Best PC For Music Production 2017 Archives

   Mobility

If you’re planning to use your laptop for live recording or performing, a smaller model is usually a better choice because it’s easier to carry and takes up less space on stage. Another consideration in these applications is battery life. This isn’t important in homes or clubs where there’s an outlet nearby, but might be vital for mobile recording. Also, if you’re planning to use your laptop for a performance or to record in clubs, it’s a good idea to choose a model with a backlit keyboard.

Mac or Windows?

MacBooks are fast and reliable, yet there are some equally powerful Windows laptops, typically at more affordable prices. This choice depends mainly on two factors: your budget and which software you prefer to use. Note that professional music studios tend to use Macs, so if you plan to work in conjunction with pro studios—recording a few tracks in a large room, perhaps, or hiring a pro to mix or master your recording—a Mac might be a safer choice, although audio files from Windows machines can be transferred to Mac OS and vice-versa.

More information can be found in our PC vs Mac article ›

Processor

Music production can put a heavy load on a CPU, or processor, which is the heart of any computer. Get the best, most capable processor within your budget because it’s rarely possible to upgrade it later. The more complicated your productions, the more the CPU matters. Mixing a tune with 30 tracks, multiple sampled instruments, and lots of digital audio effects demands a powerful computer.

There are two measures of processor performance to keep in mind. One is the number of cores. Each core can process data independently, so adding cores dramatically increases processing power. A quad-core processor is the best choice for music production. The other measure is clock speed, which typically runs from about 2.4 to 4.2 GHz. The faster the better.

Typically, a more compact laptop will have a less-powerful processor, but that’s not always true.

RAM

RAM, or random-access memory, stores programs and data temporarily when your computer is on. The more complex the program, the more RAM it requires.

For music production, you need at least 8 GB and preferably 16 GB of RAM, especially if you’re working with a lot of recorded tracks and/or virtual instruments, or applying multiple effects to your tracks. Luckily, RAM is one of the more upgradeable components of a computer, but every laptop has its limits. It’s best to choose one that can accommodate at least 16 GB of RAM.

Storage: HDD or SSD?                                                                                    

Audio files take up a lot of storage space: Just one complicated tune can easily fill 1 GB. This is why it’s a good idea to have at least 1TB of available storage.

How that storage is arranged is a different issue. Your options are a conventional hard drive (HDD) that relies on one or more internal spinning discs, a solid-state drive (SSD) with no moving parts, or an external HDD, which connects to your laptop through USB.

An SSD can read and write data much faster than an HDD and it’s quieter and more reliable. However, an SSD is typically about five times as costly per GB as an HDD. One solution, if your laptop permits it, is to have a 128 or 256 GB SSD plus a 1TB HDD. This way, boot-up and loading of programs from the SSD are ultra-fast, and you have plenty of storage for music files on the HDD.

Another solution is to keep your music files—or at least your archived ones—on an external HDD. This method adds complexity, but it lets you add more storage when you need it, and it does let you opt for a smaller, slimmer computer.

Ports

To interface a laptop with microphones, instruments, and other audio gear, you’ll need an audio interface, which will connect to the laptop through a USB port. If you’re producing music directly on the laptop, you’ll also use USB to connect a keyboard, MIDI pads (for tapping out rhythms), and DJ controllers. Many music pros like to use control surfaces, which provide a physical interface much like a mixing board, instead of controlling their recording and audio mixing using a mouse.

Laptops come with at least two USB ports, but obviously you may want more, especially if you want to connect peripherals such as a wired keyboard or mouse, or an external hard drive. Any computer’s USB ports can be augmented by connecting a USB hub, but for portable users, that will be one more piece of gear to carry.

Speakers/headphone jacks

Surprisingly, these features don’t matter much in a laptop used for music production. The speakers built into laptops are very low-quality devices that are only there for situations where you have nothing else to listen through. Nothing will sound good through them, and if you try to tailor your mixes to sound good through them, the music will probably sound strange when played on good speakers. You can use the headphone jack built into the laptop, but in most laptops, the amplifier connected to the headphone jack is of low quality and may throw off the sound of your headphones a bit.

Fortunately, most audio interfaces have headphone jacks as well as connections that allow you to hook up a set of high-quality powered monitor speakers that will let you do great-sounding mixes. Because isn’t it a little crazy to invest hours in choosing the right laptop, and hundreds of hours in producing a piece of music, only to listen to it through poor-quality speakers?

Final Tracks

Once you’ve chosen the laptop, audio interface, and the DAW software that’s best for your needs, you’ll be ready to create studio-quality music productions. In fact, a lot of the music you hear on the radio is created using nothing more. All you need to add is your own creativity and imagination.

