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There are many factors to consider when looking for the best laptop for music production. You want something light, high performance, powerful, and with enough battery life to keep you going for more than a few hours. In the process of working, you will most likely have many different programs or tabs running at the same time.
In most cases, 16 GB of RAM has become the standard. For audio processing, a high processor is critical. Without it, loading files can become a chore, and having to wait every time you want to load a plugin can hinder your creative flow.
While many artists may recommend that you opt for a desktop computer if you want maximum functionality, many modern manufacturers cannot replace the flexibility of a laptop. You will probably choose between a Mac and a Windows laptop. While any of these are suitable, it all depends on the recording software (DAW – Digital Audio Workstation) you are using. For example, Logic is only available on Apple products.
Both systems can be reliable, although it all depends on what features you buy them with, whether you can upgrade them later, and what your production goals are. Without further ado, let’s jump right into the top ten music production laptops on the market today:
- Dell XPS 13
- Surface laptop 3
- Asus TUF dash F15
- Razer Blade 15
- Apple MacBook Pro
- Acer Aspire 5
- Apple MacBook Air M1
What types of laptops are used for DJing?
Making music requires specialized software and technologies that require interoperability to support complex systems.
Luckily, among the many other laptops out there, there are some fantastic DJ laptops that will make the game absolutely smooth for you. These laptops come preloaded with software and they need to meet certain system specifications to not only make music but also mix.
Such a laptop, among other things, will have fast RAM and one of the fastest processors. That’s because you’ll be using this laptop to control your digital audio workstation and you don’t need latency.
What to look for when looking for a laptop for music production
Finding the best laptop for music production is just as important to the music production process as musical instruments. Finding the best laptops for music production involves keeping the right points in mind.
In general, there are four essential factors to consider when looking for a laptop for music production: RAM (Random Access Memory)
- Performance
- HDD/SSD space
- Display Specifications
To produce music effectively and efficiently, you need power and performance. Let’s take a look at the recommended laptop specs for music production with us.
RAM
RAM (Random Access Memory) is needed to work on sessions with a large number of tracks, a large number of plug-ins or a large volume of audio. Without it, your DAW won’t run very smoothly. When it comes to music production, I recommend having at least 16GB of RAM. Yes, if you are just starting out, 8 GB of memory might be enough. However, as you go along, the 8GB memory limits will become noticeable as your sessions start to slow down or your DAW starts to click and beep during recording and mixing.
Battery Life
If you plan to use your laptop for audio production on the go, you should pay attention to battery life. Average battery life varies between music production laptops, so it’s important to research the specs to find the best laptop for your needs. On average, laptop battery life is between 7 and 11 hours.
Performance
Along with RAM, processor or processing power is one of the most important parameters to consider when looking for a laptop for music production, since most of the leading DAWs, such as Pro Tools and Ableton Live, require a sufficient amount of processor to run. When looking for laptops with an efficient processor, keep in mind that the more processing cores a computer has, the more opportunities it provides for recording musical instruments and mixing. You also want to look for laptops with clock speeds over 2.0 GHz.
The extra power and performance is a must if you’re recording, mixing, editing sessions with lots of tracks, or working on multiple tasks at the same time.
