Looking to start producing electro, house, ...

[jake-e]

I want to start my own home studio. I'm into electro, house, dance, etc.. What gear would best fit a budget of $1300.00 to make it happen?? I already have access to a PA system.

[Pilot352]

You know, opinions are like assholes... everyone has one. If you like that gear, buy it. If you buy it and find it's not what you want... sell it and buy something else. If you ask people what they think of a piece of gear, all you are going to get is "I like it" followed by "it sucks" then it eventually turns into... "your an idiot" followed by... "no, you are".

A better question would be... "I want to start my own home studio. I'm into xxxx and xxxx. What gear would best fit a budget of $xxxx.xx to make it happen??" Then you will get a list of gear you can do your own research to determine if it fits your needs.

-Pilot

[jake-e]

thanks pilot, i'm new around here haha.

[gfriden]

Do you plan to record your stuff? In that case, you'll need a good computer, preferably with several 100ds of GB. Also a good sound card with Midi in & out. Does your PA have a usb port? You will also need to invest in some decent software like logic or cubase. As for synths, there are plenty of free soft synths available on line to start with, but you will need a Midi keyboard to operate them. Good luck and welcome to the forum!

[crystalmsc]

search for the word: Groove Box. It's the shortest route for those type of music that I want to add to the above brief explanation.

[Yoozer]

I want to start my own home studio. I'm into electro, house, dance, etc.. What gear would best fit a budget of $1300.00 to make it happen?? I already have access to a PA system.

The PA is only important for playing live; what you want in the studio is a set of monitors.

Furthermore, for that amount, a computer and sequencer would help a crapton more than a vintage drummachine that'd eat up 80% of your budget.

Start with monitors, controller, soundcard, software and a laptop (only if you want to play live). If your computer is already powerful enough ("it's beige", "Packard Bell" and "1.21 jiggahurtz" are not the correct answers) you could use that, too.

Soundcard: what do you want to hook up? If the answer's "nothing, maybe a microphone" this could be cheap.

Monitor speakers: things get fun at $1000, but below that there's a lot of choice. Bit of a matter of opinion (even though they're supposed to be neutral). Take a few of your favorite CDs that you've listened over and over again on different systems and let the guy in the music store demo them. Make sure nobody's trying to do Stairway to Heaven next door.

Software: the best idea is to just to get trials/demos of everything out there (Sonar, Ableton Live, Cubase, FL Studio, Tracktion, etc.) and see if you can make anything at all in 2 weeks. If the software seems to work against you (not to be confused with "learning curve" - there's tons of tutorials for everything out there, try mags like Computer Music or MusicMaker etc. Incidentally, these often come with a boatload of good trial/freeware and specific tutorials so for $15 or so it's a good way to get introduced to the matter.)

Computer: even my 3-year old Athlon XP2400 did an excellent job making music (with 1 gb internal), so anything above that should work just fine.

Furthermore: controller keyboard (M-Audio Axiom, E-mu Xboard - get something nice, because investments in hardware synths on a smaller budget means rack/module synths, and you want to have something good to play them with.

There are no synths or sequencers made for specific genres. Some sequencers are easier to use for certain genres than others, however - the stepsequencers in Reason and FL Studio make programming really easy, but since there are VSTs out there that allow you to program like that, you're not forced to use them. There are however sample libraries made of specific genres, and cliche/stock sounds (like the TR-series of drummachines, the 808 for electro and the 909 for dance). These sounds have been modified, processed and replaced so it's not a must to have device X or piece of software Y.

[jake-e]

Thank you all for that. I'm learning so much haha.

But how about If i were to take the strictly hardware approach?

edit: besides recording, like in terms of actually making the music, and i will still take sounds from my computer and put them onto the hardware.. i just want to be able to perform live without software.

[Yoozer]

But how about If i were to take the strictly hardware approach?

The important thing is that whatever you choose, you have to be able to see what you're doing and even if you're messing around, it should still sound pretty good; you have to be able to focus, you should not have to reach or search unecessarily (so you have to prepare! Preparation Plus Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!), and you should not have to spend a lot of time in setting things up. Yes, there's always a balance between sequencing and actually doing things live and when you're on your own you need all the help you can get; it also leaves you time to engage with your audience.

Personally, I'd get an MPC2000XL as basis for the percussion. You can cram so much useful percussive material in 32 mb of memory so you only have to load up samples once and the next best thing is the MPC2500 (I've owned the 1000 and pads were sub-par compared to the juicy ones on the 2KXL and 2500). You can build 2 or 4-bar patterns, switch between entire groups of patterns, switch them on and off - and it's solid. The 2500 is priced at $1700 so it's out of your range. You can build in a cardreader so that particular advantage of the 2500 can be matched (you don't want to do the SCSI shuffle with harddisks, ZIP drives and whatnot). A 2KXL will go for say, $750 or so.

Next thing is a synth. I'd get a Korg R3 for the stupidly simple reasons that actual analogs are heavy, expensive and relatively limited (live sound is always a compromise so you can use a "good enough" approach) and other VAs don't have lit labels for the knobs (which is handy on the stage) and aren't that compact. Also, the vocoder is really easy to use. The next synth which does all that is a Nord Modular G2, which is also out of your budget.

That leaves about $100-200 for a small mixer and a Kaoss Pad (mini).

i just want to be able to perform live without software.

This may change your mind

[jake-e]

haha well that sure is an interesting approach.

[princefan3]

im sorta doing the same thing jake-e

i'd get a novation drumstation straight away, fantastic things,cheap also...
i run sequencing thru an old atari 1040 with cubase
2 effect boxes cheapos
i love the matrix 1000 for bass
and ive a jp 8000 roland keyboard syncs with atari
ive also a 303 which syncs with the drumstation

all im missing i feel is a cheap sampler s3000xl for voices/drum rolls/mashing.
thats all house is really..

barring the 303 this would well come under youre budget and get you 80% there..good luck

f**k the software its f**k boring to look at on stage..

[Stab Frenzy]

f**k the software its f**k boring to look at on stage..

Yeah, an ancient Atari is much more interesting to look at, not to mention very durable and a good thing to gig with.

The setup you described could be pretty much completely replaced with an XL-7. That would be a better starting point IMO, rather than learning all about syncing various things and having to buy a mixer, etc.

[princefan3]

hi ya stab...take your point...does covering your atari monitor in stickers make any difference....

barring the video display,look at how boring the latest kraftwerk gig seemed.
watching a kettle boil was similar...

im forever finding that all in one units are more complex to work with...they crash..they conflict....
they need a month to read the manuel...and take a lot of inspiration out of you...my esi 4000 being
a classic example.

jake-e wants to go hardcore,choke himself in leads,synvced to the eye balls.just like me...ha ha.

i like a sensible chat stab....nobody else loves me on here...