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Season 2 ·

S2E14 – Producers NEED Computer Maintenance Skills

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Home/Podcast/S2E14 – Producers NEED Computer Maintenance...

Your computer as a music producer is absolutely essential. If it stops working, you stop working!

The main point I wanted to get across in this podcast episode of Music Production Made Simple is if something happened to your computer today… how long would it take to get you back up and running?

There’s many things to think about in regards to computer maintenance, like proper cooling and ventilation, having good backup solution going on, cleaning any air filters that come with your computer case, and even removing old programs (things I forgot to mention in this episode, but that’s why you read this, right? 😎) Additionally, you may want to look at your computer’s privacy settings.

Closing out, it is very wise if you start doing some research on the basic computer components, and what each part generally does (you don’t have to know it in-depth), as it will help you troubleshoot in the future.

The goal of a good music production computer is to select components that will give you the performance and stability you are after.

You can see how I built my newest music production computer here.

Music Production Computer

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S2E14 – Producers NEED Computer Maintenance Skills

  1. Season two, episode 14. Producers need computer maintenance
  2. skills. Okay. So computer maintenance skills are so important.
  3. All right. How important is a computer to your music production world and your
  4. online life? And I have a couple things I want to talk about in this episode about
  5. that. Things such as like backing up, or if you want to add an
  6. extra fan into your computer to cool it off a little bit more.
  7. Because a big problem with electronics is if they overheat.
  8. Alright, if they overheat, it can reduce the life of them.
  9. And so you want to make the most of your money.
  10. And if you have a cool environment for your computer, right?
  11. you know, these are the things you gotta think about a little bit.
  12. Now I'm not saying you have to go and buy a computer fan, but for example, do you
  13. know how to look at the temperatures inside your computer?
  14. Because most motherboards offer software that allows you to look at
  15. what's going on with your computer, like your CPU is like that's like the main brain
  16. of your computer. It's just a it's like a square chip that you put in.
  17. Okay, they look really cool, they have a bunch of pins on the bottom, and they're
  18. expensive because it's like the brains of the computer.
  19. We have to remove heat to keep the heat more balanced and the chip
  20. ultimately cooler because the chip can again work harder, burn out, and you also put
  21. some thermal paste in between the chip and the heatsink.
  22. So if this is all new to you, I highly suggest that you look up a video how to
  23. build a gaming PC. That's what I would recommend.
  24. Because if you are going to purchase a music production computer, it's quite similar
  25. to a gaming PC. In recent years, there's been some problems with motherboards and
  26. audio interfaces and getting all that ground loop stuff going on in speakers.
  27. That's been pretty annoying to deal with.
  28. There's like little isolators, USB isolators.
  29. So if you are looking at these gaming PC computers, like tutorials how to build one,
  30. then I would look for a different motherboard.
  31. They have like a creative line of motherboard and they're more expensive, but
  32. they're for like work stations, all right?
  33. Because there's different styles of computers.
  34. Like again, there's like the home user, there's like the business user, there's like
  35. workstations, which are more for you know, creative use.
  36. So, anyways, what I'm trying to say is with music production, we have to know first
  37. of all, what is a good computer, and that's a different topic.
  38. I don't want to go too heavy into that.
  39. But how to maintain this computer.
  40. So I was talking about there's software for your computer that allows you to
  41. change your fan speeds. So if your computer's too loud, because again, that's
  42. another thing you want to think about with the music production computers, you want
  43. it to be generally quiet. I recently picked up a newer hard drive.
  44. It was like the black, so Western Digital Black gaming drive.
  45. So this is like a per a performance drive, but I will tell you that it's a little
  46. bit loud. It's louder than what I would like.
  47. And if I'm quiet, you should not hear it because I have a
  48. gate on my preamp, which helps with that.
  49. Also, the microphone I'm using is not a super sensitive microphone.
  50. But your hard drive you're putting into your computer, there's different styles, but
  51. yeah, I got the Western Digital Black, and I'm finding it a bit loud for the studio
  52. use. So if you are building a computer, that's for my testing.
