Producing music digitally is an art that has very specific requirements. If you’re not very knowledgeable about gadgets, it may be a little confusing figuring out what laptops have the correct hardware and software for your producer need. We created an article to show you what to look out for to do what you love, without breaking the bank.
What are the Most Important Things in Laptops for Music Production
The first and most important thing you should note is a good processor. Starting from laptops with a quad-core processor and moving up to higher processor capacities, the more powerful they are, the simpler the process of making music. A laptop with great processing power enables you to handle different intensive levels of tasks without worrying about your system lagging and crashing.
Next, note the memory size— you’ll be needing a lot of that to handle the large music files (eg. WAV files), libraries, and applications you’ll be dealing with, and they take up a lot of memory space and you do not want to have to deal with a system that repeatedly crashes when you attempt to take on simultaneous tasks. Battery charge capacity is also important, you may want to have at least 4-8 hours charge. Also to maximize display efficiency, you will have to consider the screen size as well as the number of external connections that can be hooked up to make production more efficient. However, if any issues crop up with your laptop, you can always visit a laptop repair store.
If you do not plan on taking on visual-related audio work like video editing, you don’t have to worry about getting a laptop with a dedicated Graphics Processing Unit. In addition, pay attention to the size of the Laptop storage and type offered. You’re going to need a lot of it.
List of Devices You May Be Interested In
You should look at Laptops with Windows or IOS operating systems because they are compatible with most of the best and most efficient music production tools.
Here are budget-friendly Laptops you should check out, listed below.
Dell Inspiron 15 3000— The Cheapest Option
Dell is a very solid laptop brand and the Inspiron variety, in particular, has garnered a reputation for starting a lot of audiophiles off on their music production journey.
The Dell Inspiron model we chose has highly reasonable hardware in addition to being very friendly for low-budget initiatives. This laptop comes with 8 gigabytes of expandable RAM, an amazing dual storage combo possessing 128 gigabytes SSD, and 1 terabyte of HDD storage.
Additional information about this model:
- A windows operating system
- Intel Core i3
- 15.6-inch Full High Definition touchscreen
- 1 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0
Price: $449
Microsoft Surface Go
Although lacking some important features like multiple USB ports and a larger screen, the Microsoft Surface Go is still a very reasonable option for producing purposes. It possesses 8 gigabytes of RAM along with 128 gigabytes SSD space with a preloaded Windows 10 operating system.
Additional information about this model:
- Intel Pentium Gold CPU
- 10-inch touchscreen
Price: $545
ASUS Vivobook X541UA
The Asus VivoBook Max X541UA would serve well for music producers as it operates with the Windows 10 OS and a Core i3 processor. It has a 15.6-inch display plus 1920×1080 pixel resolution, 4GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive.
Additional information about this model:
- Expandable RAM up to 8GB
- Graphics Card are integrated from Intel
Acer Aspire 5 A515
The Acer Aspire 5 maximizes the processor, RAM, and storage combination very effectively, with its Intel i5 processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and 512 GB SSD and at this price range, the addition of a USB-C connector allows for higher data transmission speeds. You’ll have a hard time finding a better Windows machine for less than $500/£500.
Additional information about this model:
- 15.6-inch Full HD Screen
- 2× USB 3.0, 1× HSBC
- Windows Operating System
HP Business 15.6 Touchscreen
One of the greatest affordable laptops available for the music production business is the HP Business 15.6 Touchscreen laptop. HP has a reputation for producing the most dependable and well-built gadgets at very affordable prices.
The HP Business laptop offers an amazing combination of processor, memory space, and storage, offering a 3.6 Quad-Core AMD CPU, 8GB RAM, and 1 Terabyte of storage space.
Additional information about this model:
- Windows 10 Operating System
- 15.6 touchscreen
Apple Macbook Pro
The Apple MacBook Pro is one of the best gadgets available on the market for music production, possessing Apple’s M1 Pro 10-core chipsets, one of their most powerful processors.
Along with this is a powerful M1 Pro 16-core GPU, a 16GB RAM module of system memory, and you get a 512GB SSD module for storage. Finally you get 16.2-inch screen large enough to take on the display aspect of production work.
Additional information about this model:
- Up to 21 hours of battery life
- Thunderbolt 4 х3
- Gen 2 USB 3.1 slot
What Else I May Need for Music Production
The further you advance in music production, it will become necessary to grow up devices and instruments in your studio, get more equipment such as MIDI’s, mixers, drum pads, etc. Most modern equipment works on USB connection, so make sure that the amount of ports is sufficient. Laptop companies are on a wave of incorporating USB-C into their products, so keep an eye out for those. This is especially handy when utilizing an external hard drive for music composition, as the use of USB-C along with SSD allows big audio or sample files to be transferred quickly. Also in future you may find an interesting external (analog) sound card that could help you with connecting more professional equipment that may not come with USB connection, and comes with XLR or else instead of it.
Another feature that would be great to have is the future upgradability of your laptop’s components. Not every laptop possesses this future but it helps to have it.
Conclusion
All in all, the most important aspect of the best cheap laptop for music production is first the processing power, followed by memory and storage space. It pays to go all out on those features before cutting in any other. We hope this article will help you get through buying your first PC or laptop for music production.
