Not at all. This guy leaves out so much necessary information he might as well just not say anything at all. If you're a beginner, and your looking on eBay for a used PC, and you find an dell with an i7 and 16gb of ram, it might look good... But not if it's a 4770 with ddr3 1600 that is a decade old. You need _way more information_ than what this guy is spewing. If you only listened to him, you can still make very bad decisions. So much so that I wouldn't even watch this video as it's going to be misleading.
@@AudioUniversity absolutely agree, love you guys, thank you for everything amd lately of all the vids this has helped me the most as its the next part of my journey . Kind regards AU
I have researched this to no end and not once have I found anything close to this video explaining quickly and concisely what I needed to know. Fantastic job! Saving this.
I’ve been looking for two years on a video that hit all of these topics on specs to music production and especially laptop vs desktop. You guys couldn’t of hit it better.. thank you 🙏🏾
I was running an i3 with a 250 gb HDD 6 gb of ram for my recording computer. I made it work! Two weeks ago I upgraded to an i9 with a 2tb ssd, 2tb hdd, 32 gb ram. I'm absolutely blown away.
I have an HP Elitedesk 800 G1 (2015) with a few changes. i7 4790k 4 Cores @ 4.0Ghz 32 Gb Ram 1Tb Samsung SSD(Primary) 2 Tb Samsung SSD (Secondary) Everything runs good with no problems or crashes.
@@dirg3music Yes is a great CPU, I can't overclok because I'm using the stock motherboard but it's fine, I'll be upgrading in the future but for now I can't complain. Cheers!
There are ways to optimize your system's limits. For example, if you have an audio track that you have a lot of effects on you You can bounce that audio with the effects and you won't have to worry about running the VST's while you're playing the track saving computer processing speed.
If you don't have a lot of money consider this. I've got an Intel i5, 8 GB of RAM, C: and D: (SSD), but I use an exterior 1TB disk to store all my music projects. With proper PC care the i5 is quite capable of running up to 400 tracks, up to 150 VST without crashing on my 2020 HP laptop. So if you don't have the budget for an i7 or i9, don't get dicouraged by that. Exterior disks are still way cheaper than upgrading to 32 GB in a lot of places on planet earth. 🎵❤
CPU heat can be negated by sufficient cooling. I have a 18 core / 36 thread i9 CPU with noctua cooler that I installed a second fan. This is in a 4U rackmount case so a smaller height cooler and fans were needed in order to physically fit. I haven't bothered with overclocking on this machine as I would rather longevity & reliability over performance however I did go with a top end motherboard that supports overclocking so I have a choice should it become an issue in the future. I would only ever overclock a machine if it becomes necessary and the only alternative is to purchase faster machine/components. Every fan in this machine is variable speed Noctua controlled by the mainboard and ramps up only when needed. This keeps it reasonably quiet under load. I have other requirements for the machine where I have virtualization of multiple hosts in virtual networks so it has 128G of RAM (50% capacity) and is also why I went with 18 core / 36 threads. I went with two 64Gig packs with the same timing/stepping as 128G packs were sold out before my order could be processed and it turned out cheaper to by 2 x 64G packs than 1 x 128G pack. I went with 2TB nVme Drives for the Operating System Drive and two Primary Data Drives. (Primary in the sense that current projects being worked on are stored there). The motherboard is "workstation" grade so it comes with 2 x nVme pcie drive slots and 1 x u.2 pcie connector. I used Icy Dock ToughArmour Removable U.2 M.2 SSD Enclosures. These can be connected via ... to u.2 pcie connector which generally supports hot-swap. I was forced to buy in the middle of the supply shortage so I had to compromise on the mainboard. The best I could get was one with two M.2 PCIe ad one u.2 PCIEe connectors. I would have rather got a board with as many u.2 connectors as they support hot swap with a bit of bios configuration and drivers installed. Each nVme PCIe drive in the drive bays connect to the mainboard using SilverStone CPS04 Mini SAS SFF-8643 to Mini SAS SFF-8643 cables to the u.2 connector and StarTech u.2 to M.2 adapter to connect to the two other nVme PCIe slots respectively. I also have a spare 2TB nVme Drive as mirror image of the Operating System Drive. When needed, it is inserted into the Icy Dock M.2 NVMe SSD to PCIe 3.0 x4 Removable SSD Mobile Rack for PCIe Expansion Slot card. This can be set in the BIOS to become the boot drive should disaster strike. As it is a contingency drive, it does not remain in the machine when not in use. I had some 8TB WD Red Pro drives gathering dust on the shelf so I loaded them up as secondary storage for now. I had purchased a set of 5 x 20TB WD Red Pros but I decided to put them into a NAS instead. I have some 4RU Rack Mount cases I have used for the last 10 years. The cases have two sets of 3 x 5.14" drive bays and three sets of 2.5" drive bays. I loaded them with two sets of the Icy Dock Black 5x3.5" in 3x5.25" Hot Swap SATA HDD Cages, The Icy Dock ToughArmor MB834M2K-B 2 Bay M.2 PCIe 3.0/4.0 NVMe SSD Mobile Rack for External 3.5” Drive Bay and Icy Dock Black Industrial Full Metal 2 x 2.5" SATA/SAS/SSD for 3.5" Front Device Bay. So this machine has 2 removable NvMe 2TB drives and 2 hot-swap 2TB NvMe drives, 5 x 8TB WD Red Pro SATA Drives and is ready to accept another 5 x 3.5" SATA as well as 2 x 2.5" SATA drives. The Mainboard has 8 SATA ports and I installed a host bus adapter to cater to the shortfall. I also built a custom NAS using 8 core intel xeon on an entry level Intel Server board, 64GB RAM with 10G Ethernet . It houses 5 x 20TB WD Red Pros. The Operating System is TrueNAS Scale that serves network shares to the workstation and has a secured backup volume. I do not use RAID, rather ZFS which does not rely on hard drive controller for the redundancy. So if the board/hard drive controller fails, the drives can simply be relocated to another machine. The operating system can be installed onto a system drive and a back-up of the configuration uploaded and we're back in business! I use StorageCraft ShadowProtect SPX to perform incremental back-ups every 15 minutes. This can be periodically switched off if it interferes with very heavy a/v processing. The TrueNAS runs a Virtual Machine that does the image management and when I have time I plan to install the workstation's back-up nVme Drive for the operating system and run StorageCraft's headstart restore. This will keep the installation on the back-up drive current up to a week just in case it takes time to notice an infection. So if the main system drive fails or there is corruption/infection, the back-up drive is ready to move across and not much time needed to restore the changes over the last week. When selecting the Processor, Mainboard and SSD Drives note there is currently PCIe gen 3 and PCIe Gen 4. The later has double the throughput/performance capacity. With SSD, there are different types of NAND chips that impact performance and longevity. I have been a computer technician, network and systems administrator since the early 90's. Many of the companies I have worked for were the major manufacturers and have repaired countless computers of all sorts. I would only ever resort to a laptop or an all-in-one if I had no other choice. Desktops are more flexible, expandable and easier to maintain. I would rather have a travel case for a desktop and take it with me. That being said, I would not leave a heavy graphics card in the machine if it is going to be handled by couriers or baggage handlers who think they are football players. If you spend $50 more on a product than you needed to, you have invested that $50 into future proofing. If you spend $50 less on a product you needed to, you have wasted all of your money on a product that cannot do the job or if you persist in using it will continue to cost you money in lost productivity. Whatever the specification is for the software you aim to use, I would double it and then you will have a machine that is more likely to still be able to do the job efficiently in five years time. Always factor the cost of replacement in five years. Every year it lasts longer than that is a bonus. Good quality well maintained systems can last as long as 10 years but you will probably repurpose it to a less demanding role in 5.
Good basic info. I'm a re-recording mixer in post production using Reaper as the primary platform, so it's mostly playback with the ocaasional virtual instrument action. 2000-20000 files usually. Dialogue tracks are the heaviest, and I run 40-200 usually. Projects sit on an M2 SSD, video from a separate SATA SSD, backups to spinning drives. I'm on an AMD platform where the CPUs clock very high if few cores are utilized. AMD CPUs do better with RAM of 3600 MHz. Latency is king but I've found my 64 GB of 3600/16-18-18-38 Crucial 2x32GB kit to be reliable and sufficiently fast. System Spec: Ryzen 9 5950X Cpu, 2x32 GB Crucial 3600 (BL2K32G36C16U4B), Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master v1.2(has TB option), Noctua NH-D15 cpu cooler(68C max temp at full CPU usage), Phanteks P500A D-RGB case(excellent airflow and quiet with fan curve adjusted), a quiet GTX1070 GPU, Corsair RMi 750Watt power supply, Samsung 860EVO 500GB&2TB, Samsung 970Plus 1TB M.2, 12 TB spinning disk(and various other external USB drives for backups). I mix at 256 samples latency. Recording at 64 is no problem usually. The audio interface plays a major part in low latency production as well. If you can afford it, I do recommend RME for their top-tier drivers. Good drivers trump almost everything else, so pick this item carefully. My Fireface UC has served me well for 12 years, as have the Babyface, other Fireface units and so many more for fellow mixers. The UADs are great for tracking but for mixing they are not necessary. Most decent interfaces are great for recording a few sources. Audient comes to mind. No matter what is recommended, check reports on driver performance. RME is amongst the best here but things have gotten a lot better everywhere in the last few years.
