How to choose a laptop/Desktop for audio recording and producing
The first and main step is to decide whether to choose the MAC or PC route. Although for the price of a basic mac you can pick up a very powerful high spec pc desktop or laptop. But from my experience with pc’s i have to say they are crap and unreliable not just for the task of producing but generally. This is not another note of mac vs pc it’s just for recording purposes the mac is quick, reliable and dosn’t crash or get viruses. Equally whether you buy a macbook or macbook pro, you could have a custom-made pc which could be just as good.
Don’t cheap out by small amounts like £50-100 as you will regret it. Upgrades are always good if you have any dosh left over.
Obviously you will need enough hard drive to hold not just you vst’s and programs, but recordings and samples. So look at external hard drives if this computer is not just for producing because my 120gb hard drive was filled up within a year by itunes and recordings and etc.
RAM! Lot’s and lot’s of RAM! If you get a laptop with 1/2 gb of ram you should not be running windows vista as it needs more than the standard. 2gb of RAM is adequate to run production programs efficiently, but if you have the option to have an upgrade, take it if it’s in your price range.
Get the fastest processor that you can afford. Audio recording applications are taxing to the processor. Buy a machine with plenty of processing power to avoid dropouts or noises in the recorded audio, or poor performance of the software.
USB ports you’ll need at least one! to add an extension to. I use 3 usb sockets for all my external hardware.
Sound cards are a different story which i have not got to yet. But will have soon enough.
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Camel Audio Alchemy Virtual Synth Granular Sampler Instrument RTAS VST Mac/PC $249.00 |
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