#Best laptop for music production 2022 pro#
#Best laptop for music production 2022 mac#

Hard-disk drives are cheaper and can hold large volumes of data, but are typically slower which means streaming sample libraries isn’t ideal. Storage will come down to one of two options HDD or SSD. A laptop with 4GB of RAM will technically allow you to open music production apps like Garageband or Ableton Live and create short, basic arrangements, but you’ll quickly run into a wall where the laptop can’t cope with what you’re asking it to do.

It dictates how large the arrangements you can create are, and how many audio files you can work with at a given time. For audio and music production we would recommend looking at Intel’s i5 line, or AMD’s Ryzen 5 line, although the lower-end CPUs will suffice if budget is a sticking point – you might just be staring at progress bars a bit longer. Intel and AMD have the monopoly here, and you get what you pay for. In music terms, this dictates how many virtual instruments you can run at the same time, or how many effects you can add, or how quickly you can export your finished tracks. The CPU is what powers the laptop as it processes commands. Where gamers or video editors prioritise graphical and visual elements, for audio we need only focus on how fast the laptop processes things (CPU), its short-term memory (RAM) and its ability to access data quickly (storage): Laptops used with music production in mind tend to focus on three key features CPU, RAM and storage. (Image credit: Getty/Jose Luque/EyeEm) What should I look for in a budget music laptop? On the Play Store there is a slimmed-down version of FL Studio which works a treat, while online you’ll find services like Audiotool and the Spotify-owned Soundtrap which give tech-savvy beatmakers the chance to produce tracks directly through a cloud-based browser interface.Ĭhromebooks aren’t going to be the first choice of most producers, particularly those recording and working directly with raw audio, but for anyone content to play around with loops and virtual instruments it’s definitely worth investigation. With Chrome OS, you are essentially limited to apps that can be found in Google’s Play Store, or run via a browser – assuming you don’t want to go down the Linux route, that is. But it does offer a glimpse at what the future might look like for computer-based audio production. It doesn’t have banks of power to draw from.

#Best laptop for music production 2022 pro#

The Samsung 4+ Chromebook won’t run regular digital audio workstations (DAWs) like Ableton Live, Cubase or Pro Tools. Nor have we included iPads or other tablets (bar the type in a 2-in-1 laptop) as they live in separate buyer's guides.īit of a curveball, this one.

#Best laptop for music production 2022 mac#

These are all current models and there are no Mac laptops included as they are more expensive machines - often worth it, but you wouldn't consider them a budget option. If you want to know what you need to consider when buying a cheap music laptop, head down to our buying advice section near the bottom of this article.Ī quick note on our selection. You’ll want to look out for USB connectivity in particular, for music making. These figures include the computer's memory size, hard drive and SSD storage, processor speed and connectivity. We've included all of the specs you need with each machine in this buyer’s guide so you can see how each machine compares. You can now make complete tunes on the train or bus with machines that not only cost less than the laptops of yesteryear, but also weigh less, are much more powerful and have longer battery lives. Laptops have come on in leaps and bounds since the days of heavy machines that were light on processor power.