A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open Sound Control (OSC), and possibly audio and automation data for DAWs and plug-ins.^{[note 1][1]}

Overview[edit]

Modern sequencers[edit]

The advent of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) and the Atari ST home computer in the 1980s gave programmers the opportunity to design software that could more easily record and play back sequences of notes played or programmed by a musician. This software also improved on the quality of the earlier sequencers which tended to be mechanical sounding and were only able to play back notes of exactly equal duration. Software-based sequencers allowed musicians to program performances that were more expressive and more human. These new sequencers could also be used to control external synthesizers, especially rackmountedsound modules, and it was no longer necessary for each synthesizer to have its own devoted keyboard.

As the technology matured, sequencers gained more features, such as the ability to record multitrack audio. Sequencers used for audio recording are called digital audio workstations (or DAWs).

Many modern sequencers can be used to control virtual instruments implemented as software plug-ins. This allows musicians to replace expensive and cumbersome standalone synthesizers with their software equivalents.

Today the term "sequencer" is often used to describe software. However, hardware sequencers still exist. Workstation keyboards have their own proprietary built-in MIDI sequencers. Drum machines and some older synthesizers have their own step sequencer built in. There are still also standalone hardware MIDI sequencers, although the market demand for those has diminished greatly due to the greater feature set of their software counterparts.

Types of music sequencer[edit]

Music sequencers can be categorized by handling data types, such as:

Alternative subsets of audio sequencers include:

Digital audio workstation (DAW), Hard disk recorder — a class of audio software or dedicated system primarily designed to record, edit, and play back digital audio, first appeared in the late 1970s and emerging since the 1990s. After the 1990s–2000s, several DAWs for music production were integrated with music sequencer. In today, "DAW integrated with MIDI sequencer" is often simply abbreviated as "DAW", or sometimes referred as "Audio and MIDI sequencer",[7]etc. On the later usage, the term "audio sequencer" is just a synonym for the "DAW".

Loop-based music software — a class of music software for Loop-based music compositions and remix, emerging since late 1990s. Typical software included ACID Pro (1998), Ableton Live (2001), GarageBand (2004), etc. And now, several of them are referred as DAW, resulting of the expansions and/or integrations. Its core feature, pitch/time manipulation allows user to handle audio samples (loops) with the analogy of MIDI data, in several aspects; user can designate Pitches and Durations independently on short music samples, as on MIDI notes, to remix a song. This type of software really controls sequences of audio samples; thus, possibly, we can call it an "audio sequencer".

Beat slicing — before the DAW became popular, several musicians sometimes derived various beats from limited drum sample Loop by slicing beats and rearranging them on samplers. This technique was popularized with the introduction of "beat slicer" tool, especially the "ReCycle" released in 1992. Possibly it may be one origin of "audio sequencing".

Also, music sequencer can be categorized by its construction and supporting modes.

Realtime sequencer (realtime recording mode)[edit]

A realtime sequencer on the synthesizer

Realtime sequencers record the musical notes in real-time as on audio recorders, and play back musical notes with designated tempo, quantizations, and pitch. For editing, usually "punch in/punch out" features originated in the tape recording are provided, although it requires sufficient skills to obtain the desired result. For detailed editing, possibly another visual editing mode under graphical user interface may be more suitable. Anyway, this mode provides usability similar to audio recorders already familiar to musicians, and it is widely supported on software sequencers, DAWs, and built-in hardware sequencers.

Analog sequencer[edit]

Analog sequencers are typically implemented with analog electronics, and play the musical notes designated by a series of knobs or sliders corresponding to each musical note (step). It is designed for both composition and live performance; users can change the musical notes at any time without regarding recording mode. And also possibly, the time-interval between each musical note (length of each step) can be independently adjustable. Typically, analog sequencers are used to generate the repeated minimalistic phrases which may be reminiscent of Tangerine Dream, Giorgio Moroder or trance music.

Step sequencer (step recording mode)[edit]

A step rhythm sequencer on the drum machine

A step note sequencer on the bass machine

On step sequencers, musical notes are rounded into steps of equal time-intervals, and users can enter each musical note without exact timing; instead, the timing and duration of each step can be designated in several different ways:

• On the drum machines: select a trigger timing from a row of step-buttons.
• On the bass machines: select a step note (or rest) from a chromatic keypads, then select a step duration (or tie) from a group of length-buttons, sequentially.
• On the several home keyboards:in addition to the realtime sequencer, a pair of step trigger button is provided; using it, notes on the pre-recorded sequence can be triggered in arbitrary timings for the timing dedicated recordings or performances. (See List of music sequencers#Step sequencers (supported on).)

