Laptops which can't be optimized properly.

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Laptops which can't be optimized properly.

Post by AudiniAudio » Mon May 17, 2021 4:27 am

Bumped from another thread...

All these articles say what laptops are best for home recording or cheap laptops for home recording. Then, you choose one, it arrives, you look up how to optimize the computer for recording purposes but it turns out you're not actually able to find how to do half of the recommendations for optimization on the @#%ing computer. Perhaps because the manufacturer or whoever is trying to hide all the things from you that you are trying to do because then they can't upload crap to spy on you, run updates in the background you don't want, disable all the useless apps, etc...

So the question is, which of these new computers they recommend for home recording can ACTUALLY be optimized for home recording without going to 3 different forums to figure it out and trying 5 different ways for each thing that's completely invisible or has been made impossible. Something intuitively easy would be worth any price they're asking.

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Re: Laptops which can't be optimized properly.

Post by Paulie » Mon May 17, 2021 5:53 pm

Looks like this post has not been answered so I might as well chime in. I didn't see the original threat oyou referred to so my apologies if what I say has already been said.

I've been writing music for tv for the past five years and the first four of those years were done entirely on a mid-2013 MacBook Air that I purchased refurbished from Apple for under $1000. On that laptop running Logic Pro X I created over 800 tracks that have been signed by libraries. I've spent several thousand dollars on quality VSTs like Kontakt Komplete, Omnisphere and lots of other stuff, but you need quality to create quality. Last year I switched to a refurbished Mac Mini, but only because my laptop died. I am seriously considering upgrading to the new Mac Mini M1, the reviews have been quite impressive.

I can't really help on the PC side, I'm a Mac person. But, you mentioned "would be worth any price..." in your post. :) What sorts of problems are you having when trying to setup your studio?
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Re: Laptops which can't be optimized properly.

Post by AudiniAudio » Tue May 18, 2021 4:07 am

Not having problems setting up my studio. I'm having problems doing what's called optimizing a computer for music production. The studio part is easy. When you read about how to best make your software function in your computer's environment, there is a long list of things you should do to a computer to make it have as much memory and make it as fast as possible.

Here's the first 8 out of 20.

Disable system sounds. ...
Adjust your processor scheduling to Background Services. ...
Adjust your PC's power options to high performance. ...
Make sure your PC doesn't suspend your USB devices. ...
Disable Windows Background Apps. ...
Disable Windows Updates. ...
Turn off Windows Firewall and anti-virus apps. ...
Switch off animated windows.

I bought a refurbished ASUS laptop and half the stuff on this list was either invisible or not possible so although the reviewers said it was a good laptop as far as ram etc... they forgot to mention that optimizing it for music production was not intuitive or perhaps even possible. I couldn't figure it out and got tired of trying. There's instructions everywhere that say JUST do this that and the other thing... But it's not "JUST" anything. It's go to 4 computer forums to ask why the thing the list says to do is invisible or doesn't exist: trying 5 different ways each of the 10 recommended things which don't work. NOT FUN!!!

My question is which computer has anyone bought that has everything you're supposed to do EASY TO FIND AND DO.

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Re: Laptops which can't be optimized properly.

Post by Casey H » Tue May 18, 2021 5:42 am

AudiniAudio wrote:
Tue May 18, 2021 4:07 am
Not having problems setting up my studio. I'm having problems doing what's called optimizing a computer for music production. The studio part is easy. When you read about how to best make your software function in your computer's environment, there is a long list of things you should do to a computer to make it have as much memory and make it as fast as possible.

Here's the first 8 out of 20.

Disable system sounds. ...
Adjust your processor scheduling to Background Services. ...
Adjust your PC's power options to high performance. ...
Make sure your PC doesn't suspend your USB devices. ...
Disable Windows Background Apps. ...
Disable Windows Updates. ...
Turn off Windows Firewall and anti-virus apps. ...
Switch off animated windows.

I bought a refurbished ASUS laptop and half the stuff on this list was either invisible or not possible so although the reviewers said it was a good laptop as far as ram etc... they forgot to mention that optimizing it for music production was not intuitive or perhaps even possible. I couldn't figure it out and got tired of trying. There's instructions everywhere that say JUST do this that and the other thing... But it's not "JUST" anything. It's go to 4 computer forums to ask why the thing the list says to do is invisible or doesn't exist: trying 5 different ways each of the 10 recommended things which don't work. NOT FUN!!!

My question is which computer has anyone bought that has everything you're supposed to do EASY TO FIND AND DO.
AFAIK, most of those things can be done using Settings on a Windows 10 machine. And if you can't figure out some, just ignore them for now and if all works well enough, don't sweat it. Most likely the major ones will be relatively easy to do. It sounds like you've already been Google-ing, which is what I was going to suggest.

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Re: Laptops which can't be optimized properly.

Post by AudiniAudio » Tue May 18, 2021 6:54 am

I wish Settings was where it was all at. That would make sense.

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Re: Laptops which can't be optimized properly.

Post by cosmicdolphin » Tue May 18, 2021 7:21 am

AudiniAudio wrote:
Tue May 18, 2021 4:07 am
My question is which computer has anyone bought that has everything you're supposed to do EASY TO FIND AND DO.
Seriously I've never ever bought a PC where these things were not accessible ? Sounds a little bizarre to me.

Are you sure you are signed in as the main Admin user ? That's the only reason I can think you may not have access to all the Windows settings. To be honest a lot of these PC tweaks have become less relevant over the years as they've gotten more powerful as the processor overhead for stuff like animated windows has become kinda moot. And I certainly run my DAW connected to the net with the Firewall and AV running. Never caused an issue.

The main one you probably need to change is the power plan as it's likely optimized for battery life so it may throttle the CPU. If you just type Power into the windows search it should show up

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Re: Laptops which can't be optimized properly.

Post by AudiniAudio » Wed May 19, 2021 7:49 pm

Thanks for the reply. When I first did it before installing Cubase on my old computer I could find everything. But not on the ASUS. Anyway, that computer is not with me. It's in a different country so was thinking to buy a new computer here in Indonesia but I just didn't want something that was going to give me the same kind of headache. So if you had a computer where everything was accessible easily, which computer was that?

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Re: Laptops which can't be optimized properly.

Post by cosmicdolphin » Thu May 20, 2021 5:25 pm

AudiniAudio wrote:
Wed May 19, 2021 7:49 pm
if you had a computer where everything was accessible easily, which computer was that?
Ermn.. Like every one I've ever owned ? :?

Which is maybe everything from an Amiga 500 to the 12 core Ryzen I have now and the 15 or so PC's , Macs and Windows Laptops I've had in between.

The only machines that were ever locked down were supplied by my employers as corporate work laptops, I was not the Admin for those.

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Re: Laptops which can't be optimized properly.

Post by AudiniAudio » Thu May 20, 2021 8:07 pm

Maybe because my ASUS was refurbished? No idea.

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Re: Laptops which can't be optimized properly.

Post by cosmicdolphin » Fri May 21, 2021 1:10 am

AudiniAudio wrote:
Thu May 20, 2021 8:07 pm
Maybe because my ASUS was refurbished? No idea.
You could be right. Maybe they re-image them as part of the refurb process with some sort of limited user account to stop people messing them up. I've never purchased a refurb.

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