Computer Specifications

Gear
21

Programs that can use lots of RAM often have a setting how much they are allowed to use. In Adobe Premiere, you can set how much RAM should be left over for other programs.

You will have better results if you maximize that setting instead of adding a RAMDisk and adding your temp files there.
If your software does not have such a setting, it might help.

So I guess what I am trying to say is: Before trying a RAMDisk, make sure you have checked out all the settings about RAM in the application you are trying to optimize.

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22

Man, I can’t believe it’s even usable with 4 GB ram :open_mouth: even 8 is usually painfully slow for more than one window open at a time.

I have a 2013 Alienware laptop with i7 4700, 24 GB memory, an Nvidia GTX 765M and a Samsung 840 EVO SSD (I think) and it’s plenty fast for any music stuff I’ve ever done on it and even most 3D modelling. It’s slower than my 2020 Dell G5 and my MBA M1 for rendering models/video but I still use the Alienware a lot because the 17in screen is so nice and I have a lots of drive space in it. The only real downside is how thick it is and it weighs about 10 lbs lol. 16GB would definitely be my absolute minimum for a windows machine.

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23

It’s actually not a simple tradeoff, especially once you throw multiple use cases into the mix. You generally need to optimize for different things.

Games are usually not very multithreaded. Most games will benefit more from a processor with a higher clock speed than more cores. So a high clocking i5 will often outperform a lower clocking i7 for games, even with more cores on the i7. Games are also generally GPU-bound and not CPU-bound these days.

Music software can often be highly multithreaded and will take advantage of all the cores, while the GPU is immaterial. However, processor speed will affect latency; the faster the individual cores, the lower the latency. However at the timing used for music this is less of an issue now than it has been in the past.

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24

Hey, my 2 cents.

CPU - whatever, Ryzen or AMD which is not prehistoric has a lot of punch for handling music production
RAM - 8 min, 16 optimum, 32, 64 overkill, anything above 16 GB is either overkill or you have to have a good reason for that
HDD - DAW, VST folder, Sample folder Temp record folder, on SSD … it just saves so much time

… Single-core performance seems quite much more important than the thread number. DAWs nowadays are quite good at multithreading and load balancing, but it’s good to consider that a singular instance of a VST is never multithreaded. (Maybe some VST3 ones nowadays are, but in general VST format doesn’t like to be spread across more cores because of latency issues.) …

I have a template in Ableton, which is around 160 tracks loaded on startup. It’s all from inserts, effects, virtual, hardware instruments, midi-sequencers, and a whole orchestra with various articulations. etc. with SSL mixing console simulation on every single track. When I load it up, it takes some time, something over a minute, but as soon as it’s loaded it hovers around 20% of CPU usage, and whatever I am doing with the template I will get around 50% CPU with 70% spikes here and there. I have Ryzen 3700x, 64 GB Ram, and Ableton on M.2 disk and all the aforementioned folders on some generic Samsung SSD and have 96 sample buffer size. Nothing extreme.

So, although in 2010 one had to consider what kind of a machine he will buy for music production, I don’t think it has to be stressed over too much. nowadays When you set the buffer in your daw it’s how many samples in advance DAW will process before playing the output. The CPU usage in DAWs is … how many samples are actually utilized in the buffer while computing the final output. So when you have 50% CPU usage in your DAW it means that for example with 256 sample buffer in DAW, 128 samples in the buffer are actually used. When you have 0% utilization it means that whatever is your DAW doing it could do it in real-time without using the buffer. But no matter what the CPU utilization DAW will still calculate the 64, 128, and 256 samples before playing the next piece of audio no matter what.

Also, it doesn’t actually matter if your CPU usage is constantly hovering around 80%. As long as you will not get over 100% there’s absolutely no issue.

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25

I need to get a new laptop that will work with Grageband. Do you think the MacBook Air 13 (M3 | 16GB memory | 512GB SSD) would work? Could I get away with the Air with 8GB memory | 256GB SSD or will that memory and storage be a problem? Thank you.

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I’d go with as much RAM as possible since being a Mac, you won’t be able to upgrade it. When you need / want more storage, external hard drives are fine for storage. Tbh, I would see if there are any 15" M2 Macbook Air’s on the Apple refurb site. The extra screen real estate is nice, you can save some dough vs brand new, and you should be able to pick one up with plenty of RAM.

