MusicRadar

Controllers such as Korg's forthcoming nanoSeries devices are making the studio more portable than ever.

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Whether you're an electronica artist who needs to work away from the studio, a guitarist who wants to be able to create every tone imaginable or a DJ who fancies carrying all their music with them wherever they perform, a laptop is the perfect solution.

In fact, MusicRadar would go as far as to say that a PC or Mac portable should now be on every musician's shopping list, and we've got ten reasons why…

1. Great hardware and software
Everyone's been talking about the forthcoming Korg nanoSeries controllers, but these aren't the only products that have been designed with laptop users in mind. Kenton's Killamix Mini is perfect for Ableton Live users who want to start performing, while the Presonus FaderPort and Frontier Design Group AlphaTrack are excellent portable DAW controllers. On the software side, if you don't fancy Live, Propellerhead's Reason 4 remains a fantastic option for anyone who requires a self-contained, end-to-end production solution.

2. It's a high-quality sound module
If you're a keyboard player in a band and want the highest-quality sounds available, a laptop is where it's at. Load it up with a few choice bits of software and you'll have all the acoustic and synthetic patches you could ever want. The only other thing you need is a decent MIDI controller keyboard to play them on – Fatar's new Numa, for example.

3. It's a virtual guitar amp
Traditionalists will scoff at the notion of using a laptop for guitar tone creation purposes, but the fact is that today's software simulators are amazingly flexible. What's more, if you go for IK Multimedia's StompIO or Native Instruments' Guitar Rig 3 Kontrol Edition, you've also got a hardware foot controller that's perfect for stage use.

4. It will change the way you make music
Having a studio full of gear is great, but perversely, having too many options can sometimes be restrictive. If you're working with a slimmed-down laptop setup, you'll have to adapt your workflow and learn to get the best out of the tools that you do have at your disposal. This in turn could lead to you making a different, possibly better kind of music.