While the team at Production Expert are principally Mac users, that doesn’t mean that we don’t think PCs have a lot to offer people looking for a powerful and reliable solution for audio production. However it has to be acknowledged that if you’re talking about a PC for audio production, it depends on the PC, there are just so many variables.

If you have the right PC system you can get top drawer performance which rivals any Mac but with more control and for significantly less. However, if you get it wrong you might end up with an unusable system. You can buy off-the-shelf but if you want to build your own system or improve the one you have but don’t know where to start, really good authoritative advice can be hard to find. If you are someone who wants to get hands on with your PC we think we’ve found an excellent place to start.

What Is The Unofficial Windows 10 Audio Workstation Build And Tweak Guide?

The guide is written by Pete Brown, a Principal Software Engineer in the APS (formerly PAX) team in Panos Panay's Windows and Devices organization at Microsoft. Suffice it to say he’s not some guy sharing hearsay, he knows what he’s talking about. He’s also a musician and he shares his real world experience and advice on building a PC to run a DAW from his first hand experience of doing exactly that.

This comprehensive guide is split into three parts:

Part 1 - Introduction To PC Picking And Building

This first instalment starts with information about Pete’s own PC and why he has taken the route he has, he then covers the question of what you are trying to achieve by building a PC and whether or not self-build is the right route for you. He then gives some top level advice such as reading the motherboard’s manual before you buy it to understand which resources are shared and might give rise to a bottleneck. There are loads of great pieces of advice like this.

Over the years a myth has grown that Apple make computers for people who don’t want to tweak and Windows are for people who constantly tweak. Pete says this about using a Windows computer for audio;

“I want to point out one thing many folks don’t realize, and the proliferation of tweak guides (including this one) doesn’t help: you can get perfectly fine audio performance from most quality PCs without doing any of this. You don’t have to tweak the PC in most cases. Of course, the PC ecosystem is huge with many different PCs, DAWs, and devices out there, so your mileage may vary. But don’t go into a PC purchase assuming that, to be usable for any audio, you’ll have to do a ton of customizations.”

Part 2 - What To Tweak Proactively And What To Consider Doing

In spite of the awkward title this is where we get into the specifics of what to actually do. The list is split into two sections: Definitely do and Consider doing. On the definitely do there are things like disabling unused peripherals in the BIOS and checking your USB use. He also stresses the importance of an interface with good quality ASIO drivers (you could just buy an RME…).

On the Consider list are everything from considering dropping WiFi, wireless headphones and bluetooth keyboards and mice, to adding your sample folders to the Windows Security exclusion list. All good, specific advice.

Part 3 - What Not To Do When Tweaking Your Digital Audio Workstation

In the last instalment Pete gives possibly the most important advice of all. With so many people encouraging potentially risky tweaks to systems he lists all the things he thinks you should be wary of doing and things you should just steer clear of altogether. From whether or not you should disable virus protection through to not blindly following tweak lists without context and some understanding of the inevitable trade-offs involved. And yes, this includes his own list!

Read The Free Build And Tweak Guide

This 3 part guide is authoritative, balanced and accessible. If you’re a PC user or you’re thinking of becoming one you should definitely read this. Click the button below to find it.

If you like what Pete has to say, here’s a conversation he had with Robin Vincent on all things PC.