PC specs for recording etc

Mattharrier · September 2021

I realise that the correct answer is "get a Mac" but while I may have the opportunity to get a new laptop in the near future, I won't be getting that wealthy.

I currently have a fairly low spec laptop running Windows 10 and the latency on Reaper is just too poor to be able to record and monitor via my very basic Behringer interface. What should I be looking for in terms of hardware to allow me to run Reaper and so on effectively?

I don't need any particular performance from the laptop in terms of video, gaming or anything like that, it will be used for occasional zoom calls, Internet browsing and remote access of my work PC on the odd occasion I need to work from home.

I just want to be able to run my guitar into my interface, record a clean track in Reaper, and then have a second track to monitor and run VSTs etc.

octatonic · September 2021

The fastest one with the most RAM and largest storage you can afford.

Pretty much any modern computer can do what you are asking.

TTony · September 2021

Must it be a laptop?

You often find s/h machines here that would do the job easily.

Danny1969 · September 2021

Generally poor latency performance comes from bad drivers and / or a poor setup machine. If you set up a Windows laptop properly though then almost anything will do. I did loads of multitracking with Reaper on a Dell Latitude Core 2 duo with 2Gb ram. But it was optimised for audio in terms of good drivers for my interface and nothing unnecessary like Office fast find . iTunes updater, MS one drive etc running in the background.
That's generally why people have problems, they have too much background tasks running and that interferes with the audio, causing pops and clicks. Unfortunately they are loaded like that by the manufacturer so it takes a bit of work to strip all the crap out of the startup.

Snap · September 2021

octatonic said:

The fastest one with the most RAM and largest storage you can afford.

Pretty much any modern computer can do what you are asking.

this.

You tend to get better performance per pound out of AMD chips rather than Intel. AMD Ryzen 7 CPU with 16MB RAM will be good and will run anything you throw at it. Get a reasonably sized internal drive, say 500MD SSD and a big external hard drive (at least2 TB). Make sure your USB sockets are USB 3.0 and your external drive will run fast. Install your programs on your SSD drive and your libraries on your external. Sorted.

as Danny said, clear out all the unnecessary stuff and a spec like this will last you a long time.

have a look on Scan and PC Specialist, you can gauge the price of stuff quickly on there. Both good sites and reliable providers.

And no "get Mac" is not the correct answer! It's just a preference. Modern Macs and PCs are equally as good as each other in terms of making music.

octatonic · September 2021

Snap said:

octatonic said:

The fastest one with the most RAM and largest storage you can afford.

Pretty much any modern computer can do what you are asking.

this.

You tend to get better performance per pound out of AMD chips rather than Intel. AMD Ryzen 7 CPU with 16MB RAM will be good and will run anything you throw at it. Get a reasonably sized internal drive, say 500MD SSD and a big external hard drive (at least2 TB). Make sure your USB sockets are USB 3.0 and your external drive will run fast. Install your programs on your SSD drive and your libraries on your external. Sorted.

as Danny said, clear out all the unnecessary stuff and a spec like this will last you a long time.

have a look on Scan and PC Specialist, you can gauge the price of stuff quickly on there. Both good sites and reliable providers.

And no "get Mac" is not the correct answer! It's just a preference. Modern Macs and PCs are equally as good as each other in terms of making music.

Having both here, the PC's do require more fettling.
That may or may not be a buzzkill depending on your workflow, skill level and personality.
Macs are not 'zero maintenance' they just require less, as a rule.

[dons flame suit]

stratman3142 · September 2021

Snap said:

...have a look on Scan and PC Specialist, you can gauge the price of stuff quickly on there. Both good sites and reliable providers...

I got my desktop (with an i7 processor) from Scan a few years ago, which was from their list of Pro Audio systems and it's been excellent. I see they've got Laptop options as well.

However, my laptop is just a HP model from John Lewis with an i7 processor and (although not as capable) it's OK. It's only got 8GB of RAM as well, but I won't be running any big music libraries with that.

Personally, to err on the safe side, I think I'd go for at least an i7 processor, the AMD equivalent or above. But it appears from the posts above that others have got away with lower spec. options.