In general, step mode, along with roughly quantized semi-realtime mode, is often supported on the drum machines, bass machines and several groove machines.

Software sequencer[edit]

Software sequencer is a class of application software providing a functionality of music sequencer, and often provided as one feature of the DAW or the integrated music authoring environments. The features provided as sequencers vary widely depending on the software; even an analog sequencer can be simulated. The user may control the software sequencer either by using the graphical user interfaces or a specialized input devices, such as a MIDI controller.

History[edit]

Early sequencers[edit]

The early music sequencers were sound producing devices such as automatic musical instruments, music boxes, mechanical organs, player pianos, and Orchestrions. Player pianos, for example, had much in common with contemporary sequencers. Composers or arrangers transmitted music to piano rolls which were subsequently edited by technicians who prepared the rolls for mass duplication. Eventually consumers were able to purchase these rolls and play them back on their own player pianos.

The origin of automatic musical instruments seems remarkably old. As early as the 9th century, the Persian (Iranian) Banū Mūsā brothers invented a hydropoweredorgan using exchangeable cylinders with pins,^[8] and also an automaticflute playing machine using steam power,^[9][10] as described in their Book of Ingenious Devices. The Banu Musa brothers' automatic flute player was the first programmable music sequencer device,^[11] and the first example of repetitive music technology, powered by hydraulics.^[12]

In 1206, Al-Jazari, an Arab engineer, invented programmable musical automata,^[13][13] a "robotband" which performed "more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection."^[14] It was notably the first programmable drum machine. Among the four automaton musicians were two drummers. It was a drum machine where pegs (cams) bump into little levers that operated the percussion. The drummers could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around.^[15]

In the 14th century, rotating cylinders with pins were used to play a carillon (steam organ) in Flanders,^{[citation needed]} and at least in the 15th century, barrel organs were seen in the Netherlands.^[16]

In the late-18th or early-19th century, with technological advances of the Industrial Revolution various automatic musical instruments were invented. Some examples: music boxes, barrel organs and barrel pianos consisting of a barrel or cylinder with pins or a flat metal disc with punched holes; or mechanical organs, player pianos and orchestrions using book music / music rolls (piano rolls) with punched holes, etc. These instruments were disseminated widely as popular entertainment devices prior to the inventions of phonographs, radios, and sound films which eventually eclipsed all such home music production devices. Of them all, punched-paper-tape media had been used until the mid-20th century. The earliest programmable music synthesizers including the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer in 1957, and the Siemens Synthesizer in 1959, were also controlled via punch tapes similar to piano rolls.^[17][18][19]

Additional inventions grew out of sound film audio technology. The drawn sound technique which appeared in the late 1920s, is notable as a precursor of today's intuitive graphical user interfaces. In this technique, notes and various sound parameters are triggered by hand-drawn black ink waveforms directly upon the film substrate, hence they resemble piano rolls (or the 'strip charts' of the modern sequencers/DAWs). Drawn soundtrack was often used in early experimental electronic music, including the Variophone developed by Yevgeny Sholpo in 1930, and the Oramics designed by Daphne Oram in 1957, and so forth.

Analog sequencers[edit]

Earliest commercially available analog sequencers (bottom) on Buchla 100 (1964/1966)^[20]

Moog sequencer module (left, probably added after 1968) on Moog Modular (1964)

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.(April 2017)

During the 1940s–1960s, Raymond Scott, an American composer of electronic music, invented various kind of music sequencers for his electric compositions. The "Wall of Sound", once covered on the wall of his studio in New York during the 1940s–1950s, was an electro-mechanical sequencer to produce rhythmic patterns, consisting of stepping relays (used on dial pulsetelephone exchange), solenoids, control switches, and tone circuits with 16 individual oscillators.^[21] Later, Robert Moog would explain it in such terms as "the whole room would go 'clack - clack - clack', and the sounds would come out all over the place".^[22] The Circle Machine, developed in 1959, had dimmer bulbs arranged in a ring, and a rotating arm with photocell scanning over the ring, to generate an arbitrary waveform. Also, the rotating speed of the arm was controlled via the brightness of lights, and as a result, arbitrary rhythms were generated.^[23]

Clavivox, developed since 1952, was a kind of keyboard synthesizer with sequencer.^{[verification needed]} On its prototype, a theremin manufactured by young Robert Moog was utilized to enable portamento over 3-octave range, and on later version, it was replaced by a pair of photographic film and photocell for controlling the pitch by voltage.^[22]

