- Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Software
- Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Free
- Macbook Pro Music Production Setup App
- Mac Pro For Music Production
For the music producer, Apple's new Macbook Pro 2016, requires quite a bit of upfront investment.
The first thing I wondered when I saw the Macbook Pro being introduced is how am I going to plug in my Cubase dongle? Let alone the many other audio hardware a typical music producer owns – from audio interfaces, MIDI controllers to drum pads & DJ controllers.
The Macbook Pro has been stripped off all traditional USB ports USB-C ports instead.
Overall, the Mac Mini is an excellent choice for music production. Click here to checkout the Mac Mini on Amazon; Click here to read user reviews; View used listings on eBay. Without a doubt, the Macbook Pro is the best laptop for music production. Out of all of the few laptops that Apple offers, the Pro model is the most powerful.
Well to use the latest Macbook Pro for music production, you'll have to invest in about $250 of dongles & special cables.
The New Macbook Pro For Music Production
The new MacBook Pro 2016- Long story short I've been having a lot of problems with my music production set up, lots of crashes and stuff. This is what I'm working with: 15 inch Macbook Pro (2011) running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 Processor: 2GHz Intel Core i7 Memory: 8GB 1333 MHz DDR3 500 GB HD As far as software goes: Logic 9 Native Instruments Komplete 7 Omnisphere Maschine.
- 2020 MacBook Air vs Pro for Music Production? I'm a musician who wants to transfer from working with GarageBand on iPad to Logic Pro X on MacBook. Would the new Air handle music production fine without performance issues or would it be a safe bet to go with the pro?
- A 13 or 15-inch MacBook Pro is capable of high-resolution graphics and can provide plenty of entertainment but if you really want to enjoy a movie or play games, a larger screen is just better. You could synch up your MacBook Pro to a TV and enjoy a movie from a cozy couch or in bed rather than trying to squint to see it on your computer.
- When it comes to the best laptops for music production, Apple's MacBook Pro series has proven itself a winner time and time again.While the MBP has always been praised for its consistent hardware and compatibility, rock-solid performance and hassle-free operation for generations, if you've ever looked at upgrading your own laptop you'll know all too well that this level of performance.
How will the new MacBook pro do for music production? It's lighter, thinner and it comes with a nice new ‘touch bar'. The MagSafe power connector is gone, which is a shame really as it was a useful safety feature, so your Macbook does not fly off the stage if someone happens to trip over the power cable.
You can still use traditional USB2.0 & USB3.0 devices with USB-C
I don't know what type of musician or producer you are, but you're bound to have some controller or audio device that connects to your computer via USB. How to connect your USB devices like audio interfaces and controllers to the Macbook Pro then?
The good news is you can buy a USB-C to USB 3.0 cable, which would work with USB2.0 devices as well. But this means changing all the cables you have in your studio, which can get pretty costly.
Another alternative is to buy a dongle like the USB-C Hub to USB-A, for all your connection needs.
It does not end there. Those dongles are needed to connect your audio devices. What if you take pictures as well or have an audio recorder like the Zoom H6 that uses SD cards? Well, another SD card USB-C card reader dongle for you.
You plan to connect your Macbook Pro to an external monitor in your studio? Yup, another USB-C to VGA adapter for you unless you're waiting for the said new LG monitors that will be built with Macbook Pros in mind.
This might not be a deal breaker for many music producers, but I don't like the idea of carrying so many different dongles. They get broken quickly and worse, you're bound to forget a dongle and mistakenly leave it behind when you travel.
What about the new 'Touch Bar' for music production?
Since Apple developed Logic Pro X, we would think some kind of Touch Bar feature will be built for it. But it seems like while every creative app, like Final Cut X, Numbers & Pages got updated with Touchbar support, Logic Pro X did not.
I must say, the Touchbar feature looks amazing and cool. There are so many features that I could think off, would be really cool on the Touchbar. For example, imagine using the Touchbar as a transport bar, MIDI controller or a mixing control surface to mute/solo or perhaps tweak some pan pots.
Touchbar seems like a nice feature for the music producer, but do you really need it? I figured using a touch screen to control the knobs and faders on a DAW would be much more intuitive than trying to fiddle on a thin Touchbar strip.
The new Macbook Pro can only have max 16GB RAM
Only max of 16GB RAM on the new MacBook Pro 2016. Good enough for music production?As a music producer, producing with lots of VSTs and effects through the years, you probably know how important RAM is for your setup.
Before you throw hate on Apple, understand that the Macbook Pro is a laptop. It is designed to be small and portable. If you're looking for super serious production work, it's best to get a desktop unit or something like the iMac 27.
