Hi all,

I'm looking at getting myself a mobile setup to allow me to perform outside my house!

I will be using a Macbook pro and Pd. At the moment I have no external audio interfaces. After a bit of browsing I've found it's pretty hard to tell what to choose. Having not had experience setting up non-traditional instruments for public performance I'm not sure how to go about it. Do I get and amp? Do I plug into the venue's PA? Do I need an external audio interface to do this? Compatibility with OSX? with Pd? etc...

So I'm wondering do you have any advice?

I'm looking for something with a bit of flexibility, preferably capable of multi-channel output and not expensive xP

I know this is a very broad question and down to a lot of personal choice/ style but I'm hoping for some guidance from people who know more about this than me (all of you lol).

I'm going to be upgrading from my knackered Linux machine (from when cd burners on laptops were new!) so this could be a useful thread.

Things i've found out from playing laptops live:

It's very useful to have a small mixer on stage; it's nice to have something instant and also separate controlling your volume and EQ. Repointing the mouse at something to fix a problem can feel very clumsy when things go wrong in front of people. You can then plug the mixer into the PA through the FOH desk via XLRs/Adapters/DI boxes depending on the situation (sound guy).

Unless you want to lose lots of top end, something like a guitar amp is a bit useless, better to have full-range monitors setup for you in-house if you can get them.

If your outputs are noisy you can try ground loop isolators, you'll need one on every out and in of your sound interface. Watch going straight out of the headphone jack as the impedance is different to line level and can sound WACK.

Interface-wise you get what you pay for. I had one similar to http://www.thomann.de/gb/esi_duafire.htm aimed at "The DJ market". Relatively cheap, 6 outputs, but noisy and difficult to set up.
Wouldn't spend less than 300 on a multichannel one, there is the ultra cheap u-control for 20 quid if you just want simple 2 in 2 out.

Rest the laptop on something that doesn't vibrate and keep beer AWAY.