# Processing for music production



## akhill jain (Nov 18, 2021)

I'm a macbook user but just out of curiosity I was on YouTube learning about building a pc and the ideal specs for a cpu. I came across two videos with opposing ideas on the difference in performance of a DAW based on the number of cores in the processor. One video claimed the number of cores don't really matter for music production for it doesn't use multiple cores (parallel processing) while the other said otherwise.

I understand how a single core's speed is essential too, but I'd love to get some clarifications on this. Thank you


----------



## easyrider (Nov 18, 2021)

It’s a balance between Core speed, IPC and Core count.

Hers is my PC running Cubase. Its balancing processing across all 32 cores at 4.45ghz

Please ignore the base clocks they are being reported incorrectly.

So if you take a Ryzen 5950x you get high core clock, excellent IPC and 16 cores 32 threads. So perfect for Virtual instruments at low latency but also big track counts.


----------



## Wedge (Nov 18, 2021)

I'm sure most the people here know more than I. But I can't think of any DAWs that don't use parrallel processing these days. If you're using a bunch of effects and VSTis you're going to be screwed using a single core machine. My main audio setup involves a Ryzen 8 core - 16 thread machine that so far has chewed threw everything I've thrown at it pretty easily. So I could probablly get by with a 4core - 8 thread CPU, but I wouldn't want to go below that. And frankly 8 cores makes me feel at least futureproof for a while. I've noticed plenty of other people here with 12 and 16 core CPUs. So I think it depends on what you plan on doing. If it's recording audio tracks straight in and adding an eq, it shouldn't be a big deal. Otherwise yes it's important. It's part of figuring out what you need and getting a little bit more, just like RAM and Hard Drive space.


----------



## akhill jain (Nov 19, 2021)

thank you @easyrider & @Wedge for your responses! Im still new to the technicals as far as hardware and machinery is concerned and so it might take sometime before I understand it completely, but as far as my query is concerned, it's answered! so thanks again! Cheers! I'm hoping to get a better grasp at things in the coming time.


----------