Dope setup! I've seen a few benchmarks showing noticeable improvements using a 4 stick ram configuration over 2 sticks, if u ever get 2 more let us know if it scales in real world audio use!
@@RandomRelapse I chose doubled sided Ram sticks for that reason, and a mainboard that offers very good memory compatibility. Hope I got that terminology right. It‘s been over half a year since I did all the research. :)
@@redxxfour So far there have been no problems. Not done tests that border on the edge of what's possible though. I tried to pick all recommended hardware, such as 3600 DD4 RAM, running with an FSB of 1800 MHz(1/2 of RAM speed).
@Airon You are definitely right about the RME products. I currently have the HDSPe AIO and I will not ever use another brand other than RME. I've used several audio interfaces in the past 20 years and they were no where near as good as RME's equipment and drivers. The RME interface has not messed up once in the past 5 years. There's something to be said for uninterrupted workflow and creativity.
This is the second video I've seen from this channel. So far I've seen nothing but practical, useable advice. Super, super helpful. Subscribed. Thanks.
Ryzen 5950x 64gb 3600mhz CL16 ram RME HDPSe AIO soundcard/interface Had 128 tracks recording in pro tools, 96khz sample rate, 64 buffer size, only hit 30% usage, all but 2 threads outta 32 being hit. All of this, while HEAT is turned on... Also tested 36 omnispheres instances open in FL, each with a different keyscape library, playing 16 notes each. 96khz SampleRate and 32 BufferSize. Only 40% usage, 55gb of Ram loaded. Not to mention the speed of exporting sessions, renderings on RX are also blazing fast Highly recommend the combo if anyone's serious about pushing native dps limits 🤓
I have the same audio card, but I need a better machine. Yours sounds exactly like what I want. Would you please send me your specs please? Let me know if you'd like my email or a FB link.
@@Jrel above mentioned specs (ram was ripjaw 4×16gb) plus -X570 ASUS TUF Gaming MB -1tb Aorus gen4 m.2 (OS) -2tb Samsung evo plus m.2 (samples) -Seasonic FOCUS GX-750 PSU -Noctua NH-D15 + 5 more Noctua fans (2×140mm 1x80mm 2×120mm) -The case choice is unique here Cooler Master HAF XB EVO (Front has 2 slots for swapping HDD's for massive amounts of kontakt and EWQL libraries) -EVGA 3060 12gb vram (had to wait 11 hours at a best buy for this one) -Front panel usb 3 gen 2 + usb c -Blu-ray re/write (I like burning a copy of all the sessions/stems/files for a album/EP/tape I work on for someone)
@@Jrel also this might help u in your quest, I had made a extremely stripped down version of a windows 10 ISO, removing everything that wasn't essential for audio operation, I find this has a huge impact on STABILITY while operating heavy workloads under small buffer sizes. Only way to max out the massive potential of hardware You'll need to have a separate OS on a SSD or partition for games or regular use, since a very stripped down windows 10 completely lacks windows defender or any form of protection, and has missing microsoft related graphic drivers 🙄
I love most Audio University videos but I'm not a fan of this one. I understand you wanted to keep the video simple and short, and you _do_ admit that there's no one-size-fits-all solution, but one set of recommendations for "music production" is just too vague to be helpful to the varying use cases of real people. The components recommended in this video are good for professional, highly-produced multitrack records with dozens to hundreds of audio streams, sample-based virtual instruments and effects plugins. And while that's the most glossy kind of music production, I'm willing to bet it's also relevant for the smallest subset of your audience. 7 minutes into the video you mention that a laptop is okay for a 24-track simultaneous recording session - honestly, how many bedroom producers watching this channel will exceed that? I agree that it's good to keep single-core performance in mind. Ryzen CPUs went unmentioned though. The claim that 16 GB of RAM is "probably enough for small, beginner recordings" and 32 GB is an "extremely important" update is quite wild. I recorded and mixed a ~100 track project on an 8 GB computer (granted, it was at its very limits). And storage requirements are dependent on the kind of music you produce. The drive containing the OS, the DAW and plugins doesn't have to be a terabyte. My two-year-old installation of Windows 10 is 25 GB, and DAWs are
I very much appreciate this critique, @Saku. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts so constructively. I’ll definitely consider this feedback for future videos.
I have a cheap walmart desktop HP with AMD Ryzen 3, 8GB Ram and it works fine for what I do. Just vocal recording over mp3 instrumental using plugins... no problem! I usually have no more than 15-20 tracks at most.. and I use BUS tracks for plugins instead of applying plugins to every track.
remembered subscribing 2 years ago when I just started audio school and you had a few thousand subscribers, great to see you gaining subscribers so quickly!.
Thank you for this helpful video and sharing tips and recommendations that really make a difference. I am a VST instrumentalist/e-drummer and latency has always been my biggest challenge and concern, especiallly when playing live or in real time with other bandmates. I have gone back to using an older PC (16GB RAM) with an i5-7600 processor and 4-cores running at 3.8GHz because it has given me best results with having the lowest latency. The downside is that it can't be upgraded to Windows 11. My newer and Windows 11 upgraded PC (32GB RAM) with an i7-9700 processor and 8-cores running at almost 2.1GHz doesn't perform as well when it comes to latency, but I do use it for mixing and some mastering.
@@jorgecisneros1801 , It's basically a repurposed and upgraded Dell OptiPlex 7050 MT. It's not great for gaming but comes in handy when I need to record VST instrument parts with only a couple of tracks at a time and no other plug-ins.
@@g.o.9513 Yes. Many modern sample libraries which include multiple microphone signals are extremely heavy. Of course it all depends on SSD speed. Because the faster drive you have the less RAM is needed.
@@christelhall9379 That's very subjective. I simply say it depends on what and how many sample libraries You want to use in a single project. I currently use iMac with 128 GB of RAM and that's not enough, so I also use older Mac Pro with 64 GB of RAM as server to host some sample libraries. With PCs is a bit easier, because You can simply buy server type motherboard and put 256 GB or even more RAM into it.
I agree with you, i've got the same processor and its performance impresses me everyday, my only concern is that it heats up very fast, but it has never affected the performance of my pc
@@noahleach7690 8th Gen is all I can afford right now and it's kinda urgent. Will I need to consider the motherboard when getting a higher CPU or is that not a factor? Not so clued up with all this computer stuff, I just make music
@@BreeDxLeaD its best to check out gamers nexus on youtube and other related computer building youtube channels, it can be complex and I'm not an expert in any way
There were some exaggerations and strange strange info for 2022. Most current gen i5 K skus are capable of sustaining their higher clocks at lower heat/noise than i7 and i9 variants. This is a big consideration for those building a home studio. If this guys is saying that core counts don’t matter, but that i7 and i9 is where to ‘start looking’ or that i5 is budget is completely backwards. This is conflicting info and an increase in models 5 > 7 > 9 mean more cores in desktop skus - especially across all generations. But, if you are buying a Mac, maybe that is a different conversation. Example - in the real world of PC components, all recent i5 desktop CPUs can run circles around most DAWs, plugins, and sample libraries for professional use. Basically anyone building a music production computer could easily be going with a CPU like the current gen i5 13400. It’s got 10 cores and 16 threads and can sustain 4.5 across its 6 ‘P’ cores basically indefinitely with a good cooler. Testing with my own Bitwig, Ableton, Reaper, Studio One stress test, utilization on par with my current mixing rig that has a 12600K locked at 5GHz across all ‘P’ cores - but the 13400 does it at half the power/heat. However my 12600K actually outperforms my old i9 10850K from the previous gen by about 10% in terms of track count!! Point is, giving people absolutes or an idea that isn’t correct just adds to the problem. Otherwise, love the video topic.
Mr. Slick isn't trying to inform, he's trying to upsell. He sells "Music Production" PCs and "Audio Recording Computers" (visit his link). The simple fact he is trying to create a specialized market for "Audio Recording Computers" tells you all you need to know about Mr. Slick. He is "Slick" indeed.
Exactly! I7 and i9 they're going to run lot hotter and have more cores than an i5, but in reality it's highly doubtful that you really need more than an i5 , actually there are vsts these days that uses gpu's to complete some of its algorithms, in that case you'd be better off buying a less powerful CPU, and saving a bit of money to put towards a GPU.
