Help me make music

[Carlos. Q]

What is a good cheap computer just for music production? 

[Carlos. Q]

What computer is perfect for music production for cheap like under $800? 

[SignatureSigner]

Just buy some laptop with 8gb of ram and a decent ryzen or intel processor... If its just for music production.

[Carlos. Q]

But like what brand?

[danomicar]

6 minutes ago, Carlos. Q said:

What is a good cheap computer just for music production? 

Do you have any specifics in mind? Almost any computer will do fine for music production. The real key will be choosing a good application to work with. 

[papajo]

5 minutes ago, Carlos. Q said:

But like what brand?

It depends on what is your budget and what do you mean by "music production" will it involve sample libraries with real sounds of acoustic instruments? then for example 8GB ram aint gonna cut it.

 

Do you want just to play with fruityloops use samples from youtube and make rapsongs? a potato will do the job

 

In any case I would buy a laptop with a big screen to have realestate for having various windows open and or room for adding sounds/samples without the need to scroll that much. 

 

I would also want a laptop with big battery life so I can take it with me anywhere I want without the need to plug it in. 

[piratemonkey]

For recommendations, a MacBook will be good if you want to work in macos. For Windows, a higher end laptop (r5/i5, 16gb ram) will be good for mid range compositions (2 dozen-ish tracks). For complex projects, you'll need at least a 3rd Gen ryzen 5 (or equivalent) and 32gb ram. For large projects (like some of what Laszlo does; ltt's intro song) you'll need a 3rd Gen r7 (or equivalent) with around 64gb. That's for a couple dozen tracks (50-100). It probably sounds like a lot, but audio can be pretty intense. You can skimp a bit on the processor if you're ok with sluggish response, and less memory if you won't be having a ton of samples and tracks. I'm not familiar with laptops so I can't make any recommendations in regards to that. A desktop will be better if you want to do stuff professionally. 

For you, a MacBook will do for macos. If you want Windows, a 3600 and 16gb will probably do. A gpu isn't important. 

[lgcas]

1 hour ago, Carlos. Q said:

What computer is perfect for music production for cheap like under $800? 

I use a pc with a 5600x (but I also use it for gaming) and get basically no latency (minimum buffer set) and barely any cpu use on Fl Studio 20. You could get away with something like a 3600 (or 3600x) or a 3700x. Intel equivalents like the 10700k or 10600k would also work; at your price point it'd likely lean more towards the 3600 end with a cheaper b550 or b450 board. It depends on the type of music you want to make. I don't have "massive" project files and the 5600x handles the Fl studio demo files just fine (Image-Line suggests anything 3600 level and above in their information pages). If you aren't going to use the pc for gaming as well you could get a higher end CPU (keep in mind you would need a cheap gpu for AMD cpus unless you buy an APU like the 3400g); alternatively you could still get a lower power cpu like the 3600 and then use the savings for midi keyboards or an interface if you need one (i.e. if you need even lower latency or need to record external devices like keyboards with midi in or XLR mics); remember that more cores=faster rendering and means that you can quickly render audio to stems if you do manage to hit cpu limits whilst producing a track. I got a 3TB toshiba P300 as I render everything to WAV and tend to hoard samples and plugins; it was, in my opinion, good for £62 or so.

If you are looking at prebuilt systems, a good place to start is Sanjay C's channel. He has a few videos going over cheap computers (mostly laptops if I remember correctly):https://www.youtube.com/user/sanjaychristo

I have also seen people using old office computers such as Optiplex machines or HP elitedesks as music production computers.

There is also the other side of the topic, a lot of people use macs and macbooks, the M1 machines seem tempting but are a bit expensive and most third party music production programs will likely need updating; I have seen varying degrees of success getting Fl Studio to run under the current x86 emulation used on macs. However, remember that Logic is available on Apple machines. Preowned will obviously be cheaper but checking the price of machines like the M1 mac mini would be interesting, but you would likely get more value out of a pc at the same pricepoint unless you need to use Logic and/or prefer the Apple ecosystem. Although I suspect the M1 mini is going to be too expensive where you are still.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Laptops and Pre-Built Systems

 

Also merged. Please don't post multiple times about same thing.

***

 

Used Macbook.