How reliable are laptops for stage use?
The time when laptops were unreliable on stage is long gone. Now, they’re rock solid and raring to go.
Reliability is one of the most important factors for live music performers. And for obvious reason: our worst nightmare is having an equipment failure on stage. The short answer to the question “are laptops reliable for live music?” is a definite yes. As long as it is configured correctly, a laptop will serve you very well on stage.
I have been using laptops in live scenarios since around 2007. In those days, it was definitely a bit nerve-racking to use a laptop live. They would overheat, the spinning HDDs would give you issues if the stage rumbled too much, they were kinda slow and didn't have much RAM. But thankfully over the last decade or so, the sheer number of people using computers in their homes and at work has meant that the tech has really changed a lot. There are no moving parts in most modern computers, and some of them generate so little heat that they don't even have fans. In the last 5 years or so, the amount of video editing that is done on computers has meant that the DSP available for a reasonable price has increased tremendously. In general, video processes are a lot more processing intensive than audio, so if a computer can deal with video OK, it should have no problem with most audio tasks you can throw at it.
These factors alone make a modern laptop feel like a really good alternative to hardware. But also the software that runs on these computers is a lot more reliable than it was a decade ago, with some developers making software that is specifically aimed at live music performance. In my last 17 years or so working in live music with computers and hardware, the only occasion where I had a laptop die on me in a show was because it had overheated and the fans couldn't cool it down enough. After that show I put it on a cooling mat with additional fans and it was fine after that. But this was in about 2010, and I really don't think that would be a problem these days.
In contrast, in that same amount of time, I have had several hardware based failures on synth and keyboards. On one occasion the power supply for a synth failed just before a show. Another time the MIDI board got fried somehow and stopped sending or receiving MIDI. So is one solution way more reliable than the other? In my opinion, not really. Things are always going to break, and if you are relying on the gear, you need to have plans as to what to do if stuff breaks. I will say though, that in terms of hardware failure, it's often easier to swap out a laptop booted from a backup drive than it is to source a replacement keyboard.
Checklist for preparing your laptop for live music performance
There are a few things that you can do to your laptop to optimise it for live performance.
Make sure your laptop is connected to power.
Turn off all your power saving options so your laptop never goes to sleep.
Ensure the hard drive sleep options are set to off.
Turn off screen saver.
Turn off system sounds / notifications.
Use a cooling rack under your laptop to make sure your machine is well ventilated.
Secure your cables so they can’t be snagged or ripped out accidentally.
Disconnect from Wi-Fi.
Turn off auto-updaters, especially to your Operating System and plugins.
Close unused applications.
Power cycle and check all functions before each show.