Which laptops to buy for Editing musics?

Musicviking

New member
Hi, I am new to the music industries and have an interest in music. Can anyone suggest to me which laptop should I buy to mixing the music and editing? my budget for laptop is 40,000.
 
Since MusicViking is in India, I'm guessing Indian Rupees. R40000 would be about $585 at today's exchange rate.

That should buy any number of HP, Dell or Lenovo laptops with an I-5 processor. Careful shopping might nail down an I-7 based system. You probably want to get a minimum of 8GB ram, and most likely a solid state drive. It will depend on several things, including how many channels, VST add-ons, and the DAW you want to run.

I'm had better luck with Intel based systems, vs the AMD. I haven't tested any of the newer Ryzen processors. Perhaps someone can weigh in on their performance.

You'll also want to pick up a USB drive for backups. If you do lots of recordings at 96kHz and 24bits, the files can be quite large. You can fill up a drive quite quickly.
 
Greetings Musicviking and welcome to the forum. There are a few "must" when looking for a laptop for recording purposes.

Must be W10. Anything earlier is going to be vulnerable to attack on the web in a few months. Yes, you CAN keep a music PC off the net but that presupposes you a spare W10 machine for internet duties? In any case, as time goes on, an inability to go online for updates and such will become a royal PITA.

Must have an SSD. W10 expects such a drive and will thrash the nuts off a mechanical. The OS will be on the SSD of course but also put the recording software "DAW" on it as well. Good advice to get a USB (3.0) external drive. SSD as well if you can but a "shockproof" 1Tb spinner can be had for a lot less money and for samples and backup will easily be fast enough.

8G ram? Yes, I doubt you need more unless you want to do 4k video or any other very demanding task. More ram in a laptop generates more heat and cuts battery time.

i5? Yes, fast enough for most things. Note however that not ALL i5s are the same ! Lookup "Benchmark" specs for the varies grades.

Must NOT be a Dell! Well, I won't be buying one because I have very recently read in THIS HERE FORUM that the power supply is not earth isolated and can cause all sorts of ground loop and other problems.

Lastly, I must add that I am NO PC guru! I am an old valve amp tech with an abiding interest but. I am in the market for a refurbished laptop with W10 and the above is the result of my searches. My new W10 machine does NOT need to run any audio becuase I have 3 other W7 machines for that but I would like it to be a bit music capable. I am going second hand because.
1) cash is limited, £400 ab tops.
2) I need a 15" screen, eyes can no longer cope with smaller. That limits my choices massively and I MIGHT have to go AMD and I am told (Scan Man soundonsound.com) that they are really very good these days.

Dave.
 
Did not say "suddenly" vulnerable.
I have used W10 briefly and hated it but it has to be the way to go. Plenty of top studio people* use ten and have no issues.

The "early death syndrome" for SSDs is now no longer rhe case (see *) Win 10, as I said "expects" an SSD and uses the drive accordingly.

The PSU problem with Dell was information I gained from a respectsed member of this forum (with a LOT of posts over several years!)

"Not a PC guru" ? Already said that. Redundant information. I do however have long experience with audio electronics and sorting out ground loops and RFI problems and if a "Top Man" here tells me Dell could have ground loop issues I shall avoid them.

*Soundonsound.com

Dave.
 
I will go with any laptop with a minimum i5 CPU, minimum of 4 Gb RAM, and at least 500Gb HDD space. You can get a good laptop for music production at about $500 (hunt for the promotions). But not to forget that you will also need extra gear like a USB audio interface, a pair of studio monitors or some good studio headphones (or both), and maybe a midi USB controller to complete your production station.
 
I will go with any laptop with a minimum i5 CPU, minimum of 4 Gb RAM, and at least 500Gb HDD space. You can get a good laptop for music production at about $500 (hunt for the promotions). But not to forget that you will also need extra gear like a USB audio interface, a pair of studio monitors or some good studio headphones (or both), and maybe a midi USB controller to complete your production station.

The possiblities are legion: 500G is nice to have but SSDs do get pricey past 240G or so (and DO investigate their use with W10) I bought my son a Lenovo T430. i5, 8G ram (minimum these days I would say if you want to do more than surf and write letters) with a 240G SSD. More than room enough for OS and Samplitude Pro X 3. I also got him a "shockproof" 1TB USB 3 external drive for backup and keeping stuff off the system drive.

But, silly things can catch you out. The T430 does not have an HDMI port but a Mini Display port instead so I had to source an adaptor cable to send the screen to a 40" JVC FSTV.

Do note also that not all i5 CPUs are the same! Some are little faster than a top end i3, if AS fast.

