calling all producers-hardware vs software

[TechMouse]

Go software. You'll be able to get up & running quickish, and you can always add in hardware later on.

[Jay Pace]

Get a copy of Reason.

Then maybe think about buying the virtual machines that you use the most.

[el salvador]

Get a copy of Reason.

Then maybe think about buying the virtual machines that you use the most.

hey thanks jay. today i have buy this. i have reason 2. i like how it all looks like hardware and you plug it in with the cables. i love the rex player and the drum machine :love: the score now for me is................. hardware 1 software 1....and the game is on guys :lol:

[massplanck]

buy hardware. using software is old fashoined these days.

[el salvador]

buy hardware. using software is old fashoined these days.

i have just buy a virus too :wicked:

[g]

Get a copy of Reason.

Then maybe think about buying the virtual machines that you use the most.

hey thanks jay. today i have buy this. i have reason 2. i like how it all looks like hardware and you plug it in with the cables. i love the rex player and the drum machine :love: the score now for me is................. hardware 1 software 1....and the game is on guys :lol:

oh sure, thank him. that's what i said on page 1 of this thread. =]

[el salvador]

you are all worthy of much thanks here guys now. :love:

[SlavikSvensk]

well for me it's still hardware 7-software-4, but i don't use any of the hardware anymore as i'm married and live in a 1bdr apartment, so space is an issue...

[TechMouse]

and live in a 1bdr apartment, so space is an issue...

One of the main reasons I've moved! I sympathise dude...

Plus my girlfriend is an art student, and requires MASSIVE amounts of space to do work.

[grain]

El Salvador - WELCOME TO BLACKOUT AUDIO !!!

You have a computer and you have Reason.. Thats a great start anyway.

As far as needing anything else, I would recommend a piece of hardware. A drum machine would be a great investment if you can afford it. If it can sample, all the better... Forget about the old drum-machines you hear about like Rolands' 808 and 909- these machines were ground-breaking in thier day but the design has been improved immensely since then. You should be able to buy a modern machine (often called a 'groove box') that will have hundreds of drum sounds and synth sounds and even sampling capability for as little as 220 euro for korg's ER-1 MK II (no sampling though) and in fact you could find Yamaha's RM1x on ebay for about the same money (I have one of these and I couldn't recommend it enough)
If you had a bit more money than that, Korg's Electribe SX for 640 euro would be a sound choice, giving you sampling as well as drums and synth, and up the market again, for 830 euros, AKAI's MPC1000 would be an excellent investment.

All of these machines will link into your software set-up, for example you can synchronise Reason to any of those drum-machines mentioned... but the beauty of a piece of self-sufficient drum sequencer is:

You really get to KNOW and become familiar with the DEDICATED controls
You will be able to PLAY your beats and patterns in an EXPRESSIVE way
You can sit it on your lap with a set of headphones
Hardware automatically SOUNDS better than sofware... with software it takes alot of WORK with eq and processing to get as good as sound
You may find that you LISTEN more attentively to your beats , as you aren't looking at a screen all the time
You will eventually become ONE with your machine, and take over the world!!!!

[stjohn]

and take over the world!!!!

so what are we doing tonight????

same thing we do everynight!



......

[stjohn]

and take over the world!!!!

so what are we doing tonight Grain????

same thing we do everynight!



......

[g]

El Salvador - WELCOME TO BLACKOUT AUDIO !!!

You have a computer and you have Reason.. Thats a great start anyway.

As far as needing anything else, I would recommend a piece of hardware. A drum machine would be a great investment if you can afford it. If it can sample, all the better... Forget about the old drum-machines you hear about like Rolands' 808 and 909- these machines were ground-breaking in thier day but the design has been improved immensely since then. You should be able to buy a modern machine (often called a 'groove box') that will have hundreds of drum sounds and synth sounds and even sampling capability for as little as 220 euro for korg's ER-1 MK II (no sampling though) and in fact you could find Yamaha's RM1x on ebay for about the same money (I have one of these and I couldn't recommend it enough)
If you had a bit more money than that, Korg's Electribe SX for 640 euro would be a sound choice, giving you sampling as well as drums and synth, and up the market again, for 830 euros, AKAI's MPC1000 would be an excellent investment.

All of these machines will link into your software set-up, for example you can synchronise Reason to any of those drum-machines mentioned... but the beauty of a piece of self-sufficient drum sequencer is:

You really get to KNOW and become familiar with the DEDICATED controls
You will be able to PLAY your beats and patterns in an EXPRESSIVE way
You can sit it on your lap with a set of headphones
Hardware automatically SOUNDS better than sofware... with software it takes alot of WORK with eq and processing to get as good as sound
You may find that you LISTEN more attentively to your beats , as you aren't looking at a screen all the time
You will eventually become ONE with your machine, and take over the world!!!!

