calling all producers-hardware vs software

[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