I would get myself a T430 in a hearbeat but the old remaing eye cannot cope with less than a 15.6" screen.

*forgot! Shockproof becuase he IS an itinerate muscian you know!

Dave.
 
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Any dell laptops I had didn't connect back to mains earth so I don't see how there can be ground loop issues.
Can't say that's unique to dell, though. 3 conductors to the power supply seems a lot less common than two... ?

I did have one, though, that produced an audible buzz when running on PSU and connected to some other mains-powered device, like monitors or audio interface.
The reason was that the laptop's 'ground' was floating a volt or so above mains earth so rather than finding a way to break a ground loop, I had to find a way to make a proper ground path.

I'm not sure I'd call win 10 a 'must'. A necessary evil, at best, going by the community feedback lately but, really, it's not even necessary.
Personally I'd cling on to 7 for dear life, or go with a totally different platform.
7 has a good few years in it yet, I'm sure.
 
Any dell laptops I had didn't connect back to mains earth so I don't see how there can be ground loop issues.
Can't say that's unique to dell, though. 3 conductors to the power supply seems a lot less common than two... ?

I did have one, though, that produced an audible buzz when running on PSU and connected to some other mains-powered device, like monitors or audio interface.
The reason was that the laptop's 'ground' was floating a volt or so above mains earth so rather than finding a way to break a ground loop, I had to find a way to make a proper ground path.

I'm not sure I'd call win 10 a 'must'. A necessary evil, at best, going by the community feedback lately but, really, it's not even necessary.
Personally I'd cling on to 7 for dear life, or go with a totally different platform.
7 has a good few years in it yet, I'm sure.

Was it lack of ground then? I know someone here very recently said Dell were noisy buggers!

I am sure W7 will be fine forever, so long as you keep off the net? All the advice is to ditch it for internet use once the securcity updates stop.

Dave.
 
Was it lack of ground then? I know someone here very recently said Dell were noisy buggers!

The issue I had was, yea.
I suspect that guy may have been describing the same issue but I don't think he's reported back so far.



so long as you keep off the net? All the advice is to ditch it for internet use once the security updates stop.

With up to date third party AV and browser, and sensible browsing practices, I'd keep on trucking.
Not advice...Just what I'd do.
 
The issue I had was, yea.
I suspect that guy may have been describing the same issue but I don't think he's reported back so far.





With up to date third party AV and browser, and sensible browsing practices, I'd keep on trucking.
Not advice...Just what I'd do.

Bbbbut! Don't you run macs??! And WILL there be AV updates for an obsolete, not supported OS?

Dave.
 
My two cents (value may vary based on exchange rates ;) ).

Standard Laptop, i5, i7 nicer, but ..., 8 gigs ram, more better, but I run 8 and don't have a problem. I haven't purchased an Intel chip in a long time. I have had a lot of luck with AMDs, but they are harder to find in a laptop. Mine are (all mine desktops) run AMD with no issues. Intel just has a lock on laptops.

I think the SSDs are coming way down in price, but in a laptops, they still seem to push the price up. I like a 480-520, just to make sure there is plenty of room. But a lower 256 with a good external would probably work well.

Do not buy a 5400 RPM drive as your main drive. Yes they are big and cheap, but that much movement on that much data will suck the life out of your computer. They are great as a mass storage for external, but not very good for the main.

With some looking, you should be able to get something within your budget. I do not know what the import taxes are like in India, but based on what I remember, they drove prices higher than in the US,that was a few years back.
 
Most laptops today should be fine for audio, mine is pretty cheap but the biggest issue I have with my laptop and something to be aware of is the screen size/resolution where some plugins don't fit on my screen.
 
The piles of external hard drives you end up needing is always a bit of a paint with many Tb of samples and stuff - I can use my macbook, or my real PC, and the mac is good for sketching, but the minute I want huge orchestral libraries it's back to the studio machine - especially with macs because their drive size per pound is so crazy!
 
so the guy who is not a pc guru keeps repeating that he heard it on the internet so it must be true

i have 3 dells and none of them are noisy nor have ground loops or any audio problems

you can updates for MBAM, which is the BEST antimalware program, forever if you need to stay on the internet

very easy to go off the net, stop MBAM to do your audio without any problems , restart MBAM before you go back on the net
and no you wont get hacked while it is updating to the latest version

I did NOT "hear it on the internet" my tenacious friend! Unless you include this forum by default. I have also asked about Dells over at Soundonsound.com and one or two people have agreed they have had buzzes and a couple like you (but friendlier) have said "never had a problem in many years" .

I have the choice and since a few people I respect greatly have said they have had noise problem I shall excercise that choice and avoid Dells.

Dave.
 
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