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27

Cheapest I could find with 16gb RAM is $1179 if you don’t care about the color. The Midnight (the one I have) is another $100.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/G18L0LL/A/refurbished-15-inch-macbook-air-apple-m2-chip-with-8‑core-cpu-and-10‑core-gpu-space-gray?fnode=7de2695b9f0315f8e8697e21ed8f478130426ee0c416e3e6c5fd6bde3ccaa83ef90c071659a357d3430c471c96c9fe1c11959092f62076c0ff4ea13078f17f37ad95afc22e37204a513e559835796a6a

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28

I agree with @faydout in that you do not want to go below 16GB RAM. Processor-wise, even a M1 would be fine, any Apple silicon will work well.

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29

Thank you so much for this advice…this is very helpful…I’ll check out that refurbished one you linked below and will follow your advice on the getting at leass 16gb of RAM. I also think the 15" screen would be helpful as I don’t have the best eyesight and to fit all of the DAW features on the screen. Thanks again!

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@howard perfect…thanks for this advice…you guys have given me a good idea of what to look for.

31

I wouldn’t worry so much about the storage, there are plenty of external SSD or NVME storage. I use that on all of my Mac. You’ll eventually have to get some kind of a hub, I’m using Anker Docking station.

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32

Agree, with a Mac laptop in 2024, RAM and CPU are all you need to worry about. Very simple:

  • Do not buy a used Intel mac now under any circumstances, M1 is your minimum
  • Buy 16GB RAM minimum

Thats all you need.

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33

Absolutely! I have M1 MacBook, M2 Mac mini and M1, M2 and M4 iPad Pro. Everyday use I can’t tell the difference in speed, they are all blazing.

My fiber internet speed at home is 2 Gigabit My M1 can go about 1GB with ethernet cable, both M2 and M4 is running about 1.4GB over WiFi. After almost 10 years of absolutely horrible Spectrum Cable internet, I’m now obsessed with my Fiber internet speed, :rofl:

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34

We switched from Xfinity to Quantum fiber (3gbps :stuck_out_tongue: ) earlier this year. The difference is jaw dropping. Especially with me working from home. @Al1885 you’ve got one of the 13" M4 ipads, right? I absolutely love mine. I plug mine into the same hub I use my macbook on when I want to do some stem splitting and recording, I’ve got logic pro for the ipad. If the mouse dual monitors and multitasking were better on ipad, I honestly wouldn’t have a need for a laptop.

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35

Yeah, I love it. I’m actually doing all of the FinalCut Pro and GarageBand on my Ms iPad Pro. I occasionally use the Logic on my Mac mini. The $5 Final Cut Pro on iPad is so awesome. Check out the Anker Factory store on Ebay, they have some crazy price on the Hub and docking stations. I usually make a 10-15% off offer and see if they would take it on top of the huge discount, they do sometimes.

I’m pretty sure when M5 comes it’d be super fast but not as noticeable compare to M1. My M1 iPad Pro is really cooking now because I deleted most of the apps and only kept the essential. It’s so nimble. My M2 is the daily driver, in fact it’s the $300 iPad 10th gen that’s my daily driver with very minimum case.

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I’ll check that out, I’m not a huge fan of iMovie (it’s a little too simple for me, I’d like to do more with my videos). that’s the exact reason I did Logic Pro on, that $5 is barely more than Moises and you get a whole lot more on top of just stem splitting, also think it does a better job than Moises.

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37

I’ve got an M1, 8GB, 256GB and it works great for anything i throw at it, memory has never been a problem on anything. If you need more storage, just get an external SSD.

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38

I haven’t used a MacBook so can’t comment on performance specs, but from a storage point of view - consider online storage. Online storage generally has some sort of subscription cost to it, but not only can you scale up how much you need, you are essentially backing up your work at the same time. You can also easily access your files on any device. I’m generally on my laptop, but sometimes view/edit things on my iPad or mobile.

I have a Microsoft 365 family subscription that gives me and 5 family members access to MS apps such as Word, Outlook, Excel etc, but also gives each person 1TB of online storage. They have personal subscriptions as well, but if there is at least one other person you could share it with, the family is better value.

If you don’t need more than 1TB, the price of the subscription is cheaper than many of the other big players on the market so doesn’t really matter if you need the Office applications or not. Not sure if any of the big players even come close when you consider the family option (if they even have one).

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39

@howard
So from what I’m reading it looks like my

Intel Core i7-8550U @ 1.80GHz
Ranked at 2184
Cores: 4 Threads: 8
16 GB RAM should be good?

Planning on using Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD, Moises, Reaper.

40

That should be fine.