The CPU is the foundation of an audio production PC. The processor’s core count and speed will determine how quickly you can accomplish various editing tasks. If your PC doesn’t have a powerful processor, it’s going to be slow, regardless of anything else. Modern editing software will take advantage of many CPU cores and hyperthreading, so investing in a good CPU is crucial when building a PC for audio production.
Generally speaking, the CPU is where you should invest the largest part of your budget. Serious builders should be considering a 6-core CPU at a minimum or a 4-core/8-thread CPU as a viable alternative.
Using A Server For Music Production
In some situations, having more CPU cores may give you better performance. With that said, relatively modest projects will likely be just fine with a 6-core CPU, but depending on the complexity of your project and the latency you require, you may want to upgrade to an 8-core, 10-core, 12-core, or even higher-core-count CPU option.
When you absolutely, positively need to know that your PC will be able to handle everything you throw at it in terms of audio production—this is the sort of high-performance, professional-grade build you need to be looking at. Despite the monstrous music production and audio editing prowess of this build, it amazingly still manages to leave the door open for future upgrades as well (pending new releases).
When you are able to pay the big bucks for top-shelf performance, this is the result. Starting with the mighty 16-core/24-thread i9-12900K from Intel and matching the parts to that, every component here screams top-end performance. (The only caveat to that is that this build has an intentionally underpowered graphics card, just like the above builds, due to its relative unimportance for audio work.) This is very much the maximum performance you’ll need to run everything under the sun when it comes to audio editing. The CPU is supported by filling 4 RAM slots on the motherboard for a frightening 64GB of DDR4 memory, as well as one of Samsung’s new flagship 970 EVO Plus NVMe drives.
Remember, these are simply three examples of builds at very different price points, but they are not the be-all and end-all when it comes to building. For a huge number of balanced builds to suit any budget, take a look at our main parts page; and feel free to comment on this article for further advice!
Multiple PCs, with, different network and internet connectivity, and different jobs, audio recording, audio mixing, composition, arrangement, VST support, video editing, video color grading, video streaming, media distribution, accounting, correspondence, web hosting, website maintenence, etc, along with laptops and wireless devices, all generate and collect files which may or may not be needed later, and therefore need to be preserved, and possibly accessed later on.
This approach means some time spent ingesting files from other machines onto the master file server, and organizing them, but offers several benefits in return.
1. Backups use storage, bandwidth and processing horsepower without impacting workflow or production schedules.
2. Security.
3. One, well organized file library, offering access to any file necessary, as opposed to searches across several computers and numerous drives.
4. Scalability, the storage and backup functions can be sized and adjusted as needed without impacting production.
5. Accessibility. Some vendors charge extra for downloading
replacement file copies.
.or quit offering unsupported software, or push out revisions that disasterously affect operations. Never can tell exactly where a given manual…or image…or sample…or clip…or license key…might be needed tomorrow.
6. Redundancy. Most files exist on the PC that originated them, the file server, and in backups. Storage is cheap. Unretrievable critical files, maybe not cheap.
Studios with a single computer…in effect…already have One Master File Server, that services…”all”…a facility’s client computers (that same PC.)
But when you start expanding, distributing storage, processing, and bandwidth, you can either see it coming and plan in advance, stop, fall back, and suffer slowdowns while resolving issues, or…limit your growth, even fail the business if your data flow and availibility don’t meet needs.