The heart of most home studios is the computer, the sacred place where we keep all our music programs and plug-ins.
Many questions from music producers are whether they just have to take an Apple Mac computer or a Windows PC.
Best studio Mac for musicians: iMac 5K When working in a studio, an iMac offers a relatively affordable means of getting reasonably high-end kit, and the large display you’ll need when working. The Mac makes up for it by providing a more conflict resistant system, so in the end, the Mac comes out being more productive. The time you save by not tweaking and troubleshooting things on the system gives you more time to work on your projects.
“MAC or PC? Which is Best for Music Production?”
The top 10 best computers for music production and recording The following list is our recommended 10 best computers for production currently in the market. We made sure to choose a wide range of types. The AKG C214 is a cost effective alternative to the popular and high-end C414 condenser mic, and a favorite pick for home studios. It utilizes the same black-plate technology that gave the original its impressive clarity and performance, but at a more accessible price point. As said earlier, having a Mac laptop for music production will be an added advantage of because of suitable pre-installed and app store apps. Lenovo Legion Y520 – Best and Cheap for Music Recording. Listed as a gaming laptop, but it will be suitable for music composing and production too. All major record labels are going to have crazy amounts of awesome musical artists recording in their studios, but Capitol Records is best known for its “echo chambers,” which are part of an underground concrete bunker designed by legendary guitarist and sound engineer Les Paul to get a better reverb sound. Best Audio Editing Software 1. Adobe Audition. Adobe’s Audition is quite easily one of the best audio editing software you can get. The app comes with some incredible features that have been honed with the many years of experience Adobe’s team has in creating powerful applications for professional users.
My answer is always: “Buy a good system” for both Apple and a (good) PC, as long as it works for you!
It is very similar when people ask me: What is the best music production software / DAW for music production? The best music production software is the one you learn and know best. Each program is good as long as you manage to master it, it is like a wild horse that needs to be tamed.
Let’s get back to our main subject…
MAC or PC?
It is known that in the 90 Apple’s MAC machine dominate the music studios. After 2000’s things have changed, so have appeared more and more computers running on Windows, perhaps because it is cheaper and easier to upgrade. Today it is hard to say which is more popular.
A good, professional studio just needs to have both a Mac and a PC. Very often it happens to work on different projects that were built in specific music programs (MAC or Windows). Many audio and video file types work perfectly on both, such as WAV, AIF, MP3, MOV, AVI, MP4, so it’s quite easy to transfer them from one to another.
Today, most PCs are very powerful and theoretically suitable for making music and recording music.
Both platforms have software that runs only on that particular system. The PC has Sonar, Sound Forge, FL Studio, Adobe Audition. The MAC has Logic, GarageBand, Peak, Soundtrack Pro.
But there’s more…
Both platforms can work with Ableton, Cubase, Nuendo, Pro Tools, Reaper, Bitwig Studio, Digital Performer and a few other. Fortunately, most (but not all) soft synths, effects plugins and soft samplers work on both platforms.
To record some audio tracks in your home, you do not have a heavy system, but you might use many VSTi and VST plugins so you need a good CPU (processor) and at least 4GM of RAM.
Each PC is a different cluster to variables, while the new iMac from Apple has a very large reserve of power for real-time processing.
Another consideration to keep in mind is that these computers generate some noise. Many desktop MACs are very quiet to work. That’s nice if you put it in the same room where you produce music. You can also get your PC silently, by placing other fans, power supplies, and enclosures.
Okay, you’re ready for a new system, but what’s it gonna be? It depends largely on your application, you will use it in a professional studio or in your home studio?
Fortunately, there are music stores (where musicians working and speaking your language) that have knowledge of computers and give this support.
There are various music stores where you will find Apple computers and there are also a few shops that sell PCs that are designed specifically for music production.
I hear you’re thinking: “Why to go in a music store?” Well let’s see:
- They will help you fit into a budget and get the best machine for your needs
- All components are matched and fully compatible
- The Operating System (OS) is properly adjusted for making music
- In some cases, you can get pre-installed music programs (freeware or paid)
- It has been tested for use in the home studio or professional studios
- Support after purchase
But what if you’re on the go? Many people choose a laptop. However, there are only a few specialized Windows laptops available for music production.
Most people on the go you usually choose Apple Macbook Pro, and there is definitely a good reason.
Also see: Best Laptop For Music Production (Buyer’s guide)
Why MAC?
Apple has always had its base in the creative industries, including music production.
Apple computers are well known for their stability, ease of use and good performance.
