Carrying a laptop for mixing and monitoring and another PC for VSTi’s isn’t as mobile as a fast powerful 1U PC in a small rack.
I have to automate lights, vocal FX, Synth presets, visual metronomes, and perform live using sampled instrument and articulations for our festival gigs, often outdoors where the temps can kill gear.
My 1U in a rack with audio MIDI interface is fast to set up, stable and extremely mobile.
Only thing I need is USB Powered 12” LCD and a mouse, just for boot up. Everything else including on the fly non menu diving manual over rides is done my from keyboard.
Reaper is a great host for these type of gigs.
Plus I get to make much more money by automating the entire performance.
No FOH, or LD needed.
All lighting cues are tight and there’s zero downtime.
If I didn't build the rack though I’d pick a laptop, but it would still need to be a desktop replacement from ADK out of Lexington, KY.
Only other option would be a custom Express 34 design by Getac, but those are 5-6 large and they still dont clock higher than 3GHz which could choke using ZebraHZ, PTeq, Kontakt, Omnispher/Keyscape.
My PC costs 975 to build and that includes n NVMe M.2 for Spectrasonics STEAM Folder. Its great for speeding up sample loading.
