There are many different questions and opinions when talking about what computer to buy. The first hurdle is determining your budget. Secondly, do you want to be mobile or are you looking for a desktop computer? What about PC or Mac?
There isn’t a whole lot of difference in my experience whether you choose a Mac or PC. The only limitation is that some DAWS may not work across both platforms. For example, should you choose to go the PC route, a program like Logic Pro X won’t work because it is tied to being a Mac only program. Most of you probably own a computer and to be honest whatever computer you have will work, though obviously, with some limitations.
When I first began music production, I used my family’s old PC. For about a year it served its purpose and I then saved up for my first Mac. I’ve been a Mac user since, so I can only base most of my knowledge on Mac computers.
If you’re new to music production I wouldn’t suggest buying a spec’d out MacBook Pro or iMac Pro for your first computer. My suggestion would be to find a new base model MacBook Pro with 8GB Ram – (16GB if you can afford it), and a minimum of 256GB SSD hard drive space (This is where your programs will live). I think it’s also important to note that choosing an SSD (Super Signal Processor) over a normal spinning HD (hard drive) will provide much quicker boot times and will also make your system a lot more responsive between programs. We will look at hard drives in a later segment of this course. The video card (graphics) isn’t too important unless you’re planning to do some video editing. That being said, any new MacBook Pro will be able to handle some light video editing.