In the Voiceover Studio: Replacing a Studio Computer – Tuesday VO Tech Tip

Unlike many of the necessary hardware items for our home voiceover studio, investing in a dedicated computer can be a relatively expensive step. It’s natural to hesitate before making that kind of commitment. Unlike microphones and interfaces, there are a few other variables to consider. Plus, our “studio” computer will often serve double duty – being used for non-studio tasks (Wait! There’s life beyond the studio?) and perhaps being used by multiple individuals. 

When it comes time to decide upon a new studio computer for recording, it’s hard to know where to start. For the past month or so, one of the most common studio hardware questions I’ve encountered has been about which computer to get and what features are important. 

In many cases, the answer is that the one you have right now (assuming you aren’t working off of a phone or tablet), is probably fine for most common VO studio tasks. Though there has been a great deal of enthusiasm for the new Apple Silicon series of computers, an older Intel-based machine will likely continue to serve you well until it gets left behind by commonly used applications. To put that in perspective, my old 2009 MacBook Pro still works as a solid backup recording computer, and is only now starting to encounter some key functionality issues. 

Do we need “More Power!”?
The main reason for spending more on the highest powered computer you can find would be for complex tasks. Fact is, what we do in voiceover is not terribly complex. Even if we choose to work in a multitrack recording environment, we’re likely only dealing with a few separate tracks to render into a single file for our client. That actually doesn’t put all that much load on your computer system. 

The biggest strain on our computer would come from editing and rendering video. That task has much larger amounts of data associated with it, and it takes a lot of processing power to produce high resolution video. As much as we might complain about large WAV files in our studios, video editors just sort of chuckle at our naiveté. 

That means that we don’t need the latest, greatest, fastest computer hardware for our audio studio. Almost anything reasonably current can work in a pinch. That being said, there are a few things to understand and be aware of if you need to upgrade your studio computer. 

Speed…? Probably Not a Huge Issue. 
When considering the speed of the computer, we’re talking about how quickly it can complete tasks. Simplifying a bit, this is what the Central Processing Unit (the CPU or “brain” of the computer) handles. When you see the adds for “Apple Silicon” or “Intel Inside”, that’s what the computer maker is talking about. It tends to have a litany of acronyms – Apple’s new M1, M1 Max, M2, or Intel’s I5, I7, I9 – which can be hard to directly compare. Articles and advertising will tout the speed of the newest multi-core CPU, or the SoC (“System On a Chip”) which enables even faster speeds. 

Honestly, almost anything fairly recent will work. Computers are so ridiculously fast these days that they can handle our voiceover recording tasks just fine. We are also plugging in a device that’s actually handling a big chunk of the process. The audio interface (or the interface that lives inside your USB-direct-connected microphone) has processing chips inside it that do conversion from analog input to digital information. They are quite good at it. That means the computer just needs to catch all the ones and zeroes that the audio interface provides. That’s a much less complex task. 

Top Priority – Memory Matters
When we use the phrase “RAM” (Random Access Memory), we’re talking about the available workspace on the computer. This is different than the amount of stuff which can be stored on the computer (more on that in a bit). It’s the amount of memory the computer has to actively work on problems. This is where the recording application does its work. You open an application and it stakes out a big chunk of territory in the RAM of your computer, then uses that territory to do clever and helpful things to your audio files. 

This is why I encourage clients to close non-essential applications before doing recording sessions. If you have a large number of tabs open in Google Chrome, and have the Spotify app or Apple Music running, or Zoom lurking in the background, that means less RAM is available to Twisted Wave or your recording application. 

More RAM means more real estate to use for applications, so this is a good thing to maximize when you budget for a new computer. For some models, you can add additional RAM later. This is not the case with the new Apple computers, as their SoC (System on a Chip) architecture means that RAM cannot be increased later on. If at all possible, I’d get more than the stock 8GB which is found in the base models. I’ve never complained that a computer had too much RAM. This is a good place to invest.

Storage – A Place to Put Your Stuff
The drive space is how many applications and other files your computer will hold inside of it. With online storage systems like Dropbox or iCloud, it’s relatively easy to archive unused files, but it’s a good idea to be able to immediately access your working projects from the computer itself. Some laptops come with ridiculously small main drives. It’s pretty easy to load up 80 GB with basic, needed applications, so a 128 GB drive can get pretty limited fairly quickly.

While I don’t want to run out of storage space quickly, it’s also easy to attach an external drive to your computer. Those are relatively inexpensive, often cheaper than adding internal drive space to the computer when you purchase it. For audio, I prefer an internal drive with at least 500 GB, and usually will invest in a 1TB drive. That way I have plenty of storage space for active projects, and I can archive older files to a separate drive when space starts to get limited. 

Count Your Connections 
One of the reasons I like the Apple Mac Mini as a studio computer is because it still has the ports for a hard wired network cable connection. Best practice for Source-Connect or any directed session is to be wired to the internet. As computers continue to get streamlined in size, the ports get reduced in number and type. That means that for most laptops, you’ll likely need some sort of a dock to attach vital hardware, which needs to be considered as part of the investment.

When considering these variables, you can often find refurbished models which meet the criteria of decent RAM, though they might be slightly older models. This is a good tradeoff for maximizing your investment. 

Next, I’ll cover a few other considerations to think about when integrating a new computer into the studio.

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