4 GB RAM is almost nothing nowadays, because in idle any current operating system uses at least 4 to 8 GB in idle.

So of course any computer will benefit from a RAM upgrade until a specific threshold. Otherwise, if you run low on memory the system has to dump the RAM to the HDD to load new Data into RAM which slows the whole system down and puts more stress on the harddrive. The jump from 4 GB to 16 GB feels a lot more noticeable in improving performance than from 16 to 32.

In a nutshell: a RAM upgrade from 4 to 16 would improve a lot of things: boot times, loading times, responsiveness, track count, multitasking, plugin count, stability. Because most plugins have fancy graphics which load into RAM.

 

Laptop or Desktop?
Have you tried swapping or re-seating modules?
For a Desktop, are you overclocking? Extreme heating & cooling cycles can lead to loose contact at the CPU pins which in turn, leads to memory lanes becoming unusable.

As for Studio One requirements, this from Presonus:

https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-...-What-are-some-things-that-I-should-consider-
and,

https://www.presonus.com/products/Studio-One/tech-specs

Studio One, Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Harrison Mixbus, Samplitude Pro X4 & Cubase all should be run with 8gb of memory for basic editing/mixing/recording. 16 to 32gb of memory is needed for large track counts with plugins & intricate routing.

There are also the basic system tweaks to get your system ready for DAW use. Hopefully you have done this already.

Finally, if your system is an laptop, consider upgrading with something more modern (refurbished or new) that will give you
years of trouble free operation. Look for off-lease refurbs.

My home system is a Lenovo workstation that was used for graphics & CAD design.

Xeon 4C/8T, 32GB, NVdia Quadro, 512GB boot SSD, 1TB & 2TB HDs (bought for $369.00 U.S. w/shipping & 90 day warranty). Some refurbs offer a 1 year warranty @ higher prices.

 

you dont even need to strip down...ppl runnin 60% unneeded processes..even on online machine

 

Last edited: Sep 19, 2019

No. Random Access Memmory does not matter.
It only matters if you want to make orchestra music with much samples.
When you use VST's then horsepower (CPU) matters.
I only use VSTi's with an AMD 2700x and RME Audio interface.
*Edit

Also when you want a good DAW, use an AMD video card.
Nvidia has too much DPC Latency.
Search for DPC Latency on your favorit search engine.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 8, 2019

Minimum 16GB of ram, 8Gb is not enough these days

 

i've set up several crashtest scenarios. i have only 8gb ddr3 ram and an old i5-2500, 256/1tb ssd/hdd.
i don't use kontakt or other heavy sample based libs. (xln ad2, pianoteq,modo bass, diva, ampsims, overlouds, plugin alliance all thats all)
i could get 4 addictive drums, 4 divas, 2 modos, 2 pianoteqs, 8 ampsims, 32 audio tracks , 3 plugins on each (ssl4000e, overloud 1176,vertigo) all running at once, 48/24, 256 sample buffer. the system (win 8.1, fully offline&tweaked) is using 6gb of ram,35% cpu. i would never go this high on a project btw.

conclusion : you are fine with 8gb ram if you are not using memory hungry samplers like kontakt.

 

Most important thing is your OS and I'm guessing you have Windows 7. Windows 10 is more Ram hungry than Windows 7. Since nobody longer should use 32-bit OS system I wouldn't even consider that. Like I said 8GB is not enough if you use Windows 10 for music and little bit of video editing. By the way I think every music production pc should be able to run Kontakt without issue

 

Everyone should be running a minimum of 16 GB these days, the question is, whether you need more, and the only way to tell that is to open a resource manager while you have your largest project open and look at your ram usage. If your ram usage is 70% or higher, you should invest in more ram, if it isnt, you dont need to worry.

I run 64 GB of ram which allows me to have very large orchestral projects open, consisting of about 50-60 tracks and the best reverb engine available for orchestral music, MIR Pro (which needs about 2 GB of ram by itself).

 

win 8.1x64. 0.5gb ram on idle. have no need for kontakt, i do trad band setup music, i follow less is more approach, i dont believe in 100+ track compositions, it just sound weak to me. high track number doesnt mean "better" music to me. fine with 8gb here.but yeah more ram the betta cheers

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 8, 2019

You can test it by yourself, try opening your DAW and check how much RAM it takes, then add one plug-in at a time and look how the RAM value increases. Usually CPU based plug-ins are not RAM hungry, it depends very much on your workflow, i've been able to complete several songs with 512 MB of ram (and some outboard) back in 1999. all you need is a good balance between CPU, RAM and streaming from DISK.