The Best Computer For Music Production – What's Needed And Why!
The Best Computer For Music Production – What's Needed And Why!
In this video you will learn why music production is so demanding on your computer. Not all CPU’s are well suited for music production, and in this video you’ll learn why that is. We’re also going to be building a brand new computer from scratch, and I’ll show you all the parts that goes into it and why.
If you’re on the hunt for a new computer for music production then check out the parts list below.
First part half of the video: – Why audio procesing is so demanding on your system, and what CPU’s to get.
Second half of the video: – The actual PC build
Here’s the complete shopping list for all the parts that went into this build, as well as sound card, monitors etc that I use in my studio:
☑️ Case: https://amzn.to/32Ng24J
☑️ Power Supply: https://amzn.to/39DFPB4
☑️ Main board: https://amzn.to/2Km1rqC
☑️ CPU: https://amzn.to/2Xfkloj
☑️ CPU Cooler: https://amzn.to/2XnJm0N
☑️ RAM: https://amzn.to/2KmgTTt
☑️ SSD: https://amzn.to/2NMXihn
☑️ Video Card (Optional): https://amzn.to/372TQa5
☑️ Case fan: https://amzn.to/2NO7VAs
☑️ Mouse: https://amzn.to/34XIYbN
☑️ Keyboard: https://amzn.to/2OcUBoh
☑️ Screen: https://amzn.to/33MGk8l
☑️ Studio monitors: https://amzn.to/2oVMF29
☑️ XLR Cables: https://amzn.to/33CKNKq
☑️ Headphones: https://amzn.to/32J0C1d
☑️ Audio interface: https://amzn.to/3a34yOj
⚠️ Audio Interface (Budget option): https://amzn.to/34gvwz0
Here’s the AMD equivalent with the new Ryzen CPU’s (Just replace motherboard and CPU):
☑️ Main board: https://amzn.to/2qUZN8E
☑️ Ryzen 3900X CPU: https://amzn.to/32GVKd6
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✔️ Buy the boxed version of FL Studio today:
https://amzn.to/34hjLZi
✔️ VST & Effect plugins:
https://pluginboutique.com/?a_aid=5d496680b59cd
✔️ Premium loops and sample packs:
https://www.loopmasters.com/?a_aid=5d496680b59cd
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Compare CPU’s:
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8700K-vs-Group-/3937vs10
Passmark Benchmark: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/
How to get better CPU performance in FL Studio:
Reduced CPU usage in new version of FL Studio:
Check out my mixing and mastering tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL73IwwBy5M&list=PLHXwArmcoXThzspl4cn9e2rqbxyFWrC7q
FL Studio tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7SDWpSk1h4&list=PLHXwArmcoXTgTCt1bJ6od7CdADqTD35kw
FL Studio quick tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZrWXVD-6XU&list=PLHXwArmcoXTgmxg_XWVnwG6Vtk1Wdivy2
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Is the Asus ROG MAXIMUS XI HERO great for music production? (even though it’s a gaming tower).
Just wanted to come back and thank you for this video and all other videos you’ve been posting since the beginning. Been a supporter since day one and I have recently bought and built my first good PC. This video especially helped me in choosing the right and most suitable parts : )
Hello FireWalk!
This is Raymond.
I am going to record my own albums plus compose music to Indie film production projects for clients.
I will download my Cubase 10.5 into an external Hard Drive from LaCie 32TB https://www.newegg.com/p/2WA-0009-000X9
Below this is the APEXX T4 that I am purchasing from boxxTech!
