Recording laptop recommended system requirements. Choosing a computer for a recording studio

Make sure you have a fast multi-core processor. For most home sound engineers, most of the processing takes place inside the computer. You can never have a processor that is too fast. Adding processes requires more energy to keep things running smoothly.

Get as many random access memory as much as you can afford. The more RAM, the more opportunity your computer will have to handle plugins, effects and so on. It will also help your system run faster for reasons we won't get into (see computer information page if you want to know the details). Remember, 32 bit operating systems cannot use more than 4 gigabytes of RAM. This is a good reason to upgrade to a 64-bit OS.

Get a few fast hard large disks. This is another important consideration. Recording music takes up a lot of space; one song can take up several gigabytes of hard disk space. So get the most HDD, which you can afford, or keep in mind that you can always add later external hard disk or two. Besides, fast hard the disc will reduce the chances of unwanted clicks and clicks during recording and playback and speed up your computer processes somewhat. Recommended by at least, 7200 rpm hard drive with 32 megabyte cache. SSD hard drives currently ideal, but can be very expensive.

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CPU.

Memory.

Hard drives.

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Choosing a computer for a recording studio

Choosing a computer for a recording studio3.00 out of 5 0 based on 8 voters.

Regardless of which platform you choose, the components that make up your computer play leading role in determining how smoothly your DAW system will run. The following is a list of computer items to look out for.

CPU. It is the heart of the computerized recording studio. Processor speed determines how well any program will run on it. As a rule, sound recording requires a processor that is as fast as you can afford. Most recording software requires at least core processor 2 Duo for PC or G5 for Mac. If possible, buy separate computer exclusively for audio recording, since launching other types of applications ( word processors, games, accounting systems) can cause problems in audio applications, as well as reduce the stability of the entire system.

Memory. Computer programs working with sound and all the components associated with them require a lot of RAM. How more memory will be in the computer - the better. More specifically, the amount of memory required depends on your preferred recording style. If you create a lot audio tracks and want to apply reverb or some other effect to each track, you will need more memory and a faster processor. If you mainly record MIDI from instruments that you have already used desired effects, you can get by with less memory. For most programs, the recommended minimum memory is 2 GB, although 4 GB or more can be achieved for smoother sound. RAM is pretty cheap these days, so buy as much as you can. Regardless of the platform you choose (PC or Mac), remember that there is not too fast processor or too much memory.

Hard drives. For the record sound signal need hard drives right type. Please note that I used the word "disks" in plural. And this is quite understandable. If you want to record many audio tracks at the same time, you will need multiple discs. At a minimum, you need to have one hard drive with the operating system and recording software installed, and one drive for audio data. This will greatly increase the stability of the system and reduce the likelihood of system failure when recording 16 or more tracks.

Regarding the volume hard drives I can say for sure - the more the better. For the core of the system (programs and operating system), a 100 GB disk will be enough. For an audio data disc, even 200 GB may not be enough, since they are quite large. For example, a 5-minute song recorded on 16 tracks at 24-bit and 44.1 kHz sampling rate would take up about 600 MB (that's about 7.5 MB per track per minute).

Choose hard drives carefully. For system disk any will do, even the one with standard computer. However, for an audio data disc, data transfer issues come to the fore. The main parameters to pay attention to are rotation speed, access time and buffer size.

Rotational speed. This is the speed at which they rotate magnetic disks devices. As a rule, for quality recording and playback of audio data, a rotation speed of 7200 rpm is sufficient.

Access time. This is the amount of time it takes the device to search for a given piece of data recorded on it. Our task requires an average access time of no less than (ie no more than) 10 milliseconds.

Buffer size. This is the amount of memory, called the cache buffer, built into the disk controller and designed to store transferred data. For our tasks, the buffer size must be at least 512 KB.

The number of tracks you can squeeze out of your system is directly related to the speed hard drive- the higher the speed, the large quantity tracks can be recorded and played back simultaneously. In addition, the type of device purchased will determine how important role will be given to the processor.

First, you need to determine the dimensions of the device. If you're looking to use your computer for live performances, or if you're planning on making music outside of your room, then a laptop might be the better choice for you. If you do not have such prospects, we advise you to make a choice in favor of desktop computer with a large monitor.

