Whats the best laptop or desktop for music production???

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-- Whats the best laptop or desktop for music production???

Posted by DJFrostie on Jul-26-2005 07:06:

Whats the best laptop or desktop for music production???

Im new to music production and I am currently using an Ibook G4 notebook and I am not sure if this will be acceptable for prodcuction purposes. Basically what i want to know from the knowledgeable people here is; are there any specific specs beside raw processing power and memory, or brand. Recently I converted to Mac so if anyone could suggest a nice mac computer would be great, otherwise open suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

Posted by fabio_trevez on Jul-26-2005 18:12:

always the equipments is determined by the kind of work you'll be doing. ex: will it be a midi secuencer?, will it be for acustic recording?, will you make music for films? or it's gonna be a 'canvas' for mixing and mastering a track?

software will let you perform everything i just mention. the point here is that you will have pros and cons according to the specifications of your hardware like: ram, disk space, pocesor, firewire, etc. now days there's external hardware that you can connect via firewire and usb (i recomend firewire) to your computer without need to install a soundcard.

apple computers has a very low noise, plus 'multitask' feature of apple's procesor allow you to do more with less also fact that apple desktop computers has a lot of usb ports makes it a common standard in pro studios (powermac) and also for live performance (powerbook)

i got to say that in the end it's a personal choice, the result will be the same if you're using a laptop, desktop, mac or pc, or even if you're not using a computer at all, as long as the track has done properly. the deal here is what makes it easier/faster for you

Posted by dRale on Jul-27-2005 16:52:

hey my company builds audio pc machines...if you need suggestions or have questions feel free to add me on msn
[email protected]

peace

Posted by Alekos on Jul-28-2005 07:10:

Check you PM box

Posted by TranceReality on Jul-30-2005 19:32:

A couple of my mates got their computers custom built in the UK from "Phil Rees" website which is HERE

This is a music computer specialist site....I will deffinatly be getting mine from there when I got the spare cash.

Posted by emc^2 on Aug-03-2005 00:26:

Ah, the age old dillema... I went through quite a research back in the day and you have to ask yourself several important questions:

1. Do you need laptop for portability reasons
2. Do you want laptop because you want a small footprint
3. Is it to reduce the noise
4. Will you actually travel with it?
5. Will you use it for anything else?

I was shopping for a "universal" laptop - that had to meet the following criteria:

1. Actually safe to place in my lap (don't want my boys burned of or worse yet, sterilized)

2. Had screen big enough to show me a decent sized DAW area (no 1024x768 would do)

3. Was actually light enough to travel, if needed

4. Had enough PCMCIA slots/USB2 (and Firewire - optional).

5. Had to run Windows (all my apps/plug ins) are Windows and

6. Could be used for professional work (read - connect to domain, etc).

8. Could I play games on it (e.g NO SHARED VIDEO MEMORY!)

Here's your first suggestion, under no circumstances you are allowed to buy Sony VAIO, no matter how attractive!!!! I can't possibly list all the reasons why you shouldn't but let's just say one of the main reasons - you won't be able to run OS other than sony-supplied, unless you're OK with 90% of your devices not working properly.

Don't buy TOSHIBA, unless you want to burn your balls off and get a hernia while you are at it. Besides, battery life will be just enough to power up the system and log in. Forget about taking it on a plane, as it is too big for the tray (unless you're really tiny) and even if you did, your battery won't last through the movie.

If you will travel, don't buy Dell. 1. Their case is so soft that if you press too hard while closing the lid, you'll crack the LCD screen. 2. Dell support is terrible 3. Desktop replacement systems are too expensive, too noisy, and too heavy. Same problem with battery life.

Again, if you are going to haul it around - keep in mind battery life and utility - (e.g. can it be used for anything else?)

If you plan to play games on it, you'd want at least 128MB non-shared RAM. If you want longer battery life, get Centrino-based.

Look for high-speed RAM, and HD with at least 5400 RPM. Don't buy a big and slow hard drive - if you plan to record audio. For MIDI work only - don't matter. I'd recommend getting at least 1GB of RAM or more. Be sure to buy systems that can be expanded. Look for 2 PCMCIA card slots - you will most likely need it. Also look for high number of USB ports. At least 2.

BTW, some people are confused by what Centrino is. Centrino is Intel M-based CPU (mobile) which has 2MB L2 Cache (that's good, compared to regular 512KB), and it is bundled with Intel chipset, intel wifi, intel ethernet. all features combined = power savings and better performance. The main draw back is that when you're running on battery, usually, the system will drop down to something like 600Mhz, instead of "power-on" full speed (whatever you have, 1.6, 1.7, or whatnot)..

If you do get Centrino, get 1.7 or better, as it uses a different CPU architecture and has more L2 cache.

If you can wait, Sonoma (improved CENTRINO) platform should be released soon, which will have even better management.

Don't let the speed rating fool you either, a 1.7Ghz centrino kicked ass of P4 3.2 HT CPU.

For more info on hardware, check out www.tomshardware.com.

If you are comfortable with building a DAW-based laptop and in general a "power user" or better, I'd recommend Fujitsu laptop. If you're actually not a herd animal, I'd even recommend going to AMD platform. But you get a better power management from Centrino without much sacrifice in performance.

Also, if you are buying from professional DAW company you'd also get added support of company that may know how to fix your audio-based problems, otherwise you'd be on your own. Obviously Dell will not support Cubase/Sonar.

sorry for long rant. let us know what you end up with.

Posted by nhibberd on Aug-04-2005 21:12:

Carillon - AC 1 Core 4

The Carillon - AC 1 Core 4 is the absolute top-notch when it comes to audio PC's. If you want to stick to an XP system this is what you should get. Other than that I would recoment and Apple system.

kind regards,

Nick

Posted by syk0 on Aug-06-2005 08:57:

two things:

RAM = 1 gig

front side bus = 800 mhz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_side_bus

These will be the two main factors for speed/power on a computer.

But you can produce using 'average' hardware. Probably you should spend your money on speakers and headphones and don't trip on hardware.

Posted by nhibberd on Aug-08-2005 17:28:

The most expecive the better. Or so it seems to me...

Charly Darwin

Posted by GreenLight on Aug-08-2005 18:19:

Im using a Apple Powerbook G4 Laptop running A Powercore Firewire Wich drains nothing off of the Mac's Processor ... Never had any lag ... never had a single problem whatsoever ...

I use Ableton Live, Usually Automating a trillion things at once while having Virtual Pc Running to operate ACID, Adobe Audition , FL Studio, and Cakewalk ...

never had a problem ... only to the help of the powercore firewire ...

if money is no option and portablity is not really a problem ...

I'd highly recommend getting the New Apple G5 and creating a studio around it ... G5 Mac's are a crapload more effecient in music production than anything else Out to date ... unless you spend double the money of the G5 to get a PC built ...

Not to mention Outboard mixers, processors and what not if your really heavy into getting the most gravity-forced processed sounds you can ...

Try to get a mac if you can ... they're the industry standard right now for music production ... No problem with a PC though ... Im running a PC as well in the other room here, you'll end up spending double if not more trying to get what you can from a PC to match a mac ...