Computer Specs For Music Production In 2024 | RAM, Storage, & CPU

How much RAM do you need to record music? Which processor do you need and how much storage capacity? In this video, Jim Slick is sharing the recommended computer specifications for recording and mixing music.

- Slick Audio -
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00:00 - Introduction
00:13 - CPU / Processor
01:35 - RAM
03:04 - Storage
07:14 - Laptop vs Desktop
08:27 - I/O

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[omnipop]

Wow. This guy cuts right through it. Very clear and concise. This is going to help a lot of people. Cheers.

[SuperFluidFerroFluid]

This is the single most inspiring, professionally put together channel for audiophiles out there.

[dubsbarry]

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.

[BushaManNH]

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 🙏🏾

[jcout]

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.

[timoluetk]

This.Is.Amazing. No bs and straight to the point. Loved it!

[carlosserrano]

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.

[TheFTLTRAVELER]

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.

[thenatureofsound]

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.
🎵❤

[radioman]

This vid probably got you a lot of subscribers. This gentleman has knowledge. GREAT interview.

[deadlymarsupial]

<CPU/Processor>

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.

<Cooling>

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.

<RAM>

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.

<Primary Storage Devices>

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.

<Secondary Storage Devices>

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.

<External Storage>

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.

<Some Points>

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.


<Laptops>

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.

<Purchasing Philosophy>

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.

[AironExTv]

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.

[GorgonDrageil]

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.

[RandomRelapse]

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 🤓

[HOLLASOUNDS]

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.

[granite_planet]

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 <40 GB. None of my plugins are even 100 MB (samples excluded), but even if they were, I could fit 3, 000 plugins on a 500 GB hard drive, and it would only be 80 % full.

Also... Jim's job is to sell dedicated audio workstations. He's knowledgeable and well-spoken but I'm not sure he's exactly impartial on the matter 😅

[froztyb]

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.

[iasyama]

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!.

[KLMusicProd]

This was SO HELPFUL! I thought more codes would help but it looks like I need more Ram and and SSD!

[shaggydudegaming]

God bless and love this man for just getting to the point. You earned my subscription