HP ENVY 14 vs. Macbook Pro 13 for music production?

Hi all,

So, after having a Macbook for a while, and enjoying it, I decided to move back to Windows simply from the perspective of it being more 'bang for your buck', and stuff was getting hella slow in Live. Been OK so far, aside from a few foibles related to the audio element of it, which, as most people have noted, is ironic given the nature of how the Envy is sold.

So, putting aside the fun of the constant hiss over the headphone socket when using my low impedence in ear headphones, my question is:

I have an external audio interface with its own ASIO drivers (Novation XStation) which has done me well, with nice low latency. However, as I did with my Macbook, I'd like to be able to around without having to be attached to it at all times, but the MME drivers are as as I remember them being 5 years ago, last time I had windows laptop. THere is the possiblity of lowering that buffering thing, which works to a point, but I don't want to find out that I start get crackling if I start putting more than a couple of VSTis in my project.

ASIO4ALL is an option, although it appears to not work whatsoever unless I completely disable the GS wavetable synth, which has the added sideeffect of disabling the speakers entirely. There's been talk of making the audio device, 'non exclusive' so that wavetable synth doesn't hog it entirely, but that doesn't work for me.

Soooo...Does anyone have a surefire way of making this work to achieve the lowest latency possible?

One last rhetorical question - why the hell haven't MS created an equivalent to CoreAudio yet? And why, when I have a bloody supercomputer processor (well, ish) in my laptop, is latency still a problem in the first place? So, I can run crysis on my laptop, but I still have a interminable delay between pressing a key and hearing a note?

</rant>

Cheers!

 

Thanks for all the replies. Some usefull info here but still would like some more specific reviews about the Envy 14 (beats edition) for live DJing application (using Serato or Traktor) and for heavy Ableton, Protools, VST sessions.

I realize that an external soundcard is a must for serious applications. Which soundcards are recommended?

I don't think the Envy has USB 3.0, or Firewire. What is the chipset or USB connections like...are they ok for external sound devices?

I went ahead and purchased an Envy 14 beats edition as I had to make a decision and based on price and most features, it seems to have what I want. I am still waiting for it to be built/delivered so I am still very curious to get feedback from other owners.

Here is my configuration:

Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-740QM Quad Core processor (1.73GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) w/Turbo Boost up to 2.93 GHz
Graphics card: 1GB DDR3 ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 graphics [HDMI] - For Quad Core Processors
Memory: 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Hard drive: 640GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Display: 14.5" diagonal High Definition HP BrightView Infinity LED Display (1366x768)

 

I am completely stuck here as well - there are 2 1/8th of an inch ports on the side, I've tried for a couple hours and I can not get them to separate into 1/2 and 3/4 even though it seems really obvious they must...

or not?

any help very appreciated

 

Thinking about getting the HP Envy 14 for music production (Sonar, Reason, Guitar Rig) - how's yours working out?

 

Low 1366x768 res not comfortable for me!

 

HP ENVY 15 beats edition with 1920x1080 was killer!