What level of gear would you start with on this budget?

The Lounge Other Gear
#41

Burial used the ultra simple audio editor Soundforge. His nickname is “Fishbone wizard” or something :slight_smile:

His textures he accomplished by sampling PS1 games like Metal Gear Solid and low fidelity recordings from Youtube. Probably sampled some bits and pieces from reggae-dancehall-ragga and drum n bass 12 inches.
His setup for Untrue was the most minimal you can think of. In fact, later he tried a traditional DAW, and it didnt really work out for him.

If I were you I would get a version of Live Lite 11 or Live Intro + an old Akai rack sampler (any cheap one you can find, S2800 sounds great is still super cheap) and a small MIDI keyboard.

#42

With your budget and goals, I’d go for a good DAW like Live or Bitwig, and a nice keyboard and or pad controller for it.

Then invest in a good audio interface/ monitors.

Add hardware later - you won’t get what you want out of one piece of hardware or two in your budget.

#43

would go for MPC in this list.

regarding DAW: Bitwig 16-track is really cheap and totally enough for vast majority of DAW jobs.
(using it myself for a couple of years and have no needs/plans to upgrade yet)
PS. Bitwig allows you layering several insruments inside single track :wink:

#44

…so, main sonic tool is solid sampling and sequencing that can go complex but lez’s u focus…

therefor, i’d also say, mpc one is the best starting point…

add a syntakt half year later and u got ALL covered, when it comes to hardware…

add bitwig as ur daw backbone and finishing tool to that equasion, plus one mic and one good audio interface… and then assure urself, that from now on, there’s nothing u cannot achieve with what u got, apart from big orchestral and choir realtime recordings…

this is 21st century…it’s never been that easy and cheap to get the sonic ball rolling…
all the rest is gas and whishful thinking…

and a warm welcome…

#45

From that list I’d go Mpc one

Sample slicing is a must for the styles you mention so that rules out few of the options

Mpc not only samples but has its own instruments and a suite of effects which would be vital. Plus you can mix and master

Lastly it has pads for playing

Seems the best option

3 Likes
#46

Agree with a lot of others, from your list and your brief- MPC for sure.

Go MPC or DAW.

Avoid all of the others, they are good tools to use/try down the line… but you need a workstation to start off. That means a DAW (I’d go with Ableton Live personally) or the MPC.
Then, for either one, add a midi keyboard.

#47

Thanks so much for all these inputs folks, really appreciate your time and insight. :slightly_smiling_face:

I’m hearing you on the DAW thing. I didn’t mention this in my initial post for brevity, but there are a couple of practical reasons behind considering a piece of hardware. I am between computers right now, but I will be getting a Mac (of some sort) to replace my old one later this year. Like @Munro I also work in a job where I do stare at a screen a lot which leads me to think that something tactile or hardware based is something that would give me the “good times” that @brisket mentioned.

The other factor here is my home setup. I work mostly from home so while I have no issue working on music at the desk, I’m getting the feeling that it’s nice to leave the “office” and go to another room with a standalone piece of kit and some headphones. As I’m sure some of you know finding that spot with kids about can be a bit of a challenge sometimes :grimacing: This is just to say that I’m not going ignoring the DAW point, but also that I’m not intending to go full on GAS here - that literally cannot happen at my place!

Anyway. Enough about that! From what you’re all saying I can achieve this goal in multiple ways. From a DAW perspective, it sounds like I can get that tactile feel simply by getting a good quality DAW controller. So both the DAW + quality controller or Sampler + DAW + controller are excellent choices. But maybe saying all that the MPC one might also be the Swiss Army knife that trumps all (if I can make it do what I want.) It has all the tools, it’s somewhat portable and has a tactile interface.

Here’s the suggestions so far:

  • 10: DAW (Ableton, Bigwig, Reason) & Controller of some sort (eg: Novation Launchkey)
  • 6: MPC One
  • 3: Digitakt
  • 1: Model:Samples, Circuit Rhythm, Roland SP 404mk2, Digitone, Octatrack

Other stuff

  • Soft Synths: Kilohearts Phase Plant, Serum, Pigments
  • Synthesizer / Dreadbox / Make Noise desktop / Arturia Microfreak
  • Akai rack sampler

PS: Thanks to @HoldMyBeer for sharing the tunes, they are cool coming from 1 machine!

