What should I buy?

[DLT]

What's up everybody. I'm a new member on the Illmuzik site, and b4 I go any further I would like to say that this is a great place to learn and to see what's happenin' on the web. Well, I am an aspiring producer and I need help on what equipment would be best for making beats and mixing accurately. I particually need I currently use Reason 3 and a keyboard. I'm open to any suggestions.

 

[classic]

first off welcome to illmuzik

Secondly u gotta realise thats an open ended question, thats lie asking, "when am i gonna get good"

I mean u gotta buy stuff that fits your production style, if ur a sampler cop a turntable, ur a composer cop a keyboard. I mean i can go on and on but u get the point

class..

 

[DLT]

yeah, i should have went into more detail. Well, I make rap beats and I'm looking at the behringer TRUTH monitors and Novation X-Station 25 USB midi controller keyboard to help step up my production. well, I'm a newbie really, but i need something with alot of sounds that I can sample into my work. I can spend about 2,500 to 3,000.

 

[H&R]

http://www.tweakheadz.com

That is a very good site that can help you get started. It has alot of great tutorials and suggestions for setups for people at any level be it beginners or advanced. Check it out it has alot ot offer and can really give you some good incite as on what to pick up depending on what you are looking to do.

 

[grandtheftaudio]

I´ve heard som amazing things done with Reason only but some kind of midimixer or some knobs to twist makes it better ´cause you can put yourself in the song.

If you are looking for hardware you nead a sampler (if you´re gonna be sampling) and a sequencer (either a sampler that has it built in (mpc,asr-10...) , a hardware one or a computor with a sequencerprogram) and something to record it to (tapedeck, computor or whatever).
For samplers you can look for old rackmount models like the Akai s950,
s1000,s2000 or an E-mu (I use the esi-4000 and really like it). There are others but I can´t remember them right now. More popular samplers cost more but you know what you get . Check out Akai MPC, Ensoniq EPS 16,EPS 16+ and Asr-10.
Check out Boss/Roland sp-303, sp-404 and sp-606 too.And Korg Es-1.

If you´re gonna be using synthsounds I don´t have a clue.

Check out http://www.vintagesynth.com to read about the different samplers.

Hope it helped.

 

[The Bastard]

yeah, i should have went into more detail. Well, I make rap beats and I'm looking at the behringer TRUTH monitors and Novation X-Station 25 USB midi controller keyboard to help step up my production. well, I'm a newbie really, but i need something with alot of sounds that I can sample into my work. I can spend about 2,500 to 3,000.

3 gs will u get u pretty much all u need to make all the beats u want, id say get a turntable, an mpc and a rack module/synthesizer

 

[andreas]

And I who am from a little diffrent school then Bastard here, I say that you should go out there and get some software. Cubase, or better yet Pro Tools. I don't sample, i play my stuff on the keys and on guitar, so I use cubase with Reason linked in as a plugin. This also works in Pro Tools, and Pro Tools is a better and easyer program to learn. So I say, if that's what you plan to do. To compose, then get cubase or pro. Link it up to your reason and then get your hands on all the vst intruments you can find. Here's my top list



Elektrik Piano (Native Instruments) - is a Rhodes vst
Bösendorfer 290 (Eastwest) - is a flugel/piano vst
B4 Organ (Native Instruments) - is an organ vst
Guitar Rig (Native Instruments) - is an guitar amp/sounds vst

These are the things I mainly use for my productions. If you wanan check the sounds out you can click the link to my site and listen to some stuff.
But most importantly is to figure out how you wanna go about producing. Hardware vs Software. Sampling vs Composing

The benefit for using cubase/pro tools is when I compose and play it on my midikeyboard it's much easyer and better to record those things into midi in cubase then in reason.

Good luck man

 

[The Bastard]

And I who am from a little diffrent school then Bastard here, I say that you should go out there and get some software. Cubase, or better yet Pro Tools. I don't sample, i play my stuff on the keys and on guitar, so I use cubase with Reason linked in as a plugin. This also works in Pro Tools, and Pro Tools is a better and easyer program to learn. So I say, if that's what you plan to do. To compose, then get cubase or pro. Link it up to your reason and then get your hands on all the vst intruments you can find. Here's my top list



Elektrik Piano (Native Instruments) - is a Rhodes vst
Bösendorfer 290 (Eastwest) - is a flugel/piano vst
B4 Organ (Native Instruments) - is an organ vst
Guitar Rig (Native Instruments) - is an guitar amp/sounds vst

These are the things I mainly use for my productions. If you wanan check the sounds out you can click the link to my site and listen to some stuff.
But most importantly is to figure out how you wanna go about producing. Hardware vs Software. Sampling vs Composing

The benefit for using cubase/pro tools is when I compose and play it on my midikeyboard it's much easyer and better to record those things into midi in cubase then in reason.

Good luck man

hes prolly lookin for hardware since he posted this in the hardware section. but if your lookin into software also you should also look at fl studio 4, the name is cheesy but the program is serious like cancer

 

[andreas]

For real. I started off with FL (fruity loops). It's a rock solid program, and in my case a good springboard towards other ways of producing and composing.

 

[DaFuture]

He should jus buy a mpc 1000--reason 3.0--radium 49e midi controller--emu proteus 2500 and a emu' mo'phatt and get some plugins and fl studio 5

 

[Agent Smith]

if you have a mac, get logic. that way you don't have to commit to any school of production just yet...you can use software but the hardware support is always there...

but seriously, reason is fine...all you need is a sick controller and osme good moniters (which you are already looking at....

 

[x-squizet]

yea i would invest in a good computer a mpc-1000 and like logic or cubase and reason

 

[grandtheftaudio]

As the others said, software works just fine but I found myself working better and more when I started using hardware. Having buttuns to push made me more intrested and kept me going plus it gave me some restrictions which I found myself liking. With software you can do everyting and to me that was a little itimadating, where do I start?
You should find someone who has hardware, or find a good musicstore,try it out and see if it works for you.