whats the best mac to buy when doing music and editing
Best laptops for music production 2022: featuring portable computers for musicians, producers and DJs
For years now, Apple has produced some of the best laptops for music production. As the only portable platform for Logic Pro X, the Apple MacBook Pro is synonymous with the craft of music-making. By comparison, those of us using a PC have traditionally been chained to the desktop format, simply that has changed considerably in contempo years. Dell, Microsoft, Samsung, MSI, Asus, Lenovo and others big tech brands are all muscling in to requite Apple a serious run for its money, and some of them have proper music-making clout too. All of which is great for the consumer, every bit it gives united states 18-carat choice when it comes to music production.
Regardless of which platform you opt for, there are some considerations which remain consequent. When it comes to choosing the best laptop for your home studio, you'll want to pay close attention to the power and memory specs of the machine you're eyeing upwardly. While the basic requirements for most DAWs is a multi-cadre processor, around 4GB of RAM and a few gigabytes of storage, this won't be plenty for real-world applications. Buying a music laptop based on the 'minimum recommended' specs is a recipe for future angst and a need for an early upgrade. Instead, you lot need a laptop with enough power to handle the latest software and expanding file sizes, with plenty juice in the tank to cope with whatever you may need downwards the line.
For any DJs or traveling musicians reading this guide, weight - and portability - is probable to exist some other major factor. Some of the highest spec, beefiest laptops also weigh a fair corporeality, and your shoulders will quickly tire of lugging those behemoths around.
So, the all-time laptop for music production should be powerful and lightweight, while too rocking a expert battery capacity, for those situations where y'all're away from mains power. if y'all want more guidance, head to our buying advice section. Proceed scrolling for our recommendations...
Best laptops for music production: Our top picks
A driving factor for many producers looking to source a new laptop is price. In days gone by this meant sacrificing, or compromising, on what you want versus what y'all can beget. Now, fifty-fifty what might be classed every bit 'entry level' machines tin can cope with a huge variety of product scenarios without much fuss.
At the top end, all the same, we find it difficult to look past the new Apple MacBook Pro 14" lineup; ok the prices are enough to brand your wallet ache, simply the numbers information technology puts up in terms of sheer production grunt are impossible to ignore. It'south a laptop you lot tin can buy and then not have to retrieve almost again for another 5 years.
If y'all desire something a trivial more lightweight, the MacBook Air (opens in new tab) at present comes complete with the M1 chip, making it a genuinely capable proposition as a music-making laptop for most users.
For Windows users, in our experience the Dell XPS 13 OLED (opens in new tab) is a super solid actor, and more than capable of withstanding some hefty DAW sessions without breaking a sweat.
We'd also recommend looking to the world of gaming laptops. Don't be put off by their visual stylings – gamers require lots of power and very quick processors, which is expert news for y'all. For our money, we're taken with the Razer Blade xv Studio (opens in new tab) Edition. It's incredibly powerful, looks amazing and would brand a worthy studio powerhouse beyond a range of creative pursuits.
Best laptops for music production: Product guide
If you lot've used Apple MacBook Pro models in the past, you lot'll exist well aware of the striking industrial design, Retina screens and the optimised marriage of in-house hardware and software combining to brand a highly desirable, hugely capable laptop for music product. So to look at the 2022 Apple tree MacBook Pro 14", y'all might experience a little underwhelmed - we certainly were. Information technology doesn't have a flashy new design, or a vastly upgraded screen. But what has happened out of sight, within the body of the machine, has been completely enhanced though.
Making utilize of the newest M1 Pro or M1 Max chips, the 14" model at present has enough in the style of processing power and cutting-edge operation to suit even the nearly demanding of creative professionals. Configurable to include some bluntly crazy specs, like up to 64GB of RAM and 8TB of SSD storage, this is a laptop for music production unlike whatever other. Yes, it'due south expensive - maxing out the configurator on Apple's website shows you lot could be paying effectually £/$6,000 for the highest spec version, but if you can afford information technology in that location is literally no other machine capable of doing what this laptop can do. You can read the full results of our testing in the review, linked beneath.
Read the total Apple MacBook Pro 14" review
Some other year, another add-on to the formidable Dell XPS line-up. Billed every bit the ideal laptop for on-the-go creatives who don't fancy signing upwardly to the Apple walled-garden, and the closest Windows alternative to an Apple MacBook Pro, the Dell XPS line has congenital upwards a strong reputation cheers to its sleek design, gorgeous screens and powerful spec.
