sp-606

[deadly_habit]

seriously man if you ever take my advice your set. hardware smplers are for converters specific sound, filters etc.
they are a botch to work with even the sp series and they dont add more than a pad midi can do.

[nowaysj]

they dont add more than a pad midi can do

Put this into google translator, even google couldn't figure this out :p

[deadly_habit]

they dont add more than a pad midi can do

Put this into google translator, even google couldn't figure this out :p

they do not add any more than a pad based midi controller can do along side a software sampler like kontakt short circuit or even drum based like battery.
specific enough?
if i knew i needed to punctuate or write for a teacher i'd avoid the net all together. i do enough of that at work.

[nowaysj]

ha ha, u trippin!

I'll agree to disagree about what the discreet bangable box brings to the equation.

Am thinking maybe I can get a cf reader for the asr-x pro, replace the pads, fix the volume knob, and get to the bottom of why the sequencer fucks up occasionally.

That just might prevent me from spending 1k+ on the akai.

[jsills]

i actually started out on an mpc and mainly use it to sample vinyl and write drum loops. but i was actually debating the merits of actually having the mpc in the first place recently. i now use ableton and 80-95% of the time im doing all my work on the computer and hardly ever touch the mpc. sucks cuz for the $ i could have a much nicer computer, but id hate to sell it and regret it later. ill say this though, it is nice to have it loaded up with some drum hits so when your rendering tracks or burning cds and shit you can work on new music at the same time. small advantage. if i could do it all again i might have skipped the mpc and went straight to ableton but thats after 4 years experience so my perspective is quite different now.


Dont know much about the roland samplers but ive always wanted to try them out, some ill cats produce on them. madlib gets some crazy shit done with just records and a 404.

[yellowhighlighter]

seriously man if you ever take my advice your set. hardware smplers are for converters specific sound, filters etc.
they are a botch to work with even the sp series and they dont add more than a pad midi can do.

some people like working on hardware samplers such as the mpc.

at the end of the day it's just a matter of what you're comfortable with.

[hurlingdervish]

the 555 is made for the niche crowd of people wanting to use it in conjunction with software and then take it away from the comp

people will trash it when they havent even used it (or used it properly) but here are some bullet points

1. usb audio in and out for immediate sampling from the daw or enable it as your soundcard and sample anything
2. built in looper with optional footswitch(sustain pedal)
3. very very high quality effects
4. you can "play" the effects by saving the knob settings on an effect to a pad 1-16 then hit back those pads with the saved settings as fast as you want (so jump between filter settings to delay settings to isolators etc etc) very awesome resampling tool.
5. instant reverse
6. visual feedback on samples, leds light up when a sample is on the pad, and blink when its playing so you always know whats going on.

much more. but "its not an mpc boo hoo boo hoo" so i guess im just chatting shit here.

[nowaysj]

Nah, man I'm feeling the 555. Think I could pick one up for $400?

I'm thinking I'm gonna try to work within my means... fix up the asr-x pro. But I don't know. Some of the buttons seem like they don't work. I think it could be more the os than the actual button not firing. I don't know, the sequencer on the asr fucks up constantly man... I just don't know.

If y'all haven't had a chance to hear an asr-x, try, it is amazing. Just straight solid sound coming out of this thing.

Would have to replace pads, springs, knobs, clean out the buttons, and figure out how to store samples in the asr-x. I've got scsi in there, and an internal zip drive, but both of my external zip drives have been stolen. Those fuckers are like $100 now. Maybe I could mount an external scsi drive on the asr? I'd need to buy the drive and a scsi adapter for my comp...

And then after all that, still have a box with a buggy sequencer...

[deadly_habit]

i know some people prefer hardware i def am one of em
just the roland tabletops offer nothing unique and can be replaces even pads etc by a midi pad control etc for so much cheaper and a sodt sampler

[yong]

u yong's boyfriend?

Not if yong has been there first

What?

