Hi,
My girlfriend who is a voice artist needs a new laptop to record her voice. She therefore only ever records 1 track at a time, no plugins, using Reaper.
So theoretically, the hardware specs can be very low as is her current laptop which is at least 5-6 yo and was ideal until it broke down recently.
But since she records with her mic facing the laptop, it's critical that it be VERY silent, quasi-inaudible.

Windows only because that's what she's used to and she doesn't want to be bothered having to learn a new OS (she's not very techy).
Thx in advance!

 

Haven't tried every laptop out there, but the fan in my old Lenovo Thinkpad T540p has been satisfactorily quiet and the fan noise doesn't contain any annoying whistly/droney overtones.

It's the version with the quad core i7 CPU, but without a dedicated graphics processor.

 

Ok, thx, as long any noise isn't picked up by a sensitive high-end condenser mic (Neumann), then it's fine!

 

My Asus laptop has 3 modes - Performance, Balanced, and Whisper. In the third mode it's completely silent.

 

It may be completely silent, but some CPU throttling will be inevitable. OTOH, it may be perfectly acceptable for the task at hand - simple vocal overdubs.

 

Something a little more specific would be helpful

 

It will depend on the distance between the mike and the laptop, but I don't think zero noise pickup is a realistic expectation in this case. As long as there is a fan active in the room it will be picked up by a Neumann. In that case you probably need a laptop that can be made completely silent, at the expense of the CPU speed.

 

Asus Vivobook K513E Intel i5 1135G7 2.4GHz with integrated Iris Xe GPU and 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD.

I'm mainly using it with Reaper to record my guitar, without issues.

 

Last edited: Jun 18, 2023

How about a fanless mini computer?

 

Yes, exactly. That's what she has with her 'current' Asus laptop. It's dead silent +- 90% of the time. It's never the demand on the CPU that causes the fan to turn on (and still be very quiet when on), since as mentioned, she's only recording 1 track and with no plugins. So pretty much as light as one could be using a DAW. Only in the heat of the summer, maybe it might go on after being on for a while.
So that's +- the goal, get something similar to what she has/had today.

A fanless laptop would of course solve this completely but they are pretty rare and/or expensive or underpowered CPUs so something that comes close would be great!

 

My favourite windows laptops are these old-gen Razer Blade laptops. You didn't list a price but here's a $1300 option:

https://www.amazon.com/Razer-Blade-Gaming-Laptop-2019/dp/B087LW2KFG/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=2MUHYEG5FS59S&keywords=razer+blade+15+2018&qid=1686842944&sprefix=razer+blade+15+2018,aps,116&sr=8-5&th=1&psc=1

I sit with a condenser mic(sphere dlx) over the laptop to do voice overs and never pickup fan noise. As it's a metal laptop it will get warm but the performance is rock solid. Ssd, 6 core CPU, 1660 Nvidia GPU, 16gb ram. Ram expandable to 64gb, SSD to 2tb. 1080p@144hz, thunderbolt port. Im in Ableton and adobe premiere mostly.

 

Last edited: Jun 15, 2023

Yes, that's actually a great idea but I don't think I'll be able to convince her. She's attached to the flexibility of the laptop. When not recording with it, she likes being able to go in the living room, terrace, café, beach, etc...

 

There's one obvious choice that ticks all the boxes, and then some, except for the ability to run Windows: Macbook Air M1

 

True. As little as possible, as long as it does the job. So what you are proposing I'm sure is certainly very suitable but also overkill. She doesn't need such high-end specs.
Her current laptop runs on an 8th gen Intel i5, so quite basic and it does the job very well.

 

Awesome! And guess what...that's exactly the brand & series she currently has, except with an 8th gen i5
I'm already looking now in the classifieds...

 

Last edited: Jun 15, 2023

at first, I'd suggest making use of Reaper's Web Remote Control, as long as you have computer on same local (home) network as your phone/tablet, you can control Reaper - that way you can comfortably have your (loud) computer away from microphone or instrument, just buy a longer cable ;)

to record and edit one or few tracks, you can literally use any recent (more power efficient) ultrabook or notebook, and in Windows power settings you can set max cpu utilization to less than 100%, at something like 80% you can push power consumption much lower without compromising performance much

 

What broke? Parts (unless system specific) are fairly easy to come by and way cheaper usually than a new machine.

Place the mic into a cardioid pattern and keep as far away from the actual machine as possible.

 

buy a cable extension for the mic and sit further away when recording or sit in an understair padded cupboard.
OR change the mic with a small pick up pattern.
There are numerous ways to control laptop/DAW from across a room.

 

The easy solution is an Aston Shadow. They work really well from everything I've ever heard of them. They are around 260 bucks near me.

 

"Honey, I know your laptop broke but here's a reflection filter."