The XPS range delivers like levels of style, quality and performance to the MBP, simply using Windows as its OS. As it stands, other than looking at high-spec elite gaming laptops, you lot're not going to go a much meliorate package for the money.
The 2021 vintage packs in an updated 11th-generation Intel Cadre i5 or i7 processor, plus the addition of a 4K OLED screen. This perhaps won't exist the showstopping headline characteristic a music maker will get for, but if the laptop is to serve other purposes like watching films or generally staring at in wonder, and so the Dell XPS 2021 OLED might just be the perfect pick.
There'south a beefier fifteen" model further up the range, just for most people the XPS 13 makes for a pretty compelling package.
Read the full Dell XPS thirteen 9310 OLED (2021) review
If you read the generalist mainstream tech media reviews of the latest Apple tree silicon laptops, you'd exist forgiven for thinking we'd witnessed a paradigm change. Apple'southward new in-house M1 scrap does seem to perform streets ahead of its contest, promising unprecedented boosts in speed, performance and battery life. It does this past combining CPU, GPU and retentiveness into one chip, greatly reducing power usage and delivering a hugely optimised computing experience. Does that mean musicians and studio owners should invest right away? The more than easily-on time nosotros've had with the M1-equipped machines, the more than we're heading in that direction.
While having a powerful machine is one office of the equation, nosotros're likewise reliant on the hardware playing nicely with the software packages nosotros utilize in our work. As you'd await, Logic Pro X and Garageband users can immediately have advantage of all this extra optimization, but for users of Live, Cubase, Pro Tools et al the picture show is less clear. Full support is coming though. If Apple'due south lofty promises over performance are kept – and normally, they are – and so this could exist a revolutionary car.
Read the full Apple MacBook Pro M1 13" review
- The best MacBook Pro M1 deals online correct at present
It used to exist that if you lot were a serious music maker, anything under Apple's MacBook Pro line simply wouldn't cut it for the processor and RAM intensive tasks put upon it by audio production. With the new M1 chip inside the 2021 Apple MacBook Air notwithstanding, we've been convinced that this argument tin can largely be put to bed, at to the lowest degree for the majority of dwelling producers. Add together into that the inherent benefits of the Air – slim form factor, weighs the aforementioned as a crisp packet – and you've got a pretty formidable production machine, particularly if your workflow involves travelling effectually.
If nosotros were being picky nosotros could say information technology's slightly disappointing there hasn't been a pattern revolution – it looks largely the same as the Air range always has – and a few more USB ports would e'er be prissy, just opting for Apple'due south cheaper model no longer ways missing out on product performance in the way information technology once might have done.
Read the full Apple MacBook Air M1
Think of a gaming laptop, and you probably imagine garish colours, RGB lights all over the shop and enough power under the hood to low-cal upward a continent. With the Razer Blade fifteen Studio, yet, we take a monstrously powerful laptop with its origins in the gaming world, but with its sights very much attack artistic pursuits. In that location are some nice visual touches, from the customisable RGB backlighting on the keys, just otherwise this is a strong, slick studio creature which demands attention.
Microsoft's second attempt at a pure laptop device is an absolute winner in our view, and while it doesn't represent a huge overhaul of the original Surface Laptop, it offers improvements in all the areas we were hoping for, including updated hardware that brings serious performance benefits.
This is a laptop that finally delivers on what Microsoft set out to practise with the original: a pure, powerful Windows 10 laptop feel. If yous're not sold on the 2-in-i nature of the Surface Book 2, but dear Microsoft'due south premium build quality and design, then the Surface Laptop 2 is the laptop for yous. A very worth addition to our best laptops for music production guide.
At the higher end of the gaming PC spectrum - not a bad place for music producers to look when sheer power is required - there are some serious studio contenders. The Asus Rog Strix Scar is show of this; with an Intel i7 processor and a base spec of xvi GB of RAM, you know this machine tin can chew through whatsoever audio production chore y'all throw at information technology.
Hudson Mohawke, the Scottish electronic producer, is a known fan, and with good reason. In one case y'all get past the garish colour scheme and 'edgy' gamer branding, you lot take an immensely capable, lightweight figurer that would rival many traditional desktop arrangements.
MSI is one of the more respected names in gaming PCs, and so it figures that their flagship mid-range offer features some decent internals. The MSI GF63 is the ideal blend of performance and aesthetics, and would brand a superb laptop for anyone using their laptop for live performance or as a portable studio on business relationship of its thin form cistron and cooling features.