Processor(s) AMD RYZEN THREADRIPPER 3970X Processor (3.70GHz) 32 Core
System Memory 64GB DDR4-3200 MHz (4 – 16GB DIMMS)
Media Bay Blu-Ray RW Drive
M.2 Storage 2.0TB SSD NVMe/PCIe 4.0 M.2 Drive – Extend Lead Time
Expansion Card Slot(s) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080TI 11GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Professional Workstation Edition 64-Bit (4 Core+)
Keyboard USB Keyboard
Mouse Logitech M100 Corded Mouse
BOXX T-Shirt Boxx T Shirt
System Warranty BOXX Premium Support 1 Year (Years 2 and 3 Standard) – US and Canada Only
Thanks so much for your advice. I really need to know if this is enough power for my music production projects for film composing
I would like to add 3 points: Smart Disable (FL Studio), ASIO drivers and priority tracks (Atari Cubase).
FL Studio users can use the Smart Disable setting to save CPU time. You set this up in the Audio settings first and then in the drop down menu of every plugin (synths, processors, …) you enable Smart Disable for that instance.
This saves a lot of CPU time on CPU heavy plugins when they are idle. Sometimes it doesn’t work 100%, like with the Raum VST (reverb tails are cut to early), but you can turn the option off when you are going to render the project. 🙂
Good ASIO drivers for your dedicated external audio device are a must
too. Wrong drivers and internal onboard units will use CPU time to
compute, where good external devices with good drivers can make their
hardware do the maths for your DAW.
I know there are still quite a lot of Atari Cubase lovers around, so
yeah, this still can be useful to someone… 😉 Atari Cubase users
should not forget that the first two MIDI tracks are "priority" tracks.
You should place time critical MIDI tracks like drum parts in here.
I heavily recommend undervolting CPUs, it’s totally safe and you can get better Turbo Boost behavior and reduce power and temps. This is also amazing for laptops.
I always prefer undervolting over overclocking, the latter is not safe and you can damage your system.
Can someone explain the importance of an external sound card? Many of the newer high end boards have excellent capacitors for internal audio via the mobo + optical ports if need be
Very helpful video ! And what an awesome, banging trance track, here be the link: https://youtu.be/9xsVnwsk4U0
Would a ryzen 7 3700X be suitable for heavy symphonic metal compositions?
This may be a dumb question but what about a disc drive?
Dont use Userbenchmark. Those guys get paid by Intel.
AMD Ryzen 9 3950x VS Intel Core i9-10900K
AMD Ryzen 9 3900x VS Intel Core i9-9900K
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x VS Intel Core i7-9700K
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 VS Intel Core i7-8700K
Which one would offer the lowest latency?
I’m getting a ryzen 7 3700x and a 2070 super PC with 32 gb of ram for music production/games anybody got a better option that would suit games/music production?
Hello sir, I didn’t know where to message you directly about a question I had. There was some review on amazon telling us people not too buy the Maximus RoG motherboard with the i9 as it doesn’t use the i9 full potential. Do you happen to know anything about this or what he meant? Also, I was thinking about upgrading my GPU to that of a 2060/ect. Was wondering if there was anything certain I should know about besides power cable needed. Thank you!
@Firewalk Concerning O/S for a 2013 Laptop ! So in your opinion is Win 8.1 Pro or Win 10 Pro best for Music Production on a 2013 HP Probook 4540s Intel Core i7 3720 Quad Core 2.6 Ghz 8 Gig Memory 2TB HDD i7 ? Speedwise they are about the same BUT Every time I try Win 10 I’m forever being plagued by OCD Security features that just refuse to stay off whereas Win 8.1 I can just terminate the security period. Your thoughts ? DAWS, Presonus Studio One Professional, FL Studio, Mixcraft 8.1 and Tascam Audio interface Oxygen 25 Midi Acoustic and Vocals NON professional just starting out to try and master the fine arts of producing my own music. Your Thoughts on Win 8.1 vs 10 on an older laptop. PS, can’t put 16 gig Ram on 4540s apparently but I do have an HP PAVILION 17 quad core of about the same era. I’ve got all Windows O/S ! Gratitude ✌️🙃
Yes. This was exactly what I needed, someone to just tell me what matters and not. thank you so so much! <3
Thank you. Great production also. Here’s is a discussion on the subject of music production and Threadripper processors https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/9jnyjn/anyone_using_threadripper_or_highend_ryzen_for/
Audio driver of your audio interface can interfere on the performance to.If you don’t have a stable drive of your audio interface a super computer don’t help you anymore
I noticed something, when you put a lot of effects on one mixer track, you start to notice a single thread bottleneck in the computer and there is a bigger gap between the CPU meter in FL Studio compared to Windows 10.
