Best Laptops for Music Production in 2022 (from the Reason Studios blog)

[Kilsane]

https://reasonstudios.com/blog/best-lap ... roduction/

[jam-s]

Fixed it for them:

"...But Apple has drawn up a high wall of exclusivity around its products. Due to this, third-party application compatibility suffers a lot. This is aggravated even more with the development of the M1 chip. Many third-party developers haven’t made the transition yet and are not able to offer native support. Ableton and Akai are all caught up but brands like Pro Tools AND REASON are yet to make the M1 leap."



Apart from this the article it pretty much general knowledge if you're interested in current hardware development. They could have gone much more into detail on how latency, chipset and power settings affect performance.

[joeyluck]

Fixed it for them:

"...But Apple has drawn up a high wall of exclusivity around its products. Due to this, third-party application compatibility suffers a lot. This is aggravated even more with the development of the M1 chip. Many third-party developers haven’t made the transition yet and are not able to offer native support. Ableton and Akai are all caught up but brands like Pro Tools AND REASON are yet to make the M1 leap."



Apart from this the article it pretty much general knowledge if you're interested in current hardware development. They could have gone much more into detail on how latency, chipset and power settings affect performance.

Yeah it reads like it wasn't written specifically for the Reason blog :shrugs:

[stratatonic]

Apart from this the article it pretty much general knowledge if you're interested in current hardware development. They could have gone much more into detail on how latency, chipset and power settings affect performance.

And instead of using the manufacturer's generic battery life claims for the laptops in the blog, try running Reason and then reporting the battery life. (But don't test and report Reaper's battery life, as you'd get twice as much battery life than using Reason. Shhhh...)

[Fusion]

Seems like they are getting paid by apple to promote the products. They do not show any real reason why the M1 Mac is better than any other.

M1 Mac when real world test have shown that the m1 Mac mini. is not as powerful as the 2018 i7 (viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7501402&start=225)

Reason , how about listening to the community and running some of the stress tests on the machines you have in the office, or the laptops you are getting paid to promote.

Would love to see Scan do some laptop DAWBench tests or even some Reason benchmarks.

[jam-s]

RS seem to have pulled the blog post, but an archived version can be found here.

[Propellerhands]

There is not best, only good enough. Same for any other DAW. Blog post itself is kinda.. poorly written, to put it bluntly. The only good advice is looking at CPU power of the laptop. It is crucial. Then RAM and SSD. Anything else is just a cherry on top.

I am not sure about XPS laptops (despite their beauty) and their thermal throtling, but in general, I think the thinner the laptop, the less consisten CPU power will be because of cooling issues. Then again, music production is not the same as gaming, but still, unless a person wants to carry the laptop everyday anywhere, I would advice to look at bigger and thicker laptops.

But that's just me, I may be wrong about throtling in thinner laptops, never tried them personally.

[Fusion]

From my research, it appears the Motherboard makes a big difference, but there is no real way to tell which one to get for Music Production. Which is why some sort of benchmarks would be useful for people creating articles like this.

I am still saving to purchase a new system to replace my MacBook Pro 2015 i7.

At the time the specs suggest that it would be one of the best laptops I could get (top spec MacBook Pro at the time) , but regretted when the previous 2012 i5 performance was not much different.

Anyone reading this who has not yet done so, please report the benchmarks viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7520702

Not sure why that thread does not have a sticky, it took me a while to find it.

[avasopht]

M1 is hard to beat.

I've got a Dell micro with a7" screen I can carry like a tablet, with a case to stand it up.

I've also got an 11", but like 4cm thick but folds open with a more solid and adjustable stand.

This gives me better portability than a laptop, believe it or not, mostly because it's easier to pack it in a rucksack with cables and stuff.

A Mac mini with a portable screen might offer you the best of both worlds (low cost, better cooling, and portable).

Dells are nice, but right now the M1 is untouchable.

[Billy+]

I wonder why RS have removed the blog article?

It was a very interesting topic especially the conclusion that Apple Silicon is better value and performance than a windows device...

Wayback Machine to the rescue Remember kids, the internet never forgets

[avasopht]

I wonder why RS have removed the blog article?

It was a very interesting topic especially the conclusion that Apple Silicon is better value and performance than a windows device...

Wayback Machine to the rescue Remember kids, the internet never forgets

Well, if they left it up ... people would complain about M1 support.

[Heater]

My M1 MacBook Air is awesome. Tons of power, super light and completely silent with a great battery life. An awesome music making machine.

[tomusurp]

I read somewhere having a high amount of cores is most crucial for music production (anything 6 and above is ideal). Then of course RAM and good processor.

Those are really the main things I look for. I feel like I made a great decision back in 2019 investing in a very strong gaming laptop by lenovo based on the specs and price at that time. It's still running well 3 years later. Even though it's only 4 cores, still absolute beast for music production.

Interestingly enough though, even though it came with RTX 2060 graphics card, the render times for advanced video editing in After Effects sucks. But everything else is great.

[Jac459]

I read somewhere having a high amount of cores is most crucial for music production (anything 6 and above is ideal). Then of course RAM and good processor.

Those are really the main things I look for. I feel like I made a great decision back in 2019 investing in a very strong gaming laptop by lenovo based on the specs and price at that time. It's still running well 3 years later. Even though it's only 4 cores, still absolute beast for music production.

Interestingly enough though, even though it came with RTX 2060 graphics card, the render times for advanced video editing in After Effects sucks. But everything else is great.