  53. I had a blue one before, Western Digital Blue.
  54. Another thing, too, is the warranty.
  55. So once you start paying for a bit of a better hard drive, sometimes they offer a
  56. better warranty. And that's what I was also going to say between the black, the
  57. blue, and the green from the Western Digital side of hard drives.
  58. So again, you want to check out what your motherboard software is.
  59. We're able to see the CPU heat.
  60. We're able to see the motherboard heat.
  61. And you're able to plug in different fans and adjust the fan speeds.
  62. And you can save it so that you can just like export it in case you ever like
  63. reinstall or reformat your computer, and then all your fans and everything could be
  64. set up again. But just knowing these things is absolutely
  65. critical to making your life as a music producer
  66. easier. Because if you think about it, what would happen today if
  67. something broke in your computer?
  68. Like, do you feel that you would have the skills to fix it?
  69. All right. So I'll just give a quick recap to some main things that I like to always
  70. have in a computer for music production.
  71. And I still am always learning about different things I like as I go.
  72. So, first of all, for a case, they sell computer cases that have acoustic
  73. insulation in them. Okay, so it helps dampen some noise, which I would recommend.
  74. You are wanting to have a decent heatsink.
  75. This is what goes on the CPU, and that allows your comp your CPU to run cooler.
  76. One thing I'll also share is if you are buying a video card, because you don't need
  77. a video card to produce music.
  78. Many times a video card is built into a CPU, depending on what model you purchase.
  79. And honestly, I would usually recommend buying the CPU with the video card, because
  80. sometimes they give you two options.
  81. Like I know with Intel, I think it has if it has F in the model number, I think that
  82. doesn't have the video card, and it might be like $40 cheaper.
  83. But why I suggest getting the video card with the CPU, because if you're new
  84. to this, it could be tricky. So you can purchase a video card, and that's like where
  85. your screens would plug into, and that allows you to see everything that's going on
  86. in your computer. But nowadays they actually have a little video card built into the
  87. CPU. So it's a CPU and a GPU at the same time, a graphics,
  88. right? And so the one on the CPU isn't as good as like a dedicated video card, but
  89. they have come a long way and they are quite impressive for being like on a
  90. CPU. But you have to think about when it comes to plugging in your computer screens.
  91. I always tell you guys at least two computer screens, you know, monitors.
  92. And sometimes if you purchase a video card, sometimes it gives you a DVI
  93. plugin, an HDMI plugin, and then a display port plugin.
  94. And it's like if your screens, because for me, I don't have tons of new screens, I
  95. have a lot of old and new screens going on, which means that they're old
  96. connections. DVI, and so I've had to purchase like DVI to HDMI
  97. cables. Okay, so you have to think this way because you want it as simple as
  98. possible, as well as to have your tools for the long term.
  99. And it's tricky. I wish I knew a lot of this stuff when I first started.
  100. So what I was trying to say is do you need a video card for music production,
  101. right? And no, you don't need one because a GPU, a graphics card, can now be built
  102. into a CPU. Okay. So you may have just learned that.
  103. It allows you to run everything good.
  104. You can even play games and stuff on it, not at super high quality settings like a
  105. graphics card could. But what I'm saying is don't feel that you're gonna be hindered
  106. by not having a graphics card, okay?
  107. Because that's what I always kind of thought.
  108. But now if you have a CPU with a graphics card and you have a dedicated graphics
  109. card, you can use these both at the same time on Windows, anyways.
  110. So essentially what I'm trying to say is if something were to happen to your
  111. computer today, how quick would you be able to get back up and running?
  112. Another thing too is if you have to get your computer fixed by someone, that's
  113. somebody that you don't know that is looking at your computer, especially if you
  114. leave it overnight. No one wants to think this way, but it's something to think
  115. about. Check out what motherboard you have.
  116. If you don't know how to do that, on Windows, you can look into your system
  117. information. So I think you just hit your start button, go type in system
  118. information. This loads up a bunch of information about your computer.
  119. It'll show your CPU model. I'd assume it would show your your motherboard.
  120. You do want to be very, very careful in these motherboard softwares.
  121. So that's you know, I should have said that at the beginning, because if you've ever
  122. heard of overclocking where people really really push their computers hard to get
