Hi Elektronauts. I’m looking for advice on hardware to help me get back into the world of music making. I know this is a common question, so I’ve tried to customise it to my specific situation. I’m not a total beginner, having been around music but primarily in rock bands back in the day & also playing around with electronic stuff recently. I’m looking to better understand solid approaches to hardware workflow.
The type of music I want to make is based on UK future garage / post dubstep (think Burial) and more melodic electronica (think Tourist & Jamie XX.) So there’s an equal emphasis on lot of atmosphere, through both pads, leads and deep basses, but added to that are swinging/pulsating rhythms with skeletal drums. To top that up there’s usually chopped samples whether that be drums, melodies or texture. What I’m trying to work out is a) the right level of budget per device and b) finding the best device to get first. If you had to choose a starting point with just one item, would you rather build a setup around a synth to build the soundscape? Or would you rather start from the rhythm up (like old school jungle/dnb) and build the rest in the DAW?
So it’s the ability to create an initial idea with a limited pool of options, with the DAW in the background for the big world of production later. Song mode a bonus, but equally happy to “perform” live into a DAW for finessing later.
Here’s my watchlist of potential setups:
Polyend Play 689GBP (probs no cash left for anything else after this!)
Elektron Digitakt 639GBP (+ midi keys fed back into the Digitakt)
Elektron Digitone 622GBP (+ DAW for layering samples etc)
MPC One 574GBP
Elektron Model Cycles & Samples 550GBP (I’ve seen people do really nice ambient/house on these)
Polyend Tracker 479GBP (+ export track & use midi keys to build track in the DAW)
Grateful for any input.