- the RM1x recommendation is solid if you're looking for a sequencer only. the onboard sounds on that thing are terrible. as a dedicated seq, it's great.

- design has been improved immensely since the 808/909? most of what you are recommending to him directly mimics the x0x interface. and while the x0x sequencer is still one of the most intuitive ways to work ever created, people don't buy those machines now for the design -- they buy them for the sound.

You really get to KNOW and become familiar with the DEDICATED controls

-- the same can be achieved with a midi controller and consistent mappings.

You will be able to PLAY your beats and patterns in an EXPRESSIVE way

-- ditto. there are plenty of x0x or pad-based controllers or sequencers that allow you to Play a piece of software.

Hardware automatically SOUNDS better than sofware... with software it takes alot of WORK with eq and processing to get as good as sound

-- that may have been true a few years ago but now that is complete nonsense. don't forget that, save the 808/909, the things are you recommending are nothing but music computers with dedicated interfaces. the computing power of PCs and the code quality of virtual instruments has gotten to the point where music software is no longer a second class citizen when it comes to sound.

You may find that you LISTEN more attentively to your beats , as you aren't looking at a screen all the time

-- that can certainly be true, however an excellent piece of advice when you get comfortable with software is TURN OFF THE MONITOR.

i'm not arguing categorically against hardware. a lot of the things that have been said in this thread are spot on. and even as music software continues to get better and better in some respects there will never be a replacement for a buggy, quirky, unpredictable analogue synth -- unless they start coding apps to do random things and shock you every once in a while. but for someone starting out, he should get a realistic idea of what's out there. then he can move into hardware simply because he decides he wants to.

[el salvador]

El Salvador - WELCOME TO BLACKOUT AUDIO !!!

You have a computer and you have Reason.. Thats a great start anyway.

As far as needing anything else, I would recommend a piece of hardware. A drum machine would be a great investment if you can afford it. If it can sample, all the better... Forget about the old drum-machines you hear about like Rolands' 808 and 909- these machines were ground-breaking in thier day but the design has been improved immensely since then. You should be able to buy a modern machine (often called a 'groove box') that will have hundreds of drum sounds and synth sounds and even sampling capability for as little as 220 euro for korg's ER-1 MK II (no sampling though) and in fact you could find Yamaha's RM1x on ebay for about the same money (I have one of these and I couldn't recommend it enough)
If you had a bit more money than that, Korg's Electribe SX for 640 euro would be a sound choice, giving you sampling as well as drums and synth, and up the market again, for 830 euros, AKAI's MPC1000 would be an excellent investment.

All of these machines will link into your software set-up, for example you can synchronise Reason to any of those drum-machines mentioned... but the beauty of a piece of self-sufficient drum sequencer is:

You really get to KNOW and become familiar with the DEDICATED controls
You will be able to PLAY your beats and patterns in an EXPRESSIVE way
You can sit it on your lap with a set of headphones
Hardware automatically SOUNDS better than sofware... with software it takes alot of WORK with eq and processing to get as good as sound
You may find that you LISTEN more attentively to your beats , as you aren't looking at a screen all the time
You will eventually become ONE with your machine, and take over the world!!!!

- the RM1x recommendation is solid if you're looking for a sequencer only. the onboard sounds on that thing are terrible. as a dedicated seq, it's great.

- design has been improved immensely since the 808/909? most of what you are recommending to him directly mimics the x0x interface. and while the x0x sequencer is still one of the most intuitive ways to work ever created, people don't buy those machines now for the design -- they buy them for the sound.

You really get to KNOW and become familiar with the DEDICATED controls

-- the same can be achieved with a midi controller and consistent mappings.

You will be able to PLAY your beats and patterns in an EXPRESSIVE way

-- ditto. there are plenty of x0x or pad-based controllers or sequencers that allow you to Play a piece of software.

Hardware automatically SOUNDS better than sofware... with software it takes alot of WORK with eq and processing to get as good as sound

-- that may have been true a few years ago but now that is complete nonsense. don't forget that, save the 808/909, the things are you recommending are nothing but music computers with dedicated interfaces. the computing power of PCs and the code quality of virtual instruments has gotten to the point where music software is no longer a second class citizen when it comes to sound.