The reason why the Macbook Pro only limits up to max 16GB of RAM is possibly to make up for its higher battery life. Some users also noted that the MacBook Pro is using an LPDDR3 RAM which uses more power as compared to DDR4, in which surprisingly Apple did not put in.
However that being said, it's still possible to do serious production work on a Macbook Pro. The SSD speeds on the MacBook Pro will aid with any heavy audio recording or processing in the studio or on the roads.
It also has a bumped up battery life to 10 hours between charges, so producing music on the road will be a breeze.
Isn't the MacBook Pro a little expensive?
MacBook Pro are expensive for starters in music production
The standard 13-inch MacBook Pro (without the Touchbar) starts at $1499 instead of the previous pricing of $1299. And this model is without the TouchBar, which in my opinion, kind of defeats the purpose of upgrading to the new MacBook Pro. Besides, the entry Macbook Pro also comes with only 2 USB-C ports which is quite a deal breaker for music producers.
I used to recommend fellow music producers who wanted a Macbook Pro, to go for the base 15-inch model as it comes with higher disk space and also with a maxed out 16GB RAM. It wouldn't be worth the price difference if you were to get the 13-inch model and upgrade the disk space and RAM.
However, the new MacBook Pro 15-inch model now starts at $2300 and even higher for people in Europe at €2799 (which is reported to be a 50% increase in price from the last pricing).
Even though Apple is a company that prides on their higher priced products, the price increase this round has caused lots of grumbles. Many users are talking about going back to run on a refurbished 2015 unit instead of getting the new Macbook Pro 2016.
Switch To Windows For Music Production?
Mac used to be the computer you want to get if you are into music production. But that isn't the case anymore these days. There is no reason why you can't produce great music on a Windows based computer system.
In fact, I'm using both the Mac and Windows for music production. The ONLY complaint I probably have for a Windows machine is the absence of a robust audio driver like CoreAudio on a Mac.
There is also a few great reasons why you would consider the switch to a Windows machine. Again, I'm not biased and this is not a Windows to Mac debate, but it's cheaper to start off your music production journey on a Windows machine. You get more power for the price you pay for in most Windows based machine.
Some MacBook Pro alternatives for music production
Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Software
Here are some great laptops you can consider if you're in for the switch to Windows. The laptops recommended here are near the Macbook Pro in terms of portability and battery life.
Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Free
1 – Dell XPS 13″ (Kaby Lake)
Coming with a new 7th generation processor, this is one of the best MacBook Pro alternatives you can find for music production. The Dell XPS is super portable, and it also comes with an excellent battery life, said to last up to 14 hours on web browsing – better than a Macbook Pro.
The laptop also comes with touch display, which can be used to control your DAW. For $1399, the highest model, you get an i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and a beautiful 3200 x 1800 touch display.
2 – Microsoft Surface Book i7
If you're into full portability, consider the Surface Book i7. The Surface is easily mistaken as a tablet PC with touch display but is in fact pretty powerful for music production.
The Surface more towards a mid-range to a high-end computer but you get lots of performance while it being extremely portable as well with 12 hours of battery life. At $2699, you get an i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and also a NVIDIA graphic card.
The Surface wouldn't be a great choice if you're into high graphic work, but for music production, the touch display and the performance it comes pack with are superb.
3 – ASUS GL552VW
This laptop packs lots of power at the expense of having less battery life. It's a gaming laptop but a good choice for music production as well.
It comes packed with an i7 processor and RAM upgradable up to 32GB, and this laptop is a powerhouse when it comes to processing and recording audio. Another thing to note is that it comes with an SSD and also a 1TB mechanical hard disk. This means you can put your system files on the SSD and your samples on the mechanical hard disk.
The cons to the ASUS GL552VW ROG is sadly that ASUS shipped many laptops that had graphic driver issues. I suspect it's a hardware issue, but there is no solid answer. Just make sure you test the laptop thoroughly to check for any fault when you receive it.
4 – Microsoft Surface Studio
Not a portable computer but it definitely caught the eye of many creative professionals. It looks near to an iMac, but it's more than just a regular computer.
The Surface comes with 28″ touch display, giving you lots of display screen real estate. The 4500 x 3000 Pixelsense display also gives you true colors, which would be amazing for design – showing you the actual colors. Upgradable up to 32GB RAM and has plenty of ports of all your audio hardware, it also comes pack with lots of CPU power with a
Macbook Pro Music Production Setup App
What really makes the Surface studio shine, is the Surface dial. It's a new accessory that works with the Surface studio by just placing it on the display.
Imagine the things you could do with the Surface dial, from drawing in automations, using it as a fader and more. We don't know the possibilities that it can do for now, but pretty sure more support for it will be launched soon.