Today you have a wide choice of Apple models. The Mac Pro is the most used in a professional studio environment. For home studio applications, an iMac or MacBook Pro are more than enough.
There is also a wide range of dedicated audio interfaces, MAC plugins, and music making software like Logic Pro that makes Apple computer a serious candidate for your music studio.
Apple is perceived as expensive compared with the PC. Well, this is true, they don’t offer a low-end product. Apple computers are more expensive but offer a different perspective, it is just like a premium car, you get extra safety, comfort, quality materials, and exclusivity.
In the field of music production, Apple does have a big drawback. You’ll find far fewer free music software and audio plugins for MAC than for PC.
Below you have the Apple’s 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display specs:
| iMAC | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 | |
| Memory | 8GB (two 4GB) memory | |
| Storage | 1TB Fusion Drive | |
| Video | AMD Radeon R9 M390 with 2GB video memory | |
| Display | Retina 5K 5120-by-2880 P3 display | |
| Peripherals | Magic Mouse 2 | |
| Magic Keyboard | ||
| Accessory Kit | ||
| Total | $1.999 |
You can get LogicPro software already pre-installed on your iMac for $ 199. Also, if you want more memory or more storage space you have to pay extra.
Why PC?
For the PC you can get a huge amount of free VST instruments and other cool freeware plugins and software.
PC computers are more flexible and can keep up with your budget. For example, you can build a PC yourself ordering different components from different manufacturers.
If you need extra space, you can simply add a new hardware disk for that. This can happen if you want to store very large sample libraries such as Symphony Series (44 GB), MAXIMO by Sonokinetic (36,3 GB), CINEMORPHX by Sample Logic (30 GB) and more.
Film scoring music composers make the example, they need huge storage space for their sample libraries.
For those with home studios, I recommend this approach. With a little more generous budget you can get a PC computer that will be perfect for both music production and other media applications or even for video games.
A powerful PC desktop can become the center of your musical production but also can be your center of entertainment. The comfort of your home allows this and you should take advantage.
Here is a setup for music production, audio recording and editing and even for 3D graphics, photo editing or gaming that you can build with less than $1000 (excluding peripherals)!
This configuration will handle any music software (DAW), any audio plugins including virtual instruments, software synthesizers, multiple effects on the main mix or individual tracks, soft samplers, and so much more.
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor | $229.99 |
| CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler | $66.99 |
| Motherboard | Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $145.03 |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 | $99.99 |
| Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5″ 7200RPM Internal | $49.78 |
| Video Card | MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GAMING X | $276.99 |
| Case | NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case | $66.99 |
| Power Supply | EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX | $43.89 |
| Total | $979.65 |
If you need to add a 27-inch monitor, a mouse and a keyboard, gotta fork out about another $ 300 – still below the price of Apple’s iMac.
Conclusions
Both platforms have their own advantages and disadvantages. It may depend on your budget, productivity, your customer base, digital audio workstation (DAW) choice or your own preferences.
For a stable system to use it exclusively for music production and audio recording go with the MAC. MACs just aren’t competing in certain markets such as gaming computers.
If you had to choose for a home studio, where you can carry on other activities besides production, then choose the PC, it’s more flexible and more upgradeable. Microsoft’s new Windows 10 is more stable and secured compared to previous versions, so why not?!
What? My opinion? As I said: buy both! 🙂
Do not forget that besides the computer and the music software you’ll need a good audio interface, a pair of quality audio monitors and a MIDI controller, at least for the beginning.
Also see: Essential Music Production Equipment
I was visiting London a few weeks ago and on a slow day decided to do the Beatles walking tour (which was inevitably called the “Magical Mystery Tour”). The tour of course ended at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in northwest London, and I got to see no fewer than six tourists nearly get killed stepping directly into oncoming traffic while trying to catch the iconic crosswalk photo.
Modern music fans usually don’t listen to music live, unlike our ancestors, who listened to live music exclusively. As I stood outside Abbey Road Studios and watched a 16-year-old Colombian girl weep at the site where the likes of “Golden Slumbers,” “A Day in the Life,” and “All You Need Is Love” were recorded, I realized that a musical tour of the world — a tour of the songs that moved you to tears, or helped you through a hard time, or amped you up for a big moment — would actually be a tour of the studios, these often nondescript buildings that are typically hidden in plain sight in our cities. Here are some of the world’s greatest studios.
Abbey Road Studios
The studio itself doesn’t stand out particularly from the rest of the buildings around it, and it sits in a fairly quiet posh northwestern London suburb. If it weren’t for the tourists crowding the crosswalk and the Beatles-related graffiti covering its outer gate, one might pass and never notice it. The most famous image of Abbey Road is of course the crosswalk right outside the studio. Vehicles in London are legally required to wait at so-called “zebra crossings” as long as you physically stay in motion, so you can take as long as you like taking your picture, as long as you move in slow motion.