  123. the most performance out of them, like this is where they do it is in this software,
  124. but I don't use it for that. There's also options to do like auto overclocking.
  125. Now that's a different world, but typically in music production, we want stability.
  126. We want we want the most stability that we can possibly get on our computer..
  127. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode
  128. A lot of interesting things I talked about because over my years, just kind of
  129. touching with computers, I've learned a lot.
  130. And I remember it was when I first when I got my first computer.
  131. so how it worked was I learned FL Studio off of this computer I bought around
  132. in high school. I always wanted a computer really bad in my room.
  133. I finally had enough money to buy a computer, and that computer lasted me, and then
  134. all of a sudden I found out about FL Studio.
  135. I really started learning FL Studio, but then what happens is your projects start
  136. getting bigger because you start getting better, and that's what's going to happen
  137. to a lot of you. If you're brand new to learning music production, eventually you
  138. are gonna want to buy a better computer.
  139. Whether that is a desktop or a laptop, I always suggest a desktop.
  140. Now, when I upgraded to my first music production computer, this is where I
  141. experienced all of these questions.
  142. I didn't build my first computer, but I did all the research and I purchased my own
  143. parts, and then on the website I purchased from it had the option, it was like, Do
  144. you want us to build it for you for $50?
  145. And I was like, Yes, because I I wasn't experienced enough.
  146. So as I owned my first music production computer, because again, so I had my first
  147. computer, but it wasn't meant for music production.
  148. I used it until I was pretty much getting underruns.
  149. Okay. Then I upgraded to my first music production computer, and as time went on, I
  150. started learning about the things I liked and didn't like about this computer that
  151. this the computer. so I purchased a video card and it had a single fan.
  152. If you are that was what I wanted to say as well.
  153. If if you were gonna purchase a video card, you want to make sure to purchase
  154. multiple fans on that video card for it to run much quieter.
  155. Okay. If you have a single fan, I think it's also called like a blower fan.
  156. That thing is so loud. And then I had that computer for I think six or seven years.
  157. Like it did me so good. And then I finally upgraded to a newer music production
  158. computer in 2016. So my computer is a little bit older right now, but at the time I
  159. did purchase good products, and they have done me really well.
  160. but I have done a little bit of maintenance over time now with this computer to make
  161. sure it's lasting longer. And what I did was I had to upgrade my hard drives, make
  162. them a little bit bigger. That took some planning.
  163. In addition, I also added a couple fans into the computer itself.
  164. And again, so when you have more fans, you can run them at quieter speeds.
  165. All right. So, you know, these are all just things that you can learn as you go.
  166. Now, if you guys have any other suggestions of computer maintenance for music
  167. producers, you guys feel free to let me know.
  168. I didn't talk much about like a backup plan or anything in here, but that would
  169. definitely be in this computer maintenance stuff.
  170. Make sure you at least have at least one USB hard drive.
  171. I always recommend to have that hard drive at least double from what your computer
  172. space is. It's gonna make everything easier in your backup software.
  173. I also always tell you guys just be careful on the amount of plugins that you're
  174. using, like especially big plugins, or if you're looking into more like orchestral
  175. VSTs and stuff like that. I know many times these can be quite big in size, like 30,
  176. 40 gigabytes. You know, that might even be small to some of the the packs.
  177. So again, you just gotta think like, do you want to bring on that weight?
  178. like. If you do, like if you really like the plugin, if you the
  179. sounds, that's fine Just know that you know that's 40 gigabytes of space, whereas
  180. something like Serum or Silent One, they're quite lightweight.
  181. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.
  182. Again, I run a membership. There's 26 FL Studio courses in there at the moment.
  183. The best way to watch the courses is within the course pathways.
  184. I've laid out the courses in a nice easy way to digest.
  185. There's no advertisements in the videos because it's a course, so you just go from
  186. one video to the next, nice and organized, and it sounds like a lot of you guys are
  187. learning. So thank you so much for your support over the years.
  188. You please feel free to visit the website.
  189. I'm updating it all the time. Thanks for listening and talk to you in the next
  190. one.
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