Your Turn – Thoughts For The New MacBook Pro for Music Production?
What do you think about the new MacBook Pro and how will it fit into your studio?
Let us know in the comment section below. Will you stick to Apple and buy the MacBook Pro or is it time to look for an alternative?
- At least 2.2Ghz i7 quad-core processor
- At least 4GB of RAM
- 64-bit operating system
- At least 256GB of internal storage (HDD or SSD)
- At least a 15-inch screen.
A lot of the requirements will, of course, vary depending on what type of music you are going to record.
How complex is it? How many tracks will it consist of? Will it be mainly produced using MIDI or will it be all audio? How many tracks do you intend to record at one time? Are you recording an entire orchestra!? Will you be running hundreds of effects and/ or plugins?
You get the point. Not all music production needs are equal. But this guide should help you understand what to look for and why each one of the confusing technical specs is important.
If you follow this guide your laptop should be more than capable of recording fairly complex stuff, just about anything you would want to record in a home recording studio.
A Brief History of Recording
Over the past 100 years, audio recording has advanced significantly. The very first recordings in the early 20th century were created by a large horn-shaped object capturing sound and literally drawing out sound waves onto paper or wax.
By the middle of the century, magnetic tape recording became the technology of choice. This method made recordings of much higher quality and also meant they could be much longer in length.
It wasn't until the 1970's that digital recording even became a thing. But as with tape recording before it, digital completely changed the musical world and the way music production was done. Where tape only recorded continuous analog sounds, digital recordings work by taking a large number of small samples of a sound very quickly.
But even once the digital recording was invented it was a luxury reserved only for high-end professional recording studios for a long time.
Eventually, it would be possible to buy a computer for your home which would be capable of use in a recording setup. But to get the required spec you had to spend a lot of money. I remember computers even into the early 2000s that were just about capable of playing a CD or running a word processor. And even they would crash occasionally.
So the fact that you are here, even contemplating using a LAPTOP in a home recording studio is quite remarkable. It shows how far technology has come and it's great!
Laptop vs desktop for home audio production?
I personally made the move from my (not so trusty) desktop PC to a laptop around 4 years ago. Mainly because of the reasons mentioned above. It just wasn't possible until recently to get a laptop with the spec required for a reasonable price and that wouldn't explode as soon as you tried to open your DAW software.
Don't get me wrong, for the money you can probably get a much better desktop computer, custom fitted with everything you could ever want. But a laptop gives me other things which I find very handy.
The main one is portability. With a laptop, I have a music studio I can effectively take anywhere. If you are as busy as me, this is a great thing to have. It has allowed me to mix and even record parts of songs whilst on the train. I've even taken it to a church when I wanted to record the acoustics there. I don't have the space for a drum kit at home so I will sometimes take it to a studio to record drums without having to use someone else's setup, I have my tracks ready to go and I just plug in and record.
Before I splashed out on my faithful laptop (almost 4 years ago and still going strong), I did a tonne of research into what to look for in a laptop for music production.
I read loads of articles from people saying, don't bother, get a desktop bla bla bla. But there was a lot of useful information out there and it lead to me purchasing a laptop with a spec that has never let me down!
Ok, so you can't just grab your old dusty laptop that you mainly use for Facebook browsing and hope it will work in a home recording studio, it probably won't. The fact is, most off the shelf laptops don't have the spec required to run a DAW efficiently. But what specs are needed, and why?
Well here is a guide of the key laptop specs for music production which I hope you find useful. I will end with my recommendation of which laptops I think are your best options.
Processor
What processor do I need for music production?
Recommended – At least 2.2Ghz, i5 dual-core processor, but ideally i7 quad-core.
You've probably heard phrases such as ‘dual-core' and ‘quad-core' or ‘i3' and ‘i7' banded around but without any explanation of what they mean. I will do my best to explain without confusing you further.
The computer processing unit (CPU) is arguably the most important thing to get right when looking at laptop spec for home recording.
I like to think of the processor as the computers ‘brain'. Being the brain it is therefore responsible for performing calculations, carrying out actions, but probably most importantly for us, running programs. A processor is usually a square chip and sits on the motherboard of your laptop (like the one in the picture above).
Cores
When there was just a single core, only a limited amount of tasks could be carried out at one time. When we are running a complex digital audio workstation with multiple tracks all at once this is likely to overwhelm a single core.
Whats up software free download for android. Luckily that is why we now have laptops with dual or even quad-core processors. A dual-core is effectively two CPUs on a single chip rather than just one.
As you may expect adding more gives you more. With more processing power your laptop will be able to perform more tasks simultaneously which is essential when recording music. So more cores are usually better.