[nowaysj]

ha ha ha It's between me an my boyfriend up there

[darkmatteruk]

ha ha ha It's between me an my boyfriend up there

thats rather presumptuous isnt it??

[alphacat]

Not to jack this thread (too much), not long ago I started missing my old QY-20 as a musical sketchpad I could take with me, make beats, put together melodies and chords, sequence basic parts and song structures...

...so I started looking around to see what might be out there now, since komputerz is so much more pow'rful these days - and was shocked. Apparently everybody just went and bought a laptop.

Now, laptops are fucking awesome and everything (unless you're trying to rock one live, in which case... not so awesome) - but having a dedicated piece of music-making hardware in your hands just lends itself to a different, in my case more melodic approach to things.

It seems that Zoom has a little project composer (MRS-8) with built-in synths & drumkits plus FX, and can even record audio in, something the QY couldn't do. But it's like twice as big and obviously geared towards guitar-based songwriting. Oh, and it's Zoom (doh!). That's the closest thing I can find to anything currently on the market that comes even close.

If someone were to come out with a solid, portable, and compact microcomposer that had MIDI sequencing, FX, sampling + audio-in capability... I'd be all fuckin' over it. But alas...

[MimikOctopus]

Just some info that may not have been posted yet, I believe the synthesis engine on the MPC5000 is derived from the Alesis Micron, which actually is a pretty damn good synth despite it's very limited real time control and difficult interface.

Honestly, if I had to choose a single piece of hardware, my money is on the Alesis Fusion. You can pick up a used one for not a whole lot of money. And despite it having some OS issues early on, it's been pretty well sorted out and is often overlooked. I don't know exactly what they go for used, but I picked mine up new for $800 (61 key). There may be some unsold ones about somewhere. But it's got plenty of sounds, is a fine ROMpler, has 4 synthesis types (analog modeling, FM, and such has same synthesis as Micron as well as others), a 20-40gb hard drive (a bit noisy, but not really a huge con), a sampler upgradeable to 192mb of RAM, and samples can be run through the synthesis engine.

The community surrounding the board is great, there is TONS of free sounds out there. People are putting other HDs in it, and there are several Hollow Sun packs available. It also has a 8 track hard disc recorder built in with 8 1/4" inputs, and plenty of output types. It has an e-SATA port, but I don't believe it's been implemented yet. And I believe it takes SD cards too.

It's really hard to beat for the price. However it's not perfect, the sequencer is not the greatest, and for all the synthesis types, it lacks a lot of real time controls, it has 4 knobs, that's about it. Sounds can be catagorized and searched by type or name etc. Combine it with a nano-control from korg, and you've got yourself a VERY capable workstation.

Alphacat, the QY100 is still available, has analog and digital input, drums, effects, 16 track linear sequencer, and 8 track pattern sequencer. It's a little bit bigger than PSP, runs on batteries. Over 4,000 instrument phrases and efx. Runs about $550. I've been thinking about it recently, a good friend of mine from college had a QY70 and did some pretty decent drum and bass stuff with it. Lacks in synthesis, but is a decent ROMpler. Combine it with say, a Yamaha SU-10 sampler, and you've got 2 small portable devices covering everything your post talked about. It's not hugely powerful combo, but it's very portable and covers everything. I see SU-10s on ebay all the time.

[nowaysj]

I've owned a few alesis things, and I think I'm done with them. Owned a q8 I think it was, as well as an adat. I just don't think I like that company. I didn't even know about the fusion, gonna check it.


---

Alpha - check out the sp-404 by roland. You can get one used for $250 on the bay, no joke, I've been watching. You can easily make whole tracks in there... AND ITS BATTERY POWERED!!!!

They've just released a new version, the sx which has a lot of feature upgrades that might seem minor but the kind of things that really speed up workflow, like a dedicated pattern copy, etc etc.