It seems that the best way to optimize the CPU usage is avoiding a lot of effects on a single channel. Sidechaining can reduce the singlethread bottleneck, i made a very synth heavy musical piece but i did sidechaining and reduced the gap between FL Studio’s CPU meter and Windows 10.
I’m using an old laptop with an i7 4700MQ (6 years old at this point for 2020), this CPU is still a beast from a value/perfomance perspective. I also have 16GB.
I like synthesizers a lot, specially using Zebra 2, so that i7 is a quadcore but with very good single thread perfomance maybe superior to 3rd gen Ryzen from the U series on the mobile segment.
Max temp is 85 °C when the CPU usage is 100% for all cores but basically no thermal throttling overall, always at 3.2-3.1 Ghz for all cores, without fan noise, amazing laptop and is very old at this point.
I also use it for very light gaming and console emulation.
nicely done and thankyou but my criticism is your style is too sales pitchy… its like something off one of those advertisement channels. perhaps ditch the jingle music for either none at all or something more tasteful and sales rhythm/tone to a more human one that is more down to earth. im not trying to shit talk you by the way, just think this would help you progress from my perspective as a viewer. 🙂
so multi thread processing is different than multi core processing? that’s why you choose to prefer single core processing number is higher?
Thanks so much! I was ecstatic when I saw you make trance. Awesome!!
Let me say that your statement about parallel processing not being used in music production is speculative.
A signal path is processed sequentially, that is accurate; but that does not mean that you run everything out of a single core. Each core on modern DAW can be used to perform those actions; and chained together.
Not to disappoint but most of the operations performed by computers are sequential, even with multitasking, since you have 1 set of bank rams, so that is shared among all the cores. In short, you rely on multiple cores and their L1 and L2 cache, to perform multiple operations, and then "join them" again, so the flow and order is maintained. This is why it is so complex to program and code multi-threaded systems: not only you need to put the operations in the right order, but you also need to join them together once you split them.
Most DAW these days are multi-core based, means that they can process at the "same time" multiple signals, and keep them in order, so the synth play before the effect, the EQ after the effect and so on.
To follow the pizza example: a multi core CPU can prepare the dough, the sauce, the ingredients, and one core get the results of all of those operations, put together the pizza and place it in the oven to cook. So yes, you can use multicore for music production
SSD is very fast for data transfer but why do EIDE drives sound better? I have not figured that one out yet, though I think it may be because we can get higher gauge wire with EIDE connection? Certainly more options.
This has been an incredibly helpful video. Thank you
Came for the info, stayed and subscribed for that banging project you have going on as a real world performance test!
Here’s a complete list with amazon links to all components I’ve used to build the computer in this video, including sound card, studio monitors etc.
☑️ Case: https://amzn.to/32Ng24J
☑️ Power Supply: https://amzn.to/39DFPB4
☑️ Main board: https://amzn.to/2Km1rqC
☑️ CPU: https://amzn.to/2Xfkloj
☑️ CPU Cooler: https://amzn.to/2XnJm0N
☑️ RAM: https://amzn.to/2KmgTTt
☑️ SSD: https://amzn.to/2NMXihn
☑️ Video Card (Optional): https://amzn.to/372TQa5
☑️ Case fan: https://amzn.to/2NO7VAs
☑️ Mouse: https://amzn.to/34XIYbN
☑️ Keyboard: https://amzn.to/2OcUBoh
☑️ Screen: https://amzn.to/33MGk8l
☑️ Studio monitors: https://amzn.to/2oVMF29
☑️ XLR Cables: https://amzn.to/33CKNKq
☑️ Headphones: https://amzn.to/32J0C1d
☑️ Audio interface: https://amzn.to/3a34yOj
⚠️ Audio Interface (Budget option): https://amzn.to/34gvwz0
Here’s the AMD equivalent with the new Ryzen CPU’s (Just replace motherboard and CPU):
☑️ Main board: https://amzn.to/2qUZN8E
☑️ Ryzen 3900X CPU: https://amzn.to/32GVKd6And as always: If you need help with your tracks (feedback, mixing, mastering etc) then check out my gigs on Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/firewalk
Support This Channel on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/firewalkmusic
Support us with a one-time Paypal donation:
https://www.paypal.me/firewalkmusic
Need feedback on music, mixing, mastering?
