Choosing the best laptop for music production is no easy task. But it’s critical to ensure your computer is sturdy, portable & durable to efficiently run Digital Audio Workstation (DAWs) and handle multiple tracks with minimal pops and clicks.
But, is MacBook Air good for music production? Yes, MacBook Air use an Intel i7 2.2GHz dual-core processor, and its thus a powerful laptop in the music production and live music tasks due to its fast speed. You can boost the i7 up to 3.2GHz to boost performance.
- As a second choice in studio recording, audio-processing & mixing tasks, I recommend the Apple 15 inch MacBook Pro as the best laptop for music production.
1. MacBook Pro Retina Mid-2015 – My Top Pick
This MacBook Pro is also the best laptop for music production in addition to being the Top Mac. For music production, ignore MacBook Pro (13″ Retina, Touch Bar).
I do home-recording demos running 31-40 tracks and 2-5 Plugins, & 6-8 VST Instruments. This quad-core i7 MacBook Pro stopped my track freezing, and its 16GB RAM easily runs huge sample Instruments. It works with most DAWs, MIDI controllers, & audio interfaces.
Here are its qualifying features: It has Core-Audio support, quiet keyboard (forget the noisy butterfly keys – in the newer models), has pre-installed audio packages (like Garageband DAW and Logic Pro X), HDMI, FaceTime HD camera, and full-sized USB Ports (USB 2.0 & USB 3.0). Installing Logic DAW can enhance music production.
For extra memory bandwidth, the MacBook Pro comes with a 128 MB (Crystalwell) installed DRAM for your CPU. Its graphics processor (Intel Iris Pro 5200) will share memory (1 GB) with your system to allow the proper operation of its graphics. It has enough power to proved the resources to handle the symphonic synth or sample plugins – particularly when creating huge symphony-epic soundtracks.
Side Note: Factmag notes that faster MacBook Pro 2018 (processor and SSD – read & write) won’t considerably enhance your music production (despite having better specs than MacBook Pro 2015). It has overheating issues – since everyone is demanding more processing power and a very thin laptop. It has fewer USB ports – thus, you’ll want a dongle or USB-C hubs. MagSafe is gone – take care on stage.
Verdict: MacBook Pro Retina 2015 satisfies most of the music production needs – becoming the best laptops for recording music and video editing laptops. It’ll handle multiple tracks, store your enormous (high-quality) tracks, and lost tracks faster to your DAW.
2. Dell XPS 15 Geforce gtx Graphics and Touchscreen – Runner’s Up
As a windows kind of music producer, you’ love the Dell XPS 15! It merges an SSD drive and the powerful quad-core i7 processor (Intel) for fast production.
As the best windows laptop for music production, it has InfinityEdge technology, it’s durable & light (for on-the-go music making).
Compared to Apple laptops, this Dell’s XPS 15 (among the thinnest 15 inch PC) will give you comparable performance in the studio but at a lower budget.
I love it for its top performance and style while running the DAWs for music production with a lovely ease. To handle multiple tasks and tracks, it has a 16GB RAM and an 8th Generation processor (Intel Core i7), which will quickly run the XFer’s Serum.
With Dell XPS 15’s touchscreen, you can make fast adjustments on tracks or quickly shift between music timelines – while still adding records to the production workflow. I loved its Ultra HD InfinityEdge display that is bright and has thin bezels for a lighter view.
On the connection arena, Dell XPS 15 has Type-C port (Thunderbolt USB), USB 3.0 ports, and HDMI. Therefore, it’ll be easy to connect to your different music peripherals and audio gear. Also, the Nvidia graphics card (GTX 1050 Ti) will ease your gaming experience.
Verdict: Dell XPS 15’s large RAM (32 GB) and a high-speed processor (quad-core Intel Core i7) will ensure that your DAW software and music production environment runs seamlessly devoid of delays or lags. In addition to the 15-inch display, the laptop weighs about 3.9 pounds, and for durability, it comes with a carbon fiber chassis.
3. Acer Aspire E 15, 15.6″ 256GB SSD – Budget-friendly Option
Aspire E 15 is great for mixing, recording, and making music if you require budget laptops with modern hardware, a larger battery, and a dual-layer DVD burner.
Interestingly, Acer has fewer OS failures or as blue screens issues. Aspire E 15 has a mechanical hard-drive (1TB), 16GB RAM, and Core i3 – 8130U CPU. Aspire E 15’s UHD Graphics 620 and Intel Turbo 2.0 Boost will allow you to process quality graphics and streaming tasks respectively easily.
The laptop has the 2GB VRAM in its powerful graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce MX150), USB 3.1 ports, and USB 3.0 (2 in number) for fast high-speed connection through your peripherals.
It has True-Harmony audio, which provides the music producer with superior quality sound. Also, for your on-the-go production, the laptop’s battery will give about 15 hours of battery power.
4. Razer Blade Stealth 13.3″ QHD+ Touchscreen
With its thin form factor (and ultraportable too), this Razor Blade Stealth is budget-friendly and powerful for music production and DJing. It comes with 500GB SSD, 16GB RAM, and reaches 3.5 GHz speed on its Intel i7 processors.
With PCIe drives, this laptop runs on Windows 10, which will also be great for image editing software like Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop.
Interestingly, with the Razer Chroma technology, you can readily customize the lighting of the touch screen (despite being a high resolution). Luckily, the laptop is lightweight as it’s below 3 pounds, which is excellent for on-the-go/traveling music recording or mixing. Its capacitive touchscreen allows gestures and is multi-touch.
Using my Ableton Live, I quickly did Real-time audio processing from multiple digital audio streaming. Razer Blade working on Windows OS will be an excellent option for making music and DJing (with Traktor or Serato). Its touchpad has multi-finger functionality but comes with a plastic shallow click feel. Further, the Dolby Digital speakers (stereo) will send the sound up.
For your studio work, the Razor Blade Stealth comes with an HDMI 2.0 out Port, USB-C Ports (1), and USB 3.0 Ports (3). Thus it’s possible to connect your music-making accessories and gear readily. Its backlit keyboard has substantially spaced keys (and with the excellent color theme – the green-on-black).
5. Dell Inspiron 15 7000 7567 – 15.6″
Dell Inspiron 15 7000 (with a fast-response screen) comes along as this great gaming machine but it’s also amazing for music production.
It has an 8 GB RAM, Nvidia 1050 Ti GPU and Core i5-8250U processor (8th gen), which will give a budding music producer the required power.
Conclusion
Well, your best laptop for music production (to run the DAW, and multiple VST plugins or VSTi) will need to have both of a PC and a Mac.
For heavy use in music production through FL Studio laptops, get a minimum of 4 GB RAM, macOS 10.11/ Windows 7, Direct-Sound drivers in your Soundcard, SSE2 backed CPU, Pentium 4 (Intel 2GHZ ) processor.