Frequency
Another important factor to look for in a processor is the frequency. This is the speed of the processor and is measured in gigahertz or GHz for short.
The frequency used to be the most important factor to look at when all computers had just a single core. And it does still make a difference, the higher the frequency the better. In some cases, a very high-frequency dual-core could actually outperform a lower frequency quad core.
I would recommend a frequency no lower than 2.2GHz, but the higher the number the better so see what you can stretch the budget to.
i3 vs i5 vs i7, whats the difference?
The numbers i3, i5 and i7 refer to different models of processor produced by the company Intel. And quite simply they improve in capability as you go up the numbers. With the i7 being the top processor Intel produce.
The i7, for instance, has a larger ‘cache' which allows it to deal with repetitive tasks more quickly. Repetitive tasks are stored in the background and then when required can be carried out almost instantly.
With increased performance comes increased price however so bear that in mind.
There are other makes of processors such as AMD as with intel just pay attention to the frequency and number of cores and they will work just as well.
RAM
How much RAM do I need for music production?
Recommended – At least 4GB but 8GB or 16GB is definitely the preference. You can never have too much RAM!
Music production software hits your laptop's memory hard, particularly as you add more plug-ins etc. to your process.
RAM stands for ‘Random Access Memory'. Rather than the long-term memory (which I'll explain below) RAM is the short-term ‘working' memory. It is much quicker for the laptop to use the RAM to quickly access data it needs rather than accessing it from the hard drive every time.
I've been trying to think of a metaphor for this for a while but this is the best I can do (sorry). RAM is a like a wallet full of money, whenever you need to pay for something you can quickly dip into your RAM wallet to grab some money. The hard-drive is more like the bank, it stores stuff away that is not needed quite so quickly. You have to imagine that you live in a dodgy neighborhood though as every time you put your RAM wallet down (i.e shut your laptop down) all the money from it disappears. Whereas the bank is nice and secure (hopefully) and even when shut down
So although these are both forms of memory they should not be used interchangeably. 4GB of RAM is quite high but 4GB of hard drive storage would barely be enough for a couple of audio recordings with multiple tracks.
As I mentioned, music production requires a lot of this quickly accessible memory. For this reason, I would definitely say to have no less than 4GB of RAM in a laptop for music production. The more RAM you can get with your cash the better, I decided to go for 16GB of RAM in my latest laptop and it runs smooth as anything.
32 vs 64-bit operating system
It's not that important to understand what the difference between 32 and 64 bit operating systems are apart from 64-bit is newer and better. It is capable of storing more data and is like comparing a car to a bike in terms of speed.
As I said above the more RAM the better but it is worth bearing in mind that a 32-bit operating system is only capable of running up to 4GB of RAM. If you want to have more than 4GB of RAM (which is highly recommended) you will need a 64-bit operating system.
Chances are with modern laptops you will be running a 64-bit operating system. With Windows, if you are running anything later than Windows 7 chances are it is 64 bit. With Macbooks anything more recent than a 2008 Macbook Pro will be 64-bit.
So it probably won't be an issue if you are buying new (or almost new) but I thought it was worth a mention.
Hard Drive
How much memory do I need for music production?
Recommended – at least 256GB internal storage (HDD or SSD) with at least 500GB external storage
Hard drives were one of the specs I found most confusing when choosing a laptop.
One thing that may shock you when you start producing music is the crazy amounts of storage space just a single track can consume! If you are used to just storing a few images or documents on your laptop then prepare for a shock! We are talking in the gigabytes here not the megabytes.
So as you will probably guess as with processors and RAM, the higher the number the better. But what is the minimum? What is recommended?
You will want a decent amount of memory to ensure you can smoothly run your DAW software and plugins but if you are using this laptop primarily for audio production you don't have to go too crazy with size. I would recommend going for at least 256GB of internal storage but 128GB may be enough for the following reason:
Use an external hard drive for audio files
If you have a high spec laptop you shouldn't have an issue storing audio data on the internal hard drive, but if you want to make sure you have absolutely no issues with performance then an external hard drive is well worth getting.
This will allow you to just use the internal hard drive for running the operating system, DAW and plugins. Whilst any audio tracks and samples can be kept separate on the external drive. This external hard drive can be your ‘audio drive'.
I personally recommend getting an SSD external hard drive (see below for the difference between SSD and HDD). I have this one from Samsung. The more storage the better of course but even 500GB will last you ages! Don't splash out loads of money on a 2TB one unless you plan on recording a ridiculous amount of songs.
I actually have a second external hard drive just for backing up and archiving old tracks. You don't want all those hours of recording to go to waste, do you?
Do I need an SDD for music production?