The tradeoff of cores and speed is not that much of an issue. To handle the extra heat, you can plan to oversize your cooling. For instance, if you have a 125 watt CPU get a ~200+Watt cooler. it will move heat faster and spin slower (slower fan speed is less noise). Intel is very good and very stable, but AMD Ryzen is great too and the latest generations are very stable. Regarding future building your build prioritize your spending based on what is easiest to change. Do NOT cheap out on your motherboard, but you don't need to latest greatest gaming board either. However, try to get the latest generation. Spend at least $200 on the MB. Next hardest thing to change is the CPU. Get as good as you can but if you got a great MB the CPU can have an upgrade path to extend the system life. Next is the boot drive. This is a hassle to replace so get an NVMe drive that's big enough, 1TB minimum. A 2TB boot drive is not cheap but will have extra longevity. Samsung is still the best of the best but the best Crucial drives are a very close second. Other name brands are also very good. Note that Samsung has the best, hands down, cloning software (flawless) except that it only clones Samsung to Samsung drives.
I'll add this. There is a lot to be learned from the gaming and creator community as to PC Build design. They are the ones pushing the envelope all the time. Their tastes for quality have evolved too. The first thing an audio engineer can ignore is all the RGB stuff of course but silent cases and operation have become a priority of gamers and air flow has always been important. Part of making cases pretty is also about good air flow. In fact, pretty case layout came from trying to improve air flow. RGB came from internal lighting so you can see what the hell you're doing when making changes/mods. One can think of the Gaming PC community as the NASCAR of the auto industry. A great audio PC is a subset with different priorities of the cutting Gaming/Streaming PC. And there are a lot more Gaming channels out there than audio engineers keeping up on PC technology.
But you're speaking for yourself, because I'm actually looking at compact PCs and so the tip of few cores for less heat and higher potential clocks is great.
I cant help but think that just about anything modern will out perform the 15 year old refurbished maxed out Dell i had before i took an 8 year hiatus from recording to work on live instrumentation and singing. Id still have 30+ tracks going but of course i play all live instrumentation one by one and vocal tracks. I had nuendo and waves diamond bundle running pretty smooth on there. Looking forward to seeing what a modern set up is like though! Finally getting it going again!
There are a lot of options, Mark. It can be overwhelming. That's why I called Slick Audio and had them design the PC for me specifically for how I'd use it. Having a powerful computer has made a huge difference in my workflow! It just does what I ask...
I found this video incredibly helpful. I'm in dire need to upgrade my current laptop since over time the latency has gotten unacceptable. This video gave me some great tips.
Been running the same desktop for 12 years to record my music. I use AudioBox interface, and Presonus Studio One. Looking to get a new desktop, does this sound like a good setup? Or could someone point me in the right direction. I also heavily use Photoshop, Lightroom and Sony Vegas. SKU: ST-ChronosW-0254-CC CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core 3.6 GHz (4.2 GHz Turbo) Case: Skytech Chronos, White Edition w/ Front Mesh CPU Cooler: Wraith Stealth Cooler Fans: 3x Skytech RGB 120mm Fans Motherboard: B550M RAM: 16GB DDR4 Gaming Memory 3200 MHz Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 12GB Primary Hard Drive: 1TB NVMe SSD Power Supply: 650 Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified Networking: 802.11 ac Operating System: Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
Fantastic. And apologies if this is off topic, but as someone sitting on the fence between Mac and Windows right now, it would be great to see the same harsh glare of truth cast on the Mac M1 machines.
thanks , but this information is 5-10 years old... MY Ryzen9 3900x great for literally everything! I dont even mention cheap Chinese Xeons like 18-core 2696v3 which now costs 100 fckn bucks on Aliexpress and has decent 1-core performance. Apart from CPUs , this info is 100% correct
I'm on a AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32 gb Ram at 3466mhz. (soon 48 gb ram) I personly think single core performance is really more important then more cores who are slower. (E.g I would pick a 5600x over a 3800x) My sound card is the ESI Maya44 EX. ( 1 a 2 ms latency on Asio 2.0 on 96 khz) Ofc Fast M.2 SSD's for fast loading and so on. I work on windows though. (FL studio and sometimes some other programs)
@@Trancelistic now I am using audio interface that do not have own driver so I use asio4all then latency about 18ms(input+output),can asio 2.0 help to reduce latency,
Great video. I hope you continue to produce more of these videos. I use both mac and pc (powerful pc I have build) and both do their job excellent. My main DAW is Pro Tools and use Logic most for field tracking. Btw, I hit the subscribed button after watching this video.
I built my computer with consultation and help from a highly trusted and capable computer expert who works in our community, but I did not consult with a professional like Jim. All things considered, I think I did pretty well -- I have a little less storage than I would like, but my projects aren't huge and I'm mostly working for myself, so that should be fine -- but I have to admit I'm nervous that DAWs haven't really been updated to make proper use of multicore processors. I use multicore because it's also a gaming computer, and because my small to mid-scale projects allow me to get away with it, but the more I research the issue, the more I think maybe I should have gone for fewer cores with more power. Yet, I suspect that when this issue is finally rectified and the software starts being updated to work better with modern hardware, those of us with multicore setups might come out ahead. Thoughts?
higher single core performance is far more important than multicore performance. that's just not going to change in audio production. it's just the nature of the work.. many processes have to be done sequentially and cannot happen simultaneously.. for example you have multiple tracks and you have on each track a compressor and an EQ and then a reverb.. in that order or any order you choose.. your computer will have to process the plugins individually then move to the next plugin and then move to the next plugin.. and this has to happen on each and every track so the single core performance is going to always be the most important metric for a cpus. having a high performing multi-core cpu you shouldn't really hurt you.. but it's not that the DAW the developers haven't caught up or aren't taking advantage of multicore cpus due to a lack of development or lapses in their code..
There is no one solution fits all. Performance is directly affected by number of tracks, virtual instruments, CPU intensive plugins, etc. It all depends on how you intend to use your DAW
Taking advantage of tools in the Daw like track freeze in logic can really save a slower computers life for sure. Knowing these tools exist is sometimes the barrier
Thanks for this overview. - But I would argue a few things. - First, the RAM-speed isn't discussed at all, which is quite important. Not that it should be the fastest, but it should be fast enough, cause it could make or break the system's responsiveness, both in how it responds in an immediate sense, but also in terms of loading and unloading stuff. - It's literally your working-memory, so you don't want it to be cheap and sluggish memory, for which you need to look at the clock-speeds as well as the timings. On top of that, you can definitely use external drivers, it just depends on what kind of interface you use. Sure, some average USB-connectivity isn't going to help, but if you get the fastest USB or any of those production-grade I/O-solutions, those are blazing fast. - Those and external drives exist for production-work as well. You shouldn't just get your average consumer "take your MP3s and JPEGs with you" kind of drives.
it depends on what software your using ... you can produce music on a Nintendo DS or a ipad you don't need a hi end pc i5 i7 are ok for 16 track work 16 gig min 32g better ssd a must external sound card usb 3.0 min ubuntu studio is all you really need to do music start with free plugins
This Topic,,makes one..Insecure,,Highly Dubious in selection..often landing on huge investment...but with the Magic Wand of Audio University..ypu havr input in,,the viewer ..enormous info//Thank you..DrNanda..India
Just bought a New iMac and it barely keeps up with my sessions in Logic even after adjusting the core preferences to bias playback and maxing the buffer size. I usually go ahead and print my drums down early on just to keep the overload nags at bay. THEN there's the issue of updated OS systems not playing nice with Slate products along with other 3rd parties. I'm paying for a subscription I cannot use, currently. The notion of not updating your system so things will work has become normal and it's totally absurd. I'm definitely looking into going with Slick for the next one. I'm only loyal to whatever system that serves my purpose.
For all of you that have amd machines, how well does music production and/or film scoring work for you all? I’d like to switch from Intel to AMD because I read that their processors aren’t compatible with a lot of software.
This has helped me in leaps n bounds I've seen every youtube video on how to fix clicks n pops on fl studio,omnispere2,arcade, on how to run them all together without the dreaded clicks n pops i had enough ram to run them but i kept running into the click a pop thing i was told it maybe my processor i have a i5 ive had my pc since 2016 its works perfectly but not for music production considering now i see i have to purchase a new pc with either an i7-i9 processor which is fine aslong as i dont get anymore clicks n pops thanks again for this imformative info
...have been working for 5 years with an 11 year old HP Z800 workstation (about 8000 $ then, 600 now) with 2 6-core 3.3 Ghz XEON processors. Now for the first time I have a problem that the new NI Massive synth needs a newer chip generation. I got a 5 year old laptop for this. Folks, buy old workstations for 1/10th the original price and be happy. I recommend anything from the HP Z620.
Ok I'm confused, he said that SINGLE CORE PERFORMANCE is the most important, then how can i7 be better than i5 when in fact i5 with 6 cores will have more single core GHZ than i7 with 8 cores.
Having worked a lot on desktop PCs as well as laptops - if you are on windows and do not need to have a portable system: get a desktop. Windows laptops do suffer from DCP latency and ACPI power saving issues that can cause issues with audio. For most DAWs, having stable CPU clock speeds is preferable -most laptops throttle the CPU speed as they get hot - something desktop PCs, configured right do not suffer at all from. If you work with Kontakt/Omnisphere or any heavily sample based instruments, disk LATENCY is key - get internal nvme drives and avoid usb/thunderbolt sample libraries
Next time you have someone on your channel making suggestions for PC specs you should get someone who's not in the business of selling Music Production computers that are way over-spec'd and over-priced. He's trying to "upsell" every one of your viewers who doesn't know better. Music Production is not very intense on a system. What he suggests wouldn't be needed unless you have a professional studio. Your everyday Home Studio user don't need much. Get someone who is honest, not a Salesman.
