Computer Considerations For Songwriting

By Robert Curtis

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When it comes to computer considerations for your songwriting endeavors there are a lot of factors to consider, but they all boil down to what do you need the computer to help you do?

Specifically you need to address all the issues of your own personal writing approach to determine what kind of computer set-up will best suit you and how capable the hardware and software of your computer should be.

For example, are you a lyrics only writer, or a lyrics and music writer who'd also like to be able to record music into your computer - and will you be wanting to produce fully engineered demos or masters in your home studio too?

Let's break this down by need and discuss the major points to consider relative your computer choices and the popular programs that are often employed for each of these types of tasks.

Please note this discussion will be an overview to cover the bigger issues of writing songs - not so much getting into the nitty gritty technical particulars. Those are things that you will need to look into depending on the type(s) of software and sound processing hardware you may want.

For more technical software and technical guidance probe around the topics on Songwriting Software Plus and other fine sites on the net and consult with the crews at your local computer and music stores.

For Lyric Writing Only

If you're a lyricist only you'll be well suited pretty much by any contemporary computer, namely Apple's Mac or Windows based PCs (from now on referred to as Macs and PCs in this article respectively).

Granted there are other operating systems such as Linux but most programs are designed for Apple's and Window's operating systems so we'll keep this discussion focussed along those lines.

The two most popular programs that have major lyric writing components, Lyricist and MasterWriter, can work with PCs and Macs.

Your current system may be well suited for these two programs already. You can verify this by checking their respective requirements towards the bottom of their respective pages - click here for Lyricist and here for MasterWriter.

Other lyrical aid programs like the virtual co-writer program ParaMind or the rhyme software Zillion-Kajillion Rhymes And Cliches will typically work just fine in today's standardly equipped off the shelf computers.

For Lyric And Music Writing And Recording

When you cross the line into the need for equipment to suit high end notation capabilities and or recording requirements the minimum configurations needed are upped.

The basic threshold you'll cross here has to do with RAM for PCs and processor power on the Mac.

You'll generally benefit by having more RAM on a PC, 512 or more is a good base point on PCs with at least 40 or more GBs of hard disk space and on the Macs opt for the G5 processor currently only available on their desktop models.

A Mac G5 PowerBook is in the works though so you could get equivalent recording capability with their laptop when the G5 PowerBook comes out.

In any event check out the needs of the particular software you intend to employ to see what the specific recommendations are so that you know if you currently have the optimum set up or need to upgrade.

So What Do You Currently Use? - PC or Mac?
And How Can You Improve Them?

If you currently have a computer that you're working with - here are some things to consider to better gage your situation and what you might consider doing to improve it.

Generally if you're on a Mac right now in most cases you're likely happy with it and the way your software works.

In my recent consultation with Peter Brunner of midiguy.com here in Los Angeles he astutely noted that Macs operate in such a way that each program is independent of other programs' operations. In other words programs don't share certain operating files to function as is the case with PCs.

Also Macs are attacked much less often by hackers and don't suffer the same level of barrage of viruses and other types of computer attacks that PCs do.

Of course consider the most power, GHz, you can afford as this helps too. This may involve selling your current Mac and getting a new one.

Since PCs tend to be more prone to glitches from outside attack and other or newly installed programs interfering with other programs there are some things you can do to mitigate these problems.

Along these lines Peter further advised that with PCs, once you get everything set up, leave it that way and only hook up to the Internet for downloading updates to your hardware and software programs and of course have anti-viral and firewall software installed and up to date.

This of course presumes you've got or can afford a second computer for music only or don't otherwise ever go on the internet :-)

Check out Peter's site, midiguy.com, for more information and especially for trouble shooting any current problems you may be having. He has a lot of free information to get you out of jams or you can even call him for phone consultations and walk-throughs at very reasonable prices - just pay with a credit card. Please tell him I sent you - I use him myself :-)

Looking To Buy? - PC or Mac?

And as of this writing there continues to be two camps regarding directions to go for the best type of computer system for music production that being Mac or PC.

I use a PC in my lyric writing and music composition process however the prevailing computer of usage in the music industry particularly the more professional levels you cross is the Apple Mac.

Living in Los Angeles has afforded me the opportunity to come across and work in several studio situations and by and large I've encountered Apple's Macs in most of the studios.

One important thing to consider when your contemplating a new computer purchase, especially if you're going to switch from a PC to a Mac or vice versa, is what programs do you currently use on your computer and are they readily switchable to the other format?

PCs are by far the most prevalent computer type in the general public, practically %90 by some estimates of computers used, so they get a lot of attention as far as software development and hardware innovation. Accordingly being that the competition is higher the hardware and software prices tend to be lower than Mac items.

However, as I noted above, the way that Macs operate allows them more program stability and you're much less likely to have program crashes and other programs interfering with your production process on the Mac. This is quite frankly why a lot of musicians and songwriters prefer Macs.

If you're looking to invest in an Apple computer that is already pre-designed for music writing and recording check out the music configured systems at zZounds.com - Music Computers. Click on the Computer Music tab at the top of their homepage then click on Computers in the left hand menu bar.

For PC systems check out the Creation Stations presented by Sweetwater Music.

The bottom-line is to make sure you match your writing needs with the computer or computer upgrade that will serve your needs best.

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