Aside from most of the Beatles albums, Abbey Road (formerly EMI Studios) is also the recording site of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Duran Duran’s eponymous debut album (1981), parts of Radiohead’s The Bends (1995) and OK Computer (1997), and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way (2011).
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The Dungeon
The Dungeon is probably better known for the hip-hop collective that was born out of it, the Dungeon Family. The Dungeon itself was a studio in producer Rico Wade’s mother’s basement in Atlanta, Georgia, but the collective has included some of the greatest hip-hop acts of the South and, consequently, of all time.
At the top left is the only picture I’ve been able to find of the Dungeon — pictured in it are the Dungeon Family and production-company founders of Organized Noize, Sleepy Brown, Ray Murray, and Rico Wade (from left to right). Probably the most famous members of the Dungeon Family are Big Boi and Andre 3000 (bottom left). Virtually all of Outkast’s albums were recorded with the Dungeon Family. It’s also the home of Gnarls Barkley, Cee-Lo Green, Bubba Sparxxx, Janelle Monae, and Future (pictured to the right with a Dungeon Family tattoo on his forearms).
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Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
Muscle Shoals may be best known for a song that wasn’t recorded at Muscle Shoals: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” One of the lines is “Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers / And they been known to pick a song or two.” Muscle Shoals was formed when a band, the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section (nicknamed the Swampers) broke away from the great FAME Studios nearby and formed their own. While they’ve got a slightly bigger studio these days, it’s still in the tiny town of Muscle Shoals, way off the beaten path in northwestern Alabama.
Even though the original studio looked like a roadside mechanic’s garage, the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio would go on to record tracks for the likes of the Rolling Stones (“Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses” from Sticky Fingers in 1971), Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome” (1973), Bob Seger’s Night Moves (1976), the Black Keys’ awesome Brothers (2009, at the new studio), and, of course, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s first album (but not released till much later), Skynyrd’s First (1978).
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Trident Studios
It’s hard to understate how important London studios were to rock ‘n’ roll in the ’60s and ’70s, and high among those studios was Trident. Tucked back in an alley in London’s posh Soho neighborhood, Trident is barely noticeable from the street, and it takes a little bit of searching to even realize it’s a studio.
Relative anonymity aside, Trident Studios were responsible for the discovery of Queen and their first four albums, Queen (1973), Queen II (1974), Sheer Heart Attack (1974), and A Night at the Opera (1975), as well as James Taylor’s eponymous debut album (1968), the Rolling Stones’ Let it Bleed (1969), David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars (1972), and Lou Reed’s Transformer (1972).
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Sunset Sound Recorders
On the other side of the world, we have Sunset Sound Recorders, on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. It was originally built for recording the music to Walt Disney movies, and you can thank them for Mary Poppins, Bambi, and 101 Dalmatians, but they went on to much greater rock heights.
Probably the most famous album recorded here was the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street (1972, and pictured above), generally believed to be their best ever, but it was also the home of the Beach Boys’ best album, Pet Sounds (1966). My personal favorites, however, are Led Zeppelin’s albums Led Zeppelin II (1969) and Led Zeppelin IV (1972), both of which were partially recorded and mixed here. Other famous ones include the Doors’ The Doors (1967) and Strange Days (1967), Jet’s Get Born (2003), the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, and, of course, Macy Gray’s On How Life Is (2000).
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Headley Grange
Headley Grange is a former poorhouse in Headley, England, and it gets on this list for a single reason: its stairwell. During a recording session in the room next door, Jimmy Page was trying out the riff to “When the Levee Breaks,” when the crew started setting up John Bonham’s drum kit in the hall. He went out, start playing, and they recorded it from the stairwell. The result is one of rock’s best ever sounds. Bad Company, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, and Peter Frampton recorded here as well.
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Motown
Of course Motown is on here. Technically, the studio itself is called “Hitsville, U.S.A.” (now a museum, pictured at the bottom), but the site was also the home of Motown’s headquarters in Detroit, and as such I’m calling it Motown. It was without a doubt one of the most important recording studios of all time, and if you say the name “Motown” now, it evokes an entire genre of music put out by Berry Gordy’s Motown label.
Among the many great albums recorded at Hitsville are Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On (1971) and Let’s Get it On (1973), the Jackson 5’s debut Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5 (1969 — Ross and the Supremes are pictured at the top left with Berry Gordy), the Marvelettes’ Please Mr. Postman (1961), and Stevie Wonder’s debut, The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie (1962).
