Laptop for recording

[colgraff]

Interesting article here: http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac-software/best-mac-making-music-apple-computer-for-editing-music-3446650/

From December 2015, Macworld.com says that there the choice of PC or Mac for music recording is entirely personal preference and there is no inherent advantage offered by either operating system. The article also had lots of useful info on hardware specs

[neepheid]

[RockfordStone]

[quote name='geofio' timestamp='1456094753' post='2985403']
Would not use a pc for recording , Mac is the only way to go for serious recording, there are always issues with pc been there done that. no matter the power of the pc/lapotop they just don't hack it for multitrack recording don.t waste your money on a pc is my 20 years recording music advice!!!!
[/quote]
i've been recording on my PC which i built for the past 10 years and it has never caused me any problems. I managed to completely rebuild it last year and the combined cost of the two still came under the cost of an entry level mac.
also, if my pc stops working i can fix it. i don't have to book an appointment with a hipster at an expensive apple premium to make it work again.

i have friends with mac's and collaborate musically with them over the two mediums. it simply is personal preference

[lowdown]

[quote name='geofio' timestamp='1456094753' post='2985403']
Would not use a pc for recording , Mac is the only way to go for serious recording, there are always issues with pc been there done that. no matter the power of the pc/lapotop they just don't hack it for multitrack recording don.t waste your money on a pc is my 20 years recording music advice!!!!
[/quote]

They are both reliable and are often used together these days.

A popular set up in the media music world, especially with composers.
PC [i]or[/i] Mac running VSL VE5 slaved with Mac [i]or[/i] PC,
Anything from two machines via Ethernet upwards in combinations of Mac [i]and[/i] PC.
Or even just one Puter (PC or Mac) running VSL. All FX and Soft Synths are then hosted outside of the DAW,
resulting in no CPU hit on the DAW.

Things have changed a lot in twenty years.

[keefbaker]

Main problem is getting a laptop where the CPU/RAM aren't physically close to or are shielded adequately from the hard drive.

Otherwise you'll get digital little squeaks when recording that even some external soundcards can't help with. I'd look on other forums like gearslutz or the ableton forums for people doing the same and see if they've had issues.

Eg: on my Lenovo if I use a cheap external (or the internal) soundcard I get the digital squeaks of the HDD on the recording but using my old Roland Sonic Cell I don't.

I've also had this on an Acer once, but weirdly I've never had that issue with a mac.

[keefbaker]

[quote name='geofio' timestamp='1456094753' post='2985403']
Would not use a pc for recording , Mac is the only way to go for serious recording, there are always issues with pc been there done that. no matter the power of the pc/lapotop they just don't hack it for multitrack recording don.t waste your money on a pc is my 20 years recording music advice!!!!
[/quote]

There are more *likely* to be issues with PC, but if you're not scared of getting your hands dirty you can get it working no bother most of the time. Macs are pretty much guaranteed to work out of the box for it, yeah, but it doesn't mean "PCs don't work", it just means they're more of a fiddle.

[Mornats]

I'm of the opinion that you should use whichever system you're most comfortable with. If you know how to solve issues on either system then you're much more likely to be able to breeze through any problems. I'm a lot more familiar with PCs than Macs. I've used both for recording and any issues with the Mac were harder to solve for me as I was less familiar with the inner workings. I built my PC myself so know how to fix stuff. A mate of mine can fix pretty much anything on a Mac and is the opposite of me in terms of preference. Windows would befuddle him as much as OSX befuddles me.

The OP's budget would likely rule out a Mac powerful enough to last a few years of DAW work (do correct me if I'm wrong though) although it's worth considering whether splashing a bit more cash would be of benefit so it's not inappropriate to suggest a Mac. However he did specify a Windows PC so I think we should put aside the Mac vs. PC debate and help him get a good system that he can work with

So, to offer all possibilities to the OP, the cheapest Macbook on the Apple site costs a touch over a grand: http://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-mac/macbook/silver-256gb and has a CPU that's possibly a bit too underpowered for DAW work. It does have an SSD and 8GB ram which would help. I'm not sure if a 12" screen would hinder DAW work. Possibly, but only the OP can decide that. You can of course hook it up to an external monitor and dual screen.

Actually, the cheapest Macbook Pro costs less! I thought they were the next model up! This is more like it as it has an i5 processor although a larger SSD for samples and VIs would be preferable. Being able to move quickly between instruments, sample libraries and the like near instantaneously from an SSD is a massive workflow benefit. Here's the cheapest Macbook Pro at a quid under a grand: http://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=MF839B/A&step=config#

There's always second hand when it comes to laptops if you want to go down that route.

I already gave some Window's suggestions above so I won't reiterate those here.

In either case, budget for a good low-latency audio interface too if you don't already own one. Pop over to the recording section as there are a few threads about those with loads of suggestions.

[tauzero]

[quote name='geofio' timestamp='1456094753' post='2985403']
Would not use a pc for recording , Mac is the only way to go for serious recording, there are always issues with pc been there done that. no matter the power of the pc/lapotop they just don't hack it for multitrack recording don.t waste your money on a pc is my 20 years recording music advice!!!!
[/quote]

I've been in three recording studios in the last five or so years, all were using Windows PCs.

[Geek99]

[quote name='BobVbass' timestamp='1456084715' post='2985275']
I'd go for a good spec business laptop - dell latitude or something - heavy, built like a tank, easy to fix
[/quote]
And as much ram as you can get
Plus ssd disk

[Si600]

One thing I noticed with a laptop is that mine produces a lot of noise on the recording if it's plugged into the mains. Running on battery stops it happening but it's something to be aware of.

[BottomE]

[quote name='geofio' timestamp='1456094753' post='2985403']
Would not use a pc for recording , Mac is the only way to go for serious recording, there are always issues with pc been there done that. no matter the power of the pc/lapotop they just don't hack it for multitrack recording don.t waste your money on a pc is my 20 years recording music advice!!!!
[/quote]
Respect your opinion but your advice sounds 20 years old. True, in the early days it was really the best option to get a Mac for decent home studio recording. These days, however, there is much more bang for buck on the Windows platform and all the early problems of latency, bad memory management and annoyingly timed crashes is a thing of the past.

Someone else suggesting using whatever you are comfortable with and its good advice. There are some DAW packages that manage resources well and others more demanding.

The real question is how many audio tracks and effects the OP wants to use simultaneously. If its loads then get as high a spec as possible. If like me, maximum 2 audio tracks at the same time, most £400 laptops will do this with a decent Audio Interface.