Fran Kinsey Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 Probably been asked 1000 times... I run Cakewalk on multiple laptops that are pretty old. The built-in audio doesn't have enough horsepower to mix on so I always have to use an external interface, more stuff to carry around. Anyone have a good result with built-in audio in a modern Windows laptop of some model ish? I often have say 50 tracks and as many plug-ins TIA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Sasor Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 10 hours ago, Fran Kinsey said: Probably been asked 1000 times... I run Cakewalk on multiple laptops that are pretty old. The built-in audio doesn't have enough horsepower to mix on so I always have to use an external interface, more stuff to carry around. Anyone have a good result with built-in audio in a modern Windows laptop of some model ish? I often have say 50 tracks and as many plug-ins TIA! The overwhelming majority of onboard audio isn't particularly designed for performance. If you run the driver with high enough latency, you'd be able to play things fine, but really you'd want some kind of interface to get the most out of CbB 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Promidi Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 No matter how good you believe your onboard audio is, always get a decent audio interface that comes with native ASIO drivers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjoens Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 My laptop built in sound has ASIO, but it's a SoundBlaster...... I've never tried it so can't say if it's usable with a DAW or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Kinsey Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 Bummer. Seems it should be commonplace to mix at a coffee shop with just laptop and headphones. :~( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Sasor Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 6 hours ago, Fran Kinsey said: Bummer. Seems it should be commonplace to mix at a coffee shop with just laptop and headphones. :~( There's plenty of small usb bus powered interfaces that would let you do that. Plus as mentioned before, its *doable* with onboard audio, but you're not going to get low latency or particularly great DAC. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msmcleod Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 In my experience, a laptop's onboard sound device is fine for playback/mixing but unsuitable for audio recording in most cases - the electrical interference alone makes this a blocker. Use WASAPI Exclusive, as most ASIO drivers for on-board devices are no good. Latency won't be as good as ASIO (but not that far off ), but it may not be low enough for recording virtual instruments if you're particularly fussy about timing. In my experience, synth pads are fine but piano is a no-go. One thing to add though - it's unlikely the headphone amp on a laptop will be good enough to drive professional headphones, so bear that in mind. A small portable audio interface is a far better solution. Tascam, Focusrite, Presonus, Zoom and M-Audio all do entry level 1 or 2 channel interfaces that are pretty small (about 2-3 times the size of a mouse). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 On 8/2/2024 at 7:15 AM, Fran Kinsey said: The built-in audio doesn't have enough horsepower What do you mean by "horsepower?" It won't drive your headphones loud enough? Or something else? If the issue is volume, there are any number of small, inexpensive USB dongle headphone driver/amplifiers available at such sites as Amazon or eBay. If the issue is latency or timing, what others have said about entry-level small audio interfaces. Mackie is another brand that sells a small interface for $50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Kinsey Posted August 9 Author Share Posted August 9 Thanks everyone. Looks like this is doable. Will never need to record with internal or multitrack out with internal. Even my tiny (2i2) is just more junk and anoeth wire piled on a coffee shop table. I don't mix loud (and neither should you lol). Latency does not matter in this context. I don't care much about audio quality because I would never finish a mix on small cheap headphones in a coffee shop. By "horsepower" I mean actually handling the audio processing, some of which is done in the interface. Worst case is I merely have an awesome new laptop that I need anyway. @sjoens OMG SoundBlaster! My first one was in 1998 ish! I think it had MIDI and GM sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 On 8/9/2024 at 9:16 AM, Fran Kinsey said: By "horsepower" I mean actually handling the audio processing, some of which is done in the interface. As of now, I know of no laptop that uses any audio hardware CODEC other than ones made by Realtek, all of which are similar to each other. Someday, some genius will design a laptop purpose-designed for music production that includes a better hardware CODEC than Realtek's, but as it stands today, the Realtek CODEC has plenty of "horsepower" to spare for DAW work. Basically, don't worry about it, they're all pretty much the same. Purchase the laptop based on your usual laptop criteria, use WASAPI as your driver mode, and have at it. It'll actually sound great. Realtek haven't been sleeping when it comes to working on their technology (with the exception of still not having an ASIO driver). Good-sounding, low-latency audio is also desirable for gaming, which is an important segment for driving computer hardware development. If cost were no object, I'd get the best gaming laptop money could buy, because the criteria for excellent gaming performance are similar to media production. Good sound, fast CPU, fast GPU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Kinsey Posted August 16 Author Share Posted August 16 THIS WORKS GREAT! Cakewalk plays perfectly on the laptop built-in audio. Play is nearly instant. The audio seems correct on my daily high-end mixing headphones. Can play as loud as you can stand. My new computer is a nicely provisioned Dell Latitude 7640. Sound device is the built-in Realtek ALC3281, Dell-supplied driver. 16" is the biggest screen for this model. Special things to know: Don't remove the Waves Audio utility. In fact, don't remove anything related to audio. Critical: Waves' garbage "enhancements" need to be turned off for each category of device, eg Speakers or Headphones. The off setting will persist. On Win 11 (probably also 10), access the "enhancements" via Setup > System > Sound. Under Output, see Speakers and Headphones lines. Open the greater than sign > and turn off Audio Enhancements and Spatial Sound. Do this for Speakers and Headphones, whatever is in there. This setting stays put. Waves thinks it knows how to EQ or "spacialize" your different devices. Garbage. Waves will prompt you for what kind of device you plugged into the 1/8" jack. Plug in headphones BEFORE starting Cakewalk because it won't notice the device if it's already running. Cakewalk Playback and Recording menu, Driver Mode should be changed to WASAPI Exclusive. I tried others but this one works perfectly. For example ASIO is awful. I tested with a huge project with 50 tracks, many hours long, with a hundreds of clips and around 100 plugins. The built-in audio will never be used to record to I don't care how the mic input sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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