07-22-2019, 12:39 AM
I thought I'd post my experiences here of AE on a mid-range Chromebook. There's a few threads based around the PIxelbook, but that is a very expensive beast; If, like me, you want to get the full DAW experience that AE gives you on a cheaper device then fear not, it is possible.
I've been using a Samsung S2 tab and AE for several years now and the tablet was getting tired, full, slow and actually quite warped, so decided to take the plunge with Chrome OS. I managed to pick up Acer Chromebook 315 CB315-2H in the Amazon Prime sale for £179, so a lot cheaper than a Pixelbook. It's one of the new Chromebooks to run and AMD chip and actually you get quite a bang for your buck, so pleased there. However, when I initially loaded AE up, every recording sounded like a scratched record. The latency was actually fine even without the extreme USB driver which cannot be used in ChromOS's implementation of Android, but the scratchy recording was a deal-breaker. I played about with every setting I could and eventually found that Oboe / AAudio was the issue. Once I changed the Audio system to "AudioTrack" the recordings were fine, but the latency was terrible, however, setting it to OpenSLES gave a really good experience, easily as good as I got on my Samsung Tab. I set the Open SLES Buffer size to 'Native Buffer size', checked the Open SLES optimisation and left all the Latency correction options at zero.
I do have a very small latency issue on recorded tracks, but this is easily corrected and was something I always had on Android anyway (latency correction didn't seem to help).
So, end result is that I'm now really happy with my set-up; the bigger screen is amazing, I don't have to faff around with special powered OTG cables and it hasn't cost me a huge amount to switch. I was still able to use my cheap old Behringer UCA222 audio interface without having to upgrade to a USB C interface and the only issue is that the Chromebook is not touchscreen, but I'm finding my way around that and it hasn't been an issue so far.
In a nutshell then, if you have been thinking about a Chromebook but were concerned that you may have to spend a fortune and compromise your AE experience, then that's not my experience.
I hope that's helped anyone with doubts about AE on ChromeOS.
OMT
I've been using a Samsung S2 tab and AE for several years now and the tablet was getting tired, full, slow and actually quite warped, so decided to take the plunge with Chrome OS. I managed to pick up Acer Chromebook 315 CB315-2H in the Amazon Prime sale for £179, so a lot cheaper than a Pixelbook. It's one of the new Chromebooks to run and AMD chip and actually you get quite a bang for your buck, so pleased there. However, when I initially loaded AE up, every recording sounded like a scratched record. The latency was actually fine even without the extreme USB driver which cannot be used in ChromOS's implementation of Android, but the scratchy recording was a deal-breaker. I played about with every setting I could and eventually found that Oboe / AAudio was the issue. Once I changed the Audio system to "AudioTrack" the recordings were fine, but the latency was terrible, however, setting it to OpenSLES gave a really good experience, easily as good as I got on my Samsung Tab. I set the Open SLES Buffer size to 'Native Buffer size', checked the Open SLES optimisation and left all the Latency correction options at zero.
I do have a very small latency issue on recorded tracks, but this is easily corrected and was something I always had on Android anyway (latency correction didn't seem to help).
So, end result is that I'm now really happy with my set-up; the bigger screen is amazing, I don't have to faff around with special powered OTG cables and it hasn't cost me a huge amount to switch. I was still able to use my cheap old Behringer UCA222 audio interface without having to upgrade to a USB C interface and the only issue is that the Chromebook is not touchscreen, but I'm finding my way around that and it hasn't been an issue so far.
In a nutshell then, if you have been thinking about a Chromebook but were concerned that you may have to spend a fortune and compromise your AE experience, then that's not my experience.
I hope that's helped anyone with doubts about AE on ChromeOS.
OMT