Good to hear the truth not many of us know, now if only this spread more, the other thing is most daws still to this day only use one or 2 cores for each track, so that is the reason we want bigger/faster overall cores. also cpus with e/p cores don't play nice with some daws/os' also....
Interesting. I just did some test one NVME and SSD with opening up Full Orchestra on Cinematic Studio Strings. With the 2.5"" SSD, it took 37 seconds to completely load. With NVME, it took 21 seconds to load. I will do more research after hearing your thoughts on NVME, but I was confident that was going to be faster for my VSTs.
Thank you for this review, very concise and to the point.... Could you please recommend few laptops for Beginner, Intermediate & Professional levels of both music recording & Mixing? Thank you.
there's a more important matter to talk about than how many cores inside the CPU, which is the generation and model. The i5 13400F (13th gen) performs better than the i9 9900k (9th gen), and people tend to overlook the gen and pay too much attention to number of cores, when shopping for cpu u should pay attention to - Generation, as of the moment i'm typing this gen 13 and 14 are the latest and 14 is not so much better than 13 so just get 13 for more value. - SKU, which is the number behind the generation number, for example 13600 13700 13900. The 13600 performs better than 14500 so pay attention to this also - Now the cores, for gen 13 and 14 i found that i5 works fine enough for gaming but that something relies more on gpu, came here to find if my i5 13600KF is enough and sadly couldn't find my answer :( - Suffix letters at the end like K, F, H, etc. This slightly affect performance, but not too important
Totally agree! I have always bought i7's in the past but my latest build has an i5 13600k. That was the sweet spot for me. Plenty of power for music production, plus my system stays cool, super quiet and less power consumption.
Careful... Realtime audio performance is NOT all about CPU/RAM performance. That matters, but avoiding DPC interrupt issues is much more important - otherwise your recordings will be useless and you will lose your hair. - The i5/i7/i9 advise is just not true at all. Probably not the guys fault, Intel's naming scheme is purposefully deceptive. Right now, the i7's and i9's of both the 13, and the 14 series, develope too much heat, and draw too much power, for what you get. You are going to need to optimize your PC for audio, mainly in the BIOS. Turn off all or most CPU power management options. Virtualization - C-states - Speedstep (intel) - speedshift (intel) - and preferably don't overclock. Windows power schemes will have to be looked at as well. Test with LatencyMON
You don't need to reformat to move anything to a bigger drive. There are several programs that can move the OS, programs and data to a new drive for you. Normally one is available with the new larger drive. You can drag and drop, copy and paste, etc. project data without anything other than formatting the new drive. Not sure why he said it like it's hard. Maybe it is to some, but it is a pretty simple thing to do if you know how.
I’ve recently started using a MacBook Pro with an M1 PRO (for travel and portability) and it’s handled everything I need so far! Thanks for bringing that up, G E L V S!
i would like to point one thing i found out before. think of a hdd like a record player. it can do well with one thing at a time but like a record, there is a sort of needle and that needs to move in order to read data. so multi tasking is rough. ssd, however, is solid with no mechanical reading, so it can multi-task far faster. hdd is good for cheap large storage though, probably best for backups and completed work.
I got the 64ram 12 cores on @ 3.5ghz a i9 but it’s a 4th gen. I know we’re on 13th gen this year. I need to upgrade motherboard then run all mvme. For everything. Solid solid beast. Never run on one drive you’ll lose everything within a year wen it fails.
No mention about ryzen processors. Pretty disappointing. Those ryzen 5000 cpus are pretty powerful and at the same time run cool, even the higher core variants such as the 5950x. So no need to go with less cores, they still have the same high or higher clocks with many cores. Too much heat was a problem with intel cpus with the 10000 and 11000 generations.
I'm on a ryzen 5 3600 with 32gb 3600mhz memory and it can handle an incredible amount of polyphony/fx and processing. I couldn't be happier tbh but I do plan to upgrade to the 5900x when Zen4 releases, 400$ for 12c/24t with their level of IPC is a steal and it's only gonna get cheaper.
One of the most important factors of a music production computer was not discussed at all .. cooling ... of course for laptops this is not a topic but for a desktop is a great topic to discuss ... as the higher you push the machine the higher the temperature will go resulting mew need in cooling in order to keep the system going. An as the higher the cooling needs grow the noise margin grows and more specialized that area becomes to find the most effective but also silent way to coll off your system otherwise the noise from the fans will mix up with the high end of your monitors and there will be a mess .. I am running a beastie AMD Threadreaper with 24 cores and for cooling up I use huge Noctua cooler with a pair of fans and the noise level is very very low .... Another fact to talk to is the glorious battle between AMD and Intel Processors, was using Intels for many years and switched to AMD because of their price and their performance specs, way faster than Intels with lower energy consumption, less energy means also less heat etc etc ... My main job is System and Network engineer so I know how all of these work inside ... and I totally agree about SSD's and M2 - nvme drives ... :) Merry Xmas and keep the nice work flowing :)
@@LeopardBull5trik3 bro pretty much the same applies for me and my threadripper beast ... thought of adding liquid cooling but the space it needed to deploy that was way too much for my way too busy office desk I have in my control room ... so I decided that beastie cooler with two fans and of course open pc case to keep the ventilation good
I regretted buying a laptop because it overheats and it affects the cpu performance which makes DAW slower even though I have an i7 so buy a desktop, it cools better
Wow. This guy cuts right through it. Very clear and concise. This is going to help a lot of people. Cheers.
No joke… real
Deal info right there
Not at all. This guy leaves out so much necessary information he might as well just not say anything at all.
If you're a beginner, and your looking on eBay for a used PC, and you find an dell with an i7 and 16gb of ram, it might look good... But not if it's a 4770 with ddr3 1600 that is a decade old.
You need _way more information_ than what this guy is spewing. If you only listened to him, you can still make very bad decisions. So much so that I wouldn't even watch this video as it's going to be misleading.
Im being helped RIGHT NOW!
This is the single most inspiring, professionally put together channel for audiophiles out there.
Glad to hear that, Neo! Thanks.
@@AudioUniversity absolutely agree, love you guys, thank you for everything amd lately of all the vids this has helped me the most as its the next part of my journey . Kind regards AU
I have researched this to no end and not once have I found anything close to this video explaining quickly and concisely what I needed to know. Fantastic job! Saving this.
I’ve been looking for two years on a video that hit all of these topics on specs to music production and especially laptop vs desktop. You guys couldn’t of hit it better.. thank you 🙏🏾
I was running an i3 with a 250 gb HDD 6 gb of ram for my recording computer. I made it work! Two weeks ago I upgraded to an i9 with a 2tb ssd, 2tb hdd, 32 gb ram. I'm absolutely blown away.
Exactly what brand and model ..???
Could you tell that...?...
The former and latest...?
Thanx in advance...
Which i9 do you have?
What is the largest tract count you were able to get with your setup
This.Is.Amazing. No bs and straight to the point. Loved it!
I have an HP Elitedesk 800 G1 (2015) with a few changes.
i7 4790k 4 Cores @ 4.0Ghz
32 Gb Ram
1Tb Samsung SSD(Primary)
2 Tb Samsung SSD (Secondary)
Everything runs good with no problems or crashes.
What motherboard it uses?
Man that generation of cpus is still fantastic, despite being 8+ years old they really aged well.
@@wanmeireles7182 I'm using the stock motherboard.
@@dirg3music Yes is a great CPU, I can't overclok because I'm using the stock motherboard but it's fine, I'll be upgrading in the future but for now I can't complain.
Cheers!
There are ways to optimize your system's limits. For example, if you have an audio track that you have a lot of effects on you You can bounce that audio with the effects and you won't have to worry about running the VST's while you're playing the track saving computer processing speed.
@@yot330 once the file becomes a .wav, its just playing audio from the file and the VSTs are turned off. Saves massive space but it can get annoying
Or in Ableton 12 freeze and flatten which turns the Midi into an audio file
I am setting mine up with a separate drive (SSD) for plugins and I am running Ubuntu Studio
If you don't have a lot of money consider this.
I've got an Intel i5, 8 GB of RAM, C: and D: (SSD), but I use an exterior 1TB disk to store all my music projects. With proper PC care the i5 is quite capable of running up to 400 tracks, up to 150 VST without crashing on my 2020 HP laptop. So if you don't have the budget for an i7 or i9, don't get dicouraged by that. Exterior disks are still way cheaper than upgrading to 32 GB in a lot of places on planet earth.
🎵❤
Did you just say 400 tracks at the same time??????? that is more than enough!
@@jacotay2827It's also b/s.
That's cool! What DAW are you using?
