What is the best cpu and amount of ram for music production?

Question

what is the best speed/type of processor (i use windows) and amount of ram needed for flawless music production, ie best to minimise latency and cracking up when playing back tracks that are recorded

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

The best? Well, that would simply be the best chip and most RAM you can get. I'd say any Core 2 Duo above 2.0 Ghz and 2GB of RAM would suit you just fine. I have something similar and I do RT video editing and audio production just fine with no latency issues at all and I'm on a laptop. If you still experience latency then you may want to direct your attention at getting better software to help you with your work.

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Asker's Comment:

ok

Answer 2

For every MHz of CPU speed, there should be a matching one MB of RAM and one MHz of bus speed. So starts the first lesson in computer engineering.

In today's computers, video and audio processing have seperate CPUs and memories. If they can be added to the CPU power and their memories be added to the main RAM, the bottle neck is the bus speed. So look for the right combination.

Added to this, your hard disk should be, well, relevantly fast enough.

If all this seems too much of work for you, look at some configurations of Alienware and rig up your own computer or buy from Alienware itself. If you are not fixated on Windows, I would have suggested you to look at Mac or SGI. Anyway, all the three are built to be good with rendering and such heavy duty work in mind. That should suit your requirement for music production as well.

Many manufacturers follow the computer engineering lesson I mentioned. It is in the book Computer Architecture: A quantitative approach by Hennessey and Patterson.

Answer 3

3.06GHz
1gb RAM

Answer 4

More RAM (4GB+) and decent software and an Intel Core 2 duo or Quad Core

For best results a MacPro running Logic Studio
http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/

Macs can run Windows too.

Source(s):

Mac user

Answer 5

MAX RAM YR COMPUTER ALLOWS - YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH RAM FOR AUDIO/APPLICATIONS - THOSE ARE MEMORY INTENSIVE APPLICATIONS - REAL MEMORY HOGS
best cpu is always newest top-of the line one - changes abt every 6 months - intel - that is xeon processor newest one - new one code named xeon penryn will be on the market real soon - next months or in december latest

Answer 6

depends on how much quality are you looking for.
like TOP OF THE LINE PRO equipment will be like 4 gigs of ram and 2.5 + ghz or processing power. but for normal people anything a little shy of that would be perfectly ok