Hey guys, I haven’t quite pulled the trigger (pun intended) on my purchase quite yet as I have a few questions still regarding the overall investment I’ll be making. The two main ones are:
Am I going to have to buy a new laptop? The one I have currently (a 2010 13” MacBook Pro dual core) is running pretty slow these days. Is there a minimum recommended CPU to handle the software effectively? I don’t know if I can afford shelling out $1300 for a new Mac. Any suggestions there??
Secondly, are there any interface suggestions? I’ve heard about the Scarlett, but I’m wondering what else is out there. I’m a bit of a newbie to the digital side of the creative process and I’m not sure exactly WHAT kind of interface to google.
Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks fam
Tenoch from Sunhouse here – definitely good to get other perspectives from people on the Forum, but here are my thoughts on your Qs.
Your laptop sounds a bit on the slow end for Sensory Percussion, but, it will depend on how you plan on using it. If you want to use four sensors, lots of samples and effects at a low buffer size for the lowest latency, plus route the audio to Ableton via the Routing Plugin to record, you will likely run into issues. But if you were planning on a simpler setup with 1 sensor and integraing it into a larger setup where SP maybe isn’t the center of the kit, you might be completely fine. Please keep in mind that SP needs OSX 10.9 to run.
We’ve used a number of USB and Thunderbolt interfaces and so far the Focusrites have been the most dependable. They have good preamps if you want to use them for recording other things, the USB2.0 version is not that expensive and has good latency response. That’s why we recommend them. I haven’t tried their newer USB-C line, but I’m sure they are solid too. If you’re looking for something cheaper, we recently picked up a BEHRINGER U-PHORIA UMC404HD. It’s $89 on Amazon right now for 4 channels, which is a crazy low price. So far it’s been working great (we’ve had it for about 3 months).
@tenoch, thanks for the reply!
I’ll check the Behringer, that’s a killer deal.
As for the laptop issue, my MacBook’s OS is OS X 10.9.5. I plan on purchasing either the 3 or 4 trigger pack (I haven’t decided which, yet), and don’t have any super grandiose plans at the moment for it. My initial idea is to beef up/alter/add to the sounds of my drums for some specific projects I’m involved in. I don’t run Ableton (again, I’m a pretty late bloomer to the music software world), so maybe my computer will suffice for now? Do you think latency will be an issue with maybe, 2-4 samples mapped per drum? Maybe this gives you a better idea of where my head is at with it. Keep the info coming!
@Drmmr.e Hey, that sounds pretty reasonable! I think you should be fine with that kind of set up.
That’s good to hear on the OS front. Just keep in mind that typically, whenever Apple releases a new OS version we have to drop support for the oldest OS. So we’ll probably support 10.9 for another year until 10.14 comes out.
How do you find the Behringer compared to the Motu 4pre? I’ve been looking at the Motu, but it’s like four times the price. I’m running Ableton in addition to the SP software.
