Does RAM, CPU etc. affect the soundquality of the sounds in your DAW?

C

chrisretz1

New member
At the moment i produce music (house,dubstep, drum n bass) in Logic Pro on a MacbookPro 13".

I want my tracks and sounds to sound more proffesional because i think it still sounds very amateurish even though i have been producing for a long time now. I know that skill is a part of making something sound good, but i have been wondering if it would make a difference in the sounds in your DAW if you example had more RAM, CPU or a great soundcard and all that stuff. If i for example upgraded from 4 gb RAM to 8 gb RAM would it make the sounds i made sound better in general or wouldn't it affect it? (Someone please explain.)

I also have the uportunity to buy a MacbookPro 17", which propably is a lot better than my 13". Should i go for the 17" while this great discount is on, or wouldn't it really make a difference to making my music sound better?

I hope someone can help me out with this in a hurry!
 
Won't make it sound better. Will give you better tools to work with.

Reason (for example) will sound the same on a $200 PC or a $1k Mac.
 
It makes things run smoother, can lower latency and allow less glitches in your workflow. That doesn't "sound better", but still helps the way you work overall a big deal.

No reason to go overboard though, most computers on the market today will run music programs just fine. If it comes with 4or more gb ram, the cpu is more than likely up to par as well.

Someone will chime in and disagree, but they more than likely are doing so much that they wouldn't ask the original question in the 1st place, they'd already know what they needed.
 
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No. As stated above, it will improve your workflow, but it won't improve your sound or make things sound more professional.

That has more to do with your sound choice (VST Instruments, Sound packs, etc.) and your mixing skills. It is worth noting, however, that running a lot of powerful VSTs at once may create latency/work flow problems, so in that case, upgrading your computer may speed things along a little bit. My knowledge with Apple for production isn't as extensive as others, so as for the specifics of what you're running now regarding latency and such, I can't be of much assistance. Hope this helps.
 
A soundcard (usually an audio interface nowadays), will indirectly improve your sound.

It won't improve the actual sound itself like you're asking... that doesn't change. But... a very good DA converter will help you out by reproducing a more accurate picture of what's already there.

For example.... grab a polariod picture and put it on the table. Then take 4-5 layers of some saran wrap and put it over the picture. A bad DA converter in a sound card will "look" like a picture w/ layers of saran wrap over it. Now... remove the saran wrap.... that's a good DA converter lol. But notice that the polaroid picture never actually changed?


So... if you can hear your sounds more clearly, and how they SHOULD be... then this extra information you're hearing will influence how you mix your music, and thus how you create a better product. it's like... you can mix better on good monitors than you can on crappy $5 computer speakers right?.... same thing. If you can hear better... you can mix better. Good quality comes from 1) good original source sounds.... and 2) good mixing.

So if you're going to get an audio interface for the purpose of "improving your sounds"... you want to research which ones have the best DA converters. I can tell you for a fact that the Echo AudioFire series has great DA converters, and that old MAudio USB gear doesn't keep up. That's all i have experience with. I don't know how good their new Profire and Fasttrack stuff are. I hear the MBox3 has very good converters... but i have no experience with it... that's just hearsay. I also hear presonus's new products and focusrite also have good quality conversion relative to their price. You get what you pay for though.
 
It all comes back to RAM and CPU speed/FSB speed: no matter how much you pump up the RAM if the CPU can't hack it, then you will get glitches.

The important thing to know is that the generated Audio file (wav/aiff/mp3/???) will not have the glitches and pops in it. Playing back the generated file you should not hear any glitches or pops unless your pc can't even cope with running simple audio only applications.

Upshot: RAM will help, but not solve the problem. Any external add-ons will have a placebo effect only - you will feel better, but it is still you computer that is causing any problems
 
Hell yeah it will. Plus it will cause latency. If the bit rates and ad/da do not match up you will end up with some crazy ass distortion or clipping. 1st and foremost, try not to use a PC, Macs are much more stable and just seem to work right when you need them to. I have been chasing my tail for years by using a PC and the money I have spen could have gotten me a killer Mac. You will want as much ram as possible to keep your recording and sequencing running smoothly. If you can afford a decent sund card this will solve everything (except for the CPU ram) for you.