Performance-wise, it's packing a 2.four GHz i5 processor, so solid enough to cope with most tasks. We liked the potential for upgrading though; it ships with 8GB of DDR4 RAM installed, but with space to business firm upward to 64GB so the potential for future-proofing your rig is clear. As your live sets or studio sessions grow in size, and so as well can your laptop.
While it may not have the best keyboard in the world, the Samsung Notebook nine is all the same i of the best laptops you can buy. Packed with more horsepower than the MacBook Pro, simply at a much lower toll, Samsung has crafted a laptop that has but equally much substance as it does style.
Plus, on top of its killer specs, it's lightweight and thin, making this one of the almost portable 15-inch laptops you can buy today.
Equally Microsoft'south riposte to Apple'southward authorization, the stakes were loftier when it released the Surface Pro serial. With Apple's concur on creative professionals beingness then potent, the Surface Pro had a lot to live upwardly to. And, with the Microsoft Surface Pro 7, information technology it edging e'er closer to bridging that gap.
Admittedly, a razor thin two-in-one is never going to be the product powerhouse that a defended PC or Mac would be, simply as a device geared towards portability it's near impeccable.
The main stumbling block will be the toll; for a fully tricked-out version with Intel i7 processor and xvi GB of RAM, you're looking north of $2k. But as a premium device that can handle music, along with everything else life can throw at y'all, it'south a solid option. A quoted total mean solar day of battery life is not to be sniffed at either.
Asus has struck gold with its new refresh of its ZenBook Flip Due south 2-in-i laptop, with the Asus ZenBook Flip S UX370 impressing usa so much it's fabricated it's style into our listing of the 10 best laptops for music production you can purchase right now.
With a new Kaby Lake R 8th-generation processor powering the device, plenty of RAM and a super-fast PCIe SSD in sure models, this is an absolutely stunning addition to our rundown of the all-time laptops for music product.
Its 2-in-one design means you can use it as both a laptop and a tablet, and while it'due south not as affordable as some machines on this list, if you take the upkeep you'll be actually happy with this fantastic device.
While you may have been convinced that 'budget Ultrabook' was an oxymoron upwards until this bespeak, the Acer has turned this common misconception on its head with the Swift 3. That's because the visitor has taken the all-aluminum chassis of the Acer Swift 7 and blimp some more affordable components within for everyone to savour.
It doesn't run macOS, but the Acer Swift 3 does put the historic period-old MacBook Air to shame in most every other regard, including the most-unbeatable cost tag. Of course, in the process of demolishing the competition, Acer did take to cut a few corners in order to keep the price so impressively low.
So although you can't wait much in the fashion of an Ultra Hard disk display or quality onboard sound, the performance benchmarks alone give even the Surface Laptop a run for its money.
Best Laptops for music product: Buying communication
How to choose the best laptop for music production
Choosing a laptop capable of running CPU-intensive sound production work can be catchy. Some options focus heavily on bombardment life. Others major on performance, and favour college-grade processors (CPUs) to ensure operations run snappily. Add into that differences in screen sizes, aesthetics and any number of other variables and we tin can easily see how it's hard to justify buying one model over some other.
There are sure characteristics you'll look for in a laptop, regardless of whether information technology's for producing music or editing video. Namely, yous are looking for that sweet spot of ability, performance and price. Nosotros all wish that terminal part wasn't a factor, simply it is. Not to worry though, every bit there are supremely capable laptops coming in at some very sensible prices right now. So what are the specifics that brand a neat production laptop?
Ultimately, when we say operation, in this context we hateful how fast the laptop can process things, and how quickly it can access, write and modify stored data. If you're a sample-based producer and accept gigabytes of stored loops and one-shots, then y'all will want to focus on a automobile that offers super-snappy access to your stored media. And, while they come in a lilliputian fleck more than expensive than traditional hard disc drives (HDD), the only existent option nowadays is a laptop that comes with a solid-state drive (SSD). Solid-state means there are no moving parts - then nix to go wrong or fail - but with rapid information transfer speeds and then y'all're not waiting on that pesky progress bar.
Which CPU is all-time for music production – Intel, AMD or Apple tree?
Essentially, a faster processor (or CPU) means ii things; your computer can handle more tasks beingness thrown at it, and information technology tin can 'process' those things a lot quicker. You may come across only minor differences; perhaps an audio file volition render one infinitesimal quicker using the faster of two processors, but over fourth dimension this conspicuously adds up.