Imagine your browser with a couple dozen tabs that you need to quickly switch between. Uncomfortable? With music software it will be even more inconvenient. The interface of the programs for sound recording and processing includes a bunch of buttons and knobs, and the plug-in windows are superimposed on each other.

Something like this sometimes looks like an image on the sound engineer's monitor. musicradar.com

Choice operating system is also important. Decent software is everywhere, but not all programs are cross-platform. So, if you like the Logic Pro X sequencer, then you should choose a computer running macOS.

Take a look at your computer's RAM. Experts recommend a volume of at least 8 GB. However, even here it is necessary to proceed from the needs specific user. Also, installing software on an SSD drive will help speed up the performance.

How to choose a sound card?

Reasonableness of buying a new one sound card instead of the built-in one, there is no doubt if you are serious about making music. The characteristics of the built-in audio cards are usually sufficient for games and movies, but for comfortable work with sound you need a special device.

Pay attention to the number of input channels of the sound card. The number of instruments that you can connect at the same time will depend on it. As a rule, for home recording 2–4 inputs are sufficient, so we will not consider the segment expensive devices for multichannel recording.

Also an important factor when buying is the presence of phantom power on board the audio card. Extra food connected device is required if you are using a condenser microphone.

djshop.by

USB audio card with an instrumental and two line inputs, as well as an XLR connector. There is a control for mixing the signal from the computer to the sound of the connected instruments. There are also significant drawbacks: there is no phantom power and a separate headphone volume control.

focusrite.com

Inexpensive sound card nice design, mic preamps, phantom power, and direct audio monitoring that eliminates latency.

rolandmusic.ru

Sound card from Roland with three inputs and phantom power on board.

ek.ua

This sound card boasts minimal latency as well as great job both with live sound and via MIDI interface. It has two inputs with phantom power.

These audio cards are good for getting started with sound and getting to know the basics of mixing. And the choice of a professional card in higher price segments- a question that can be devoted to more than one article.

What kind of speakers do you need to mix music?

Music lovers' preferences when choosing home acoustics can be very different. The choice of studio monitors is also purely individual, but in this case it is determined by the musical styles in which you plan to create.

Remember that monitors for mixing music are not necessarily acoustics for listening to it. Main criterion when choosing studio speakers - their objectivity. Everything in high detail frequency range will help to hear inaccuracies in the mix, which can be smoothed out by speakers with various enhancers.

The sound we hear is not only the speakers, but also the space we are in. If you do not plan to pay attention to the acoustic properties of the room, then buying monitors for thousands of dollars is not practical.

And do not rush to throw away the old "geniuses". You can invest a lot in buying acoustics, but most listeners are content with anything: built-in laptop speakers, inexpensive vacuum headphones and even a speaker in a smartphone. You need to achieve good sound even on frankly bad media, so use the full range of available devices different class for testing.

mackie.com

A budget option for those on a tight budget.

pioneer-online.com

Inexpensive monitors with a nice design.

decks.co.uk

quality studio monitors with deep bass.

Please note that monitors of acceptable quality, as a rule, are not sold as a set, but one at a time.

And the headphones?

When purchasing headphones, do not forget to try them on. Mixing is a painstaking process that requires many hours of work, so convenience plays a key role here.

Make a list of the headphones you like and compare their frequency response (this information can be found on the Internet): the sound should be as smooth as possible at the frequencies involved.

mycroft.su

Inexpensive open headphones with a neutral sound.

music-produktiv.ru

Closed headphones with velor ear cushions. They have a nice design and balanced sound with accentuated high frequencies.

Amazon.com

Open-back headphones with a pleasing design and a natural, neutral sound.

What is a DAW software and why do you need one?

DAW (eng. digital audio workstation) - digital sound work station. It sounds complicated, but it's actually much simpler. DAW is a software environment in which your music is recorded and edited.

FL Studio, Cubase, Logic Pro X, ProTools, Reaper, Ableton Live, Nuendo are the most famous representatives of a number of DAW programs, also called sequencers. It should be noted that the choice software environment no less individual than choice suitable headphones. In any of the listed sequencers, you can create music of acceptable quality, and here everyone should proceed from their own preferences. Download free demos, try it out and choose the DAW software that's right for you.

