Do you still build a dedicated music machine?

[Chris Hawkins]

For years I used to build my own machines for media production (one for audio and one for video). I would spend a ton of time researching the parts that would lead to an optimized PCs for music and or video (typically I would build a new PC every 2 years or so).

During that time I also used a Mac for everyday use - but over the last 6 years, I have slowly evolved to using only a single MacBook for almost everything I do.

I am wondering, how many of you guys are still researching and building custom PCs for audio? As I said, it has been a while since I have done so and I am out of date on the latest hardware. If I was to build a PC, what components do you recommend?

I was also thinking that these days, most mainstream hardware is more than powerful enough to handle the tasks that a powerful computer was required to do 10 years ago - is that a fair assessment?

[Pictus]

Yes, look
viewtopic.php?p=8997262#p8997262
And
viewtopic.php?p=8999740#p8999740

[Chris Hawkins]

Yes, look
viewtopic.php?p=8997262#p8997262
And
viewtopic.php?p=8999740#p8999740

Thanks for that! As lame as it sounds, but what is the most common connection for audio interfaces now days. Still Thunderbolt?

[uOpt]

I use a Macintrash for music software right now, so the base answer is no.

When I had music on PC I found that getting high-quality hardware that works well in Linux and FreeBSD was also the hardware that performed best for music. Even if you do it in Windows. Quality hardware has quality drivers in all OSes.

Laptops are drama to this day. I hate them.

[agharta]

As lame as it sounds, but what is the most common connection for audio interfaces now days. Still Thunderbolt?

USB 2.0 and before that possibly PCI.
PCIe never gained much traction and TB is relatively niche.

[uOpt]

Yeah, USB.

Thunderbolt is talked about a lot in enthusiast forums, but out in the wild there is very little hardware in use. Many new interfaces have USB only and no TB.

[Ah_Dziz]

I still build a system every few years. Intel based stuff still seems to win at performance. I always try to use a card based interface, but they are expensive and there's less of them around. There's just so much more variables in USB on PCs. Those USB 2 and 3 interfaces can run perfectly or run like complete garbage. An rme AIO is a good stable card.

[mjolnir]

I never really built PC's, but I used to refurbish used ones which usually involved replacing some parts.
These days, I switched to buying new computers instead. Overall, I miss the days of desktop computers compared to laptop purchase(s).
However, most of my DAW configuration tricks still apply, so I still do them. Stuff like disabling file last access logging always helps whether in Windows or Linux, for example.

[Chris Hawkins]

The last interface I purchased was Steinberg's UR44, which was USB. Great interface.

[sandandpaint]

I am on a PC and only make the simplest of choices - as you say, nowadays any decent machine will be powerful enough for most uses. Of course if I was a professional and needed to make a living from media production I would get a more sophisticated setup, proper studio design etc. But I dont need that and not many do.

[jamcat]

For years I used to build my own machines for media production (one for audio and one for video). I would spend a ton of time researching the parts that would lead to an optimized PCs for music and or video (typically I would build a new PC every 2 years or so).

During that time I also used a Mac for everyday use - but over the last 6 years, I have slowly evolved to using only a single MacBook for almost everything I do.

I used to do the same. But now, like you, I'm 100% on a MacBook Pro. I used to spend more money trying to build a quiet Windows DAW than I spent on my MacBook. And the MacBook is way quieter, because it is absolutely silent. And way more powerful than my last Windows DAW, too. So that pretty much solves every issue I struggled with when building Windows DAWs.

A USB-C hub lets me plug into a single port on my MacBook and instantly hook up to my 4k monitor, USB audio device & monitors, MIDI controllers, keyboard & mouse, and AC power. I do not miss my old desktop at all.

[Chris Hawkins]

I haven't really used my MacBook for any intense audio work - just video (but even that, nothing intensive). But I get the feeling it could handle the work load I gave my dedicated PCs years ago.

[glokraw]

My son-in-law has some newer arm-based mac laptop that he really likes, does a lot of bfd drum editing, and home-grown videos with audio.