I have a razer with an rtx2080 from 2020 worth an i7 32gb. I love it because of the 15 inch oled display. I always start my songs in it because of the big screen. When the song starts to be very complex, generally when I start the mixing, I migrate to my mac book air m1 8gb. It destroys the razer in raw power...

Ultimately I think I will end up buying the m2 pro with a 16 inch screen. To me no question, it is the best choice now... a part for the price of course.

[tomusurp]

I read somewhere having a high amount of cores is most crucial for music production (anything 6 and above is ideal). Then of course RAM and good processor.

Those are really the main things I look for. I feel like I made a great decision back in 2019 investing in a very strong gaming laptop by lenovo based on the specs and price at that time. It's still running well 3 years later. Even though it's only 4 cores, still absolute beast for music production.

Interestingly enough though, even though it came with RTX 2060 graphics card, the render times for advanced video editing in After Effects sucks. But everything else is great.

I have a razer with an rtx2080 from 2020 worth an i7 32gb. I love it because of the 15 inch oled display. I always start my songs in it because of the big screen. When the song starts to be very complex, generally when I start the mixing, I migrate to my mac book air m1 8gb. It destroys the razer in raw power...

Ultimately I think I will end up buying the m2 pro with a 16 inch screen. To me no question, it is the best choice now... a part for the price of course.

by complex u mean a lot of tracks and plugins? i mean i do the full production and engineering all in reason, and typically the beat averages around 12-15 tracks, vocals usually 4-5 tracks so a total of around 18 tracks and a GOOD amount of plugins, both RE and VST. tbh has been running smooth as silk when i have max performance on and hyperthreading off (don't know if that helps reason's performance, but i read somewhere that it does), so far as of late i haven't had to increase buffer size either as opposed to lower battery performance

that's cool to hear that u find macbook stronger and even if it's lower RAM. perhaps there's something to that. i've made a bunch beats on a friends 2018 macair before. if i recall correctly plugins loaded quite quickly and no problems

[Jac459]

I have a razer with an rtx2080 from 2020 worth an i7 32gb. I love it because of the 15 inch oled display. I always start my songs in it because of the big screen. When the song starts to be very complex, generally when I start the mixing, I migrate to my mac book air m1 8gb. It destroys the razer in raw power...

Ultimately I think I will end up buying the m2 pro with a 16 inch screen. To me no question, it is the best choice now... a part for the price of course.

by complex u mean a lot of tracks and plugins? i mean i do the full production and engineering all in reason, and typically the beat averages around 12-15 tracks, vocals usually 4-5 tracks so a total of around 18 tracks and a GOOD amount of plugins, both RE and VST. tbh has been running smooth as silk when i have max performance on and hyperthreading off (don't know if that helps reason's performance, but i read somewhere that it does), so far as of late i haven't had to increase buffer size either as opposed to lower battery performance

that's cool to hear that u find macbook stronger and even if it's lower RAM. perhaps there's something to that. i've made a bunch beats on a friends 2018 macair before. if i recall correctly plugins loaded quite quickly and no problems

Well, I am sure you have a great experience, and I also have with the razer. I tend to have a lot of side chaining on complex effects and I use a lot of complex vst3s (I am on bitwig + rrp).

I am also doing the mixing and mastering on the same projects which is generally not smart performance wise.

Just saying the future is on apple chip these days. Not a fan of apple at all, but that's the facts...

[tomusurp]

by complex u mean a lot of tracks and plugins? i mean i do the full production and engineering all in reason, and typically the beat averages around 12-15 tracks, vocals usually 4-5 tracks so a total of around 18 tracks and a GOOD amount of plugins, both RE and VST. tbh has been running smooth as silk when i have max performance on and hyperthreading off (don't know if that helps reason's performance, but i read somewhere that it does), so far as of late i haven't had to increase buffer size either as opposed to lower battery performance

that's cool to hear that u find macbook stronger and even if it's lower RAM. perhaps there's something to that. i've made a bunch beats on a friends 2018 macair before. if i recall correctly plugins loaded quite quickly and no problems

Well, I am sure you have a great experience, and I also have with the razer. I tend to have a lot of side chaining on complex effects and I use a lot of complex vst3s (I am on bitwig + rrp).

I am also doing the mixing and mastering on the same projects which is generally not smart performance wise.

Just saying the future is on apple chip these days. Not a fan of apple at all, but that's the facts...

What do u mean by complex, like an example or link if u don’t mind? I’m really technical about this stuff haha

And ur saying it’s better to export stems into a new project for mastering? I think it’s only necessary if the pc literally can’t handle the project at the highest buffer

[Mattvank]

Hello,

I work on a Laptop with a I5 6200u. I´ satisfied with the power and cpu but could imagine that meanwhile compareable modern Laptops with much less power consumption anre out there. After what should i look for?

[Jac459]

What do u mean by complex, like an example or link if u don’t mind? I’m really technical about this stuff haha

And ur saying it’s better to export stems into a new project for mastering? I think it’s only necessary if the pc literally can’t handle the project at the highest buffer

I mean complex for the cpu. It is generally in bitwig, I will use their envelop follower (audio sidechain) to control another effect or parameter of a vst, multiple by channel,to filter, modulate the reverb, etc..
Then I am using the spectral effects of bitwig. So nothing fancy but quite heavy on cpu.

I don't find exporting the stem is better. But some people prefere that in their workflow to gave really separate steps. It is all a question of taste I guess

[Jac459]

Hello,

I work on a Laptop with a I5 6200u. I´ satisfied with the power and cpu but could imagine that meanwhile compareable modern Laptops with much less power consumption anre out there. After what should i look for?

I am a Windows user and not an apple fan at all... but now it is a no brainer, m1 and m2 rules the world...