This vid probably got you a lot of subscribers. This gentleman has knowledge. GREAT interview.
CPU heat can be negated by sufficient cooling. I have a 18 core / 36 thread i9 CPU with noctua cooler that I installed a second fan. This is in a 4U rackmount case so a smaller height cooler and fans were needed in order to physically fit.
I haven't bothered with overclocking on this machine as I would rather longevity & reliability over performance however I did go with a top end motherboard that supports overclocking so I have a choice should it become an issue in the future. I would only ever overclock a machine if it becomes necessary and the only alternative is to purchase faster machine/components.
Every fan in this machine is variable speed Noctua controlled by the mainboard and ramps up only when needed. This keeps it reasonably quiet under load.
I have other requirements for the machine where I have virtualization of multiple hosts in virtual networks so it has 128G of RAM (50% capacity) and is also why I went with 18 core / 36 threads.
I went with two 64Gig packs with the same timing/stepping as 128G packs were sold out before my order could be processed and it turned out cheaper to by 2 x 64G packs than 1 x 128G pack.
I went with 2TB nVme Drives for the Operating System Drive and two Primary Data Drives. (Primary in the sense that current projects being worked on are stored there).
The motherboard is "workstation" grade so it comes with 2 x nVme pcie drive slots and 1 x u.2 pcie connector.
I used Icy Dock ToughArmour Removable U.2 M.2 SSD Enclosures. These can be connected via ... to u.2 pcie connector which generally supports hot-swap.
I was forced to buy in the middle of the supply shortage so I had to compromise on the mainboard. The best I could get was one with two M.2 PCIe ad one u.2 PCIEe connectors.
I would have rather got a board with as many u.2 connectors as they support hot swap with a bit of bios configuration and drivers installed.
Each nVme PCIe drive in the drive bays connect to the mainboard using SilverStone CPS04 Mini SAS SFF-8643 to Mini SAS SFF-8643 cables to the u.2 connector and StarTech u.2 to M.2 adapter to connect to the two other nVme PCIe slots respectively.
I also have a spare 2TB nVme Drive as mirror image of the Operating System Drive.
When needed, it is inserted into the Icy Dock M.2 NVMe SSD to PCIe 3.0 x4 Removable SSD Mobile Rack for PCIe Expansion Slot card. This can be set in the BIOS to become the boot drive should disaster strike. As it is a contingency drive, it does not remain in the machine when not in use.
I had some 8TB WD Red Pro drives gathering dust on the shelf so I loaded them up as secondary storage for now. I had purchased a set of 5 x 20TB WD Red Pros but I decided to put them into a NAS instead.
I have some 4RU Rack Mount cases I have used for the last 10 years. The cases have two sets of 3 x 5.14" drive bays and three sets of 2.5" drive bays. I loaded them with two sets of the Icy Dock Black 5x3.5" in 3x5.25" Hot Swap SATA HDD Cages, The Icy Dock ToughArmor MB834M2K-B 2 Bay M.2 PCIe 3.0/4.0 NVMe SSD Mobile Rack for External 3.5” Drive Bay and Icy Dock Black Industrial Full Metal 2 x 2.5" SATA/SAS/SSD for 3.5" Front Device Bay.
So this machine has 2 removable NvMe 2TB drives and 2 hot-swap 2TB NvMe drives, 5 x 8TB WD Red Pro SATA Drives and is ready to accept another 5 x 3.5" SATA as well as 2 x 2.5" SATA drives. The Mainboard has 8 SATA ports and I installed a host bus adapter to cater to the shortfall.
I also built a custom NAS using 8 core intel xeon on an entry level Intel Server board, 64GB RAM with 10G Ethernet . It houses 5 x 20TB WD Red Pros.
The Operating System is TrueNAS Scale that serves network shares to the workstation and has a secured backup volume.
I do not use RAID, rather ZFS which does not rely on hard drive controller for the redundancy. So if the board/hard drive controller fails, the drives can simply be relocated to another machine. The operating system can be installed onto a system drive and a back-up of the configuration uploaded and we're back in business!
I use StorageCraft ShadowProtect SPX to perform incremental back-ups every 15 minutes. This can be periodically switched off if it interferes with very heavy a/v processing.
The TrueNAS runs a Virtual Machine that does the image management and when I have time I plan to install the workstation's back-up nVme Drive for the operating system and run StorageCraft's headstart restore. This will keep the installation on the back-up drive current up to a week just in case it takes time to notice an infection. So if the main system drive fails or there is corruption/infection, the back-up drive is ready to move across and not much time needed to restore the changes over the last week.
When selecting the Processor, Mainboard and SSD Drives note there is currently PCIe gen 3 and PCIe Gen 4. The later has double the throughput/performance capacity.
With SSD, there are different types of NAND chips that impact performance and longevity.
I have been a computer technician, network and systems administrator since the early 90's. Many of the companies I have worked for were the major manufacturers and have repaired countless computers of all sorts. I would only ever resort to a laptop or an all-in-one if I had no other choice. Desktops are more flexible, expandable and easier to maintain. I would rather have a travel case for a desktop and take it with me. That being said, I would not leave a heavy graphics card in the machine if it is going to be handled by couriers or baggage handlers who think they are football players.
If you spend $50 more on a product than you needed to, you have invested that $50 into future proofing. If you spend $50 less on a product you needed to, you have wasted all of your money on a product that cannot do the job or if you persist in using it will continue to cost you money in lost productivity.
Whatever the specification is for the software you aim to use, I would double it and then you will have a machine that is more likely to still be able to do the job efficiently in five years time. Always factor the cost of replacement in five years. Every year it lasts longer than that is a bonus. Good quality well maintained systems can last as long as 10 years but you will probably repurpose it to a less demanding role in 5.
Good basic info.
I'm a re-recording mixer in post production using Reaper as the primary platform, so it's mostly playback with the ocaasional virtual instrument action. 2000-20000 files usually. Dialogue tracks are the heaviest, and I run 40-200 usually.
Projects sit on an M2 SSD, video from a separate SATA SSD, backups to spinning drives. I'm on an AMD platform where the CPUs clock very high if few cores are utilized. AMD CPUs do better with RAM of 3600 MHz. Latency is king but I've found my 64 GB of 3600/16-18-18-38 Crucial 2x32GB kit to be reliable and sufficiently fast.
System Spec: Ryzen 9 5950X Cpu, 2x32 GB Crucial 3600 (BL2K32G36C16U4B), Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master v1.2(has TB option), Noctua NH-D15 cpu cooler(68C max temp at full CPU usage), Phanteks P500A D-RGB case(excellent airflow and quiet with fan curve adjusted), a quiet GTX1070 GPU, Corsair RMi 750Watt power supply, Samsung 860EVO 500GB&2TB, Samsung 970Plus 1TB M.2, 12 TB spinning disk(and various other external USB drives for backups). I mix at 256 samples latency. Recording at 64 is no problem usually.
The audio interface plays a major part in low latency production as well. If you can afford it, I do recommend RME for their top-tier drivers. Good drivers trump almost everything else, so pick this item carefully. My Fireface UC has served me well for 12 years, as have the Babyface, other Fireface units and so many more for fellow mixers. The UADs are great for tracking but for mixing they are not necessary. Most decent interfaces are great for recording a few sources. Audient comes to mind. No matter what is recommended, check reports on driver performance. RME is amongst the best here but things have gotten a lot better everywhere in the last few years.
Dope setup! I've seen a few benchmarks showing noticeable improvements using a 4 stick ram configuration over 2 sticks, if u ever get 2 more let us know if it scales in real world audio use!
@@RandomRelapse I chose doubled sided Ram sticks for that reason, and a mainboard that offers very good memory compatibility. Hope I got that terminology right. It‘s been over half a year since I did all the research. :)
I've heard of some compatibility issues between AMD and Reaper. How was your experience?
@@redxxfour So far there have been no problems. Not done tests that border on the edge of what's possible though. I tried to pick all recommended hardware, such as 3600 DD4 RAM, running with an FSB of 1800 MHz(1/2 of RAM speed).
@Airon You are definitely right about the RME products. I currently have the HDSPe AIO and I will not ever use another brand other than RME. I've used several audio interfaces in the past 20 years and they were no where near as good as RME's equipment and drivers. The RME interface has not messed up once in the past 5 years. There's something to be said for uninterrupted workflow and creativity.
This is the second video I've seen from this channel. So far I've seen nothing but practical, useable advice. Super, super helpful.
Subscribed. Thanks.
I had a Acser laptop I5 7 8 years ago but it broke 5 years ago. I recently got a used 3 year old HP laptop works fine most of the time.
Acer just as in general my nitro i7 acting up
Ryzen 5950x
64gb 3600mhz CL16 ram
RME HDPSe AIO soundcard/interface
Had 128 tracks recording in pro tools, 96khz sample rate, 64 buffer size, only hit 30% usage, all but 2 threads outta 32 being hit.
All of this, while HEAT is turned on...
