New music software help please!! Advice needed

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MalloryStorm

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Hi I am new here! I’d really appreciate any recommendations for music software a single to purchase in uk ideally from legit site like gear4 music. I purchased Ableton Live 12 but isn’t compatible on my laptop which is LENOVO - IdeaPad 1 14" Refurbished Laptop - Intel® Celeron®, 128 GB SSD.

So has Intel Celeron processor and is quite cheap. Any recommendations for alternative decent software please with basic/decent functionality? Thank you!
 
The Celeron is not up to much.
I used a fast i3 PC until it crashed and took my Cubase licence with it.
Am currently using Cubase on an i5 laptop.
Maybe you can try Reaper, which is lean and mean, and free to try out.
Alternatively, perhaps a cheap hardware recorder could keep you going, until you can swing a better PC.
 
Why are you saying it isn't compatible?

If it is live lite and you don't really intend on using live for its main purpose, I would second Reaper. It is light, powerful and do 99.9% of anything you want to do, except what live or Bitwig does.
 
There are lots of different Celeron processors, but in general, they are the bottom of the Intel line. SO, you need to be a bit more specific as to WHICH Celeron you have. There can be a 300 or 400% difference in the performance of different versions. I don't know what you've purchased, but refurbished Celeron based computers are $100 computers! They are ok for reading email, browsing Ebay, and posting on Facebook but not really designed to be audio workstations.

That said, A basic Reaper setup should be able to do the basic recording/mixing functions. Don't expect to be using orchestra virtual instruments in real time, but for recording a drummer, guitar or bass in real time, it should suffice. 128GB is pretty puny for a computer these days. You should probably be sticking all your work files on an external drive, for storage, or pulling the 128GB and putting in at MINIMUM a 512GB drive.

On the other hand, you can get a refurbished laptop for $250 or so with a more current processor and enough resources to actually handle current software, such as this:

www.ebay.com

DELL Latitude 5400 Laptop Intel Core i5-8365U 16GB 512GB NVMe SSD 14" FHD W11P | eBay

8365U (1.60GHz). Learn more aboutDELL 5400. Windows 11 Pro 64-bit. Integrated Card. Graphic Type. Other Features. 1920 x 1080. Display Type.
www.ebay.com
 
Also, depending on the vintage of your Celeron, it may be limited to a maximum of Win 10 which loses support in Oct 2025. Win 11 requires certain hardware capabilities. Generally, Intel 8th generation processors are needed, unless you are tech minded and want to try to bypass the restrictions and run in potentially unsupported mode.
 
I started my audio quest on a cheap slow AMD K2 PC, and it just wasn't up to even basic recording with a DAW. Kept inserting clicks into the tracks.
That one was roughly equal to a basic Celeron. That's when I sought out a fast i3.
 
Yes we need more details. I have an Emachines Celeron M 1.9G and I just found it will play the demo tracks in Adobe Audition 1.5 about a dozen tracks running a MOTU M4. Tried a stereo track in Reaper and the M4 would not work with ASIO drivers* but would with WASAPI and 1024 samples, 512 got clicky. CPU started off at 60% but dropped as low as 4% at times. The 4G ram was at 51% most of the time. If that Celeron can take it I would up the ram to a minimum of 8G.

I would say that machine should run Reaper (or Audacity if you really want to K.I.S.Sir!) but maybe only a dozen tracks max and few to no pluggins. Maybe never Ableton? I don't know how CPU hungry it is?

The PC will need all the 'Old Tricks' doing. Strip out any programs you don't need e.g. games and anti-virus software (Win defender is all you need and rarely intrudes) and any you do need make sure they are not running at startup, e.g. Skype. Go into Windows Sounds and Devices and stop Computer Sounds, those bleeps and bloops you get as you click. I hope you are using an external audio interface? If so, go into Device Manager and disable the Onboard Sound Card. You might need to disable you network adapter when doing music.

These things don't much matter on a fast i3/5/7 but do for this weak sister!

*The M4 does NOT like Win 7! It will run but under protest.


Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
I would say that machine should run Reaper (or Audacity if you really want to K.I.S.Sir!) but maybe only a dozen tracks max and few to no pluggins. Maybe never Ableton? I don't know how CPU hungry it is?
Click to expand...
Ableton 11 is a pig, I am sure 12 is worse. Plus it already has plugins and many are heavy processing intensive.
 
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