A profound psychedelic experience. Seeking guidance from you lovely souls!

Hello all,

I’ve listened to EDM, specifically house and tech house pretty much my whole life. It wasn’t until a recent psychedelic experience that I decided to take the plunge and start creating music.

It was a beautiful moment. I was at a festival called Desert Hearts, and the music was flowing and the love was glowing. Shit was wild. Life changing to say the least. I found my favorite artist that day, Sunshine Jones. He took me through a journey of self expressive love and healing through sound. I don’t exactly know what was going on behind the scenes, but there were wires and boxes everywhere. No laptop was present or any turn tables. Just raw hardware. I’ll attach a picture at the end.

Forever changed from that moment, I returned home with a mission. To somehow, someway, create music and share it with the world in hopes of spreading the love and joy I felt that day with people who need it. The message was so simple, yet so profound and life changing.

I started my information absorption of music production 2 weeks ago, and have become so baffled with questions and over information stimulation. Where to start?

I do know one thing, mostly Dawless is the way to go! I like the idea of not relying on a computer, and actually interacting with the pieces of hardware around me.

I come to you lovely souls with a tough question. Many of you probably had the same question when you got started. I have 0 musical experience, and I want to start my journey into making edm music. Is their any particular piece of equipment that would be the better option to purchase first for someone with 0 experience?

It’s a vast world out there for someone like me brand new to the block. I did some searching and found some posts from 2015, but figured since new equipment has come out, there might be different opinions on where to start.

Much love, any input would be vastly treasured! :slight_smile:
Just an inspiration below, Sunshine Jones. Gotta give him full credit for putting the love and desire in my soul to spread love and music.

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Start with a sampler, something such as a DT, OT or maybe a used MPC or MV-8000. You could spend years mastering different genres and techniques on any one of those alone. There is a good chance that one of these will remain key to your setup as you add other stuff and you can use any of them to play shows or parties if that is your thing. From there I’d add a poly rompler or VA and next I’d add an analog monosynth, preferably one with audio input. Grab a small format mixer like a Mackie 1202 and some studio monitors. If you make it this far you’ll probably add some small outboard effects processors and a compressor.

The OT is a great choice for psychedelic sounds.

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With zero experience I’d maybe start with a Digitakt since you are asking on elektronauts.

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Firstly: please don’t let no gear snobs mess up your soulful vibe when you step into this particular compartmentalization of material manifestation for the purpose of creation, especially on the internet side of things!
Some people seem to get caught up in the material a bit too much and lose touch with their soul, so to speak - but maybe you can reach them and inspire them too with this upful, excited state of being :slight_smile: Spread the love and the inspiration.
It makes me happy to see and reminds me of the reason I do music in the first place myself.
So thank you for that. And big ups for giving thanks to the sources of inspiration.

I’m no expert, I’ve only been making music for 10 years, exploring different kinds.
But I’d say if you want to really just go for it and start learning and creating;
try to imagine some more specifics of what you want to create. Not for the rest of your life, to define you as a musician/ person - just Now,
for your next creation. How does it sound?
See if you can imagine the feeling of it. And then, maybe zoom further into some physical details of it, as in the information available in this forum -
how could that sound and feeling be created?
Me and surely others will help in any way we can to help you find the info you need to get the right tools to create your art.

If you are serious and know this is something you want to do, and if I can recommend just ONE thing, that would allow you to explore many things, I would say the Synthstrom Deluge from New Zealand is that one (I still love Elektron too tho).
It’s a unique piece of kit, it’s handmade and built with love, and it’s all in one: synth, sampler, sequencer, drum machine. It can do modular synth type stuff too (the most wirey boxy looking stuff), although digitally without a bunch of wires and quite expensive building blocks. It’s great for beginners and it’s great for pros.
It’s my favorite musical thing ever, and I wish I had it when I started :slight_smile:

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Digitakt and a pair of headphones and you can make all sorts of great stuff. It has really nice reverb and delay (and even a new compressor), so you don’t need any external effects.

I would recommend only getting ONE thing if you have zero experience. If you try getting multiple pieces of gear it will do your head in. If you have an iPhone or iPad, there are all sorts of cheap synths and drum apps you can sample.

Also, go on YouTube and watch a bunch of Digitakt videos and see if the stuff you hear interests you.

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Totally agree with the one-thing-at-a-time thing in the beginning!

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The love from this forum is out of this world! Thank you for the kind words, and general support of a stranger wandering into your world!!!

