PC for music production - you should pay attention to this
If you want to buy a PC for music production or put it together yourself, there are a few things to consider. Home Recording
The sound card - the centerpiece
The heart of your computer is the sound card for music production.
- Nowadays, amateur and professional sound cards hardly have any latency information, since the latency is hardly longer than the buffer length. Input and output latency should be less than 20 ms together.
- The sound card must have at least CD quality, i.e. support a sample rate of 44100 Hz with a bit depth of 16 bits. 48000 Hz at 24 bits is more reasonable, which is often referred to as "DVD quality".
- You also need at least one analog stereo input and one stereo output.
- Internal or external? Internal sound cards are sometimes cheaper. PCI is not enough, you need PCIe. External sound cards can be used on desktop PCs and laptops and can easily be taken anywhere.
- USB or Firewire? If it becomes an external audio interface, you should use Firewire if you have additional Firewire devices. Otherwise USB3 is the more common PC connection. USB2 is also sufficient if you do not want to record dozens of channels at the same time.
- With or without a mixer? If you have an analog mixer, you can use it to feed all the devices to the computer. If not, your sound card must have a microphone input with pre-amp and phantom power and one or more line inputs. Then it is worth buying a digital mixer that functions as a sound card.
- Effects included? Many sound cards have implemented good hardware effects that are optimized for the card architecture and are therefore particularly resource-saving. Do you need them, or do you have enough professional software effects?
- The cheapest sound cards include the USB interface Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, the gigantic mixer Behringer XENYX and the internal PCIe sound card ESI MAYA.
- These are available from the usual online retailers such as Just Music, Music Store Professional and Thomann for around 100 euros. That is the bare minimum.
- If you have S / PDIF-capable speakers, be sure to get a sound card with S / PDIF output. In this way you can send the signal to your active speakers without interference or loss.
- If you have speakers with a balanced input, make sure that your sound card has balanced outputs. That can be jack or XLR.
Other hardware for music production
In addition to a fast and professional sound card, you need other hardware for smooth music production. There are several options here. The following must be observed while selecting a PC or assembling it. The following picture gallery gives you further tips and food for thought if you already have sound studio equipment.
- Many software effects and synthies require a lot of RAM to run smoothly. These are not expensive, so you should afford at least 8 GB or better 16 GB.
- That means you need a 64 bit system. Most today's PCs with Intel i3, i5 or i7 or AMD Phenom II X4 or X6 processors are sufficient for music production, especially if you choose a good sound card that does most of the computing for the processor.
- Dozens to hundreds of tracks in a 5-minute song in DVD quality, plus a sampler with 100 GB library ... you need a hard drive with at least 250 GB of memory.
- The best is here: An SSD hard disk on which you install your operating system and the music software including the sample libraries. Here you can also save the projects you are currently working on.
- You can save everything you are not currently working on on an additional HDD hard drive. Whether 250 GB or 1 TB is more appropriate depends on how hard you produce music.
- Obtain an additional external HDD hard drive to make regular backups.
- A PC with a midi tower is usually cheaper, easier to expand, upgrade, does not overheat as quickly and the loud ventilation under the table is further away from you and the microphones. A laptop is mobile and takes up less space. Think about what's more important to you.
- The many tracks, the mixer in your DAW and the synth and effect controls require at least one large display. For the best overview, you should work with 2 screens.
- If you choose a laptop, consider buying a docking station. Leave the second screen, keyboard and mouse and all other hardware plugged in here that you do not need in mobile use.
- A few effect devices, for example some convolution Hall plug-ins, do not calculate via the processor and sound card, but via the graphics card. If you have such an effect or are planning to purchase it, you also need a powerful graphics card.
- Do you already have studio hardware? Then pay attention to whether you need connections, for example for Firewire 400, Firewire 800, MADI or a MIDI USB interface.
If your PC stands for recording and music production, our practical tips will help you find the right music production software and record your electric bass, electric guitar and electric piano.
Latest videos
If you have analog effects devices, you need either an analog or a digital mixer.
If you have a good, analog mixer, your sound card may only need one unbalanced stereo input and output.
If you mainly make digital music and record little vocals or instruments, a simple sound card without a mixer is sufficient.
Can your speakers receive the audio signals symmetrically (top left) or unbalanced (bottom left), or even digitally via S / PDIF? Then your sound card output or possibly the mixer behind it should have the corresponding output.
Do you have digital audio devices with special connections, such as MADI, BNC or ADAT
you can hardly get around a desktop PC. Install the required interface here.
Before doing so, consider whether you actually need all the connections. Sometimes, like here, you only need either BNC word clock or AES / EBU or S / PDIF.
