Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

So here's the deal - I'm trying to minimize my software interaction. I get stuck in software that I can muck about in forever ( and I do! )... which is almost everything. I find discreet hardware helps me be more productive, so I'm wanting to try that out.

I need something easy to work with. I want quick results.

From what I can tell, the machinedrum is probably the best thing out there in terms of interface, but maybe not for me? In terms of sounds, I'm down with some flexibility - I'm not interested in an TR or the like. Not making dance-y disco-y stuff... I'm interested in more downtempo-y breaks-y stuff ( Boards of Canada and the like )... which makes it all the more stranger that I'm interested in a drum machine... I'm hoping maybe the user samples in the machine drum might still give me interesting results within a solid work-flow. I have some midi drums that I can bang things out on as well. But I'm also open to experimentation...

Maybe a tenori-on?

Maybe something like an MPC or the like would make more sense? But I know there's a lot of mucking about in menus down that road. Eugh.

Want to know my options, advice please! Thanks in advance!

Not really much menu action in an MPC actually, unless you get the 500. I was thinking an MPC or an ESX would be just the things for you, either can do single hit drum samples or loops, or you can chop up breaks too.

The idea of manually recording samples in the ESX sounds like a bit of the old-school that isn't worth saving these days... but maybe it would work for me. Been a while since I've done that. Not sure. Drag and drop sounds over USB sounds better. ehehe... I'll look for some info on the ESX workflow.

you can drop any .wav into a ESX if you have a smart media card reader installed on your pc.


Good thing about the ESX is that is pretty handy mangling samples in a simple way, and, as any sampler, you give it the sound that you want, it depends of your sampling skills and the waves you use on it, yopu can use it as a drum or a bass machine, it depends wich sounds you use on it