Laptop for music production

[0bened0]

Hi all.

Hopefully one of you super people may have some insight here.

I need to buy a laptop that will be suitable for home music production. I am running Cakewalk and recording through a Behringer U-Phoria UMC22 audio interface. My projects are ending up with 10 to 12 tracks with effects on most of them. I'm running into lag all the time which is making things very difficult, as I (usually!) want each track to be in time with each other.

I don't have a huge budget (£900 or so) and really need to be spending money where it's going to have the most impact.

All help appreciated!

 

[g-unit1111]

I might get some crap for this, but this is one of those rare times I might recommend that you actually go Apple. The reason being is that I have some friends of mine that make their own music, and they've said that there's no PC that can compete with Apple in terms of how quickly it can process music loops and production.

 

[Nemesia]

I might get some crap for this, but this is one of those rare times I might recommend that you actually go Apple. The reason being is that I have some friends of mine that make their own music, and they've said that there's no PC that can compete with Apple in terms of how quickly it can process music loops and production.

Apple laptop for £900?

 

[g-unit1111]

Apple laptop for £900?

Yeah true, you might have to go used for that one!

 

[0bened0]

I might get some crap for this, but this is one of those rare times I might recommend that you actually go Apple. The reason being is that I have some friends of mine that make their own music, and they've said that there's no PC that can compete with Apple in terms of how quickly it can process music loops and production.

 

[lvt]

Based on Cakewalk's requirements, this laptop will do the job without issue.

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Think...eature_four_browse-bin:2289793011&s=pc&sr=1-7

 

[Corwin65]

" I am running Cakewalk and recording through a Behringer U-Phoria UMC22 audio interface. "

Part of your issue is your Interface.

I have one of those as a backup, paid $32 so it's definitely worth that price, except for the fact that it uses ASIO4All.

A better interface, with actual drivers, will help with your latency.

What are your full system specs currently?

 

[0bened0]

" I am running Cakewalk and recording through a Behringer U-Phoria UMC22 audio interface. "

Part of your issue is your Interface.

I have one of those as a backup, paid $32 so it's definitely worth that price, except for the fact that it uses ASIO4All.

A better interface, with actual drivers, will help with your latency.

What are your full system specs currently?

It's an old Dell Inspiron 1545, with a dual 1.8 Celeron and 4GB RAM. We also added USB3.2 express card to try and reduce the latency

 

[LordVile]

I might get some crap for this, but this is one of those rare times I might recommend that you actually go Apple. The reason being is that I have some friends of mine that make their own music, and they've said that there's no PC that can compete with Apple in terms of how quickly it can process music loops and production.

Though you might want to buy logic with the Mac too

 

[lvt]

It's an old Dell Inspiron 1545, with a dual 1.8 Celeron and 4GB RAM. We also added USB3.2 express card to try and reduce the latency

You can't go far with that CPU nowadays, even watching Youtube could use most of its processing capability.

 

[g-unit1111]

Though you might want to buy logic with the Mac too

Yeah Logic Pro is the main reason why Apple is usually better for music production than PCs are.

 

[Corwin65]

Don't let the naysayers distract you, Cakewalk is a great DAW.

These are Minimum Specs.

• Windows 7 or higher (64-bit only)
• Multi-core Intel or AMD CPU
• 4GB RAM
• 3GB free disk space
• 1280x800 screen resolution
• ASIO compatible hardware is recommended

All you need is some recent hardware to run it well.
I'd get a better interface too.

 

[LordVile]

Yeah Logic Pro is the main reason why Apple is usually better for music production than PCs are.

Adds onto the cost though. A MBP 15” 2016 costs at least 650 used plus the 150 for logic

 

[g-unit1111]

Adds onto the cost though. A MBP 15” 2016 costs at least 650 used plus the 150 for logic

And somehow that seems like it's too much to pay for a now 5 year old laptop.

 

[LordVile]

And somehow that seems like it's too much to pay for a now 5 year old laptop.

You’re paying for the OS and access to exclusive software really.

 

[g-unit1111]

You’re paying for the OS and access to exclusive software really.

Yeah true. And in some cases it certainly is better than using Hackintosh or any kind of emulator software.

 

[LordVile]

Yeah true. And in some cases it certainly is better than using Hackintosh or any kind of emulator software.

Depends what you need really. Hackintosh laptops aren’t great