Also tested 36 omnispheres instances open in FL, each with a different keyscape library, playing 16 notes each. 96khz SampleRate and 32 BufferSize. Only 40% usage, 55gb of Ram loaded.
Not to mention the speed of exporting sessions, renderings on RX are also blazing fast
Highly recommend the combo if anyone's serious about pushing native dps limits 🤓
I have the same audio card, but I need a better machine. Yours sounds exactly like what I want. Would you please send me your specs please? Let me know if you'd like my email or a FB link.
@@Jrel above mentioned specs (ram was ripjaw 4×16gb) plus
-X570 ASUS TUF Gaming MB
-1tb Aorus gen4 m.2 (OS)
-2tb Samsung evo plus m.2 (samples)
-Seasonic FOCUS GX-750 PSU
-Noctua NH-D15 + 5 more Noctua fans (2×140mm 1x80mm 2×120mm)
-The case choice is unique here
Cooler Master HAF XB EVO
(Front has 2 slots for swapping HDD's for massive amounts of kontakt and EWQL libraries)
-EVGA 3060 12gb vram (had to wait 11 hours at a best buy for this one)
-Front panel usb 3 gen 2 + usb c
-Blu-ray re/write (I like burning a copy of all the sessions/stems/files for a album/EP/tape I work on for someone)
@@RandomRelapse Thank you very much, I appreciate it!
@@Jrel also this might help u in your quest, I had made a extremely stripped down version of a windows 10 ISO, removing everything that wasn't essential for audio operation, I find this has a huge impact on STABILITY while operating heavy workloads under small buffer sizes. Only way to max out the massive potential of hardware
You'll need to have a separate OS on a SSD or partition for games or regular use, since a very stripped down windows 10 completely lacks windows defender or any form of protection, and has missing microsoft related graphic drivers 🙄
How hard is it to max out one core? Like lots of effects on one channel? Or do even those spread out over multiple cores?
I love most Audio University videos but I'm not a fan of this one. I understand you wanted to keep the video simple and short, and you _do_ admit that there's no one-size-fits-all solution, but one set of recommendations for "music production" is just too vague to be helpful to the varying use cases of real people. The components recommended in this video are good for professional, highly-produced multitrack records with dozens to hundreds of audio streams, sample-based virtual instruments and effects plugins. And while that's the most glossy kind of music production, I'm willing to bet it's also relevant for the smallest subset of your audience. 7 minutes into the video you mention that a laptop is okay for a 24-track simultaneous recording session - honestly, how many bedroom producers watching this channel will exceed that?
I agree that it's good to keep single-core performance in mind. Ryzen CPUs went unmentioned though. The claim that 16 GB of RAM is "probably enough for small, beginner recordings" and 32 GB is an "extremely important" update is quite wild. I recorded and mixed a ~100 track project on an 8 GB computer (granted, it was at its very limits). And storage requirements are dependent on the kind of music you produce. The drive containing the OS, the DAW and plugins doesn't have to be a terabyte. My two-year-old installation of Windows 10 is 25 GB, and DAWs are
I very much appreciate this critique, @Saku. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts so constructively. I’ll definitely consider this feedback for future videos.
I have a cheap walmart desktop HP with AMD Ryzen 3, 8GB Ram and it works fine for what I do. Just vocal recording over mp3 instrumental using plugins... no problem! I usually have no more than 15-20 tracks at most.. and I use BUS tracks for plugins instead of applying plugins to every track.
What’s a bus ?
remembered subscribing 2 years ago when I just started audio school and you had a few thousand subscribers, great to see you gaining subscribers so quickly!.
This was SO HELPFUL! I thought more codes would help but it looks like I need more Ram and and SSD!
God bless and love this man for just getting to the point. You earned my subscription
Thank you for this helpful video and sharing tips and recommendations that really make a difference. I am a VST instrumentalist/e-drummer and latency has always been my biggest challenge and concern, especiallly when playing live or in real time with other bandmates. I have gone back to using an older PC (16GB RAM) with an i5-7600 processor and 4-cores running at 3.8GHz because it has given me best results with having the lowest latency. The downside is that it can't be upgraded to Windows 11. My newer and Windows 11 upgraded PC (32GB RAM) with an i7-9700 processor and 8-cores running at almost 2.1GHz doesn't perform as well when it comes to latency, but I do use it for mixing and some mastering.
May I ask what PC is that older one?
@@jorgecisneros1801 , It's basically a repurposed and upgraded Dell OptiPlex 7050 MT. It's not great for gaming but comes in handy when I need to record VST instrument parts with only a couple of tracks at a time and no other plug-ins.
He had some amazing insights. The core stuff & M.2 vs SSD are gems. Thanks a lot Kyle! I'll use this video a lot for first semester students.
Thanks, Juan Carlos!
Did he say it's better to use a 2.5 ssd for the operating system, because the nvme would bottleneck when the bandwidth is too high?
@@Rivanni 4:48
Regarding RAM It's actually quite easy to hit 128 GB when you load virtual orchestra samples. Keep that in mind :)
@@g.o.9513 Yes. Many modern sample libraries which include multiple microphone signals are extremely heavy. Of course it all depends on SSD speed. Because the faster drive you have the less RAM is needed.
@@patrykscelina should you then buy 2x 64Gb ? whats your ram?
@@christelhall9379 That's very subjective. I simply say it depends on what and how many sample libraries You want to use in a single project. I currently use iMac with 128 GB of RAM and that's not enough, so I also use older Mac Pro with 64 GB of RAM as server to host some sample libraries. With PCs is a bit easier, because You can simply buy server type motherboard and put 256 GB or even more RAM into it.
Gotta say my i5 10400 is pretty great as things go for a budget option
I agree with you, i've got the same processor and its performance impresses me everyday, my only concern is that it heats up very fast, but it has never affected the performance of my pc
I have an i5 3rd gen. Can I upgrade that to another i5 8th Gen maybe?
@@BreeDxLeaD i510400 is very cheap, i don't know why you'd get an 8th gen considering how cheap and good the 10400 is
@@noahleach7690 8th Gen is all I can afford right now and it's kinda urgent. Will I need to consider the motherboard when getting a higher CPU or is that not a factor? Not so clued up with all this computer stuff, I just make music
@@BreeDxLeaD its best to check out gamers nexus on youtube and other related computer building youtube channels, it can be complex and I'm not an expert in any way
There were some exaggerations and strange strange info for 2022.
Most current gen i5 K skus are capable of sustaining their higher clocks at lower heat/noise than i7 and i9 variants. This is a big consideration for those building a home studio.
If this guys is saying that core counts don’t matter, but that i7 and i9 is where to ‘start looking’ or that i5 is budget is completely backwards. This is conflicting info and an increase in models 5 > 7 > 9 mean more cores in desktop skus - especially across all generations.
But, if you are buying a Mac, maybe that is a different conversation.
Example - in the real world of PC components, all recent i5 desktop CPUs can run circles around most DAWs, plugins, and sample libraries for professional use. Basically anyone building a music production computer could easily be going with a CPU like the current gen i5 13400. It’s got 10 cores and 16 threads and can sustain 4.5 across its 6 ‘P’ cores basically indefinitely with a good cooler.
Testing with my own Bitwig, Ableton, Reaper, Studio One stress test, utilization on par with my current mixing rig that has a 12600K locked at 5GHz across all ‘P’ cores - but the 13400 does it at half the power/heat.
However my 12600K actually outperforms my old i9 10850K from the previous gen by about 10% in terms of track count!!
Point is, giving people absolutes or an idea that isn’t correct just adds to the problem.
Otherwise, love the video topic.
Mr. Slick isn't trying to inform, he's trying to upsell. He sells "Music Production" PCs and "Audio Recording Computers" (visit his link). The simple fact he is trying to create a specialized market for "Audio Recording Computers" tells you all you need to know about Mr. Slick. He is "Slick" indeed.
Exactly! I7 and i9 they're going to run lot hotter and have more cores than an i5, but in reality it's highly doubtful that you really need more than an i5 , actually there are vsts these days that uses gpu's to complete some of its algorithms, in that case you'd be better off buying a less powerful CPU, and saving a bit of money to put towards a GPU.
The tradeoff of cores and speed is not that much of an issue. To handle the extra heat, you can plan to oversize your cooling. For instance, if you have a 125 watt CPU get a ~200+Watt cooler. it will move heat faster and spin slower (slower fan speed is less noise). Intel is very good and very stable, but AMD Ryzen is great too and the latest generations are very stable.
Regarding future building your build prioritize your spending based on what is easiest to change. Do NOT cheap out on your motherboard, but you don't need to latest greatest gaming board either. However, try to get the latest generation. Spend at least $200 on the MB. Next hardest thing to change is the CPU. Get as good as you can but if you got a great MB the CPU can have an upgrade path to extend the system life. Next is the boot drive. This is a hassle to replace so get an NVMe drive that's big enough, 1TB minimum. A 2TB boot drive is not cheap but will have extra longevity. Samsung is still the best of the best but the best Crucial drives are a very close second. Other name brands are also very good. Note that Samsung has the best, hands down, cloning software (flawless) except that it only clones Samsung to Samsung drives.
