Are these hardware items worth buying?

mr meh

mr meh

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So I'm fairly new to music production and i know someone whose selling some stuff off quite cheap and was wondering if their worth buying? he's got an Akai MPC 1000, Korg Kaos Pad & Kaosillator.

Is stuff like this worth using to make d&b or is it better to just use the software?

cheers
 
id say get your self a copy of reaper... sign up to primeloops.com download some demo sample packs... (search EVERYWARE for samples, you can get dam good ones for nothing if you look hard enuf!!) and a few free soft synths off KVR or summat... and use youtube to lern how to do it! all free, legal, and you can still get dam good resuults :) i also recomend buying and reading computer music magazine... free samples everymonth, loads of tutirals and gear reviews etc. and free soft synths etc! its well worth the £6 or what ever!!

ALSO check www.boyinaband.com for samples, loadsa good ones!
 
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I'd snap up the MPC for sure if the price is good. You can record live into your DAW with it, and it's pressure sensitive, which is really useful for making stuff like realistic hihats.
 
yeah, question would be a lot easier to answer if you said the prices too. if its cheap as hell, yes, by all means, get it. if its normal 2nd hand prices, it really depends on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go. normally in the beginning you buy some hardware and lose interest cos it seems awful redundant when you soon find your way with a sequencer on the computer. so you sell off the gear thats just gathering dust (mpc especially) and invariably regret that yeeears later when you got your style down and youre ready to incorporate something new into your workflow. id love to have all these three but they are in no way necessary, its all itb these days.
 
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logikz said:
yeah, question would be a lot easier to answer if you said the prices too. if its cheap as hell, yes, by all means, get it. if its normal 2nd hand prices, it really depends on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go. normally in the beginning you buy some hardware and lose interest cos it seems awful redundant when you soon find your way with a sequencer on the computer. so you sell off the gear thats just gathering dust (mpc especially) and invariably regret that yeeears later when you got your style down and youre ready to incorporate something new into your workflow. id love to have all these three but they are in no way necessary, its all itb these days.
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This post makes Heads and Nails sing.
 
the kaosillator is only a beepy toy, and the quality of the fx in the kaoss pad make it questionable. it's ok for live use, especially if your set is with some hardware drum machines, or DJing, but for studio production it's hard to justify the cost. Ableton will do the majority of its features with much better, you just lose out on the touchpad. the MPC might be worth looking into though, especially if the price is nice. you should read some reviews of it and look into the different ways artists are using it, see if any of those workflows appeal to you.
 
^^ On the contrary - Anything can be used in production ;) That's where the creativity comes in! I'd slap my balls on the desk and record it if it made a good sound !
 
Imo that's useless.
We all want cool stuff with pads and faders etc... we think they can improve our skills but they don't.
You'll spend lot of time trying to use them and there is a lot of chance you find later that you don't need it at all to do your job.
For the sampler, get a Daw. Cubase FL Logic...whatever. It will be better (imo).
The kaospad and the kaossilator are basically live stuff. I mean if you have the right ITB stuff like Daw with vsts, they will be useless unless you want to make live performances.

Search for the stuff that producers are using. You'll see that nowadays a lot of top quality producers work only with ITB stuff.
Imo hardware stuff is basically fapping (in the electro producing domain). And i admit that i would love to have some, but i'm convinced that i don't need most of them. In fact there is a lot of guys doing great things with nearly nothing.
Think about that and try to fight our natural disposition that push us to think our failure come from anywhere else than us.

Good luck

---------- Post added at 13:40 ---------- Previous post was at 13:21 ----------
Russla-DJ said:
^^ On the contrary - Anything can be used in production ;) That's where the creativity comes in! I'd slap my balls on the desk and record it if it made a good sound !
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I agree that every inspiration can be used. In fact if you try the ball slapping trick, let me hear that. :)

But i don't agree that "anything can be used...". I mean your external midi controller or fx rack...what will it give to your creativity?
If you bet on luck, trying to mess around with midi controllers and random fx, i think there is a lack somewhere.
Sound research is indispensable, you need this to create your artistic identity. But you don't need hardware for that.
Moreover, at a certain point, as a professional musician, you should be able to know what you want in advance, to know what you are talking about. Not a thing like: "yes i messed around this button and turned this one randomly and then it was awesome..."
A lot of great producers have a knowledge as good as sound engineers. And i think it's normal.
They have to know what every waveform sounds like, what every basic Fx can be used for (comp,eq, gate, filters etc...), they have to have a trained hear to recognize frequencies, pitches etc....
It's not because basic (shitty?)electro music can be done easily that you don't need to know shit.
In fact i'm convinced that the level is rising higher and higher and that soon, people just messing around will be dropped out.

I admit that as i'm still in a learning process, i'm often messing around randomly. but i'm working on that.

Cheers
 
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