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Electric Lady Studios
Electric Lady Studios (as you’ve probably guessed) was founded by Jimi Hendrix after how much it cost him to record his epic album Electric Ladyland. Hendrix was only able to use the studio for four weeks before he died, but the studio, in New York’s Greenwich Village, is still very much in use.
We can thank Electric Lady Studios for Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy (1973) and Physical Graffiti (1975), Patti Smith’s Horses (1975) The Clash’s Combat Rock (1982), Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell (1983) Weezer’s eponymous 1995 album, Santana’s Supernatural (1999), the White Stripes’ De Stijl (2000), the Roots’ Game Theory (2006), as well as a ton of Kiss albums.
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Sun Studio
We’ve been focusing a lot on rock, so let’s just get this out of our system: Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennessee, was originally more of a blues outfit. But blues begat rock, and it begat it right in Sun Studios in the form of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash, all of whom recorded albums here.
Aside from the founders of rock, Sun Studio also recorded albums for blues greats B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, and Junior Parker. It closed for a while but then reopened in 1987, where, probably most notably, it recorded U2’s Rattle and Hum (1988).
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Studio One
It’s called “the Motown of Jamaica,” but really, it should just be called Studio One. Because Studio One is the home of reggae, and it doesn’t need the Motown qualifier.
Founded by Clement “Coxsone” Dodd (the man with the microphone) back in 1963, Studio One recorded albums for Bob Marley and the Wailers, Lee Scratch Perry, Burning Spear, and Toots and the Maytals. You’re welcome, world.
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Rolling Stones Mobile Studio
This one could get on here just for the novelty of having what’s basically a truck with a recording studio in it, but it’s actually been the site of a number of insanely good recordings. It was set up by Mick Jagger when he got sick of all the problems of using regular recording studios. They set up a studio in his home and then, so they could move it around, put a control room into this van.
We can thank the mobile studio for songs like Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” and — because it’s mobile — for the most famous live recording of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” — the one appearing on the posthumous Legend (1984). It also recorded parts of a number of Stones and Zeppelin albums, as well as Simple Minds’ 1979 debut album, Life in a Day, and live performances by Patti Smith and the Ramones.
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Capitol Studios
The home of Capitol Records, Capitol Studios gets on this list for the sheer breadth of the artists they’ve recorded here. All major record labels are going to have crazy amounts of awesome musical artists recording in their studios, but Capitol Records is best known for its “echo chambers,” which are part of an underground concrete bunker designed by legendary guitarist and sound engineer Les Paul to get a better reverb sound.
The studios are most famous for being the place where Frank Sinatra did a lot of his recordings — his microphone is still here, and the band Bastille recently recorded on it — as well as being a home to Nat King Cole and the Beach Boys. But it wasn’t just older music: Oasis, Daft Punk, Aaliyah, Outkast, and fun. have all recorded here.
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Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Black Ark
Easily the most fascinating studio on this list is Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Black Ark Studio in Kingston, Jamaica. While not quite as mainstream, and definitely more low-tech than nearby Studio One, the Black Ark was known for Perry’s innovative producing techniques, and also for his incredibly strange behavior. He was known for blowing ganja smoke into the tape decks, burying tapes, and spraying the unprotected tapes with blood, urine, and whiskey to “bless” them. Eventually, after a few rough years of being extorted by gangsters, Perry covered the entire building in magic-marker drawings and then burned it to the ground to get rid of ‘bad spirits.’ Other than producing many of Perry’s own records (and basically inventing the ‘dub’ genre), Black Ark gave us recordings from Bob Marley, Paul McCartney and Wings, the Clash, and Junior Murvin.
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Hans Zimmer’s Music Lair
You may not have heard of Hans Zimmer, but you’ve definitely listened to him. Zimmer is the German composer known for writing the scores to movies like Gladiator, The Dark Knight, Inception, and The Lion King. I’ve always been a fan of his music — try listening to The Dark Knight when you’re trying to get some work done, it’s second only to Daft Punk’s Alive — but I never knew he had an awesome pad like this. It looks like what I imagined Hogwarts looking like. Yes, those are skull lamps, and those aren’t bookshelves in the back — that’s a synthesizer.
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Chase Park Transduction
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Athens, Georgia, has become synonymous with awesome music, and one of its most prolific studios is Chase Park Transduction. It’s recorded the granddaddy of Athens rock bands, REM, as well as acts like Bright Eyes, Deerhunter, Animal Collective, and Queens of the Stone Age.
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