For a low spec machine, one potential solution is to use a Line 6 Toneport (I think they're called Pod Studio now) and monitor with the built in sounds when recording. I used one of those (a GX) with a super low spec netbook. I suppose one of the Helix family would be an upgrade to the Toneport.

thecolourbox · September 2021

Following this with interest as my laptop is a very annoying piece of kit, although on paper should be sufficiently spec'd, and the last few days the power lead seems to be wobbling which makes the laptop seemingly cut out because it thinks there's no power to it. Would just go for a desktop but I need the portability to sit downstairs doing stuff and I don't think there's such thing as a "laptop monitor" that I could just run off the desktop upstairs

Heartfeltdawn · September 2021

Laptop: Go Ryzen. Less DPC latency and easier to set up for audio when it comes to things like power management. I've set up six different laptops over the last year for audio and Ryzen-based laptops (2 out of the 6) were streets ahead of anything Intel-based for ease of rigging up.

Interface: Native Instruments KA2, Focusrite Scarlett, Steinberg UR22.

Cake: I'm favouring lemon drizzle right now.

Snap said:
have a look on Scan and PC Specialist, you can gauge the price of stuff quickly on there. Both good sites and reliable providers.

PC Specialist is very short of stock at the minute. The only laptops with AMD in at the minute offering the R9 5900HX. Glad I ordered my R7 laptop at the start of the year anticipating greater shortages this year.

Mattharrier · September 2021

Snap said:

And no "get Mac" is not the correct answer! It's just a preference. Modern Macs and PCs are equally as good as each other in terms of making music.

That bit was actually a joke, although I expected more people to say it!

I don't have my current laptop, my wife is using it until she gets a new one, but it does have a Ryzen processor. I'll check the specs later and post them, could someone let me know if it could be bullied into working? My IT skills are limited but I can generally follow instructions!

Heartfeltdawn · September 2021

Mattharrier said:
That bit was actually a joke, although I expected more people to say it!

I don't have my current laptop, my wife is using it until she gets a new one, but it does have a Ryzen processor. I'll check the specs later and post them, could someone let me know if it could be bullied into working? My IT skills are limited but I can generally follow instructions!

Sure. Once she gets a new one, the best thing would be to take your laptop, stick any documents and files you want into a USB stick/external drive/cloud service etc, and then delete everything on there. Start afresh, reinstall Windows 10, and work your way through it slowly in terms of the tweaks.

Current W10 build is very good when it comes to latency.

Stratavarious · September 2021

Check the interface.. if it is the cheapest behringer.. a band mate had no end of latency issues. It did not even have a dedicated driver and used an open source one.

I have decade old computers working fine with Reaper.

Legionreturns · September 2021

I have a Ryzen 9 3900X system with twin M.2 SSD drives, 32GB ram and a top of the line GFX card. I also have a very old, i7 laptop with 8GB ram and a 256GB SSD drive.

Both run Studio 1 v5 Pro with no issues at all.

Any difference between them is in post production like rendering finished files.

Any current windows machine, if set up right, will do the job just fine.

Mattharrier · September 2021

Stratavarious said:

Check the interface.. if it is the cheapest behringer.. a band mate had no end of latency issues. It did not even have a dedicated driver and used an open source one.

I have decade old computers working fine with Reaper.

I think this is part of the problem - it uses ASIO, not a specific driver.

Ryzen 3 3200 2.6GHz processor, 8GB RAM. This should be OK? But get a better interface - any recommendations on the cheapest that will do the job - 2 channel will do.

Musicwolf · September 2021

Mattharrier said:

I think this is part of the problem - it uses ASIO, not a specific driver.

ASIO is a protocol (Audio Stream Input / Output) and this is what is needed by your DAW for low latency. I suspect that the Behringer uses a generic ASIO4all driver meaning that it isn't optimised.

If you want to monitor through the DAW so that you can use plug-ins / VSTs during tracking then you need a good Audio Interface / Driver combined with a low buffer value. Having more RAM allows you to run more VSTs withot causing glitches.

Disc write speed allows you to record more or less tracks simultaneously (playback isn't an issue).

If you can manage without using VSTs during tracking then many Audio Interfaces have a Direct Monitoring feature whereby you monitor the signal before it enters the DAW. This is great if you are using something like a hardware Helix or similar but no good if you are using the Native version.

stratman3142 · September 2021

Mattharrier said:

Stratavarious said:

Check the interface.. if it is the cheapest behringer.. a band mate had no end of latency issues. It did not even have a dedicated driver and used an open source one.

