[Dmitry Klingensmith]

What’s you expression for your audio keyframes? You will need to use expressions for this.

First create 3 separate audio amplitudes of the 3 audio files.
Then press U on one of the audio amplitudes to bring up the keyframes.
Delete left and right track as its not needed, only both.
Alt click the stopwatch next to the both output, this will allow you to type an expression in.
The expression you would want to type in is this: Linear(value,x1,x2,y1,y2)
This will output a value for your opacity based on the Keyframe value of amplitude.
x1 = the lowest value of a keyframe (shown on the timeline) you want for the lowest value of opacity you want.
x2 = the highest value of a keyframe you want for the highest value of opacity you want.
y1 = the lowest value for the opacity you want for the x1 value keyframe
y2 = the Highest value for the opacity you want for the x1 value keyframe

example: linear(value, 0,50,50,100)

This says that at keyframe 0 of the amplitude of audio your opacity will be 50% and at keyframe 50 it will be 100%, and any keyframes in between will scale the opacity in a linear way. so say the keyframe value is 25, then your opacity output value will be 75%. You can also use easeOut and easeIn instead of linear if preferred for that type of opacity animation change.

Next alt click the stop watch on the opacity to bring up its expression.
Use the pickwhip tool to select the output both channel of your audio amplitude layer.
Now repeat this for each individual audio amplitude layer you have and pickwhip it to the corresponding image you want the opacity to change with.

[Dmitry Klingensmith]

Very possible indeed. I am assuming you want the audio spectrum to follow the DNA strand. You said this DNA strand is automated, which i am unsure how and this method will only create a static spectrum based on where you draw your mask path.

What you will need to do is create a mask path using the pen tool on a new solid layer with the audio spectrum, that follows where you want the audio spectrum to be on the DNA strand. This will create a mask. Then in your audio spectrum settings change the ‘path’ drop down to the name of the mask you made and it will follow where you drew the mask on the DNA strand.

If your wanting the spectrum to flow with the DNA animation(again not knowing what it does but assuming it does a helix type animation) you will have to do whats called Rotoscoping. This is time consuming as you have to create new masks almost every few frames and then the positions of the masks are keyframes and change with time therefore with your DNA animation you want to follow. There are easy tips for this such as tracking motion and setting the values of the mask points to that output at the specific time the position changes. I have never done this but here is a resource to get you started if you need it: https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/animating-shape-paths-masks.html

[Dmitry Klingensmith]

In short, yes that laptop will suffice your editing needs. When it comes to video editing the most important specs are usually what the graphics card capability is because it is what rendered your layers, effects and final or certain compositions. Looks like it has a GTX 1080 which should be powerful enough for your preview rendering and rendering of project . As far as ram, I personally use only 16gb and it does me just fine. I only have a GTX 960 and i can render a pretty complex and many layered project that is 3min long in about an hour. Scaled to the higher specs, the performance will be faster. Hope this helps.