I'll add this. There is a lot to be learned from the gaming and creator community as to PC Build design. They are the ones pushing the envelope all the time. Their tastes for quality have evolved too. The first thing an audio engineer can ignore is all the RGB stuff of course but silent cases and operation have become a priority of gamers and air flow has always been important. Part of making cases pretty is also about good air flow. In fact, pretty case layout came from trying to improve air flow. RGB came from internal lighting so you can see what the hell you're doing when making changes/mods. One can think of the Gaming PC community as the NASCAR of the auto industry. A great audio PC is a subset with different priorities of the cutting Gaming/Streaming PC. And there are a lot more Gaming channels out there than audio engineers keeping up on PC technology.
@@L.Scott_Music i was looking for a comment like this. thank you very much for bringing this up.
But you're speaking for yourself, because I'm actually looking at compact PCs and so the tip of few cores for less heat and higher potential clocks is great.
This was EXTREMELY helpful for me. Thanks!!
I cant help but think that just about anything modern will out perform the 15 year old refurbished maxed out Dell i had before i took an 8 year hiatus from recording to work on live instrumentation and singing. Id still have 30+ tracks going but of course i play all live instrumentation one by one and vocal tracks. I had nuendo and waves diamond bundle running pretty smooth on there. Looking forward to seeing what a modern set up is like though! Finally getting it going again!
THANK YOU SO MUCH! WHEW! There are soooo many options and ideas and options on the market.
There are a lot of options, Mark. It can be overwhelming. That's why I called Slick Audio and had them design the PC for me specifically for how I'd use it. Having a powerful computer has made a huge difference in my workflow! It just does what I ask...
I found this video incredibly helpful. I'm in dire need to upgrade my current laptop since over time the latency has gotten unacceptable. This video gave me some great tips.
Been running the same desktop for 12 years to record my music. I use AudioBox interface, and Presonus Studio One. Looking to get a new desktop, does this sound like a good setup? Or could someone point me in the right direction. I also heavily use Photoshop, Lightroom and Sony Vegas.
SKU:
ST-ChronosW-0254-CC
CPU:
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core 3.6 GHz (4.2 GHz Turbo)
Case:
Skytech Chronos, White Edition w/ Front Mesh
CPU Cooler:
Wraith Stealth Cooler
Fans:
3x Skytech RGB 120mm Fans
Motherboard:
B550M
RAM:
16GB DDR4 Gaming Memory 3200 MHz
Graphics:
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 12GB
Primary Hard Drive:
1TB NVMe SSD
Power Supply:
650 Watt 80 Plus Gold Certified
Networking:
802.11 ac
Operating System:
Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
Fantastic. And apologies if this is off topic, but as someone sitting on the fence between Mac and Windows right now, it would be great to see the same harsh glare of truth cast on the Mac M1 machines.
I just watched without looking for a while and i couldve sworn on my mothers life that was John Goodmans voice
thanks , but this information is 5-10 years old... MY Ryzen9 3900x great for literally everything! I dont even mention cheap Chinese Xeons like 18-core 2696v3 which now costs 100 fckn bucks on Aliexpress and has decent 1-core performance.
Apart from CPUs , this info is 100% correct
Very helpful, consulting videos for an upcoming upgrade. Hopefully i can find other videos with this kind of clear information
I'm on a AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32 gb Ram at 3466mhz. (soon 48 gb ram)
I personly think single core performance is really more important then more cores who are slower. (E.g I would pick a 5600x over a 3800x)
My sound card is the ESI Maya44 EX. ( 1 a 2 ms latency on Asio 2.0 on 96 khz)
Ofc Fast M.2 SSD's for fast loading and so on.
I work on windows though. (FL studio and sometimes some other programs)
Can asio 2.0 driver support all audio interface
@@nithe_music So far I know, yes.
@@Trancelistic now I am using audio interface that do not have own driver so I use asio4all then latency about 18ms(input+output),can asio 2.0 help to reduce latency,
@@nithe_music Wich DAW do you use?
And name/model of your audio interface?
@@Trancelistic fl studio,wright sound master interface
Great video. I hope you continue to produce more of these videos. I use both mac and pc (powerful pc I have build) and both do their job excellent. My main DAW is Pro Tools and use Logic most for field tracking. Btw, I hit the subscribed button after watching this video.
This is a legit video, thank you!!
I was looking for this! Thanks for doing this.
2000 tracks? 😐
Side chain junkies know 😊
So do bus fanatics
I built my computer with consultation and help from a highly trusted and capable computer expert who works in our community, but I did not consult with a professional like Jim. All things considered, I think I did pretty well -- I have a little less storage than I would like, but my projects aren't huge and I'm mostly working for myself, so that should be fine -- but I have to admit I'm nervous that DAWs haven't really been updated to make proper use of multicore processors. I use multicore because it's also a gaming computer, and because my small to mid-scale projects allow me to get away with it, but the more I research the issue, the more I think maybe I should have gone for fewer cores with more power. Yet, I suspect that when this issue is finally rectified and the software starts being updated to work better with modern hardware, those of us with multicore setups might come out ahead. Thoughts?
higher single core performance is far more important than multicore performance. that's just not going to change in audio production. it's just the nature of the work.. many processes have to be done sequentially and cannot happen simultaneously.. for example you have multiple tracks and you have on each track a compressor and an EQ and then a reverb.. in that order or any order you choose.. your computer will have to process the plugins individually then move to the next plugin and then move to the next plugin.. and this has to happen on each and every track so the single core performance is going to always be the most important metric for a cpus. having a high performing multi-core cpu you shouldn't really hurt you.. but it's not that the DAW the developers haven't caught up or aren't taking advantage of multicore cpus due to a lack of development or lapses in their code..
Straight forward ...I love it , thanks for this video
There is no one solution fits all. Performance is directly affected by number of tracks, virtual instruments, CPU intensive plugins, etc. It all depends on how you intend to use your DAW
Taking advantage of tools in the Daw like track freeze in logic can really save a slower computers life for sure. Knowing these tools exist is sometimes the barrier
Thanks for this overview. - But I would argue a few things. - First, the RAM-speed isn't discussed at all, which is quite important. Not that it should be the fastest, but it should be fast enough, cause it could make or break the system's responsiveness, both in how it responds in an immediate sense, but also in terms of loading and unloading stuff. - It's literally your working-memory, so you don't want it to be cheap and sluggish memory, for which you need to look at the clock-speeds as well as the timings.
On top of that, you can definitely use external drivers, it just depends on what kind of interface you use. Sure, some average USB-connectivity isn't going to help, but if you get the fastest USB or any of those production-grade I/O-solutions, those are blazing fast. - Those and external drives exist for production-work as well. You shouldn't just get your average consumer "take your MP3s and JPEGs with you" kind of drives.
How much noise your pc makes is key
Cheapest option: Commit to your progress. Bounce your tracks as you go on.
Reduces your mental load as well.
it depends on what software your using ... you can produce music on a Nintendo DS or a ipad you don't need a hi end pc
i5 i7 are ok for 16 track work
16 gig min 32g better
ssd a must
external sound card
usb 3.0 min
ubuntu studio is all you really need to do music start with free plugins
This Topic,,makes one..Insecure,,Highly Dubious in selection..often landing on huge investment...but with the Magic Wand of Audio University..ypu havr input in,,the viewer ..enormous info//Thank you..DrNanda..India
Just bought a New iMac and it barely keeps up with my sessions in Logic even after adjusting the core preferences to bias playback and maxing the buffer size. I usually go ahead and print my drums down early on just to keep the overload nags at bay. THEN there's the issue of updated OS systems not playing nice with Slate products along with other 3rd parties. I'm paying for a subscription I cannot use, currently. The notion of not updating your system so things will work has become normal and it's totally absurd. I'm definitely looking into going with Slick for the next one. I'm only loyal to whatever system that serves my purpose.
It's like they say... Complicated DRM ends up hurting the legitimate customer more than the pirate.
Great video. Straight to the point and informative.
As usual, very useful videos. Thanx x sharing. 👍🏼
Thanks so much for this video. I'm in the market for a new laptop/PC.
He just described any good computer no matter the purpose.
For all of you that have amd machines, how well does music production and/or film scoring work for you all? I’d like to switch from Intel to AMD because I read that their processors aren’t compatible with a lot of software.
Jumping on….also interested to know about that. Want to switch to amd because of their higher ghz processors….
Bro just went straight to the point that's what we want😊
Very Great Video Bro
Excellent information, thank you.😊
This has helped me in leaps n bounds I've seen every youtube video on how to fix clicks n pops on fl studio,omnispere2,arcade, on how to run them all together without the dreaded clicks n pops i had enough ram to run them but i kept running into the click a pop thing i was told it maybe my processor i have a i5 ive had my pc since 2016 its works perfectly but not for music production considering now i see i have to purchase a new pc with either an i7-i9 processor which is fine aslong as i dont get anymore clicks n pops thanks again for this imformative info
...have been working for 5 years with an 11 year old HP Z800 workstation (about 8000 $ then, 600 now) with 2 6-core 3.3 Ghz XEON processors.
