Good Laptop for Recording?

dmandude123455

dmandude123455

New member
So the time has come for a new laptop for me and I want to get one that I can record my music on. I don't really know anything about computers so I don't know what to look for when it comes to this kind of stuff. I want something that's going to be able to keep up with the recordings and that I will be able to do my school work and stuff on. As far as budget goes, I don't want to go too crazy (This laptop is actually a graduation present from my parents and they're letting me pick it out) so I'm not really looking for anything over like 1000, but I'm open to that price range. Also I'm open to Macs and PCs.

So yeah, what could I go for? Thanks.
 
Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

Recording what and how?

1996 Pentium Pros have more than enough horsepower for recording and mixing. The question is how much in the way of effects to you want to put on there?

My first actual recommendation is that you start out with an external sound interface so that you can carry it around and use other computers without changing sound.
 
Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

If you go for a Windows device, you may as well stick with Win7, but make sure you get the 64-bit version; it means you can access more than 3Gb of RAM.
 
Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

Max $1,000 = no Mac, unless you want used.

Honestly, just get the highest spec'd computer you can afford.

And budget for an audio interface. The Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 is the one to beat in the 2 input range.
 
Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

What software are you accustomed to using? What home computer do you have now?

Personally, I would decide on the DAW software first THEN pick out a computer that more than satisfies the System Requirements.

You would be surprised what can now be achieved on an iPad or a Samsung Galaxy.
 
Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

ratherdashing said:
Max $1,000 = no Mac, unless you want used.

Honestly, just get the highest spec'd computer you can afford.

And budget for an audio interface. The Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 is the one to beat in the 2 input range.
Click to expand...

Scarlet is $120, so figure $880 for the laptop
Should easily get you 8-16G of RAM
Stick with win7 64bit
7200 rpm internal drives
External drive to keep projects backed up on
i5 processor should fit that budget, though an i3 would be fine.


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Not sent from a PC......or a red delicious.....but from a robot with a human appearance.
 
Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

I have a Mac book pro I got for 1000 and some change. But Garage Band isn't the top line DAW. I would rather have Logic if I was serious about recording stuff but then I would also have a desktop and board for it as well.
 
Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

Rockstar216 said:
I have a Mac book pro I got for 1000 and some change. But Garage Band isn't the top line DAW. I would rather have Logic if I was serious about recording stuff but then I would also have a desktop and board for it as well.
Click to expand...

$60 will get you reaper for either os. Unless you plan to get really serious there isn't much reason for anything else.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

Lenovo's making the best bang for buck laptops right now. Sturdy, good features, and good price points. Stretch the budget for a dedicated video card - it 's worth it in the long run.
 
Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

Any computer that is good enough for gaming should have enough horsepower to handle recording. It really depends on how many tracks you plan on mixing at the very end, as what really eats up CPU are plugins and virtual instruments, especially samples and upscaled processors (for example, any plugin that takes the audio and bumps it up to 24/96 while it is processing). When I have a high track count with a lot of virtual instruments, I usually export those tracks as stems, delete the instrument tracks, and then import the stems them again as audio tracks. This enables me to get about 3-4x the track count without crashing.

Another way to get the most from available processing power is to group like tracks together and use one set of effects for the entire group (EQ, compression, etc). Then you don't have to worry about running out of steam when you decide to add another guitar track but don't have enough processing power for 1 more Pultec!!
 
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Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

Its good for you that you purchased the laptop but you do not tell me that which company laptop are you purchased if you tell me in the pm then may be i will suggest to you better answer...
 
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Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

All the above are worth considering, but the bus speed of the interface is important as well.

USB 2.0 is the current standard for PC, and 3.0 is being implemented (although rather slowly) for consumer-grade products.
The speed of USB 2.0 ranges from decent to meh.

If you want the real hot rod setup, get something with

  • a Texas Instruments Firewire chipset; nearly all the Firewire audio interfaces specify they work best (or even only) with the TI 1394
  • a solid-state hard drive; the faster the better (if conventional hard drive, nothing slower that 7200 RPM)
  • a CPU that supports multi-threading (AMD Athlon X2, Intel Core, or Intel Core Duo2/Extreme)

Also, make sure the power settings are for "maximum performance", rather than "power saving". You don't want the hard drives spinning down mid-session.
Get separate power supplies for the peripherals, because laptops aren't set up to power external drives or interfaces.

Oh yeah, get at least one extra hard drive, along with some thumb drives and SD cards. Backup, backup, backup; redundancy x3. That way, if (when) there is a crash, the data can be recovered.
 
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Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

How ambitious are the projects?

For mobile projects, I use a mid-2008 black MacBook A1181, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard.
 
Re: Good Laptop for Recording?

As a pc enthusiast i will say screw the laptop and desktop ftw but ;

Get the laptop with the most powerfull cpu.I5/I7 preffered.
Graphic card is only for gamers(like myself:D)
High ram- 8 gig at least(you can buy more later)
SSD will help at too especially opening the programs and reading stuff from disk.
If you can write 5 models or so we can recommend one from there.
 
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