Acer Aspire One Netbook – Ultra Portable Music Making
I have been experimenting with the recently released Acer Aspire One, using various music making applications and I can joyously report that they work incredibly well. The Intel Atom processor included in these mini marvels is not the most powerful in the world, so I had limited hopes when running Ableton Live 7. However to my delight I found that it would happily run many simultaneous loops and some effects as well before running out of steam. The photo above shows 8 loops running which is using around 30% CPU. The more processor intensive effects (such as reverb) can max out the processor quite easily, but used sparingly the netbook can be used as an ultra portable and inexpensive sketch pad. It is worth noting that to get the most out of the music software that an ASIO compliant sound card is required. I have purchased the Edirol UA-1EX to handle these duties, but have also tried my Novation X-Station with similarly impressive results. The 120Gb HDD ensures that plenty of audio content can be carried around with you and messed with when and wherever the whim takes you. Battery life is the main draw back however, being as the the Aspire One manages around two hours of use out of the supplied battery. That said there are 7800mAh battery replacements which apparently can supply up to 10 hours of sonic enjoyment!
Reason 4 appears to function well, however as before you need to keep an eye on the effects used and create your work using Subtractor rather than Thor. I need to have a bit more of a play with this but my initial impressions are that the screen restrictions make Reason less fun than Live. None the less this is possible to use and may find favour with some folk.
It is also worth noting that I have done all of this running on standard Windows XP with no tweeks or hacks. In fact I even have AVG anti-virus software running constantly in the background.
Here are some links to get you started:
Hi there,
just tried to install Ableton Live 7 in my Aspire One but couldn’t. After executing the Setup program looks like it starts running (i see it in the task manager) but after a few seconds it halts without giving any mesage. Wondering if you had problems like this, and how you solved it.
Thanks!
@Dan
Dan, I did not have these kind of problems…You could try using Process Monitor from Microsoft http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx to help identify why this may be failing.
@GaryJudge I suppose it is also worth mentioning that my version is installed upon a version of Windows I installed myself and not anything pre-loaded by Acer.
Hello, I have the 160gb acer aspire one mini and installed and working apps so far:
-native instruments reaktor 3.05 / reaktor 4 / battery2 /absynth
-ableton live 7
-fruity loops 7xxl
-a lot of vsti’s including korg legacy collection, arp2600, moog modular,
I also bought korg nanoKeys, nanoPad and nanocontrol (very cool)
What’s annoying with this acer is that when making music battery holds only 1 hour sometimes 1hour30min! Planning to buy this 7800mah replacement from ebay. I also need a audio interface but as I was searching around I’ve found nothing else than those bulky cards in boxes! Why can’t edirol or tascam or korg or rme … make a nice card with USB (so small like soundblasters new one but with the prostuff inside instead of crappy 48000khz)Cards like the echo gina could have usb for example…
So question which card to buy or waiting untill something really nice comes out…?
@oli Hi Oli, I use the Edirol UA-1EX being as it is small and ASIO2. It can run at 96kHz, but I use it at 44.1. For under £50 this is certainly something worth considering.
Hey! Thanks for the lowdown – I’m just about on the verge of buying one of these things and it’s great to know it can handle music making. I already have a reasonably good desktop system for the heavy duty stuff, but I really love the idea of having a ‘scratch pad’ to get ideas down when I’m away from home. I’m thinking Reason 4, Guitar Pro 5 and maybe a few other bits and pieces. One question: does an ASIO interface help out with the CPU usage? I’d only be inputting notes by hand (not by keyboard) so I could quite happily run the DX audio drivers with high latency to keep usage low.
@Paul Ortiz
Paul the ASIO drivers makes all the difference at play back time, otherwise you end up with glitchy audio when a few things are going on. By all means try it without to see if it meets your needs, but I think you will end up buying a usb soundcard.
Anyone try using this setup with the built in soundcard and Asio4all? Opinion?
Derek, I have and whilst it technically works the processor isnt up to handling Ableton Live and ASIO4ALL so the audio is glitchy.
Thanks for the tips here on soundcards. Might have to check out the Edirol. Though i’ve been finding it works well with the onboard sound for now. The only problem I found was with Screen size. Not having a big enough workspace. Though I found this fan piece of software that came in handy.
http://nodadev.wordpress.com/pc-projects/a1ctl/
You can stretch the resolution and do alot of other handy things with your aspire one to save battery life.