In 1968 Ralph Lundsten and Leo Nilsson had a polyphonic synthesizer with sequencer called Andromatic built for them by Erkki Kurenniemi.^[24]

Step sequencers[edit]

The step sequencers played rigid patterns of notes using a grid of (usually) 16 buttons, or steps, each step being 1/16 of a measure. These patterns of notes were then chained together to form longer compositions. Sequencers of this kind are still in use, mostly built into drum machines and grooveboxes. They are monophonic by nature, although some are multi-timbral, meaning that they can control several different sounds but only play one note on each of those sounds.^{[clarification needed]}

Early computers[edit]

On the other hand, software sequencers were continuously utilized since the 1950s in the context of computer music, including computer-played music (software sequencer), computer-composed music (music synthesis), and computer sound generation (sound synthesis). In June 1951, the first computer music Colonel Bogey was played on CSIRAC, Australia's first digital computer.^[28][29] In 1956, Lejaren Hiller at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign wrote one of the earliest programs for computer music composition on ILLIAC, and collaborated on the first piece, Illiac Suite for String Quartet, with Leonard Issaction.^[30] In 1957 Max Mathews at Bell Labs wrote MUSIC, the first widely used program for sound generation, and a 17-second composition was performed by the IBM 704 computer. Subsequently, computer music was mainly researched on the expensive mainframe computers in computer centers, until the 1970s when minicomputers and then microcomputers became available in this field.

In Japan, experiments in computer music date back to 1962, when Keio University professor Sekine and Toshiba engineer Hayashi experimented with the TOSBAC computer. This resulted in a piece entitled TOSBAC Suite.^[31]

DDP-24 S Block (expansion card rack unit) that is assumed the A/D converters used for GROOVE (1970) by Max Mathews.

In 1965,^[32] Mathews and L. Rosler developed Graphic 1, an interactive graphical sound system (that implies sequencer) on which one could draw figures using a light-pen that would be converted into sound, simplifying the process of composing computer generated music.^[33][34] It used PDP-5 minicomputer for data input, and IBM 7094 mainframe computer for rendering sound. Also in 1970, Mathews and F. R. Moore developed the GROOVE (Generated Real-time Output Operations on Voltage-controlled Equipment) system,^[35] a first fully developed music synthesis system for interactive composition (that implies sequencer) and realtime performance, using 3C/HoneywellDDP-24^[36] (or DDP-224^[37]) minicomputers. It used a CRT display to simplify the management of music synthesis in realtime, 12bit D/A for realtime sound playback, an interface for analog devices, and even several controllers including a musical keyboard, knobs, and rotating joysticks to capture realtime performance.^[33][37][34]

Digital sequencers[edit]

In 1971, Electronic Music Studios (EMS) released one of the first digital sequencer products as a module of Synthi 100, and its derivation, Synthi Sequencer series.^[38][39] After then, Oberheim released the DS-2 Digital Sequencer in 1974,^[40] and Sequential Circuits released Model 800 in 1977 ^[41]

Fairlight CMI (1979) supporting MCL (sequencer)

Music workstations[edit]

In 1975, New England Digital (NED) released ABLE computer (microcomputer)^[42] as a dedicated data processing unit for Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer (1973), and based on it, later Synclavier series were developed.

The Synclavier I, released in September 1977,^[43] was one of the earliest digital music workstation product with multitrack sequencer. Synclavier series evolved throughout the late-1970s to the mid-1980s, and they also established integration of digital-audio and music-sequencer, on their Direct-to-Disk option in 1984, and later Tapeless Studio system.

In 1982, renewed the Fairlight CMI Series II and added new sequencer software "Page R", which combined step sequencing with sample playback.^[44]

Yamaha's GS-1, their first FMdigital synthesizer, was released in 1980.^[45] To program the synthesizer, Yamaha built a custom computer workstation designed to be used as a sequencer for the GS-1^{[citation needed][failed verification]}. It was only available at Yamaha's headquarters in Japan (Hamamatsu) and the United States (Buena Park).^{[citation needed]}

Standalone CV/Gate sequencers[edit]

While there were earlier microprocessor-based sequencers for digital polyphonic synthesizers,^{[note 4]} their early products tended to prefer the newer internal digital buses than the old-style analogue CV/Gate interface once used on their prototype system. Then in the early-1980s, they also re-recognized the needs of CV/Gate interface, and supported it along with MIDI as options.

In 1977, Roland Corporation released the MC-8 Microcomposer, also called