Advice on Hardware to Buy

marabou22 · Post by **marabou22** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:11 am

Hey all,
This might be a vague question. I have a M-audio midi keyboard. I have logic. I have a kaossilator pro. I'm trying to decide what hardware to get next. I love a lot of electronic music but not super Dancey, clubby stuff. Some influences are Burial, Nicolas Jaar, Darkside, boards of canada, John Hopkins, Tricky, maybe some hip hop beats.

I'm looking for something fun and relatively inexpensive that goes a long way to creating music like the above. I think I need a sampler, like a KP3 or ESX. I want a lot of flexibility. The KP3 seems like it might be limited because I want to be able to call up samples pretty quickly so I can move from song to song in smooth transitions but it only has the four banks. The EMX looks great for creating music from scratch, but with the midi keyboard I might be able to work with that. The ESX can hold more samples. I don't know, I'm confused, again just looking for something fun but powerful that will allow me to let the creativity flow. I def prefer hardware to software.

Part of the problem is that I try to watch youtube videos to give me an idea of what would work best for me but I don't find much in the way of the type of music I want to make. If you youtube Darkside's live pitchfork performance. or nicolas jaar's boiler room set (same person)..that's the type of stuff I'd love to make. He's able to manipulate , call up samples and the flow is so loose. I'd love to be able manipulate sounds like that.

Sorry for being so vague but any ideas would help.

Hugo · Post by **Hugo** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:07 pm

I'm not too familiar with all the artists you mention (I do love Burial, though), but if I was starting up now, I think I'd have a serious look at the Roland FA-06. Don't know if this is within your budget, but if you can afford, it does offer a lot of bang for the buck. It seems to me to be the best deal in this price range. But if the price is too high, I think a Korg ELectribe EMX is a great little box. Couple it up with a small sampler, perhaps the ESX or one of Roland's SP samplers, and you're good to go

Between these I also recommend you place a Kaoss Pad or two - personally I run the EMX through a MiniKaoss Pad and a MiniKP2 before the signal enters the ESX.

marabou22 · Post by **marabou22** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 10:21 pm

First, if you get a chance go on Youtube and look up Darkside's performance at Pitchfork. It's electronic music (nicolas Jaar) and live guitar. it almost sounds like a david lynch movie but dancier? but oddly not like david lynch's own music. whatever. I want to make music like that.

Anyways, thanks! That's definitely helpful. I already have a kaossilator pro and m-audio. I was reading about maschine? not a korg instrument. But I like what I'm reading about it. anyone know about maschine for my purposes?

analoguekid · Post by **analoguekid** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 10:40 pm

I think you first need to decide if you want something that's tweakable "live" so that your performance is variable, secondly and this is a biggy, its not always about the device making the music, it can be a lot to do with the FX you use with it, so look at a cheap Volca with a delay/reverb pedal of some sort, even a looping pedal will give you flexibility if your arsenal of sound producing devices is limited. The BOC stuff is more about atmosphere and feeling:-)

marabou22 · Post by **marabou22** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 10:49 pm

Well I think that's exactly why I'm stuck. I'm not necessarily looking to play live because I'm still learning what I'm doing first. But in my bedroom I want to be able to move, shift, yes tweak quickly. Call up new samples, move into a bridge or something. That's my issue with Kaossilator is it's just a looper and doesn't allow me to make moves too much. I can always restructure through my software but I'd rather use hard wear. So I guess a lot of play flexibility.

analoguekid · Post by **analoguekid** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 11:28 pm

And thanks for the tip on the Darkside stuff, never seen or heard any of their stuff before but am watching the you tube vids and this is fine modern EM music and I am loving it

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:54 pm

Would I be to far off suggesting looking at a maschine mk2? Yes it is still tied to software but it is pretty flexible.

marabou22 · Post by **marabou22** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:57 pm

You wouldn't be far off at all because guess what, I decided to buy the Maschine MK2 and am setting it up as we speak. So really, you're dead on! nailed it. haha. After much research it seems to be the perfect thing for me. Well done.

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:05 pm

I have a good time with mine. I have not ventured I to 2.0 software yet. I would like a studio. But at a grand it ain't happening anytime soon!

Have fine with it. I have had one for awhile and haven't even scratched the surface. I still have a lot of issues but when I picked up a Lronos learning it became second to digging into the Kronos. But I'm sure you'll have a ball with the maschine!

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 2:51 am

Just watched some of the Darkside vids. Very cool! That's something that I would like to get into if I could find a guitarist who tended towards the minimalist approach and also hd a looper pedal.

Since I'm not familiar with this genre, what is the thing that the "keyboard" guy is using? I'm a hands on type of keyboard player. Ilya a Kronos, as well as a bunch of other keyboards, plus guitars and basses.
Is it a synth or a controller?