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Note how many of us suggested to start out with a single device. :+1:

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The synthstrom deluge looks amazing yet terrifying. Having an all in one unit seems nice, but for a beginner would this be too much under the hood so to say? It looks like an amazing open canvas, but might not have enough structure to guide the beginning user?

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Just started watching the basic workflow tutorial of the deluge. Wow! Thing looks pretty cool! Something is pulling me toward the digitakt as well :blush:

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Also, I know you want to start with hardware, but don’t fully count out DAWs as they are useful and are generally cheaper than much of the hardware available and offer a wide range of sonic capability.

There are also tons of tutorials available for DAWs such as FLStudio and Ableton.

For example, if you have a Mac, you can already start playing around with garage band while you decide what hardware to get.

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That’s what it’s all about…

Just hold that intention and everything will fall into place…
Intention is key, the rest is just details…
Everything is possible…

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It’s definitely got structure suitable to learn from the very humble beginning in my opinion :slight_smile:

I’d dare say the digitakt just has too much limitations. Like I said I still love Elektron and I have an OT, but…

I would say go for the Digitakt … the interface is super friendly.
maybe pair it with an OB-6 keyboard.
the Analog Rytm would also be super fun and like the OB-6 uses direct electrical voltage flowing through warm gritty circuitry as a basis to make the sounds with.
mid-range pair of studio headphones would enhance the exploration sometimes, Audio Technica make some okay ones, or a pair of Sennheiser 650’s.

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+1,000 for the OB6 !!!

But seriously.
+1 the DT is your obvious choice for Elektron gear.
Even though it is a complex instrument, you can just start out using it as a simple synth. No need to instantly create a symphony.

And I’d say if you know anyone who plays an instrument (anything/any style) ask them if you can jam sometime. Other people are inspirational, instructional, and worth 100x the sequencing power found on any device.

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My first bit of electronic music hardware was a Korg MicroKorg back around 2003. I found a synth sort of frustrating as a first piece of gear because I wanted to make full tracks (particularly hip hop tracks). I then bought a Korg ESX-1, which also sort of frustrated me due to what I perceived as limitations with it. I then moved on to an Akai MPC-1000, which was really the first piece of gear I truly bonded with. It’s still a great machine, I should have never sold mine.

Anyway, I’ve been through boatloads of gear over the past 15 years and I can say that the Digitakt (or something like an SP-404) is definitely not too limiting. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have limitations compared to something like an MPC Live, BUT it is powerful enough to make full tracks, immediate enough that you can probably learn it inside and out in a few months, and you can perform with it. You’ll also be able to make cool stuff with it in just a matter of days. Just my 2 cents.

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This right here is what needs to happen. Good music is a conversation, IMHO. The conversation is typically much better if you aren’t talking to yourself. :grin:

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If you have to go dawless I would recommend the following
For a beginner a Digitakt for sampling and sequencing.
You will need a synth to sample and sequence, and a Nord Lead (any of them) can’t be beat for a beginner imo due to their intuitive, knob per function user interface and great sound quality

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the lovely thing about the Digitakt is the interface being so lovely and friendly.
and the new-breed programming brings the quality and warmth.

i bought a Nord Lead II in 1998 on the recommendation of a friend and it was totally the wrong synth for me to buy.

the guy at the shop said "man if you are thinking of a virtual analog synth, why don’t you just go ahead and buy a real analogue synth, showed me a MonoPoly synth. i should have listened to his cool idea.

actually talking of synths my first real love of a synthesizer sound and playing experience was a Juno 106. if one of those could be found with a recent proper servicing that would be a lovely experience to start exploring with.

for bass, a Roland se02 could be a lot of fun. cool sounds and has its own onboard sequencer - although i use an external sequencer to escape the one-bar pattern length. still the onboard sequencer is cool, and the experience becomes a lot more fun with the optional k25m mini-keyboard; surprisingly enjoyable to play.

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I think if you want to get into making music a groovebox is a good way to go, but I would seriously question whether a Digitakt or Deluge is a good first option. Firstly is the price, neither is a particularly affordable way to discover if you actually like making music.

Personally I think the Novation Circuit is a much better option for a complete beginner. You can watch a short tutorial and get going. Secondly, the device will grow with you - want to load your own samples or make your own synth patches? You can do it, but the Circuit remains streamlined and easy to use for those who don’t.
Using the Digitakt is one of the fastest ways to get a beat down, but the Circuit is even faster.

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