#48

It still got a screen and a strong software interface. Not that it is wrong but that something you might keep in mind if the goal is to step away from all computery-interface (one of the main point that drive me away from it).

#49

2021 was my first year back to making tracks after many years off. I now have a room I can use as my workspace. I have enough space for separate WFH and music “islands”. Even with this separation, I found my most productive run last year was when I took my Rytm to whichever other room I felt comfy in (bedroom, lounge, sitting on the stairs…) and threw down some sketches. Having a deadline (a friend’s party I wanted to play at set at) also drove me on. I found I did better “editing” back in the workspace, but the “creating” flowed better when I was free to go where I felt in the mood.

#50

Honestly, unless you’re dead set on hardware, a good computer with a nice controller is where I’d put my money.

You could spend your money on a good course or private lessons to learn how to use a DAW.

Hardware is nice, but it’s addictive. You could easily get caught in the buy-sell-try another loop, and it’s not very productive.

#51

time away from screens is definitely nice. i still feel the same way. sitting on the porch banging out beats with the digitakt is a pleasant experience. though, i was able to churn out over 200 tracks, most of them sample based, over the past year with ableton, my laptop, and my couch. everyone has different considerations, of course. what works for me might not for you, but i mention all this to potentially save you time and money going down a more tedious path. hardware’s still cool, though, don’t get me wrong.

#52

I think it looks just out of your budget - but if I was you I’d save a little longer and get a Syntakt - I’ve used all Elektrons and this is by far the most versatile and handy (due to Overbridge).

Syntakt + laptop could get you very far!

#53

You don’t have enough money for a meaningful hardware setup so just buy Ableton and then maybe add hardware down the line when you know what you need

#54

Amazing. Well done.

I find the pattern-based workflow of Elektrons really fun and easy for sketching, and much harder to make me finish a track. It’s not that I can’t… it’s that copy+pasting into a timeline makes it easier to see the whole track and to start chipping away into it (like the sketching is “making a block of ice” and the finishing is “sculpting something from the ice”). I think I need a new strategy that builds out more patterns earlier in my process before I start tweaking sounds and composing fills. Mutes + fills don’t feel like 'enough" variation or interesting arrangement to me yet. Maybe I just need better patterns :smiley:

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#55

Maybe make an intro, verse, chorus in your Elektron sequencer before recording to a DAW and then add icing on the cake/finalize?

This will be my workflow going forward :slight_smile:

#56

No DAWs!

Off-topic

What I mean is… DAWs are amazing and useful. I often import a 2-ch render into Live for some final eq and limiting.

I’m currently enjoying the challenge of learning to play my compositions as performances. I want to get into occasionally gigging again, so it makes sense to me to focus on performance as the product.

I haven’t settled on the best way to do this. I think I need to make my “expansive” part of the process bigger and longer - as you say, make intro/verse/chorus. I sometimes do that, but not always… I think I should probably go further and make variations of each of those too, and then trim it down, all before I get too into sound design or performance.

The no DAW thing is an artificial limit that I want to work with. It’s not for everyone.

3 Likes
#57

I agree that the MPC is a nice beast, especially for slicing and dicing samples, making full productions.

Elektron is something else. More limited but can feel more like an instrument, in that way that you can learn every inch of it over time. You can also gain analog voices depending on what you’re looking at.

I think it really depends what gets you going as a person, and what inspires you!

#58

What do you mean “elektrons feel more like an instrument”?

Most of the elektrons have click on-off trigger buttons without any velocity. I hear this often. “Elektrons feel more like instruments”. Unless you have a different definition of “traditional instrument”, i would sy that this isnt quite correct, as the elektrons function like programmable trackers. Even the pads on the Rytm mk1 are almost impossible to play like you would play a proper responsive instrument.

#59

The UI is well thought and, even on something “”“menu-divey”"" like the Octatrack, muscle memory comes rather quickly. Even if, indeed you cant “play it”, it’s made to be touch and use without looking at it. It particularly have hitten me when I had the MPC One for few month : I’ve bien happy to play with real pad, but everything felt like a crappy computer.

#60

Yeah for sure. The post renaissance MPC’s are iPad’s with a pad controller attached to them. I sincerely hate them. But in my head, because of the way you interact with the pressure and velocity sensitive pads, it feels more like an instrument. Have used MPC’s and Machine’s for many years and you can really just play it with feeling like a fuitar or whatever. Don’t really have that vibe with something like the Analog Four or Octatrack