PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Good evening all!

I just fixed a broken Flybook A33i. It was given to me by my dad, because the screen was buggered, but I found another one on eBay for 40 quid that had a perfect screen, but a fried mobo - so I've just frankensteined a perfect-condition tablet PC!

For those unfamiliar with this machine, it's one of those super-tiny laptops (slightly smaller than an EEE PC, with a 6.9-inch screen), with a touchscreen and stylus, and the screen does that cool thing where you can swivel it back on itself to cover the keyboard, effectively turning it into a tablet PC.

Specs aren't too bad either - 1Ghz processor, 512mb RAM - and it seems surprisingly competent for such a little'un.

Anyway, I'm trying to think of cool things I can do with it. For starters, I've got an Emu 1616m in it at the moment, which is cool because they're very good laptop soundcards (though the breakout box is bigger than the laptop!), so for mobile recording it might come in very handy indeed.

Someone also mentioned to me that I could chuck a Linux install on it that would effectively turn it into a turbo-mega remote control for my media PC (a la MTV Cribs), which sounds dope!

I'm also quite sure that I could bodge some kind of MIDI controller out of it, and this is one of the things that interests me most... only thing is, I wouldn't have a clue how!

So, what would you do with one of these, and how would you do it?

Cheers!

Chris

You're always getting free stuff Chris.

Cool little machine btw! Is it running XP atm?

If you wanted to go really portable with it, you'll maybe want to look at getting a USB bus powered audio/midi interface. I know that Tascam do a couple of cool little units with audio & midi that are bus powered & also come with a lite version of Cubase 4. I'm sure they were reviewed in SOS a while back.

Not really stretching the imagination, but it just dawned on me that your Emu interface doesn't really give you the option of going fully portable.

Mark

Well, congratulations!

I was trying out this app yestreday, called USINE. It's a modular thingie for music, but what's interesting is that you can use it to build a control surface to use with a touch screen, providing both MIDI or OSC messages to the external world. There's a free version online. I was imagining it should be pretty easy to build a sort of remote controller for your studio...

Here's a link to a demonstration video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-foi4bm4-I

And the company's website: http://www.sensomusic.com/usine/

Cheers,

T

I was going to say usine as well. it would be lots of fun

Thanks all for your thoughts!

Usine looks like it could be the winner... I'm seriously considering trying to bodge a Lemur out of this little lappy, and Usine looks like just the ticket.

About the interface — I see what you mean with a USB-powered one, but since the battery life on this machine is abysmal (about two hours of modest use — playing Quake II rinses it!), I'm not too concerned with having to plug the Emu dock in, as I'd almost certainly want to plug the PC in as well, so for anything mobile I'd be looking around for a power socket anyway.

Hmm... decisions decisions...

I'll have a tweak-around when I get home, and keep you posted.

Cheers!

Chris

Well, for higher portability, using Usine, you can configure it as an OSC remote controller, and send the data via WLAN to your main DAW. An OSC to MIDI app can be configured on that computer to do the translation. This way = no MIDI interface (or cables) and no audio interface are necessary...

Have fun! And do let us know how it works out!


T

chriskorff wrote:About the interface — I see what you mean with a USB-powered one, but since the battery life on this machine is abysmal (about two hours of modest use — playing Quake II rinses it!), I'm not too concerned with having to plug the Emu dock in, as I'd almost certainly want to plug the PC in as well, so for anything mobile I'd be looking around for a power socket anyway.

I know what you mean about the battery life, but it's maybe still worth considering a USB-powered device purely because it comes with a free (albeit lite) version of Cubase or Live. Cubase Essentials costs about the same as you'd pay for such an interface, so either way you look at it, you'd basically be getting one of them free. Might be worth thinking about even if you ended up using the free software on a system other than the little laptop.