Pretty much any modern laptop can run a DAW, such is the easy availability of processing might nowadays. The problem you'll find is when you start loading plugins and virtual instruments into your session, these are the true CPU hogs that will have your machine moving at a snail's pace. Our selection of the best budget laptops for music production will get you making music quicker, and without breaking the bank.
To make music you'll need a good processor and selection of RAM to begin. Something like an 8-core Ryzen or 12/13th Gen Intel processor will have plenty of power to handle the majority of audio production tasks. Macs aren't exactly budget, but if you've got your heart set on one an M1 processor will be more than suitable for making music.
If you can stretch to one, an SSD (Solid State Drive) will help speed up production tasks like loading project files and importing samples. GPUs (graphics processing units) are less necessary for production, but they can be helpful if you need a machine capable of editing promo videos, or if you want to carry out AI-powered tasks like stem separation.
If you're buying for the first time, there's a lot to learn about laptops, so if we haven't answered your questions here, check out our FAQs section. To see the best affordable laptops for music production available in 2024, keep on scrolling...
Our top picks
The Acer Aspire has been our top-budget laptop choice for a while now and still doesn't disappoint. It gives you a lot of CPU power for the money and balances that out with a nice amount of storage and RAM to make it a great budget all-rounder.
Okay, we're stretching the definition of budget here, but if you have to have a MacBook for your production tasks, the Apple MacBook Air M1 is the cheapest it gets. You can find them below the $1,000 mark, but you'll have to shop around.
Gaming-spec laptops are a great choice for musicians because they pack a lot of power into a compact package. With the rise of AI for stem separation that uses a GPU, having a good one in a laptop makes this a brilliant option for more advanced tasks.
Best Windows
Taking into account the holy trinity of music production laptop specs – CPU, RAM, and storage – the Acer Aspire 5 is a great choice for the vast majority of people on a budget. The Intel i5 processor will chug along nicely, while 8GB of RAM means you can be reasonably expansive with your arrangements.
It's lightweight, making it great as a travel rig. We also found the build to be sturdy, so you won't worry about chucking it in a backpack for some remote mixing or using it in a busy live room. The full-size keyboard is handy for those Pro Tools shortcuts that use numerical keys.
Adding in a USB-C port means you can take advantage of faster data transfer speeds, although its 512GB SSD is a real bonus at this price point. You’ll struggle to find a better Windows machine for under $500/£500.
Best MacBook
Whilst it's one of the more expensive options on this list, there's no doubt that a MacBook is the preferred machine for any music maker. Representing the cheapest Apple laptop you can buy at the moment, the MacBook Air M1 13-inch is as budget as it gets.
The M1 chip is still plenty powerful enough for production tasks whether you're using loads of plugins and VSTs or recording raw audio via an audio interface. With more and more software manufacturers offering native M1 support now, you don't have to worry about the compatibility of your plugins either.
Where it does let you down a little bit is in connectivity. With just two Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, it's pretty much a given you'll need an additional hub if you want to make music with it. We can look past that though thanks to its incredible performance.
Read our full Apple M1 MacBook Air review
Best gaming-spec
Gaming requires a lot of grunt, which is part of what makes gaming laptops viable for music production. The HP Victus 15 is a great choice for music-making and a bonus for us - doesn't feature the garish styling of many gaming machines.
It's sleek and stylish, with plenty of power under the hood for CPU-intensive tasks. The addition of a GPU means you can do some light video editing too, which will be useful for all those promo videos you've got planned to support your album release.
There are quite a few machines in the Victus range though, and with varying specs. Make sure you get one kitted out with the all-important extra ports for music making, but otherwise, you won't get this much power for your dollar in many other laptops.
Best 2-in-1
ASUS has plenty to offer in the mid-range market, but we’ve opted for the ASUS VivoBook Flip. While it might look a bit gimmicky, essentially what we’ve got is a nicely specced convertible laptop/tablet, which runs full Windows 11 and has a decent baseline spec for music production.
The ability to split it down to a tablet means it'll be great for producers moonlighting as live sound engineers, allowing you to use it tablet-style to hear the sound stage front.
Using a touchscreen to control a DAW like Ableton does come with its benefits - and occasional drawbacks - but for the budget-conscious producer who likes to leave the studio every now and again, this is a solid, versatile entry-level option.
Best portable
As one of the bigger names in computing, it’s reasonable to expect HP would have a decent offer in the low-to-mid range. The HP Pavilion x360 fits the bill, serving up a nice set of base specs that would suit anyone learning their craft.
The non-music headline comes in the shape of the touchscreen; fold the Pavilion back on itself and it becomes a tablet device. That 360-degree hinge could prove useful for sessions where you're collaborating with people or just short on space.
Realistically, other than as a party piece, the touchscreen doesn’t immediately jump out as being useful to a producer – your mileage may vary – but if the device is going to serve other purposes than music creation then the Pavilion x360 is a sound choice.
Best CPU power
Our sister website TechRadar describes this as 'the best budget laptop in the world'. And while we have chosen the Acer Aspire 5 A515 for the top spot over this one, the Swift 3 does still deliver a lot for your cash. You get a great set of specs including one of the best processors in this round-up, plus decent memory and storage.