You may find that you LISTEN more attentively to your beats , as you aren't looking at a screen all the time

-- that can certainly be true, however an excellent piece of advice when you get comfortable with software is TURN OFF THE MONITOR.

i'm not arguing categorically against hardware. a lot of the things that have been said in this thread are spot on. and even as music software continues to get better and better in some respects there will never be a replacement for a buggy, quirky, unpredictable analogue synth -- unless they start coding apps to do random things and shock you every once in a while. but for someone starting out, he should get a realistic idea of what's out there. then he can move into hardware simply because he decides he wants to.

cool g, i'm feeling that. thanks again

[grain]

- the RM1x recommendation is solid if you're looking for a sequencer only. the onboard sounds on that thing are terrible. as a dedicated seq, it's great.

I have to dissagree with you there G, the onboard sounds are top notch. And theres enough modelling capabilities to turn any of the run of the mill sounds into something special


no, don't get me wrong... theres software there that can do everything, and sound amazing at the same time... ableton Live, NI Reaktor (all Native Intstuments software), Reason.. between those programs alone, or any of them on thier own even, no doubt you could make quality tracks... But the man has a computer and a copy of reason already... no doubt he'll work away with that, but if he's asking for recommendations, I'm just recommending a hardware alternative, that will enrich his already powerful solution (the PC and software)..

In fact what the thread was - 'hardware vs software'...
I'd have to say - BOTH... not one or the other - theres no need for them to be exclusive to each other... They should be integrated and abused... together.

as I say, el salvador already has the software.... I just think he'd enjoy a go of some hardware... A nice hardware sequencer is a sound investment .

[g]

ok... I think the sounds on it are terrible.

[grain]

ok... I think the sounds on it are terrible.

Ok, I have to admit, I had to get a compressor to beef the drums up, but if you can't make some quality techno out of 46 drum kits and 654 synth/instrument voices .... well I think thats enough sounds for a lifetime of use and abuse (an TR909 has ONE drumkit, and look at the tracks that were made with that!). Anyway, as you know, you can sequence any synth or sampler with the RM1x on top of using the internal sounds, and there lies the beauty in it...

Maybe you were just playing with the preset patterns g :lol: , you know you have to make your own patterns to really see how good a piece of hardware is!

Plus it can be used as an exellent midi controller...

[massplanck]

El Salvador - WELCOME TO BLACKOUT AUDIO !!!

You have a computer and you have Reason.. Thats a great start anyway.

As far as needing anything else, I would recommend a piece of hardware. A drum machine would be a great investment if you can afford it. If it can sample, all the better... Forget about the old drum-machines you hear about like Rolands' 808 and 909- these machines were ground-breaking in thier day but the design has been improved immensely since then. You should be able to buy a modern machine (often called a 'groove box') that will have hundreds of drum sounds and synth sounds and even sampling capability for as little as 220 euro for korg's ER-1 MK II (no sampling though) and in fact you could find Yamaha's RM1x on ebay for about the same money (I have one of these and I couldn't recommend it enough)
If you had a bit more money than that, Korg's Electribe SX for 640 euro would be a sound choice, giving you sampling as well as drums and synth, and up the market again, for 830 euros, AKAI's MPC1000 would be an excellent investment.

All of these machines will link into your software set-up, for example you can synchronise Reason to any of those drum-machines mentioned... but the beauty of a piece of self-sufficient drum sequencer is:

You really get to KNOW and become familiar with the DEDICATED controls
You will be able to PLAY your beats and patterns in an EXPRESSIVE way
You can sit it on your lap with a set of headphones
Hardware automatically SOUNDS better than sofware... with software it takes alot of WORK with eq and processing to get as good as sound
You may find that you LISTEN more attentively to your beats , as you aren't looking at a screen all the time
You will eventually become ONE with your machine, and take over the world!!!!

:clap:

[Jay Pace]

Actually, I have to say that post makes me want to get to know my little 309 better. Its been gathering dust whilst I've been playing with Reaktor...

[g]

ok... I think the sounds on it are terrible.

Ok, I have to admit, I had to get a compressor to beef the drums up, but if you can't make some quality techno out of 46 drum kits and 654 synth/instrument voices .... well I think thats enough sounds for a lifetime of use and abuse (an TR909 has ONE drumkit, and look at the tracks that were made with that!). Anyway, as you know, you can sequence any synth or sampler with the RM1x on top of using the internal sounds, and there lies the beauty in it...

Maybe you were just playing with the preset patterns g :lol: , you know you have to make your own patterns to really see how good a piece of hardware is!

Plus it can be used as an exellent midi controller...

fuking hell man, the whole reason i brought it up was because i was saying it is an excellent dedicated sequencer. so no, i wasn't only using presets, and yes, i know what a great piece of midi equipment it is. i said so when this all started. i just think the onboard sounds are garbage.