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So I'd like to have more of a hands on approach to producing music. Something that's inspiring, like a different workflow.
What kind of gear would you recommend?

Right now I'm looking at NI Maschine, Korg Electribe and Elektron stuff.
But a synth might work too, as I really like sound designing etc..
Xoxbox maybe?

Shoot

electribes are really fun boxes...the out puts are quite noisy though. you have to be somewhat careful how you use them in your production. I love my ESX though and use it in most productions.

I've also got an Elektron Monomachine...the work flow really inspires creativity IMO and can be used to process external audio and sequnce other gear.

more latet

A x0xb0x won't help you with sound design, it's a one trick (albeit a great trick) acid pony.

Electribes are great. The EMX will give you a pretty powerful synth in a very fun, hands-on box.

You can do tons of stuff with the Monomahcine and it will give you a different workflow and includes six different finds of synthesis, plus with the new user wave model you can load all your own waves. The monomachine can be used as a six voice polysynth or you can build really interesting sequences with six mono voices (also combinations in between). The workflow is fast and intuitive. It doesn't have dedicated knobs, but the system is easy to understand and the display is setup up in a sensible fashion. It's also got six MIDI tracks for sequencing other gear and you can process external audio and modulate it with the MIDI tracks making it a complex FX box. Also, each voice can have it's own mono out so the box can grow with you as you collect FX pedals or rack units.

The machine drum UW is a great drum synth and you can load your own samples on it. I've not used one, but seen amazing things done with it. People create whole songs through sampling other gear and creating sequences.

The Octatrack can do a lot of great audio manipulation, but doesn't have individual outs which...for how much it costs...made me not want it as a piece of studio gear. I've heard a lot of people claim it didn't fit well into their studio setup, but is a great piece of performance gear.

I've also got a DSI Mopho which can do quite a few kinds of sounds, but shines as a bass synth. Don't be afraid of the menu diving on the Mopho, once you understand the signal path it's easy! The Curtis LP filter SCREAMS. This box sounds fantastic and you can do some great live knob twisting even though it doesn't have a knob per parameter. You can only twist two knobs at a time anyway ;p Doing "live automating" by recording your bassline as audio and twisting knobs gives a different feel than automation envelopes.

jam1 wrote:A x0xb0x won't help you with sound design, it's a one trick (albeit a great trick) acid pony.

Electribes are great. The EMX will give you a pretty powerful synth in a very fun, hands-on box.

Exactly what I was going to say about the xoxbox.

I just got a Dark Energy and the fact I can't save presets is good for my workflow. Makes me commit to sounds and work differently by recording lots of takes to audio. Then moving on to the next sound. If there's settings you reeeally want to return to take a pic.

What's your budget?

Minibrute is an easy to use, simple monosynth, with keyboard, and absolutely no menus. Pretty damn cheap too.

Sp-404sx, and the other sp's, are really great pad based samplers, dirt cheap too. I absolutely recommend this over all other hardware, for realz though.

Maschine is dope, just worked it back into my setup after the 1.8 update. Thing is with maschine, if you have a good pad controller like, the padkontroller, or maybe some high end mpd type thing with pads that actually work, and a daw with good midi functionality, you can have smoother workflow and more capabilities than maschine. With that said, Maschine has been my daw since working it back in. Not doing tracks in there, as that is challenging, but am making throw away beats, and having a shit tun of fun.

Not that expensive, actually. ^ Me want.

Any time I've thought I needed some new gear to freshen up production, I've bought it, used it once and put it away because it slowed me down.

^what a waste...gear is like any software...you have to.spend time w it and get to know it to make it useful. Some boxes are more immediate than others. Can I have all that gear you aren't using?

I already have an mpd24, but I thought the Maschine would be interesting to use with the NI software?
Guess I could spend Elektron money, but I'd like to avoid it really

I love step sequencers, probably because I'm into (detroit) techno.
I think the Maschine can act as a stepseq too?

No, what I was getting at is that if you're feeling like you're running low on inspiration, new gear usually isn't the answer for more than a few sessions. Even after learning how to use things properly, I usually find a mouse is the quickest way to do pretty much everything involved with electronic production (exception being a midi keyboard, which everyone should have)

And yeah it works as a step sequencer, just takes up so much real estate.

yeah, and it is surprisingly fun as a step seq. @ax

Think I'll go with the Maschine.

I'll just get some proper hardware in a later stage (that stage where I make more than 700 squid a month).

Honestly don't think it is the best bang for the money, but go for it. Fun to be had there!

I mean now that it's down to 400 it's a pretty good deal. Back when it was 600 I'd probably recommend going for something else, especially because it's really more geared toward hip hop. I eventually just used it for massive because it automapped all the knobs (which feel so good by the way)

Yeah, one of my worries is that it's more of an mpc kind of thing.
But a friend of mine produces deep house stuff and really liked using it in his setup.

I think that thing should get me on my way, any replies on inspiring hardware are more than welcome though
It's not even that I lack inspiration, but all my favourite productions come from analogue setups.