Image-Line FL Studio 12. image-line.com

A sequencer program with an intuitive interface. Great for creating and processing batches virtual instruments, but the live recording function in FL Studio is not implemented very conveniently.

Ableton Live 9.2.2. ruprograms.com

Ableton was created as a program for live performances, but has become one of the most popular sequencers with intuitive controls, flexible settings and acceptable quality of built-in processing tools.

Logic Pro X

Logic Pro X. macworld.com

Moving to Logic is a natural evolutionary step for advanced GarageBand users. It has cool software synthesizers and effects in the basic configuration. Understanding Logic Pro X is somewhat more difficult than Ableton, but avid users assure that it's worth it.

Keyboard and mouse - not enough comfort devices input when it comes to programs for creating music. Of course, no one forbids typing notes and prescribing automation of effects using the mouse, but this is not very convenient. MIDI controllers will help create effective communication between the musician and the computer.

samsontech.com

A simple 32-key MIDI keyboard.

akaipro.com

Two-octave MIDI synthesizer with assignable knobs and programmable pads. Cope with the role of a simple keyboard and drum machine, simplify the settings for automating effects.

m-audio.com

A five octave MIDI keyboard for those who don't like stripped-down keyboards.

MIDI to USB cable

www.aliexpress.com

You may already have a budget playable synthesizer. Many of these inexpensive Casios have a 5-pin MIDI interface. To connect the synthesizer to a computer, an inexpensive cable from AliExpress is suitable.

How to use VST and VSTi plugins?

Our DAW program is just a shell. To make it sound, you will need to install virtual musical instruments called VSTi. Modern VSTi plug-ins are able to repeat the sound of both synthetic and live instruments with a sufficient degree of realism. There are thousands of plugins, but we will focus on the most popular ones.

Native Instruments Massive

Oversized synthesizer with hundreds of presets on board. Especially loved by musicians working in electronic dance genres.

LennarDigital Sylenth1

A synthesizer that does not differ in external tricks, but has won the love of users for a sound that can sometimes be confused with the sound of real analog synthesizers.

XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2

One of the best virtual emulators live drums. Also available are presets of popular drum machines.

To process both virtual and live instruments, we need additionally installed effects - VST plugins. Their choice is no less wide, but we will give only a few of them as an example.

Antares Auto-Tune EFX 3

Plugin for those whose love of singing is incommensurably higher than the ability to hit the notes. Auto-Tune helps to clean up bad notes in a track by stretching them out to the nearest good ones.

Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5

A must-have plugin for any guitarist. Using Guitar Rig, you can emulate not only guitar overdrive, but also various modulation effects or entire cabinets.

iZotope Ozone 7

Plugin for mastering - post-processing of the mixed composition. For those who find the interface too complicated, there are dozens of presets with optimal settings for different styles music.

What to do next?

We figured out the basic equipment for your home recording studio. At this stage, you can start to create. The quantity and variety of stuff that you can add to your studio is limited only by your means and imagination.

Remember that quality devices and musical instruments can be exploited for decades, and musicians are people subject to a constant desire to update their own. On specialized forums and in VKontakte groups, you will find not only communication with like-minded people, but also many offers for buying and selling musical equipment. This will help you save a lot when setting up a home recording studio.

For home studio equipment, it is preferable to use desktop computer because it's easier to make it quieter and more (much more) performant than a laptop. But if you need mobility and / or space occupied by the studio is critical, then a laptop with external USB card will come in handy. You can assemble the computer yourself, if it is impossible to buy all the components at once in one company, ordering, at the same time, the assembly.

Requirements for a home recording studio computer:

- power unit should be low-noise (noise level of about 20 dB, which corresponds to a bedroom at night);

- processor (CPU), not worse -Intel Core 2 Duo 1800 MHz (MHz) or Athlon 2x64 4000 MHz. In principle, as a computer user, you will hardly notice the difference between Core and Athlon. Focus on the one that will cost less. If you plan to use many plug-ins at the same time (approximately 10 processing and 10 virtual synthesizers), then you should take a processor with more high frequency. In this case, it is recommended to increase the processor power (frequency in MHz) by at least 1.5 times . Doubling the number of cores (processors) gives a performance increase of about 25%.

