What a flashback! That Realistic mixer was the first one I had for my pair of 1200’s. It was absolutely awful (at least mine was) and I can’t remember how I acquired it, but pretty sure it was free. Was the only thing I could get after having spent all my money on the decks (well the 2nd one anyway). Every pot and fader scratched and made noises. It had a rough life. 
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The Realistic mixer and reverb units were fun pieces of gear. Radio Shack was one of my favorite stores to visit back in the day.
First piece of gear was a cheap acoustic guitar. Really wanted an electric guitar so I could be cool like those dudes with big hair on MTV.
First piece of gear I really cared about was a $50 drumset my dad got me. It was awful but damn, it was MY awful drumset.
First piece of software was already mentioned above, the MTV music generator for PS1. Made plenty of abominations on there.
First piece of hardware was a JP-8000. Ever since I saw my classmate in my “electronic music” community college class have one, I’ve been in love.
First—and currently only—piece of Elektron gear is the Digitakt.
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My Digitakt, which is still going strong today, maybe 6 years later! I was deliberating between buying it and a Maschine- I’m glad I bought the DT, but I wonder if I would have stayed more in the box if I got a Maschine instead. The DT led to a Micromonsta, and an Korg Volca FM, and then a whole bunch of other stuff…
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I started with an sp404 og. Same thing, had it for years banging beats. last year i tried selling it, at the end i couldnt. Still love it very much despite it not being used as much
First ever purchase: A Tascam Porta 07 recorder
Next: Zoom 9002 ‘strap mount’ guitar multi-effects
… the zoom and that Tascam were such fun.
First synth - JV1080
Took my 4 tracks to a whole new level once I moved beyond guitar and FX… and had Mondo Bass, string plucks and some drum samples
First sampler - Roland JS-30
drum loops, orchestral stabs and funky wah guitar samples abound
And not to forget the wonders of an Atari 520 ST and Cubase!
Good lord, well over 30 years ago
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A Juno 106. Purchased new in early 1985.
Holy shit, hope you still have that!
I had Mike Score’s touring MKS-80 that I stupidly sold 
Cool to see the SK-5 and Bigtrak(!) on here, had those as well. My first “proper” instrument was an E-mu Emax keyboard, that I bought used in 1988.
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Ooh! Me with Apple II then 
Never got them periodic enough to be interesting!
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That led to a Dr Rhythm 220A and a Fostex X-15. Amazing how many songs and albums I made and how productive I was with that humble set up compared to the three desks of gear I have now.
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Wait, it could pour out some drinks and bring it to you in bed?! I would have never gotten up but then I’d be so blotto I probably couldn’t crawl out of bed anyway. The future really is the past.
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Trumpet bought in 1983, still have it, still can’t play…
Roland MV-8000, never got anywhere with it, I sold it pretty quickly. Definitely not a good bit of gear to get started on. Next was the Juno g and it made sense, kept it around till the screen went blank. Won’t buy Roland again, left a bitter taste.
I had a cheap Roland piano for a while before getting into synths. However my first proper synth was a Roland V Synth I purchased soon after finishing uni as a reward for qualifying. Still have it.
Can’t help but feel I went off at the deep end from the outset lol.
A Yamaha YS200 when I was 16. Saved up for a year delivering milk. Bought that and saved up again to get an Amiga 500. Still have a Big Trak underneath my synth desk, although it’s the reissued one from a while back.
If as first piece of gear I consider an HW music instrument (started with Re-Birth and Fruity Loops back in 1999-2000), I could say around 2002-2003 the Yamaha AN-200.
Almost not using at all, but it is still working.
The main encoder skips values sometime, I’ll replace one day.
I’ll never part with it, bought after some paid graffiti works when I was 17-18 Y/O 
(Just noticed that it still have the screen protector label after ~20 years)
I need to try to sequence it with the Octatrack midi sequencer.
Its own sequencer is limited to 16 steps and not poly although it have 5 voices, and effects are kinda shitty.
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The very first piece of electronic music gear I had was a Yamaha PSR series arranger keyboard circa '97-'98ish.
Was a great little keyboard! Had built in speakers, a ton of pretty decent sounds and since it was an early arranger, I could make little tunes complete with fills and different parts.
Wasn’t exactly a legendary synth or anything, but it got my feet wet and changed my perspective on workflow and what was “possible” with music creation. I deeply regret selling it for like $30 when I moved away from Texas.
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I guess my Digitakt, but I did have a Casio keyboard with built in rhythms and hen I was a kid- the slap bass sound was pretty good!
Roland MC-303 back in 1996 or 1997 when they were new. I have no excuses, I got sound advice to stay the hell away from it and go for used quality gear before I bought it. ”Get a Bass Station and a Juno 106 for the same money” (possible back then), but nooo.
I lost interest quickly and didn’t return to making music until 2002 when I got my first OSX Mac, but at least it’s easy to program a decent beat on the MC 303. If only midi had worked as expected and the rompler sounds hadn’t been so cheesy…
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