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Creating, performing and producing music has never been easier or more accessible. If you own one of the best laptops for music production, with a few small steps, you can access the type of technology once a professional studio is maintained. From full ‘band in a box’ tools, to expansive multi-track recording environments, it’s surprising what you can do now with more than a consumer laptop.
What Laptop Is Good For Music Production
We think it’s a great hobby, and we want to share it. In this guide, we’ll outline some tips for choosing a laptop intended for performing and producing music in your home recording studio. Read on to find out everything from the specs you need, how you can optimize them for recording, as well as some advice on specific details to look out for when choosing a laptop for music recording.
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When you choose a laptop for recording music, there are certain things that you need the laptop to have. Chief among them is pure and unadulterated performance. Fancy features like branded speakers, touchscreen or 4K resolution are nice to have but not essential for a music production laptop. Here, it’s all about your CPU, RAM and storage media. Each of these components determines how much work you can do, and how quickly you can do it.
The CPU controls how fast your laptop will process things and how many of these things can be done at the same time. Virtual instruments, plugins, and other processing tasks all use the CPU, and you’ll quickly find that everything grinds to a halt if your CPU can’t handle the task. An Intel Core i5 and above, or an AMD Ryzen 5 and above, should give you enough juice to complete most tasks.
RAM controls the amount of data stored in the laptop’s short-term memory. This manifests itself in the number of audio tracks you can have in your arrangement, or in the number of individual samples you can use. Ideally here you want to exceed 8GB. Anything less, and you’ll find that working with a digital audio workstation (DAW) can be a painful experience. It’s also worth seeing if this can be updated in the future, which is a fairly simple task but has a big impact on performance.
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Finally, storage media is arguably the least important of the three factors we’ve outlined, but it’s definitely one to keep in mind. Although traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) can store large volumes of files and data, they are not the fastest at getting that data to where it belongs. For this purpose, you should look for a solid state drive (SSD) that offers lightning-fast data transfer speeds. So, for example, you can store a large library of samples and stream them in your DAW without interruptions or other problems.
Ah, finance, cruel mistress. Although we all love to determine the most advanced Apple MacBook Pro, there are certain economic realities that most of us have to face. Therefore, it is important to have an idea of how much you are willing to spend in your mind before you go to an online store. Our guide to choosing a budget laptop shows some great options at the lower end of the scale but, like anything, you get what you pay for. For us, the jump in performance once you pass the $/£500 mark makes it a sweet spot for a basic machine suitable for music production.
As we mentioned above, you need to keep in mind what you will be using the laptop for. If it is purchased for the sole purpose of music production, check the spec sheet. Squeeze as much as you can in the way of CPU, RAM and storage media as much as you can out of your hard-earned money and ignore the fancy features of the title. The touchscreen and aesthetics are great, but don’t sacrifice performance.
However, opt for an SSD over an HDD if possible, and connectivity wise it’s a safe bet considering peripherals and external devices like MIDI keyboards and audio interfaces will switch to USB-C in the future so make sure you’re well stocked . those areas.
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Also, consider battery life. While many, if not most, studios that use laptops will set them up in one static location, the benefits of portability cannot be discounted. To put your entire studio in a backpack and work on the beach, or on a mountain, for example, is a liberating experience and one that you cannot do with a desktop PC.
The relationship between hardware and software is very intertwined in music production. A laptop is only as good as the software it runs, and that software is only as good as the laptop allows. Apple has a clear advantage here because Logic Pro X, its proprietary DAW, is specifically designed to work only with Apple’s OS and, therefore, there is an inherent increase in performance. Everything, to coin a phrase, just works.
Windows-based laptops, on the other hand, still have plenty of options to choose from, including Ableton Live, Cubase and AVID Pro Tools, each with their own benefits and drawbacks. Putting Apple apps to one side, any decent spec laptop should be able to handle projects from any major DAW. That gives you one more decision to make, and one we’re talking about here.
It’s reasonable to wonder how much you expect – or hope – to get out of your laptop. Technology is moving so fast these days and it’s easy to get caught up in the competition to always have the fastest and most powerful machine. It’s worth noting whether your laptop of choice can be upgraded on its own in the future.
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Windows-based machines, particularly from the gaming domain, often allow users to upgrade individual components such as RAM or storage without too much hassle. However, music production can still be done on old computers, using the methods we describe here.
While the laptop itself is the brain of the operation, there are definitely other items you’ll want to include to get the most out of the technology. An audio interface, which externalizes the audio handling capabilities of a laptop, allows you to connect audio inputs – instruments and microphones – to audio outputs such as studio monitors and headphones.
Likewise, external gear like controller keyboards and groove boxes like Native Instruments’ Maschine can all expand your rig’s capabilities. USB acts as the gateway here, so you’ll need to make sure you either have a good amount of connectivity in the laptop or that the device can operate through the hub – not all gear can, so make sure you research this first.
Audio driver compatibility is important in music production. Most of the audio equipment and software you will use operate using ASIO drivers for audio, which can be a mixed bag depending on your laptop. When working properly, they enable low-latency recording and performance, meaning near-instant feedback from what you’re playing and what the laptop is listening to. When they don’t, they can be a nightmare full of pops, crackles, glitches and timing problems.
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In our experience, Apple has the upper hand when it comes to drivers, which require little effort or thought. Windows, on the other hand, can be troublesome and sometimes require a bit of forum digging to resolve certain issues. This is great – rewarding, even – if you use a computer, but if the thought of fighting the settings leaves you cold, then we advise you to seriously consider your chosen platform.
As with any major purchase, our advice is simple. Identify what you are trying to achieve and start thinking about what is important, what is just a ‘nice to have’ and what you can live without. For enthusiasts who want to try their hand at composition and recording, while also performing normal laptop functions like email and video calling, a Windows machine with the specs we discussed earlier will do just fine. For more serious or advanced users, we point you towards higher performance Windows laptops such as the Dell XPS range or commitment to the Apple ecosystem with the MacBook Pro.
Music production, for us, is one of the most rewarding ways to express your creativity. The technology we choose to work with should, ideally, work quietly in the background, facilitating our work without ever being the center of attention. By doing your research – as you did – and making the right choice, you should have a laptop that will work well for years to come.
Chris Corfield is a journalist with over 12 years experience writing for some of the music world’s biggest brands including Orange Amplification, , Guitar World Total Guitar and Dawsons Music. Chris loves to talk about everything from guitars and basses, to synths, microphones, DJ gear and music production hardware.
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