As the clock frequency increases, the price of the processor increases. At first, it grows in small steps (100-300 rubles from model to model), then at a certain point the difference immediately becomes 500-1000 rubles. In terms of price / performance, it is most advantageous to take a processor with such a sampling frequency, after which a sharp jump immediately occurs. It is also worth considering that increasing the sampling rate by 100-200 MHz at gigahertz clock speeds does not give much gain;

- motherboard(MB, motherboard) must match the processor and RAM(see below), have free slots for installing an audio card if you are going to use PCI or PCI Express sound map . When choosing a motherboard, pay attention to which processors it supports and how much memory can be installed in it.;

- low noise CPU fan with speed control and speed sensor (for example, Thermaltake TR2 series or ASUS V72, Silent Square, Triton 77, low-noise Scyte models);

- random access memory (RAM)- at least 2048 MB ( ultra high frequency memory performance increase, noticeable simple user will not bring programs, DDR2 PC6400 is already normal. Attention: DDR2 memory is always installed in two modules, so you need to buy 2 x 1024 MB modules, which are often sold in sets.) . But this is only necessary minimum. To work with sampler synthesizers ( Kontakt, HaliONE, GIGASempler, etc.) it is recommended to use at least 4 GB, and preferably 8. You can install more than 4 GB only in a 64-bit ( x64) operating system. 32-bit simply will not see more than 3 GB of memory. There is various ways try to get around this limitation, but they do not contribute to the stability of the operating system. The memory transfer speed is no worse than 6400 Mb/s. DDR2 or DDR 3 - there is not much difference (performance gain in programs will be about 5-10%). But if you install the most or almost the most powerful processor, then you should take DDR3 with the most high speeds. Check with the seller about the compatibility of the motherboard-processor-memory kit;

- hard disk drive (HDD)- at least 250 Gb (GB, gigabyte) for audio recording, or at least 1000 Gb - for audio and video recording, 7200 rpm, SATA, low noise (for example, Samsung or Seagate). If you need more memory, it is better to buy 1 large hard drive than 2 small ones. This is due to the fact that acoustic vibrations from two or more hard drives installed in the same case jointly generate a hum that is louder than the noise from each of these hard drives when installed alone in the same case. It is not necessary and even not desirable to store all the accumulated material on one hard drive of a studio computer. You can have a special low power computer(archiving server) with several hard drives, which is located in another (non-studio) room and is connected to the studio computer via a network. Completed projects will be saved in a compressed form to the archiving server;

- CD/DVD writer- the model is practically irrelevant (for example, NEC - very good);

- video card must be fanless(its performance does not affect the work with music programs) with one or two outputs for connecting monitors (see next paragraph), can be built into the motherboard;

- monitor one, and even better 2 identical, so that more pens and buttons fit on the screen music editor;

- mouse and keyboard- better with USB connector;

- operating system- better 64-bit (Vista or Windows 7 ), this will allow you to use more memory for sampler synthesizers, significantly (and sometimes very significantly) speed up the speed of loading sound banks. It will also reduce the cost of the operating system to flush and swap program memory to disk and back to RAM, which will significantly increase performance..This will manifest itself in the fact that those projects that have come up against the speed of a computer on a 32-bit operating system will work on a 64-bit one with a decent margin of performance. There is one moment. If you decide to buy a certain type of sound card, then before installing a 64-bit operating system, make sure on the manufacturer's website that there is a driver for this card for your x64 operating system.

Summary:

It is preferable to use a desktop computer than a laptop, due to the fact that the former has more performance and is easier to make quiet.

Decide on the choice of operating system ( x32 or x64). It is recommended to opt for 64-bit due to more high performance using the same processor.

Faster performance x64 operating system will manifest itself when installing 4 or more GB of RAM.

The number of processor cores is at least 2, preferably 4 or 8. An increase in processor cores by 2 times increases performance by about 25%;

It is better to choose components according to the principle of low noise and fanless.

BE SURE to check with the seller about the compatibility of the motherboard-processor-memory kit because the motherboard may not support DDR3, or the same RAM transfer rate, and whether the processor, etc. Even if these components can work together, they will not develop their maximum potential performance.