No, it is not necessary. As with all these things, it is a great luxury to have if you can afford it but an HDD will do most people fine. I'll try and explain why:
There are two main types of hard drive; SSD which stands for Solid State Drive and HDD which stands for Hard Disk Drive.
A solid-state drive works in a similar way to a USB drive, but built into the computer and much bigger. Unlike a hard disk drive, it doesn't have any moving parts. Information is stored on a series of microchips.
A hard disk drive, on the other hand, may be familiar to you as the whirring sound you get in many computers and laptops. That whirring sound is caused by a disk spinning really fast. As the disk spins around a mechanical arm read the information of it.
A solid-state drive is like having bookmarks in a book on the pages you want to find, whereas a hard disk drive is like having to flick through the pages every time to find what you are looking for (I apologize for all the terrible comparisons in this article!).
This means SSD is better than HDD but, of course, comes at a price being the better technology.
Personally, I still use an HDD drive. You can just get so much more for your money than with SDD. The truth is that the majority of data will be stored on the RAM. So having lots of RAM is much more important than having an SDD.
If you do go for HDD try and get one with a rotational speed of at least 7200RPM.
If you are planning on using huge numbers of samples, this will be too big to be loaded into the RAM so will be accessed from the hard drive. Then the need for SDD becomes slightly higher but is still not essential.
Is a Flash Drive the same as SSD?
Do I need to worry about the soundcard?
Unless you plan on plugging an instrument directly into the laptop then your external soundcard spec is not an issue. It is most likely you will be using an audio interface, which acts as an external soundcard. Therefore the spec of the one in your laptop won't matter.
Screen size
The standard 13-inch MacBook Pro (without the Touchbar) starts at $1499 instead of the previous pricing of $1299. And this model is without the TouchBar, which in my opinion, kind of defeats the purpose of upgrading to the new MacBook Pro. Besides, the entry Macbook Pro also comes with only 2 USB-C ports which is quite a deal breaker for music producers.
I used to recommend fellow music producers who wanted a Macbook Pro, to go for the base 15-inch model as it comes with higher disk space and also with a maxed out 16GB RAM. It wouldn't be worth the price difference if you were to get the 13-inch model and upgrade the disk space and RAM.
However, the new MacBook Pro 15-inch model now starts at $2300 and even higher for people in Europe at €2799 (which is reported to be a 50% increase in price from the last pricing).
Even though Apple is a company that prides on their higher priced products, the price increase this round has caused lots of grumbles. Many users are talking about going back to run on a refurbished 2015 unit instead of getting the new Macbook Pro 2016.
Switch To Windows For Music Production?
Mac used to be the computer you want to get if you are into music production. But that isn't the case anymore these days. There is no reason why you can't produce great music on a Windows based computer system.
In fact, I'm using both the Mac and Windows for music production. The ONLY complaint I probably have for a Windows machine is the absence of a robust audio driver like CoreAudio on a Mac.
There is also a few great reasons why you would consider the switch to a Windows machine. Again, I'm not biased and this is not a Windows to Mac debate, but it's cheaper to start off your music production journey on a Windows machine. You get more power for the price you pay for in most Windows based machine.
Some MacBook Pro alternatives for music production
Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Software
Here are some great laptops you can consider if you're in for the switch to Windows. The laptops recommended here are near the Macbook Pro in terms of portability and battery life.
Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Free
1 – Dell XPS 13″ (Kaby Lake)
Coming with a new 7th generation processor, this is one of the best MacBook Pro alternatives you can find for music production. The Dell XPS is super portable, and it also comes with an excellent battery life, said to last up to 14 hours on web browsing – better than a Macbook Pro.
The laptop also comes with touch display, which can be used to control your DAW. For $1399, the highest model, you get an i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and a beautiful 3200 x 1800 touch display.
2 – Microsoft Surface Book i7
If you're into full portability, consider the Surface Book i7. The Surface is easily mistaken as a tablet PC with touch display but is in fact pretty powerful for music production.
The Surface more towards a mid-range to a high-end computer but you get lots of performance while it being extremely portable as well with 12 hours of battery life. At $2699, you get an i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and also a NVIDIA graphic card.
The Surface wouldn't be a great choice if you're into high graphic work, but for music production, the touch display and the performance it comes pack with are superb.
3 – ASUS GL552VW
This laptop packs lots of power at the expense of having less battery life. It's a gaming laptop but a good choice for music production as well.
It comes packed with an i7 processor and RAM upgradable up to 32GB, and this laptop is a powerhouse when it comes to processing and recording audio. Another thing to note is that it comes with an SSD and also a 1TB mechanical hard disk. This means you can put your system files on the SSD and your samples on the mechanical hard disk.
