MPC 500
Too young and too impatient, I understood absolutely nothing about this machine and sold it quickly.
SP404-SX
A few good times with but I never totally hooked up on the workflow too tedious for me. I kept it to do some resampling and enjoy the effects.
MASCHINE STUDIO
First machine fully exploited. Great workflow for creating patterns and jamming, but I eventually got tired of the Maschine software, which is really lagging behind.
PO-33 K.0.
Just cool for making chill beats, like playing a video game.
CIRCUIT RHYTHM
Bought on a whim to get back into music after a few years off. Very well but too simplistic for what I want to do. Iām keeping it to introduce my sons to beatmaking when they grow up if they are interested
DIGITAKT 2
Completely in love with. I often tell myself I wish Iād discovered the Elektron workflow sooner, but maybe I wouldnāt have clicked with it without my previous experiences.
Hereās my list, ranked from favorite to least favorite.
Current:
1.) Koala
2.) * A weird program Iām building with JUCE that combines sampling with TE style punch-in effects that appear in a queue and have to be applied to one or more channels of audio every n bars. Kind of hard to describe, but lots of fun.
3.) Ableton Live/Push 3
4.) Ableton Note
5.) Ableton Move
Iām probably in the minority, but if I had to pick between the two Iād choose Note. There are a couple of reasons for that, but primarily itās because Note is always in my pocket and available for use when I have the time and inclination to generate new ideas. Grocery store parking lot? No problem. Waiting to pick up spouse from work? No problem. Bathroom? TMI, but no problem.
On the other hand, I have to deliberately bust out the Move and a pair of headphones, which takes a bit of forethought. And if Iām going to bust out a device to work on music, it might as well be the Push, a guitar, a keyboard, the Roland SPD-SX, the drum set, or whatever else is floating around.
Move is still sick though. Love that thing, as does my 13-month old son.
Also, I just realized I forgot to put the SPD-SX on my list of samplers. Alasā¦