i could sequence hardware with this old thing?!


edit - "fabtastic" was totally a typo via my phone but you know what, im stickin to it

Last edited by an0va (Jul 8, 2013 5:35 am)

Bit wish
Offline
New Albany Indiana

No, 768 mb isn't exactly a bunch. i got 4gb of ram an i still lag ballz.

Bit wish
Offline
New Albany Indiana

No, 768 mb isn't exactly a bunch. i got 4gb of ram an i still lag ballz.

an0va
Offline

Scared me for a sec thar

Alpine
Offline
UK, Leicester
an0va wrote:

Yes, Audacity! Good call. I thought about FL studio too, perhaps a legacy version, but I hesitate to bother learning a brand new DAW when all I would be doing is using it as a VST Host to sequence MIDI and bounce the stems to my other more capable computers to mix.

It's pretty simple to learn how to use, and that's pretty much all I use it for as well.

sandneil wrote:

goldwave

oh god yes

an0va
Offline
SketchMan3 wrote:

+1 LMMS free DAW FLStudio-ish thingy. It has a bunch of chiptune based plugins, too. It can't output midi files, but it can output midi signals.
Trackers
Most tracker's are small and lightweight in general anyway. MilkyTracker, HivelyTracker, Beepola, p5tracker, etc... (I don't think any of those are popular, haha). OpenMPT can do VST stuff.

I download every single pc tracker I can get my hands on, haha.

General Midi
Jazz Midi Sequencer is a pretty great and powerful simple light little midi sequencer. I have version 4.0, which I think was the last proper release before it changed hands and went into development mode and stopped distributing full featured binaries.

For a really user friendly but-basic free midi experience Anvil Studio is nice. It takes some leg-work to get fancy effects going without paying $$$ for the "optional accessories", but if you aren't trying to push the capabilities of the format, it should be fine. It's easier to use than Jazz, but it doesn't grant ready access to all midi parameters. You can still do a lot with it, though.
Muse score can print sheet music.

Other
Paint.NET is a nice free graphics editing program. I think many people here swear by Grafx for pixel art, though.
DOSBox
One Must Fall 2097
GNUitar


Audio Production/MIDI Sequencing/VST Hosts:
Sound Club: If you want a really really quick way to sketch out ideas that isn't tracker based, I can't think of anything quicker than http://bluemoon.ee 's Sound Club (found in the "History" timeline). It is light, quick, and even can export s3m files. It has unlimited polyphony and stuff, not to mention the included samples are nice. The only "effect" it has is portamento, but it does have volume, tempo, and pan parameters.
ZynAddSubFX
Reaper

Essentials:
Google Chrome

I highly recommend you install the OneTab and The Great Suspender add-ons. They will make your browsing experience sooo much easier.


Thanks a ton for this great post! It all looks great. Though I won't be looking for Chrome addons too much since I won't be browsing the web on this thing (unless I get around to installing the hardware wireless card adapter)  wink