The cons to the ASUS GL552VW ROG is sadly that ASUS shipped many laptops that had graphic driver issues. I suspect it's a hardware issue, but there is no solid answer. Just make sure you test the laptop thoroughly to check for any fault when you receive it.
4 – Microsoft Surface Studio
Not a portable computer but it definitely caught the eye of many creative professionals. It looks near to an iMac, but it's more than just a regular computer.
The Surface comes with 28″ touch display, giving you lots of display screen real estate. The 4500 x 3000 Pixelsense display also gives you true colors, which would be amazing for design – showing you the actual colors. Upgradable up to 32GB RAM and has plenty of ports of all your audio hardware, it also comes pack with lots of CPU power with a
Macbook Pro Music Production Setup App
What really makes the Surface studio shine, is the Surface dial. It's a new accessory that works with the Surface studio by just placing it on the display.
Imagine the things you could do with the Surface dial, from drawing in automations, using it as a fader and more. We don't know the possibilities that it can do for now, but pretty sure more support for it will be launched soon.
Your Turn – Thoughts For The New MacBook Pro for Music Production?
What do you think about the new MacBook Pro and how will it fit into your studio?
Let us know in the comment section below. Will you stick to Apple and buy the MacBook Pro or is it time to look for an alternative?
- At least 2.2Ghz i7 quad-core processor
- At least 4GB of RAM
- 64-bit operating system
- At least 256GB of internal storage (HDD or SSD)
- At least a 15-inch screen.
A lot of the requirements will, of course, vary depending on what type of music you are going to record.
How complex is it? How many tracks will it consist of? Will it be mainly produced using MIDI or will it be all audio? How many tracks do you intend to record at one time? Are you recording an entire orchestra!? Will you be running hundreds of effects and/ or plugins?
You get the point. Not all music production needs are equal. But this guide should help you understand what to look for and why each one of the confusing technical specs is important.
If you follow this guide your laptop should be more than capable of recording fairly complex stuff, just about anything you would want to record in a home recording studio.
A Brief History of Recording
Over the past 100 years, audio recording has advanced significantly. The very first recordings in the early 20th century were created by a large horn-shaped object capturing sound and literally drawing out sound waves onto paper or wax.
By the middle of the century, magnetic tape recording became the technology of choice. This method made recordings of much higher quality and also meant they could be much longer in length.
It wasn't until the 1970's that digital recording even became a thing. But as with tape recording before it, digital completely changed the musical world and the way music production was done. Where tape only recorded continuous analog sounds, digital recordings work by taking a large number of small samples of a sound very quickly.
But even once the digital recording was invented it was a luxury reserved only for high-end professional recording studios for a long time.
Eventually, it would be possible to buy a computer for your home which would be capable of use in a recording setup. But to get the required spec you had to spend a lot of money. I remember computers even into the early 2000s that were just about capable of playing a CD or running a word processor. And even they would crash occasionally.
So the fact that you are here, even contemplating using a LAPTOP in a home recording studio is quite remarkable. It shows how far technology has come and it's great!
Laptop vs desktop for home audio production?
I personally made the move from my (not so trusty) desktop PC to a laptop around 4 years ago. Mainly because of the reasons mentioned above. It just wasn't possible until recently to get a laptop with the spec required for a reasonable price and that wouldn't explode as soon as you tried to open your DAW software.
Don't get me wrong, for the money you can probably get a much better desktop computer, custom fitted with everything you could ever want. But a laptop gives me other things which I find very handy.
The main one is portability. With a laptop, I have a music studio I can effectively take anywhere. If you are as busy as me, this is a great thing to have. It has allowed me to mix and even record parts of songs whilst on the train. I've even taken it to a church when I wanted to record the acoustics there. I don't have the space for a drum kit at home so I will sometimes take it to a studio to record drums without having to use someone else's setup, I have my tracks ready to go and I just plug in and record.
Before I splashed out on my faithful laptop (almost 4 years ago and still going strong), I did a tonne of research into what to look for in a laptop for music production.
I read loads of articles from people saying, don't bother, get a desktop bla bla bla. But there was a lot of useful information out there and it lead to me purchasing a laptop with a spec that has never let me down!
Ok, so you can't just grab your old dusty laptop that you mainly use for Facebook browsing and hope it will work in a home recording studio, it probably won't. The fact is, most off the shelf laptops don't have the spec required to run a DAW efficiently. But what specs are needed, and why?
Well here is a guide of the key laptop specs for music production which I hope you find useful. I will end with my recommendation of which laptops I think are your best options.
Processor
What processor do I need for music production?
Recommended – At least 2.2Ghz, i5 dual-core processor, but ideally i7 quad-core.
