Even if you opt to plug in external speakers or headphones, it’s important to listen to your track through as many different audio systems as possible to see how your frequency spectrum is represented in different setups. Naturally, having good speakers is a must. To ensure you don’t run out of capacity, you’ll want at least 512GB, but if you can stretch to 1TB, you’ll be thankful for the extra wiggle room. We’d recommend pairing this with a large SSD to give you plenty of storage space for your audio tracks - especially uncompressed ones. This is because, as with most creative pursuits, the necessary software for music recording and production can be very demanding - especially for multi-track songs. The best laptops for music production need to be powerful with a multi-core processor and plenty of RAM. How should I choose the best laptop for music production?

Check out our full Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (opens in new tab) review for more details. The lack of ports means you might have to get a dock to accompany it, though. Speakers are more than serviceable too, which is a definite plus here. For music production, which can be resource-demanding, we recommend the more powerful Ryzen processor, but even the base spec will handily take care of any light-to-medium musical tasks. There is an option of 13.5 or 15-inch screens, along with customisable RAM and storage depending on which processor you choose. It’s been superseded by the upgraded Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio, which sports increased performance, but the Surface Laptop 4, one of the best laptops for writers as well, is still highly capable for music production, and offers a great budget alternative to the Studio. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 isn’t revolutionary in any single way, but what it does it does without fuss and with surprisingly strong performance. Read our full MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review for further details. It doesn't offer a huge amount of ports, however, so you'll probably need to invest in a dock. This means it's silent when in use, which is a huge bonus if you're recording via microphones. It's significantly cheaper than the MacBook Pro 14 above, and even many Windows-based alternatives, but still offers a stylish thin and light design and excellent performance thanks to its M1 chip.Īnd the fact that it's two years old and that Apple has just released a new 2022 M2 MacBook Air means that prices have got even better, with retailers more often offering discounts – and don't let its age put you off in this case this is still a fantastic laptop for music production, and can run any application the more expensive MacBook Pro can.Īnother benefit is that the MacBook Air is fanless. While Apple may not be the first company you think of when you read the word 'value', but 2020 MacBook Air actually offers fantastic value for money for music producers.

Macbook pro home studio setup