Good Luck
 
In short a small amount of ram will effect the performance if its below the requirements. Think of ram like horsepower. How fast you can accelerate from 0 to 100 for example.
The more ram you have the faster it can accelerate. So when you open a program it opens faster.Also each program and service you have running in the background gets temporarily stored in ram. So if you exit the program or shut off your system its wiped, until your system is started and the program or service is set to launch at startup or the program is launched manually. More ram allows you to have more open at once without hiccups. If you get hiccups in sound when your computer is acting slugish the programs are fighting for ram. Some programs when open free ram if they sit in a idle state to share with other programs...then when you resume ram builds back up. Ram is used because its quicker compared to a mechanical hard disk.

I was trying not to use jargon and keep it simple not getting to technical.
 
chrisretz1 said:
At the moment i produce music (house,dubstep, drum n bass) in Logic Pro on a MacbookPro 13".

I want my tracks and sounds to sound more proffesional because i think it still sounds very amateurish even though i have been producing for a long time now.
Click to expand...

#1 are you using monitors? They are essential for better sounding mixes.

#2 start looking into audio interfaces. New sound cards or external sound cards can help a TON! Because you can actually hear what your doing. The Digirack upped our production ten fold. The older MBoxes are great, not sure what year they started being crap.

#3 No, ram will only help in aiding your software run more efficient, not how it sounds.

#4 MAC VS PC is an age old debate, both can make fantastic music. Usually the error with the PC is the user not the PC. Using MAC instantly limits what you can run.
 
bulgarianprince said:
....1st and foremost, try not to use a PC, Macs are much more stable and just seem to work right when you need them to. I have been chasing my tail for years by using a PC and the money I have spen could have gotten me a killer Mac.....
Click to expand...

Cods-wallop: both machines use the same processors and effectively a variant of the same OS (they are both un*x variants the same as linux). Differences lie in the fact that macs are an integrated system that you don't build from the ground up whereas PCs are still buy this motherboard, that processor this ram, that power supply etc, etc, etc....

Both types will still require a decent amount of ram to perform properly.

THA_REAPER said:
In short a small amount of ram will effect the performance if its below the requirements. Think of ram like horsepower. How fast you can accelerate from 0 to 100 for example.
The more ram you have the faster it can accelerate. So when you open a program it opens faster.Also each program and service you have running in the background gets temporarily stored in ram. So if you exit the program or shut off your system its wiped, until your system is started and the program or service is set to launch at startup or the program is launched manually. More ram allows you to have more open at once without hiccups. If you get hiccups in sound when your computer is acting slugish the programs are fighting for ram. Some programs when open free ram if they sit in a idle state to share with other programs...then when you resume ram builds back up. Ram is used because its quicker compared to a mechanical hard disk.

I was trying not to use jargon and keep it simple not getting to technical.
Click to expand...

Don't forget that when you load a program, if there are other programs already open, that there is some shuffle time as the old program(s) are moved to virtual memory and the new program loads. This is one of the reasons why it is recommended that when working on audio you have nothing else open (common sense but some folks will try and run several programs at the same time not considering the problems that might follow)
 
Lots of great advice here, the one thing that can kill your workflow and make you think your puter is running slow are the shit programs that come pre-installed that run in the background on a pc. I would have someone you know kinda make your pc a dedicated machine for your home studio. Also try to limit your online browsing to a minimum and dont download all of the latest greatest free crap on line, do your due diligence and watch your sources.
So listen to everyone on here, use what works for you and your budget and start having fun. Just think of this, if old fuks like me were making music in the 90's with 16gig hard drives and 256 of ram with Pentium 1 processors, the new stuff is more than adequate to do what you need with very little fuss.
 
^One of the reasons it's a good idea to build your own computer.

1) It's not hard
2) Quality parts - when picked right
3) You start with a clean slate
 
The soundcards really have nothing to do with how well your beat is. Its how well you mix and the sounds you pick. You would need really good monitors.....Dont use regular speakers. The better you can hear the beat you are making, the better chance you have on making it sound better.

Starting out i didnt have tons of money or equipment, but i first got a good interface and some good monitors and a small midi...the rest is skill and talent and practice!. study someone you like to listen too!


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