We generally talk about computers for gaming, for office tasks, video editing and other recreational and professional applications. But if there is one activity that has the honor of being the first to be linked to the manipulation and production of media, it is audio editing. That’s why we decided to make a quick guide for those who want build a computer to create music or just buy a laptop for it.
Computer-based music creation is something that has been around since the 80s, when professional musicians used computers like the Amiga or, more popularly, the Atari ST. It was even at this time that we first saw the appearance of the first PC sound cards. However, today it seems that this task has ceased to be important, due to the integration of sound cards and the fact that the processing capacity is already sufficient.
Advice for those who want to buy a computer to create music
Music creation does not differ much from video editing, in both cases we are dedicated to manipulating tracks of information using a timeline to do so and obtain a new creation. However, since the subject we are dealing with has less interest from buyers, it is generally ignored by manufacturers. In any case, keep in mind that preferences change when it comes to choosing a gaming PC.
The choice of processor and motherboard.
When we edit audio, we will find that we will have to manipulate several tracks several times at the same time, so the multithreading capacity of our computer to create music will take precedence over everything else. In other words, if for the same price you can opt for a CPU with more cores and threads than another, then go for it. You don’t have to go for a Ryzen 7000 on an AM5 or Intel Core 13 motherboard. You can opt for cheaper options that will give you great performance and won’t hurt your wallet as much.
As for the choice of motherboard, things are simpler, look for one that gives you the USB ports you need, that has both a good DAC and an audio codec included as standard. Which will save you money and the hassle of buying an external player and give you good sound quality right from the start.
RAM, graphics card and storage
For RAM we recommend a 16 GB configuration using two DIMMs of 8 GB each, today you don’t need more than that to work without problems. As for the graphics card, it will depend on whether you want the PC to play or not, in any case it is not a task that requires having a powerful graphics card, so you will only have to choose a processor with a integrated GPU for this.
On the other hand, we have the case of storage. Having to work with several tracks at the same time, our recommendation is to use an SSD. You don’t need the high bandwidth of an NVMe, so one with a SATA connection will do the job for you. The reason? Being able to easily access different sound files at the same time without accumulating latencies, which is key in music production.
