Your thoughts on a Laptop Setup for Home Recording

Hi All

My brother is looking to buy a laptop to do editing of home recorded audio and video, as a hobby.

He's into playing musical instruments and recording bands, in a small studio he has setup in his garage.

But he doesn't know much about computers, at present.

I'm looking for some help with a laptop specification for him to use, for this hobby.

Any basic info would be appreciated.

I'm also willing to use the commercial services area to pay for answers to a few specific questions that I have.


Here are the details:

Budget:
Around 1000 Pounds Sterling / 1200 Euro / 1100 US Dollars

Tasks:
The laptop needs to -

• Be Microsoft Windows Based.
  
• Record from a podcast type microphone.
  
• Record from audio mixing desk.
  
• Edit and Mix audio taken from a smart phone. These would be family and friends being interviewed.
  
• Edit and mix video taken with SD card based camcorder, again more family and friends interviews.

I thought a mid spec Lenovo Thinkpad would be good:

• Intel Core i7 Processor
  
• 16GB RAM
  
• 512GB SSD Hard Drive
  
• And a 1TB external Hard Drive for data storage.

I went with the Lenovo Thinkpad, as I have two of these myself, with similar setups. I've used one of them for nearly ten years and it's never given me any problems.

Also, I've bought both of them second hand, and that's a good way to get better value for money.

To me, Lenovo laptops are a bit like Volkswagen cars - reliable, well made, and maybe a little boring. But they last for years if you look after them.

For software, easy to use open-source software for processing the audio and video would probably be best to start.

There are professional editing and mixing programs like Pro Tools, but, "easy to use and free", is the place the start, I think.

I don't want to overwhelm him with techno-babble, and turn him off the project.

I'd like the setup to act as a bridge for him to new computer skills, that he can pick up by doing something he loves i.e. recording and mixing audio.

I've found that for people learning to use computers, they learn best when using them to do something that they enjoy, like a hobby or interest.

Any info greatly appreciated. Or if you have a similar setup, please give details of your equipment or things you found useful in your process.

Thanks in advance

Barney