https://www.fiverr.com/firewalk
At 2:39 , your Task Manager shows similar load across all 16 "logical processors", as the graphs all look the same. This tells me the processing tasks are being distributed equally amongst all the "CPU cores"; doesn’t that contradict your claim of serial processing by just one of the CPU cores for music (audio) production?
Would ryzen 9 3900x be a good choice with 32 gigs of ram clocked at 3200mhz
i9 10850k or i9 10900k ? Which has a better single core performance?
So would it be better to pick a 10900k over a 10980xe? Or would the performance difference be negligible between the two?
If you are looking for a music production PC I would go with a system named the Hubble 710 from Maxferris Technology. I have one and it’s great. https://maxferris.com/shop/ols/products/hubble-710
How about a overclock video.
I came here for tits, not for some nerd talk. I hate clickbait like this.
Great video man!!
A good contestant is the Lenova V55T-15API :
In terms of processing power to money ratio you can’t go wrong.
Specs wise :
Ryzen 5 3400G
8gb RAM (easy to upgrade)
256gb of ssd
1TB hdd (may have changed 🤔)
Numerous USB ports
Windows 10 64 bit pre installed
Radeon graphics (Not really important for audio but decent).
All for the price of £405, not bad at all.
Do you still think Intel is better than AMD for music production as of now for the fact that Intel is single core?
What do you think of the ryzen 9 3900…?
you my friend, are amazing.
what laptop would you reccomend? im a mobile producer trying to figure this out?
I nit 😴
I’ve replaced my old MacBook Pro with a new one. Really happy with the purchase. I must install all my DAW and plug-ins, though.
Enabling Quad Channel Memory Seems to make a substantial impact on performance as well. If you were to double your ram (mind you, your CPU and MOBO must support Quad/Six/Eight channel memory architecture) I suspect you would see a 20% cpu load drop. Its not about having more ram in this instance, its about opening up band with for faster communication. The Next step (witch I am currently undergoing myself) is to set up a server(s) in a machine room. For Performance, Storage, And Powering multiple Instances of FL and Cubase from 3 different studio rooms. GL and keep having fun!
So whats a good pc for under 2k you can buy straight out the box and go. Needs to handle some powerhouse plugins
i fully REGRET to buy AMD anyway
His sound is like bright side
AMD vs Intel. Times changing)))
Ryzen 3 3300X (basically an i7 7700K): the best low end perfomance.
Mid range: the i5 10600k (it’s an i7 8700K).
Best high end: i9 10900K.
UFO end: Ryzen 9 3950X, Threadripper 3970X.
Thanks for sharing the info! Just in case anyone in here is a serious musician looking for other serious musicians who are collaborating on high-level projects.. I’m a member of a private music club called The Billboard 500 and they are allowing in new members. In the group there are Platinum producers, Grammy songwriters, VMA winners, A&R from major record labels and publishing companies, platinum artists, and heads of sync companies. They post real collaborations for projects and mentor once a week via live streams. There are almost 200 people from over 44 countries, but once they hit 500 members there will be no more entry for life. Again, this is only for SERIOUS and TALENTED musicians. Our goal is to change the music industry from the inside out. If you’re interested in more details you can visit – https://musicindustrycontact.lpages.co/the-billboard-500-club-application/