I have an old i7 with pci mAudio card, nVidia pcie video card and 8 gig ram, in AVLinux.
I don't feel limited by anything except playing skillz
Cheers

[Vic Firth]

Hi KVR forums. (first post here)
I am using the Windows Desktop with a Ryzen 12 core/24 core processor.
I never had such luck with laptops. Never used anything from Apple.
The Desktop has a Graphics card, and it really does Music good. The thing I have discovered (which is hardly common knowledge to music people) is that the graphics take the lions share of the computer's processing in laptops. They always take precedence over our audio wants.

I am limited only by Studio One which is usually excellent for my needs but lately I am looking at their plugin browser glitch. They also deleted their forum which is why I came here. But your question interested me more than my own KVR based question.

I really think you need a Desktop for music. You need more USB, you need a good graphics unit like my 2070s (a little old I know, but it is 14000MHz and it has the RAM, and the fans, and works great with Gigabyte driver program installed).

There is a lot I could say on this topic, and I will say that I run sessions with over 100 tracks + sends every time without any problems. Live sessions.

Like some of the other commenter I run a 2nd machine to live stream video encoding in OBS. This music computer that I am talking about I never connect to the internet unless I have to. Audio only. USB 2.0 as above commenter stated, 3.0 or 3.1 also on the AORUS motherboard 10 USBs on one side, 2 USBs on the top of other side. I run at least 2 cameras on USBs, and 2 Roland synths (which have USB audio like interfaces) and 3 interfaces. The other USB are for multi hubs. Like, I think USBs must be plentiful because I am doing so many MIDI controllers and synths.

In fact the 2nd video encoding computer (Ryzen 1700 8/16 core laptop) does some intensive scene switching work, runs at least 5 cameras, and I also don't connect it to the internet. It is only a laptop and I use a 3rd laptop in the same space to do the internet streaming. This is my modern new setup. I just have laptops from 2018 (was new) and 2019 (Razer 2017 Pro) (was bought used) and this desktop from 2020? (bought 2023) whenever it was from...and they all are useful.

It is the first desktop I had and I bought it used for ~1000 USD.

What else? I also recently bought a used MINI PC (unknown year of production but basing on CPU maybe 2021?) and it has a 8/16 core Ryzen 5900 series processor, and it struggles with audio. It does things I used to see in my laptops like static over the audio due to buffer issues when the graphics are drawing more processing power from the hybrid CPU/AMD Vega graphics (liteweight graphics unit 2100MHz).

The desktop has none of that problem and no problems and no latency when I play drums, despite monitoring the out from OBS after the drums run thru the fx in Studio One and back out the interface out and in the 2nd interface in to get to OBS! Despite everything I run on it. I have concluded that the reason it is so good for MUSIC is because it has the RTX 2070S (s stands for super, basically a 2080 from the previous run of cards that didn't quite match the 2080 diode requirements). Great computer.

So my recommendation, today (and you can watch my video on Odysee from yesterday I go on for 4 hours fixing little things and doing audio things link available on request) is that you get a computer for your music which has a powerful NVIDIA graphics RTX unit, 80 series (2080, 3080, 4080 etc) (or 70S which stands for super) and equip it with the appropriate drivers for your graphics unit and of course all your audio needs to be meticulously setup.

Nope no Thunderbolt the USB is fine with ordinary interfaces. I will say that I use ADAT interface connection to get double the ins to my DAW that I would on only an 8 input interface.

I feel that I would be remiss in not mentioning the OS. I think that you might want to opt for an early version of Windows 11. Perhaps whatever version I am using (March 7 2023 install date). Windows 11 2H23 versions are behaving terribly. I have never had such problems with Windows black screening for 5 or 10 minutes because of AMD graphics alignment issues on my MINI PC and the recent crash of my 2018 laptop that forced me to reinstall Windows 11 (was on Windows 10 for all these years till about 2 weeks ago). I really think the issues between Windows and any computer with an AMD graphics unit should be cause to avoid the AMD graphics unit where possible. To be exact I would say YES to any AMD Ryzen processor, the more powerful the better, and YES to an NVIDIA RTX graphics unit on the computer you want to get.

[Pictus]

(...)I really think the issues between Windows and any computer with an AMD graphics unit should be cause to avoid the AMD graphics unit where possible.(...)

I do not have ANY problem with AMD CPU/GPU and the latest Windows 24H2.
I do a clean install.
(Do not disable UAC and do not enable WDAC policy!)
https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/

Motherboard BIOS updated, latest chipset driver and tweaks.