Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

I don't know what your needs are, but personally if I were buying 
a computer to use primarily for multi-tracking music I'd never get a 
laptop.

    a) They usually have lots of proprietary junk in them, they are 
expensive (compared to a desktop), and usually darn near impossible 
to upgrade other than putting more memory in them.

    b) The sound cards are usually an afterthought and given point 
(a), they usually can't be upgraded.

    c) For the amount time you spend working at the computer when 
doing recording, the joystick/pad mouse emulator devices, tiny 
keyboards and smallish screens will drive most people up the wall.  
Many people eventually end up putting a mouse, monitor and keyboard 
on them... and then stop moving them around because its a pain... and 
then they have essentially an expensive desktop that can't be 
upgraded.

    Do you absolutely need the portability of a laptop?

    This is from someone who lugged more than his share of laptops 
through airports on business.  My personal hate for laptops stems 
from often going from my in-office development environment of dual 
21" monitors and egro-keyboard, etc. to flying X hours at a moment's 
notice and having to do debugging sessions under the gun on a "spare" 
laptop.

    Bitter?  Me?  Noooooo.

    All that said, if you really need a laptop for other reasons and 
are careful about checking the specs of the sound card, it can work 
just fine for some people.  Just know that portability comes with a 
pricetag.


--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, "bigcleverturnip" 
<bigcleverturnip@h...> wrote:
> Hey,
> I'll start with the obvious - I'm a drummer and for christmas I got 
> a Yamaha DTXpress II. I love the machine!
> Anyway, I also play and compose a lot of music, as I play other 
> instruments as well.
> I'm hoping to get a laptop very soon, on which I'll be doing a lot 
> of music composing (using something similar to Cubase or Cakewalk 
> hopefully), but unfortunately, I have no idea how I'd go about 
> connecting my DTXpress II to my computer/soundcard and using it for 
> drums in tracks I'd write (presumably MIDI?). I know I really 
should 
> know about this, but I'm afraid I don't! Any help would be very 
> greatly appreciated.
> Also, since I'd be using a laptop for my music creation, I presume 
> I'd need to buy a new soundcard, as laptop soundcards are 
> notoriously poor? What are my options here? Any recommendations? 
> Would it have to be an external card?
> Thank you in advance for any help anyone can offer,
> Ferdie
> PS Please talk as simply as possible to me, I understand little or 
> no technical jargon! Thanks.