The Swift 3 has an aluminium and magnesium-aluminium alloy case, and is not the most exciting colour. But there are some other under-the-hood upgrades, including phenomenal battery life, which is great for producers who aren't tethered to their studio desk.
If you're after a dependable laptop that can handle day-to-day production tasks (without feeling too cheap), then the Acer Swift 3 really does measure up as one of the best cheap laptops you can buy.
Also consider
FAQs
Do I need an expensive laptop for music production?
Realistically, not everyone can afford the latest M3 MacBook Pro or Dell XPS. Hence, we all have to sometimes make compromises in what we want versus what we can afford. It would be great to have a touch-enabled 4K screen, all-day battery life, plenty of horsepower, and all those other headline features. But we have to cut our cloth accordingly, right?
That’s not to say music production can’t be done on a budget laptop. It absolutely can, as we’ll outline in our recommendations in this guide, but just be aware that certain concessions may have to be made. Start small, before working your way up. This way, when you reach the skill level where you are making 72 track arrangements featuring a symphony orchestra, you’ll know the equipment inside out and have a handle on what’s really important from a music production laptop.
What should I look for in a budget music laptop?
Laptops used with music production in mind tend to focus on three key features; CPU, RAM and storage. Where gamers or video editors prioritise graphical and visual elements, for audio we need only focus on how fast the laptop processes things (CPU), its short-term memory (RAM) and its ability to access data quickly (storage):
The CPU is what powers the laptop as it processes commands. In music terms, this dictates how many virtual instruments you can run at the same time, or how many effects you can add, or how quickly you can export your finished tracks. Intel and AMD have the monopoly here, and you get what you pay for. For audio and music production we would recommend looking at Intel’s i5 line, or AMD’s Ryzen 5 line, although the lower-end CPUs will suffice if budget is a sticking point – you might just be staring at progress bars a bit longer.
RAM is a bit more straightforward. It dictates how large the arrangements you can create are, and how many audio files you can work with at a given time. A laptop with 4GB of RAM will technically allow you to open music production apps like Garageband or Ableton Live and create short, basic arrangements, but you’ll quickly run into a wall where the laptop can’t cope with what you’re asking it to do. Look for a minimum of 8GB here.
Storage will come down to one of two options; HDD or SSD. Hard-disk drives are cheaper and can hold large volumes of data, but are typically slower which means streaming sample libraries isn’t ideal. SSDs, on the other hand, are lightning quick but do cost more.
The one other essential non-laptop component for music production is a USB audio interface; this effectively outsources the laptop’s sound card and allows you to record electric guitars, microphones and other instruments into the computer, as well as hooking up a pair of studio monitors or studio headphones to listen back to your work.
What don't I need?
If you’re buying a laptop for general use, with a bit of music production thrown in occasionally, then you will likely have other factors to consider. The size and resolution of the screen, for example, or the battery life. These are all worthy considerations and shouldn’t be discounted, but bear in mind that the more non-negotiable things you have on your wishlist, the higher the cost will be. If the laptop is being bought with music production, and only music production, in mind then you should keep your focus on performance over aesthetics.
Many Windows-based laptops come stuffed with non-essential software and apps – known as ‘bloatware’ – which you’ll want to discard. And, while it might sound strange in an article about music production to tell you to ignore the laptop’s speakers, that’s exactly what we’re going to do. For watching YouTube videos or holding video calls, laptop speakers are fine but for audio and music production they’re not going to give you the results you want (whatever you spend). So, while it might sound appealing to have B&O or Beats speakers in your laptop, in reality they aren’t going to have much of an effect on your music production so don’t make them a deal-breaker.
What about connectivity?
As your recording career progresses, you may find you want to add to your studio with extra gear like MIDI keyboards, home studio mixers, drum machines and more. Most kit these days connect to your computer via USB, so you’ll want to ensure you have a decent number of USB ports.
Increasingly brands are looking to incorporate USB-C into their gear so look out for these ports where possible too. This is also useful when using an external hard drive for music production, where the combination of USB-C and an external solid-state drive (SSD) makes light work of large audio or sample files.
Another ‘nice-to-have’ element is the option to upgrade components in the laptop yourself in the future. This won’t be possible on every laptop, but having the ability to chuck in a couple of extra sticks of RAM can have a significant impact on overall performance.
How we test
The criteria for testing a budget laptop for music production differs slightly to how we’d test higher-spec machines. At the entry-level end of the spectrum, small tweaks to a laptop’s internal spec can have a huge impact on its ability to perform. Rather than becoming a jack of all production trades, budget laptops tend to be better chosen when they have an end goal in sight.
For example, if your setup involves using lots of loops and samples, then the speed at which the laptop can grab them from your external storage will be paramount. For users with lots of MIDI tracks in their compositions, CPU is king. Using any DAW, we are quickly able to build template sessions which test a variety of real world situations, and from there can assess the suitability of a machine for a particular user group.
With it being a laptop, there are other factors which may come into a buying decision, so we look at these too. Things like battery life, and screen viewing angles or brightness levels, are all easy to test so we take those into consideration when making our recommendations.
Find out more about how we test music gear and services at MusicRadar.
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