Laptop specs for music editing - what do you use?

INFJ

After purchasing some basic gear I ran into problems with the laptop itself. It's an old one that apparently cannot handle all these tasks. I had sound quality problems, popping and other noises.

Anyway what specs does your machine have if you are recording and editing music on a laptop? How much RAM would bring me within safety limits?
Any feedback is appreciated. I prefer not to make an impromptu decision.

Klaus_T

i would first choose a DAW that you plan to run, then check which minimum specs they require, then see how much higher you can go over the minimum without breaking your budget. most current laptops are powerful enough to handle audio with relative ease.

i have a lenovo L560 with i7-6600U CPU @ 2.60GHz, 16,0 GB RAM, it's about 6 years old now and it is strong enough for what i do (includes music production with 40+ tracks and loads of plugins).

INFJ

Thank you again Klaus for being so helpful.

I suppose Reaper is superior to Audacity if you want to record yourself and edit? I have both of those, but Reaper seems more complicated to me as a layman. Should not be so bad that I would not be able to learn though. I am sure there are plenty of tutorials.

What I would like to do is to add my vocals over a track and maybe do backing of certain parts with my own voice. And add reverb and some smaller effects. That's pretty much it. I have a keyboard, but no plans on connecting that one. I only use it to figure out the key and what notes I am supposed to sing.
I have looked around and thinking along the lines of a Core i5 2.6 GHZ and 8GB RAM. That would be within budget and within the requirements for Reaper.

Klaus_T

i think that's fine. i never used reaper so i can't say anything in that regard

sjonrokz4u

Reaper will be fine. Yes there are lots of videos. That laptop will be plenty

INFJ

Thanks a lot! They delivered the new laptop the other day and all is well. No sound problems anymore. Works with Reaper, Audacity etc.

I have bought the KTVA course as well (went with the 2.0 download because I have a very limited internet ability in the dungeon where I practise - better to have everything ready to go on the laptop), so hope there will be some tricks to get me moving forward.

Klaus_T

cool, great to hear! make sure to get your student's access for the forums as well

https://forum.kentamplinvocalacademy.com/discussion/6859/how-to-get-access-to-the-ktva-how-to-sing-better-than-anyone-else-student-areas-of-the-forums#

stung

Laptop spec really depends on what you are doing. I have been running Logic Pro for years and if you want to record a handful of tracks and using logic pro plugins then you don't need the latest high spec model. If you are using 80 plus tracks then things start freezing up pretty quickly e.g. using three sound samples on three tracks and mixing them together to make one snare drum sound and you do this on every drum sound and then do the same for the bass sound, etc. you can very quickly end up with a lot of tracks. However there are always ways around this in your workflow by bouncing tracks to audio e.g. if you are using three sound samples on three tracks and mixing them together to make one snare drum sound, then once you are happy with that sound you can bounce to one audio track. All DAWS have this ability, some have freeze and unfreeze but you can always just go to a previous version of the project instead (and to be honest you have to commit to bounces at some point or you end up on a project forever so I never go back). So you make do with what you have got! As for the DAWS there are millions of posts on t'internet saying this one is better than that etc. but all the main ones do the same thing and it is a matter of which one you prefer or what way of working you prefer. The best DAW for one person is not necessarily the bet for another, don't get too hung up on it.