Hi everyone,

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this or this forum is only to share physicall considerations buildin a recording studio. In my case I need advise about my laptop hardware posibilities and DAW selection. If this corresponds to another forum please let me know and I'll move it to the right place.

Into the bussiness: I have a new laptop - Acer Aspire Quad Core, 8Gb RAM. In it I'd like to install an opeative home studio. I've have several composing programs (frescobaldi, pizzicato, musescore) and a lot of kontakt and eastwest libraries.

Before installing the libraries I'd like to ask you for advise about the DAW and the disk organization. My idea is having an external 2GB SSD usb 3.0 disk with the libraries, so the loading of the libraries is as fast as possible, is this possible? anybody has this type of distribution?

About the DAW, I don't know if there are some faster or lighter than others, could you please advise about them?

Thanks in advance. Best

 

This would be better into "PC" section than "studio" as your thread is all about computer.

 

8 Gb RAM.... not enough. 32 Gb RAM. for the Processor : INTEL I7. and DAW Cubase 12 Pro. libraries on external SSD Yes it's possible. You need have a good soundcard external

 

If you want to have the disks 'as fast as possible' you should consider to install the SSD inside of the laptop. Thats likely to be faster and more reliable than external via USB3. Also, if you plan to gig outside your studio, its better because it cannot be stolen/forgotten that easy.
(on the other hand if you plan to have a PC plus a laptop its easier with an external drive)

DAW: When you ask 10 people on AS about DAWs you'll get 12 opinions.
fun aside: It depends on what you want to do. Cubase for instance is for the more "classical" approach, while Ableton Live as the name suggests is more for live situations. And Reaper is extremely customizable and flexible....
But there isn't a "best" DAW.

Why don't you test several DAWs with D/Ls from sister and find what suits you best.
Think of a project and work it out from start to finish on different DAWs. The DAW that feels most comfortable is your best choice. You can do almost everything in any DAW. Its kind of feeling at home, not pure facts.

Best advice!
8GB is far too less. Aspire can be upgraded to max 32 GB.
https://www.compuram.biz/memory/acer/notebook/aspire/series/7745-serie-quad-core/

 

Last edited: Jun 24, 2022

The programmes go on the C:/ drive and the large libraries go on an external 2 TB SSD.
As a DAW I recommend Ableton Live - PreSonus Studio One.
Have fun with your new Acer Aspire.

 

I find the separation of programs and data very important. This makes it much easier to back up the system without having to back up gigabytes of libraries.
It is also much easier to use the libs on different computers.

 

Thank you very much for the recommendations. I see you all agree about ram memory. Mi laptop has only one slot for ram. I upgraded it from 4GB to 8GB. Any idea to round this problem?

 

Well, currently only you know your actual Kontakt usage. This is what I think you should most concentrate on, because this is the first place any shortcomings in your setup are going to really reveal themselves. And also where you can save money, or spend extra money.

You probably mean 2TB external ssd. That's a fairly decent capacity, but you may find out it's too small/too expensive to go the SSD route for a lot of this stuff. I use Lacie External hdd's and they work fine with my relatively limited Kontakt usage.

 

My idea with this laptop is composing/arranging/pre-producing music. So I'll normaly not load more than 10 kontakt instruments. I wonder if ram limitation can be rounded with some external sound card that helps the processors with the hard work. Or may be there's another option I don't know about..

BTW this is my laptop:
https://www.pcexpansion.es/acer-aspire-e5-522-8370.php (it's in spanish, but you'll understand)
It says I coud upgrade to 16GB ram, but when I upgraded to 8GB inside there was only 1 slot with 4GB. I don't find any 16 or 32 GB memory card that could fit in here.. am I missing something?

 

Last edited: Jun 24, 2022

16GB Arbeitsspeicher DDR3 für Acer Aspire E5-522 RAM SO DIMM
https://www.phs-memory.com/computer-memory-16gb-ddr3-acer-aspire-e5-522-ram-so-dimm-sp164665.html

Computer memory Acer Aspire E5-522
The RAM memory expands the memory capacity of Acer Aspire E5-522 by 16GB. The memory of Acer Aspire E5-522 can be extended to a maximum of 16GB / 8GB according to manufacturer. For this purpose 1 RAM slots are available. The offered memory is a DDR3 RAM memory. Further technical memory specifications can be found in the list on the right. This computer memory was tested by us for Acer Aspire E5-522. This ensures that this memory expansion can also be utilised together with the original RAM used in Aspire E5-522.

 

As I said before, BEAT16, you're my guardian angel : ) Thank you!

Aliexpress or similar cheaper version??

 

Last edited: Jun 24, 2022

@ArticStorm, if I don't record any external instrument, except may be my guitar, is this really so essential? Why?

 

to keep it short, I will say that I wouldn't plan on great Kontakt performance with it's current specs. If that turns out to be the case, Falcon will run great on it. I'd address the ram first if you are in a money spending kind of mood.

 

Yeah! My mistake
Thank you Ryck, that's the info I needed, I'm considering buying a second hand new pc and leaving the aspire for my wife, I'll keep you informed.

Thank you all, best

 

A suggestion. If you are going to buy one, I would recommend a desktop one. Mine broke many times, and I always repair it. Even the microprocessor pins got bent, I straightened them out and soldered one. And wow, here it is working.
A laptop is more complicated if something breaks or if you have to change something.

 

Yes, that's my idea, I'm after a HP prodesk 600 i5 3,2-3,5 Mhz quad core (used) for 80 eur - the seller gives me the option of installing 32GB ram and 1TB SSD - I've asked for final price, still waiting. I'm after a 2TB external SSD (40 eur) too. If this operations go fine, I'll leave the laptop for my wife, she needs a new one.

 

i'm replaning my route. I'm after another pc. I'll ask you for advice when it's ready. I'll leave the laptop for my wife, she really needs a new one.