Size of main drive for Mixcraft Studio

[Atlantian]

Eventually I'll have Mixcraft of my custom desktop Gigabyte, but for reasons I'll be starting here while on the road, traveling a lot, etc.;
so to begin with, could i run it on a laptop Dell with a 256GB SSD, and an external drive or two? It would not be ideal, but would it work for a while?
Thank for any wisdom.

[Ray Cube]

If there isn't much else on the laptop I don't see why not. It may depend on your user case and how you intend to use it.
For instance if you use Mixcraft as I do for using samples I would make sure you have all of them on the laptop before using it away in case there are problems connecting to the internet.
It will also depend on how many third party effects you have, sample libraries etc.
Will you be using the laptops sound card or do you have a portable sound interface?
What sort of inputs outputs does it have?
I'm assuming if the laptop has an SSD then it is fairly modern. Any idea of the processor?
How much free space is there on the laptop C: drive? If it is only say half full at present I think it should be OK
You can choose to put your App date temp files, the sound library, and project files onto another drive as long as it is connected during use and presumably when you install the program.
The program itself is not that large and as far as I can tell doesn't generate that large a set of temp files on the C: drive while in use.
Of course I could be wrong but a lot of people use laptops for audio work.

[Atlantian]

Wow...... Thanks for that.
If there isn't much else on the laptop I don't see why not. It may depend on your user case and how you intend to use it.

For instance if you use Mixcraft as I do for using samples I would make sure you have all of them on the laptop before using it away in case there are problems connecting to the internet. No, that went over my head. Why would connecting the www cause problems?
It will also depend on how many third party effects you have, sample libraries etc. I have some effects, but most are physical. Likewise, there will be samples on there, but not a lot, depending on Mixcraft's samples,

Will you be using the laptops sound card or do you have a portable sound interface?

. I have an old AudioBox and a Babyface, a few years old.

I'm assuming if the laptop has an SSD then it is fairly modern. Any idea of the processor? 2.3GHZ i5. If needed, I may move to the desktop, i5 3.2GHZ

[Atlantian]

I may have sewed some confusion. I own two laptops, so the main drive size may be either 250 or 500 GB...... if I stop buying stuff!

[Ray Cube]

The internet part of my reply was because until you try to use a sample listed in the library it does not reside on the hard drive unless you choose to download the library samples. So if you don't download them first they still appear in the library list but is only downloaded from the internet once chosen to listen to. So, if you are somewhere with the laptop where an internet connection is not possible then you can't use that sample.
People use laptops to travel with and may not always have an internet connection available to them although that gets a rarer occurrence over time.

The Acoustica website states that Mixcraft should work on any computer / laptop that has the following specs or higher.

Minimum System Requirements 64-bit Windows 7 SP1, 8, 10 or 11 4GB RAM 1.8 GHz Dual Core CPU Sound card, USB, or Firewire sound device Recommended System Requirements 64-bit Windows 10 or above 8GB RAM. 3.0 GHz Quad Core CPU or higher ASIO Audio Interface

The ability to download the manual before you buy is also an option on the product page which goes though the setting up procedure in the first few pages as well as a link to try out the demo. It may be short of some of the offered plug-ins but would give you an idea of whether the basic program would run smoothly or not. Normally I would go with the Recommended system requirements as a guide if you are thinking of using some of the more processor intensive plugins.
As I said, it may be user case specific as to how well it runs. The more effects, tracks, etc you add, the higher the work load will become.

[Atlantian]

The odd thing is that I am most likely to D/L Studio onto this Lenovo and, if it works and Mixcraft suits me, I am unlikely to keep it on here; rather, I will certainly run it in my desktop and probably get or designate a non-internet computer as mobile DAW. (I'll likely have to work out of town fairly often, or at least occasionally.)

[Ray Cube]

Mixcraft allows up to four activations on different machines so you could have both running, and once the respective programs are registered, can be set to run without an internet connection if desired. You may miss out on any update information if offline though and one of the many good things I've noticed since changing over to Mixcraft from my old daw is the amount of updates to the inevitable bugs the program has received since buying the program.
I have also been pleased to note that unlike some other products the upgrades do not necessarily come every year to eighteen months but only when significant changes / additions to the program are offered.
It has its quirks, differences, and for some, annoyances to other programs to be sure but personally I found the changeover to be easy and intuitive.

I think if you have any problems with the program it may come from some of the supplied extras that may need more processing than the core program, hence my preference to take heed of the 'preferred' specs that normally include needing to use those parts of the supplied download.

While you have said you have this Intel CPU or that CPU, you did not give the complete generational information on either of them, only the type, and there can be a big difference in the performance of say an i5-13600K and an i5-8350U in terms of performance. Judging from the quoted speed of the processors you gave though I would assume they are not newer than an i5-8350U so the processor speed or core count could become a problem. Difficult to know for sure and best you try out the demo first. The specified speed of the desktop processor seems to imply it would work sufficiently well on that machine but again sometimes programs run sufficiently well on machines depending on what is expected of the program and the projects created. That is why trying out demos of programs can be helpful but not always the full story.
Personally I have encountered zero problems with the program once I got used to the workflow differences between my old daw and this one but I'm running an old but higher specified desktop than you have indicated you are using. Also my needs may not be your own. I work mainly with soft synths, samplers and loops and very little with microphones or live instruments.