Now for the first time I have a problem that the new NI Massive synth needs a newer chip generation.
I got a 5 year old laptop for this.
Folks, buy old workstations for 1/10th the original price and be happy.
I recommend anything from the HP Z620.
Ok I'm confused, he said that SINGLE CORE PERFORMANCE is the most important, then how can i7 be better than i5 when in fact i5 with 6 cores will have more single core GHZ than i7 with 8 cores.
Oh you found him out 😅
If you’re not using vst
I heard the same thing
Having worked a lot on desktop PCs as well as laptops - if you are on windows and do not need to have a portable system: get a desktop. Windows laptops do suffer from DCP latency and ACPI power saving issues that can cause issues with audio.
For most DAWs, having stable CPU clock speeds is preferable -most laptops throttle the CPU speed as they get hot - something desktop PCs, configured right do not suffer at all from.
If you work with Kontakt/Omnisphere or any heavily sample based instruments, disk LATENCY is key - get internal nvme drives and avoid usb/thunderbolt sample libraries
I got a Ryzen 5 4600g
RTX 2060 super
32GB RAM
1TB Nvme PCI ssd
869$ on eBay. Refurbished prebuilt. Best deal ever
Next time you have someone on your channel making suggestions for PC specs you should get someone who's not in the business of selling Music Production computers that are way over-spec'd and over-priced. He's trying to "upsell" every one of your viewers who doesn't know better. Music Production is not very intense on a system. What he suggests wouldn't be needed unless you have a professional studio. Your everyday Home Studio user don't need much. Get someone who is honest, not a Salesman.
Great info, thanks!
Imagine scrolling through 2000 tracks! jeez 😁
Good to hear the truth not many of us know, now if only this spread more, the other thing is most daws still to this day only use one or 2 cores for each track, so that is the reason we want bigger/faster overall cores. also cpus with e/p cores don't play nice with some daws/os' also....
Best explanation on this topic! Cheers!
Interesting. I just did some test one NVME and SSD with opening up Full Orchestra on Cinematic Studio Strings. With the 2.5"" SSD, it took 37 seconds to completely load. With NVME, it took 21 seconds to load. I will do more research after hearing your thoughts on NVME, but I was confident that was going to be faster for my VSTs.
Me, too. I put all my VST on a single NVME SX8200, and it loads so fast everytime I call my VST
What a great video!!!
Thanks, guys!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for this review, very concise and to the point.... Could you please recommend few laptops for Beginner, Intermediate & Professional levels of both music recording & Mixing? Thank you.
Wait does graphic card matter? Like at all?
Great video. Very helpful. Thank you
Excellent Video, thanks for all that.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you, super helpful
there's a more important matter to talk about than how many cores inside the CPU, which is the generation and model. The i5 13400F (13th gen) performs better than the i9 9900k (9th gen), and people tend to overlook the gen and pay too much attention to number of cores, when shopping for cpu u should pay attention to
- Generation, as of the moment i'm typing this gen 13 and 14 are the latest and 14 is not so much better than 13 so just get 13 for more value.
- SKU, which is the number behind the generation number, for example 13600 13700 13900. The 13600 performs better than 14500 so pay attention to this also
- Now the cores, for gen 13 and 14 i found that i5 works fine enough for gaming but that something relies more on gpu, came here to find if my i5 13600KF is enough and sadly couldn't find my answer :(
- Suffix letters at the end like K, F, H, etc. This slightly affect performance, but not too important
Very helpful video. Thank you so much!
Glad it was helpful, Mr. A! Thanks!
good advice except for the bit abour i5's. Modern i5's (the last couple of years 12th gen -13th gen are plenty powerful enough to run an audio pc.
Totally agree! I have always bought i7's in the past but my latest build has an i5 13600k. That was the sweet spot for me. Plenty of power for music production, plus my system stays cool, super quiet and less power consumption.
Careful... Realtime audio performance is NOT all about CPU/RAM performance. That matters, but avoiding DPC interrupt issues is much more important - otherwise your recordings will be useless and you will lose your hair. - The i5/i7/i9 advise is just not true at all. Probably not the guys fault, Intel's naming scheme is purposefully deceptive. Right now, the i7's and i9's of both the 13, and the 14 series, develope too much heat, and draw too much power, for what you get.
You are going to need to optimize your PC for audio, mainly in the BIOS. Turn off all or most CPU power management options. Virtualization - C-states - Speedstep (intel) - speedshift (intel) - and preferably don't overclock. Windows power schemes will have to be looked at as well. Test with LatencyMON
Awesome! Thanks for this great video.
You don't need to reformat to move anything to a bigger drive. There are several programs that can move the OS, programs and data to a new drive for you. Normally one is available with the new larger drive. You can drag and drop, copy and paste, etc. project data without anything other than formatting the new drive. Not sure why he said it like it's hard. Maybe it is to some, but it is a pretty simple thing to do if you know how.
wow cool thanks for the info!
DDR5 rams are more better than DDR4 in audio production ???
I hope you can consider Apple’s M1/ M2 processor chip and other specs aside from Intel’s specs on the next video. 🙂 Looking forward to it!
I’ve recently started using a MacBook Pro with an M1 PRO (for travel and portability) and it’s handled everything I need so far! Thanks for bringing that up, G E L V S!
@@AudioUniversity What about the M1? Would that be enough to run 50-60 tracks of virtual and analog instruments?
@@AudioUniversity Or the M2?
i would like to point one thing i found out before. think of a hdd like a record player. it can do well with one thing at a time but like a record, there is a sort of needle and that needs to move in order to read data. so multi tasking is rough. ssd, however, is solid with no mechanical reading, so it can multi-task far faster. hdd is good for cheap large storage though, probably best for backups and completed work.
Which i5? Which i7 which i9 this is important information. A 5th gen i7 can be outdone by a current i3 soo
always good stuff here.
Thanks, Shane!
Brilliant video
What about ram latency? i.e. 3200 cl 14-14-14-34 vs 3600 CL16-18-18-38 or CL 16-18-18-36, etc?
Lower cas latency is better and higher m/t is better
I love this channel
I got the 64ram 12 cores on @ 3.5ghz a i9 but it’s a 4th gen. I know we’re on 13th gen this year. I need to upgrade motherboard then run all mvme. For everything. Solid solid beast. Never run on one drive you’ll lose everything within a year wen it fails.
Much intellectual property here 👏
Great information in this video, excluding the M1 pro/max machine consideration
No mention about ryzen processors. Pretty disappointing. Those ryzen 5000 cpus are pretty powerful and at the same time run cool, even the higher core variants such as the 5950x. So no need to go with less cores, they still have the same high or higher clocks with many cores. Too much heat was a problem with intel cpus with the 10000 and 11000 generations.
That was my immediate first thought, especially with thread ripper.
I'm on a ryzen 5 3600 with 32gb 3600mhz memory and it can handle an incredible amount of polyphony/fx and processing. I couldn't be happier tbh but I do plan to upgrade to the 5900x when Zen4 releases, 400$ for 12c/24t with their level of IPC is a steal and it's only gonna get cheaper.
Thank you so much. I'm looking at dropping apple like a toilet seat after 20 years and really trying to understand where I need to land.
One of the most important factors of a music production computer was not discussed at all .. cooling ... of course for laptops this is not a topic but for a desktop is a great topic to discuss ... as the higher you push the machine the higher the temperature will go resulting mew need in cooling in order to keep the system going. An as the higher the cooling needs grow the noise margin grows and more specialized that area becomes to find the most effective but also silent way to coll off your system otherwise the noise from the fans will mix up with the high end of your monitors and there will be a mess ..
I am running a beastie AMD Threadreaper with 24 cores and for cooling up I use huge Noctua cooler with a pair of fans and the noise level is very very low ....
Another fact to talk to is the glorious battle between AMD and Intel Processors, was using Intels for many years and switched to AMD because of their price and their performance specs, way faster than Intels with lower energy consumption, less energy means also less heat etc etc ...
My main job is System and Network engineer so I know how all of these work inside ... and I totally agree about SSD's and M2 - nvme drives ... :)
Merry Xmas and keep the nice work flowing :)
I have a noctua cooler for my i9 9900k. An absolute beast of an air cooler and super quiet
@@LeopardBull5trik3 bro pretty much the same applies for me and my threadripper beast ... thought of adding liquid cooling but the space it needed to deploy that was way too much for my way too busy office desk I have in my control room ... so I decided that beastie cooler with two fans and of course open pc case to keep the ventilation good
@@LeopardBull5trik3 Same here, but I use the i7-9900K. Works like a charme.
Hi SK Drumming, Could you please share the model of noctua cooler that you use? Thanks :)
Great info, thank you.
Thanks for sharing ~
right on cue! thank you
I regretted buying a laptop because it overheats and it affects the cpu performance which makes DAW slower even though I have an i7 so buy a desktop, it cools better