If this little mission that I'm on didn't blow up into trying to buy the flagship mpc, I'd be all over the 404/555.

I don't know what you think about the stones throw sound, but it based on the 404!

---

I think I'm gonna buy the mpc 4000. F'ing crazy I know. I'm stupid like that. I'm gonna trade komplete 5 + $600 cash. I already had massive and battery, so I won't be loosing everything. But I will be loosing kontakt, which I've been using more and more... not creatively but for their stock library and other sample sets in there. It hurts, actually, but I think that mpc can really do awesome things.

Gonna slowly fix up the asr-x, that thing is a gem in the rough... I don't think I'll ever be able to reproduce it's sound.

[alphacat]

Alphacat, the QY100 is still available, has analog and digital input, drums, effects, 16 track linear sequencer, and 8 track pattern sequencer. It's a little bit bigger than PSP, runs on batteries. Over 4,000 instrument phrases and efx. Runs about $550. I've been thinking about it recently, a good friend of mine from college had a QY70 and did some pretty decent drum and bass stuff with it. Lacks in synthesis, but is a decent ROMpler. Combine it with say, a Yamaha SU-10 sampler, and you've got 2 small portable devices covering everything your post talked about. It's not hugely powerful combo, but it's very portable and covers everything. I see SU-10s on ebay all the time.

I thought about the QY-100 a long time. It looks pretty beefy and gets pretty solid reviews overall... you can call me picky, but it's too much in some regards and not enough in others. It's big for starters. I mean, obviously it's not huge, but at over 9" it's not something I could just put in my pants pocket... especially if it's only half of the setup (sampler being the other half). This is another item that's definitely geared towards traditional guitar-based songwriting with its amp modeling and all that - yet despite having audio-in, there's no sampling capability per se. For the money I'd almost just as soon get a laptop (which I'm probably gonna do anyway, but a boy can dream...)

Alpha - check out the sp-404 by roland. You can get one used for $250 on the bay, no joke, I've been watching. You can easily make whole tracks in there... AND ITS BATTERY POWERED!!!!

They've just released a new version, the sx which has a lot of feature upgrades that might seem minor but the kind of things that really speed up workflow, like a dedicated pattern copy, etc etc.

If this little mission that I'm on didn't blow up into trying to buy the flagship mpc, I'd be all over the 404/555.

I don't know what you think about the stones throw sound, but it based on the 404!

You know, I had looked at these for about half a second before discounting 'em when they first came out, but now that I look at the feature set again this looks like it'd be fun to geek on if absolutely nothing else. Battery powered = big plus! Shit, wonder if this thing and the QY-100 would play nice together now that I think about it...

But again, have to say: not quite. Although I like to fuck wit de samples too, I'm more interested in quickly banging out beats and melodies in such a way that I can just dump the MIDI files on to my real DAW when I get home and take it from there - no more, no less.

What's amazing me right now is the TOTAL lack of music-making apps for Blackberry. I mean, how hard would it be to code what I'm talking about into a compact little java app for BB?! Especially given that sound quality on the BB Bold is better than the iPhone, why is it that there's like 8 gazillion composer apps for that McGadget and not one for what is essentially a miniature PC? Ugh. Fucking lame.

You know, this whole tangent started for me maybe 18 years back when I heard about a FOAF that had a whole live electronics rig inside of a fat 3-ring binder... it had a power strip, a little 1½ octave MIDI keyboard, a Boss drum machine, a sound module, and some guitar effects (a couple stompboxes and a multiFX unit I think). And this guy would show up at venues, open his binder, plug in the power - and start playing.

You could probably do something very similar with the gear you guys recommended to me here. Hmmm...

[alphacat]

Posted this earlier today. Interested in what you lot think.

http://www.dubstepforum.com/indamixx-gear-t115270.html

[nowaysj]

bizy bizy here, but check out next month's cm - all about portable music making devices, including net books. They had a picture of abelton running on a netbook. I assume it was 7 :0