In the CPU world, there are two major players. Intel is the big name, with a huge share of the market. Intel's range goes from i3 – the to the lowest degree powerful – all the way up to i9. About common in mid-to-upper tier laptops, however, are the i5 and i7 variants, and within that sphere you lot have unlike speed ratings, measured in gigahertz, too as the option to turbo-boost when you're placing the computer under major stress. The other name to look out for is AMD, which produces the Ryzen processors. These follow a similar nomenclature to the Intel versions, so R3, R5 and so on, and are popular amidst the gaming oversupply.
There is some other path to consider though. Apple has a slap-up heritage in producing machines designed for creative pursuits, and just every bit the residual grab upward with them, it flips the script once more. You lot may accept seen newer Apple tree machines with something called an M1 chip inside them. This essentially combines many of the laptops internal components onto a single scrap, resulting in incredible power and overall organisation efficiency. This has since been further succeeded on Apple's newest machines with the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.
The practiced news is that these gains admittedly do good producers, offer best-in-class operation and processing grunt, while also delivering longer battery life and other optimisations. Put just, Logic Pro Ten users on an M1-based motorcar are at the head of the DAW pack right now. The bad news, however, is that many tertiary-party software brands oasis't withal made the switch required to brand the nearly of it. More than are catching on, with big names like Ableton and Akai offering full native support, but others - like Native Instruments - are still working on optimising their catalogues to take full advantage.
The all-time advice nosotros can give is to practise your enquiry - all of the major developers are aware of M1, and are likely working on native back up, so it depends on your current setup and desire to rock the gunkhole. If yous tin, and don't anticipate major issues, then we'd absolutely advise looking at these new breeds of MacBook.
How much RAM does your music making laptop need?
With RAM, equally we mentioned, you lot can ignore the 'minimum specs' listed on the websites of the major DAWs. Anybody who tries to run a multitrack Ableton Live session on a laptop with 4GB of RAM is braver (or more patient) than we are. That'south because RAM is finer the short-term memory of your machine. With sound applications, particularly those involving lots of recorded audio, a higher amount of RAM means your sound playback is buttery smooth and glitch-costless because the estimator isn't having to 'catch' the audio from the difficult drive each time information technology wants to play.
If you're ownership at present, with the adjacent few years of use in mind, we'd propose 8GB of DDR4 memory is the absolute minimum yous should be looking for. Ideally, you'd want 16GB, every bit this will handle much larger arrangements, although there is a price to this extra resource.
It'due south besides worth investigating whether the laptop you choose can be upgraded with extra RAM in the futurity. Apple laptop fans won't have this luxury, due to their sealed chassis, but laptop PC users might.
How much storage do I need?
Storage memory comes a shut second. For audio applications, especially those involving sample libraries where sound is streamed from disk, yous'll want to utilise a solid state drive (SSD). The benefit of these drives is the rapid data transfer, meaning files load quicker, although they are slightly more expensive than their hard disk (HDD) equivalent. For music production applications, however, the extra expense is totally justified.
Information technology'south not uncommon nonetheless to run across a combination employed – a HDD for storage of files, photos and videos, and an SSD for tasks where more than instantaneous responses are required. The alternative involves using external hard drives; SSDs, especially those that take advantage of USB-C technology, are more than capable of the types of transfer speeds required for music product.
How we choose the best laptops for music product
And so, clearly there is a lot to think about when choosing the best laptop for music product.
It's easy to see why a good all-round laptop can fetch a premium toll tag, but, as with annihilation from the best samplers and studio monitors to home studio mixers, y'all get what you pay for, and then it'southward always wise to go the best yous can beget, rather than skimping and regretting your buy later (oft quicker than yous thought). Our price comparison software will come in handy here. Side by side to each production entry on this guide our price widgets volition display the best deals online correct now to save you shopping around.
In this guide nosotros don't focus on various legacy ins and outs, such as the number of USB sockets, or lack of, for your sound interface, so on. With so many dongle and docking options available, this shouldn't be a deciding gene in your purchasing journey. In this guide we're talking sheer horsepower for music-making. For example, tin can your portable rig cope with large multitrack sessions, running handfuls of plugins and MIDI instruments?
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I have care of the reviews on MusicRadar and Future Music mag, though can sometimes be spotted in front of a camera talking trivial sense in the presence of real musicians. For the past xxx years, I take been unable to decide on which instrument to principal, so haven't bothered. Currently, a lover of all things high-gain in the guitar stakes and never 1 to resist churning out sub-standard funky breaks, the likes of which you'll never hear.
Source: https://www.musicradar.com/news/best-laptops-for-music-production
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