Choosing a Laptop for Music Making

Chater-La

New member
interesting stuff... however, I'd like to see what you guys can come up with for more budget constrained individuals.
 
My opinion no one should buy a laptop (PC) to work with music so but if you still wanna laptop you should go for a Mac.

Let me explain:
Normally people buy desktop Pc and not Mac because you can upgrade them you know change sound cards, add more Ram, increase HDD, those type of things for less money than a Mac (To buy a mac you can do those type of thing you have to buy a MAC PRO and God Knows that shit is expensive), So when you buy a laptop (PC) you are throwing away that option of upgrading (I mean you could do it but it will never be like a desktop for example you can't upgrade your cpu in a laptop because you would have problem with the refrigeration and the cpu may burn), and that upgrade option in a cheaper price is why wise people buy a PC desktop and not a laptop.

So if you going to buy a pc to work in music buy a Desktop (except if you have a lot of cake Them buy a Mac Pro)
If you are going to buy a laptop buy a Mac.

But always look for the specs, there are pc laptops with some good specs.
 
Great amounts of information! Rflip, you've made a very good point. Although I've been producing on a Dell XPS M1340 for over a year now I've expanded my HD capabilities through an external HD. I do look forward to investing in a desktop, but I love the portability that the laptop and external HD gives me when I want to work on music at the studio. Chater, do you think you could put together the same type of presentation for desktops? Regardless this is a great post! Thank you!
 
If you buy a good laptop with enough ram, good processor, good hard drive, and a fire-wire port, that should be enough to have a great computer for music production

---------- Post added at 11:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:36 AM ----------

If you buy a good laptop with enough ram, good processor, good hard drive, and a fire-wire port, that should be enough to have a great computer for music production

no upgrades would be needed, unless there is some serious change in the computer technology and music technology fields...
 
Find out what software OS's work better w/ which computer companies. I've heard certain companies make crappy laptops. I bought based on my pocket, and bought a HP for 524.00, and for right now it running okay. If I would've had more $$$ at the time of purchase, I would've bought a Sony Vaio. Just Blaze uses them, and I always read how he's on planes, mixing, etc. He's a gear guru so you cant go wrong.
 
Macbook Pro is the best choice!

---------- Post added at 07:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:56 AM ----------

But if you more like heterosexual laptops, buy from alienware ;D
 
If it's a Windows Laptop you're looking for, go with an HP. Anything above 4GB of ram and above 500GB of HDD will work, also make sure the processor and graphics card is above average, you never know exactly what you'll wanna run in the future once you're production is complete.

If it's a Mac you're looking into, go with a midsize or higher Mac Book Pro, those always seem to be 100% effective with any work, although purchasing additional software will be a decline in your pocket book, what you pay is what you get, since there aren't many crackable programs and VST's for Macs.

Although of course, besides your laptop... any producer or composer should have a STRONG studio workstation at home or where ever you produce... meaning DESKTOP. :]
 
Very much thanks for your link and your information.......
Your information is very useful for me..... Thanks a lot.........
 
I would always recommend going with the best piece of equipment out there especially when that piece of equipment is the core of your studio. Since most people dont record/mixing/produce 100% with analog, the computer is most likely the most important thing. So I recommend going with Apple if your choosing a laptop or a desktop under pretty much any circumstance. I have my degree in audio production and engineering and have been to a number of studios and I have never been to a studio that wasnt primarily running Apple products. So I do realize that they are expensive compared to a PC but I feel that they are definitely worth it.
 
I would always recommend going with the best piece of equipment out there especially when that piece of equipment is the core of your studio. Since most people dont record/mixing/produce 100% with analog, the computer is most likely the most important thing. So I recommend going with Apple if your choosing a laptop or a desktop under pretty much any circumstance. I have my degree in audio production and engineering and have been to a number of studios and I have never been to a studio that wasnt primarily running Apple products. So I do realize that they are expensive compared to a PC but I feel that they are definitely worth it.

that's because Apple was, at one point, the only platform for ProTools, and from the time the Atari ST died (mid 93-ish) through the maturation of the PC as a platform for sequencing, the Mac was the best bet for sequencing. Because these two events had a number of years of overlap, you end up with the Mac being the platform that most studios went with for computer based sequencing and recording.

This is the only reason you find Macs in more studios.
 
There seems to be more of a trend towards people wanting laptops rather than modular desktops for making music and this is quite often based on the idea that portability will be an asset as though we tend to use computers in the same way as other consumers.

When choosing a computer for music you should take into account how much external equipment will be connected and how that will affect how you envision yourself using your computer, once you add an external audio interface, monitors, MIDI controllers, dongles, external hard drive for streaming audio to a laptop it might end up as stationary as a desktop without the benefits offered by a (more bang for your buck) powerful modular desktop system.

Another thing to consider is hard drive requirements for streaming audio and samples and how firewire hard drives and firewire audio interfaces can't share the same connection, this is also an issue for all in one desktop systems (that are more like laptops without a battery)
 
There seems to be more of a trend towards people wanting laptops rather than modular desktops for making music and this is quite often based on the idea that portability will be an asset as though we tend to use computers in the same way as other consumers.

When choosing a computer for music you should take into account how much external equipment will be connected and how that will affect how you envision yourself using your computer, once you add an external audio interface, monitors, MIDI controllers, dongles, external hard drive for streaming audio to a laptop it might end up as stationary as a desktop without the benefits offered by a (more bang for your buck) powerful modular desktop system.

Another thing to consider is hard drive requirements for streaming audio and samples and how firewire hard drives and firewire audio interfaces can't share the same connection, this is also an issue for all in one desktop systems (that are more like laptops without a battery)

It's because lots of new producers think they are going to get a big break and need to make beats while "traveling"

I think most of these people are 16 too lol.

I prefer laptops but I bring my laptop everywhere and I just record vocals mostly so I don't need as much. Desktop is the way to go though. Cheaper for what you get too.
 
My Laptop:
HP 4520s i3-330M 15.6 2GB/250 Black


Product Description


  • Intel i3-330m 2.13GHz Processor(3MB L2 cache)
  • 15.6 HD LED AntiGlare Display(1366 x 768)
  • 1 x 2GB DDR3 Memory (1066MHz) UPGRADED TO 4GB BUT ONLY 3.5GB USABLE ON WIN 32BIT
  • 250GB 7200rpm HDD
  • Upgrade Bay SuperMulti DVDRW
  • Mobile Intel HM57 Express Chipset
  • Intel HD Graphics
  • Atheros 9285G 802.11b/g/n 1x1 WiFi Adapter
  • 2.1 Blue-tooth
  • 2 Megapixel Integrated Webcam
  • 6-cell Battery
  • Win7 PRO 32
using pro tools 9 native

ran 50 stereo tracks
each track had a waves ssl channel, air eq 7 band and an air comp.
150 plug ins all up.

cpu max usage was between 60-65%

This is just to give us a rough idea of what can be achieved with an i3 330m cpu. (Of course I had hyper threading enabled.)
 
The problem with laptops is their compressed bus system (the data lanes that pass data between the various components of your computer) in contrast to a desktop computer. Dollar to dollar comparison, you'll afford a desktop computer that's twice as fast given the same budget. That said, if you must use a laptop, then you shouldn't buy anything less than an Intel Core i5 (or comparable) with as much RAM as you can afford. For normal everyday use, you'll seldom need more than 4gigs of RAM but for Audio/Video recording and editing RAM capacity counts!
 
Back
Top