You've probably heard phrases such as ‘dual-core' and ‘quad-core' or ‘i3' and ‘i7' banded around but without any explanation of what they mean. I will do my best to explain without confusing you further.
The computer processing unit (CPU) is arguably the most important thing to get right when looking at laptop spec for home recording.
I like to think of the processor as the computers ‘brain'. Being the brain it is therefore responsible for performing calculations, carrying out actions, but probably most importantly for us, running programs. A processor is usually a square chip and sits on the motherboard of your laptop (like the one in the picture above).
Cores
When there was just a single core, only a limited amount of tasks could be carried out at one time. When we are running a complex digital audio workstation with multiple tracks all at once this is likely to overwhelm a single core.
Whats up software free download for android. Luckily that is why we now have laptops with dual or even quad-core processors. A dual-core is effectively two CPUs on a single chip rather than just one.
As you may expect adding more gives you more. With more processing power your laptop will be able to perform more tasks simultaneously which is essential when recording music. So more cores are usually better.
Frequency
Another important factor to look for in a processor is the frequency. This is the speed of the processor and is measured in gigahertz or GHz for short.
The frequency used to be the most important factor to look at when all computers had just a single core. And it does still make a difference, the higher the frequency the better. In some cases, a very high-frequency dual-core could actually outperform a lower frequency quad core.
I would recommend a frequency no lower than 2.2GHz, but the higher the number the better so see what you can stretch the budget to.
i3 vs i5 vs i7, whats the difference?
The numbers i3, i5 and i7 refer to different models of processor produced by the company Intel. And quite simply they improve in capability as you go up the numbers. With the i7 being the top processor Intel produce.
The i7, for instance, has a larger ‘cache' which allows it to deal with repetitive tasks more quickly. Repetitive tasks are stored in the background and then when required can be carried out almost instantly.
With increased performance comes increased price however so bear that in mind.
There are other makes of processors such as AMD as with intel just pay attention to the frequency and number of cores and they will work just as well.
RAM
How much RAM do I need for music production?
Recommended – At least 4GB but 8GB or 16GB is definitely the preference. You can never have too much RAM!
Music production software hits your laptop's memory hard, particularly as you add more plug-ins etc. to your process.
RAM stands for ‘Random Access Memory'. Rather than the long-term memory (which I'll explain below) RAM is the short-term ‘working' memory. It is much quicker for the laptop to use the RAM to quickly access data it needs rather than accessing it from the hard drive every time.
I've been trying to think of a metaphor for this for a while but this is the best I can do (sorry). RAM is a like a wallet full of money, whenever you need to pay for something you can quickly dip into your RAM wallet to grab some money. The hard-drive is more like the bank, it stores stuff away that is not needed quite so quickly. You have to imagine that you live in a dodgy neighborhood though as every time you put your RAM wallet down (i.e shut your laptop down) all the money from it disappears. Whereas the bank is nice and secure (hopefully) and even when shut down
So although these are both forms of memory they should not be used interchangeably. 4GB of RAM is quite high but 4GB of hard drive storage would barely be enough for a couple of audio recordings with multiple tracks.
As I mentioned, music production requires a lot of this quickly accessible memory. For this reason, I would definitely say to have no less than 4GB of RAM in a laptop for music production. The more RAM you can get with your cash the better, I decided to go for 16GB of RAM in my latest laptop and it runs smooth as anything.
32 vs 64-bit operating system
It's not that important to understand what the difference between 32 and 64 bit operating systems are apart from 64-bit is newer and better. It is capable of storing more data and is like comparing a car to a bike in terms of speed.
As I said above the more RAM the better but it is worth bearing in mind that a 32-bit operating system is only capable of running up to 4GB of RAM. If you want to have more than 4GB of RAM (which is highly recommended) you will need a 64-bit operating system.
Chances are with modern laptops you will be running a 64-bit operating system. With Windows, if you are running anything later than Windows 7 chances are it is 64 bit. With Macbooks anything more recent than a 2008 Macbook Pro will be 64-bit.
So it probably won't be an issue if you are buying new (or almost new) but I thought it was worth a mention.
Hard Drive
How much memory do I need for music production?
Recommended – at least 256GB internal storage (HDD or SSD) with at least 500GB external storage
Hard drives were one of the specs I found most confusing when choosing a laptop.
One thing that may shock you when you start producing music is the crazy amounts of storage space just a single track can consume! If you are used to just storing a few images or documents on your laptop then prepare for a shock! We are talking in the gigabytes here not the megabytes.
So as you will probably guess as with processors and RAM, the higher the number the better. But what is the minimum? What is recommended?