@Kev Sturman Cheers – I will check it out. I personally find that I use the keyboard to trigger clips works well for me. I’ve just purchased Live 8 and will try it on the netbook some time soon and let you know how / if the screen zoom feature helps.
i have ableton installed, I use softsynths and i can only get a couple tracks in before cpu usage is out of control. i primarily make ambient music so this makes it very hard to layer. would an audio interface help this at all?
That is a limitation of the atom processor. I would strongly recommend sticking to audio.
Hey, I am looking to create a set up for live perfomance that can handle what I have going now, which us a 1st gen macbook pro, two midi controllers running reason 4.0. Each of the controllers controls a combinator where I have made splits and layers etc. So always only two mono tracks out. These are hard panned l and r and sentout via the 1/8″ jack (no audio interface). Can a netbook running reason 4.0 handle something like this? I know ill need to get an interface, can you recommend an inexpensive one that will do the trick? Thanks! I really appreciate any insight you give me as I am looking to have this new set up ready for the fall tour. Best, Willis
@willis sorry for the delay, but here goes anyway…I haven’t really used Reason with my netbook and suspect that what you are hoping to do may be too much for the Atom processor. I have run up version 2 and and used subtractor on it fine but thats it. Check to see if anyone you know has a netbook and try it on there before spending your own cash. In terms of interface, I went for the cheapest Edirol unit (around £40). Behringer do a similar spec interface for around £20 but I cannot vouch for how good the drivers are. Good luck!
hi guys!
just a bit of info for anyone interested in using reason on the acer one..
I’ve been using reason 4 + the incredibly awesome korg nanokey and have had EXCELLENT results!
Bare in mind that I have a full music production studio pc, and anything I do on the acer one is a “rough sketch” so with that in mind, here are a few tweaks I did in reason 4 on the A1:
in general preferences tab I disabled tool tips, automation indicator, and cable animation, as well as made sure that high resolution samples were NOT being used. CPU usage is set to 90%
in audio page I set the sample rate to 32,000 (since it’s just a sketch, don’t really need a high sample rate, and you can always change it back before exporting)
finally, as previously mentioned, avoid the thor, and go easy on the combinator (stay away from any EXTREMELY intensive refills like REASON PIANO)
I’m waiting for the BLUE MIC Snowflake USB microphone to come in, so when it does, i’ll be sure to let you guys know how it does with cubase sx 3 and the acer one.. I can get the acer one to RUN cubase, and even open an existing session and play it, albeit not an effects laden one, but it does play, so lets see if it can record!
i was installing some application programme and the screen became dark allover a sudden and now even if i turn on the laptop, it shows that its on but it does it does not display anything.the screen is dark
I had a similar issue where my netbook would not boot. I sent it back to Acer and they flashed the bios. I would suggest that if it is under 1 year old that you send it back under warranty.
I HAVE THE ACER ASPIRE ONE ALSO. I’M RUNNING XP. I TRIED MAGIX MUSIC MAKER, TO NO AVAIL. THE SCREEN REQUIREMENTS ARE TO GREAT FOR MINE. WHAT ELSE CAN I USE? I WANT TO RECORD MY GUITAR AND USE LOOPS.
Try ACID Xpress http://www.acidplanet.com/downloads/xpress/ . Its free and will handle loops and basic audio recording.
hello there, just got my new acer aspire one, and I just tried to open Ableton live 8 (and then tried with live 6) to work on my live set (Im playing in 2 weeks). It works pretty well, but it seems like the sound freezes for a quarter of second sometimes, a kind of glitch, very annoying. I cant play live with these lags. I was only playing 1 mp3 files on 1 audio track in live, and listening in my headphones. No external audio card. Will the audio card change everything? im a bit stressed out now.
In short if you must use ableton then I would recommend an ASIO2 compatible sound card. Before splashing your cash though, you may want to try either acid or audacity. These are less demanding, but you loose much of the flexibility and live-centric features. Good luck with your live set!
Thank you for the help.
Great Audio info, i’m bookmarking the page for the great content.
trying to get music on my acer one netbook and dont know were to start or wat to do can anyone please help me
I would suggest trying something like straight forward like rebirth or reason. Rebirth is free and Reason has a free demo. Good luck.
i’ve been running acid pro 7 and fl studio 8 on my 1st gen acre aspire one for a while now, and i’m quite happy with its performance. works well with all of my native instruments and korg synths too… yeah, i have to keep an eye on processor usage when loading more than a couple vsti’s but for the most part, life is good with this setup.