I have decade old computers working fine with Reaper.

I think this is part of the problem - it uses ASIO, not a specific driver.

Ryzen 3 3200 2.6GHz processor, 8GB RAM. This should be OK? But get a better interface - any recommendations on the cheapest that will do the job - 2 channel will do.

It should use ASIO but (at least in my case) I see the name of the interface mixed in with the word ASIO, I'm not sure if that's always the case. There's a drop down list in Reaper Preferences>Audio>Device. Do any mention ASIO along with the name of your interface?

On the face of it your laptop CPU spec isn't massively different to mine.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7500U-vs-AMD-Ryzen-3-3200U/m171274vsm771805

Just double checking: When you say the latency isn't low enough, what is the exact nature of the problem. Have you tried lowing the buffer size to see what you can get before the onset of pops and clicks?

digitalscream · September 2021

Be warned - with AMD Ryzen 3x00 and 5x00 CPUs, you must have fast RAM to get to low latency while running plugins (eg Helix Native, or other amp sims).

That means a minimum of 3200MHz RAM, if not 3600MHz.

Intel CPUs don't really suffer from this problem, but equally...they're not as fast (generally).

Drew and I did some testing on it a year or so ago. Basically, I upgraded from an i7-6700 to a Zen2 Ryzen 7 (a vastly superior CPU), and I could no longer record at 96kHz/24-bit with acceptable latency without pops and clicks. I ended up having to replace all of my RAM in order to get there.

Snap · September 2021

Mattharrier said:

Snap said:

And no "get Mac" is not the correct answer! It's just a preference. Modern Macs and PCs are equally as good as each other in terms of making music.

That bit was actually a joke, although I expected more people to say it!

I don't have my current laptop, my wife is using it until she gets a new one, but it does have a Ryzen processor. I'll check the specs later and post them, could someone let me know if it could be bullied into working? My IT skills are limited but I can generally follow instructions!

ha, yeah I know it was a joke mate. Tbh, I think in here, most people know that there isn't a right or wrong, but it is all about preference.

I've always used PC, right from 1992. It's what I know and understand. I have a Mac Mini as well, which is running a mac os prototype of Cakewalk/Sonar. I don't really like the Mac OS, but that's probably down to familiarity more than anything else. What I do like about Macs is that they truly are turn on, plug and play with very little fannying about.

However, Windows 10 has addressed a lot of that and for me it runs very well. Also, I've found that PC reliability has been transformed in recent years.

If you want a laptop that will last forever and be fantastic to work with, get a Dell XPS. It will cost a bit, but they are superb. I've had one running for 4.5 years now and its like new.

Mattharrier · September 2021

So to answer the various questions:

The driver is ASIO4ALL, yes, it's not a specific one to my interface, or to Behringer or any other manufacturer. On the drop down in Reaper, it doesn't mention the interface on any of the options.

I can monitor the input from my amp via the direct monitoring on the interface, but this means I need to play a completely clean signal, which I can then add effects to later in Reaper, or use my amp's drive channel/pedals etc, and not have a clean signal I can then mess around with. Ideally I'd like to be able to record clean on one Reaper channel, and then monitor with effects on a second channel.

The issue with the latency is that there is a good half second of delay between picking a note and hearing the note. If I adjust the latency down, I get a lot of pops and clicks long before the delay goes, and if I adjust down further I get a fast repeated sound and the screen starts to "flash."

I have no idea of the speed of my RAM, I presume I can look that up in the system information?

Musicwolf · September 2021

What is your buffer size set to?

In Reaper I think that this is Options > Preferences > Audio > Devices then hit the ASIO Configuration button. You need to experiment to find the lowest buffer size which doesn't result in pops / dropouts during recording.

Mattharrier · September 2021

Buffer size is set to 8x200 samples, latency 36ms when Waveout is selected, which is what it seems to default to. Various different buffer rates on the different audio system options (DirectSound, WDM Kernelstreaming), no buffer setting showing when I select ASIO. To be honest, I had such a nightmare with it all that I haven't tried to record anything for a while so I have no idea if that works or is problematic! I think that is what it was before I tried to change it though.

My RAM is 2400mhz, can this be upgraded by simply swapping for faster RAM, or is it not that simple?

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