You will want a decent amount of memory to ensure you can smoothly run your DAW software and plugins but if you are using this laptop primarily for audio production you don't have to go too crazy with size. I would recommend going for at least 256GB of internal storage but 128GB may be enough for the following reason:
Use an external hard drive for audio files
If you have a high spec laptop you shouldn't have an issue storing audio data on the internal hard drive, but if you want to make sure you have absolutely no issues with performance then an external hard drive is well worth getting.
This will allow you to just use the internal hard drive for running the operating system, DAW and plugins. Whilst any audio tracks and samples can be kept separate on the external drive. This external hard drive can be your ‘audio drive'.
I personally recommend getting an SSD external hard drive (see below for the difference between SSD and HDD). I have this one from Samsung. The more storage the better of course but even 500GB will last you ages! Don't splash out loads of money on a 2TB one unless you plan on recording a ridiculous amount of songs.
I actually have a second external hard drive just for backing up and archiving old tracks. You don't want all those hours of recording to go to waste, do you?
Do I need an SDD for music production?
No, it is not necessary. As with all these things, it is a great luxury to have if you can afford it but an HDD will do most people fine. I'll try and explain why:
There are two main types of hard drive; SSD which stands for Solid State Drive and HDD which stands for Hard Disk Drive.
A solid-state drive works in a similar way to a USB drive, but built into the computer and much bigger. Unlike a hard disk drive, it doesn't have any moving parts. Information is stored on a series of microchips.
A hard disk drive, on the other hand, may be familiar to you as the whirring sound you get in many computers and laptops. That whirring sound is caused by a disk spinning really fast. As the disk spins around a mechanical arm read the information of it.
A solid-state drive is like having bookmarks in a book on the pages you want to find, whereas a hard disk drive is like having to flick through the pages every time to find what you are looking for (I apologize for all the terrible comparisons in this article!).
This means SSD is better than HDD but, of course, comes at a price being the better technology.
Personally, I still use an HDD drive. You can just get so much more for your money than with SDD. The truth is that the majority of data will be stored on the RAM. So having lots of RAM is much more important than having an SDD.
If you do go for HDD try and get one with a rotational speed of at least 7200RPM.
If you are planning on using huge numbers of samples, this will be too big to be loaded into the RAM so will be accessed from the hard drive. Then the need for SDD becomes slightly higher but is still not essential.
Is a Flash Drive the same as SSD?
Do I need to worry about the soundcard?
Unless you plan on plugging an instrument directly into the laptop then your external soundcard spec is not an issue. It is most likely you will be using an audio interface, which acts as an external soundcard. Therefore the spec of the one in your laptop won't matter.
Screen size
Recommended – at least 15 inches
Screen size depends on how portable you want to be. I opted for a 15-inch laptop as I felt the 17 inch was a bit too big to carry about. When I am in the home studio I will connect it to a much larger monitor though as it makes the experience much better.
Some people find a 15-inch screen too small for working in many DAWs but I don't mind it. This one is personal preference really. Go to a store and test a couple out to see.
I would advise against anything less than 15 inches as it will be pretty much impossible to work in the DAW without connecting to an external monitor.
Mac or PC for Home Recording Studio?
I had a lot of issues when I used to try and do audio production on a Windows PC and moving to Apple was a game changer for me. It runs like a dream and I've not had any issues with latency which I always used to get with my Windows machine.
Mac Pro For Music Production
That said, it was over 4 years ago and I know Windows laptops have come on leaps and bounds since then. The fact is that if you follow the guidance above and meet the correct spec, then either should be fine.
One important thing to bear in mind is which DAW are you going to use?
Logic Pro, for instance, is only for the Mac. But most DAWS will work on both operating systems. I personally use Ableton Live and it works just the same on Windows and Apple. But definitely, check your DAW of choice is compatible before buying your laptop.
Recommendations
Check out my up to date recommendations in the recommended gear section here.
As I always say, I will only recommend what I personally use myself or have at least tried. I am currently using a MacBook Pro from around 2015 and it still runs great. It has a 2.7GHz quad-core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage.
This is the great thing about Macs for me. All my Windows laptops have lasted just a couple of years of heavy use but my MacBook still feels like new even after 3 years of very heavy use.
So bearing that in mind if you can find a Macbook second hand, in good condition, which isn't too old, with a spec that reflects what we've talked about above then that would be a great option.
If you want a nice new shiny one then I would recommend this one. It will give you a 2.6GHz, i7 processor, 16gb of RAM and 512GB of storage.
Your laptop will be the heart of your home music studio so if you're going to spend money anywhere it should be here. Save that $1000 you were going to spend on a vintage synth and put it towards a laptop first.
