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Renze
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Post by Renze »

You said you want to buy a 303 because "That little box has gotten more praise than any other machine I know". I'd be very careful buying one if I were you. Yes it was hyped up a lot during the 90's (and the price came up with it). But consider this: a good working 303 will cost you about 800 euro (dunno how much that is in dollars).
That is a lot of money for one machine that does have its limitations. OK, it has its own unique sound and a sequencer that can be very funky, but is it worth 800 bucks? From that money alone you can probably buy a Roland Juno 106, a Korg Poly 800 and a Yamaha DX7, all in mint condition. That's 3 synths :) I'm not saying you should buy these 3, as you already have a microKorg and a nice Yamaha. But think before even saving up for a 303 :)

My personal preference (although I'm also a beginning producer) is sort of a hybrid studio. Hardware synths and a laptop for recording, sequencing, FX etc is what I'm aiming at.

Oh and if you want a good TB-303 emulator VST, I heard this one is pretty good: AudioRealism Bassline
It's supposed to be better than ReBirth 8)
Jesse Somfay
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Post by Jesse Somfay »

Renze wrote:Oh and if you want a good TB-303 emulator VST, I heard this one is pretty good: AudioRealism Bassline
It's supposed to be better than ReBirth 8)
I highly recommend AudioRealism. It sounds exactly like the real thing. I have been using it a lot in my recent productions. I put tons of distortion and things over it though to make it even louder and much more mean sounding.
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Raph
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Post by Raph »

leecurtiss
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Post by leecurtiss »

without getting into the " hardware vs. software" debate i would suggest that you really discect your gear that you have already painstakingly aquired. i started out with a yamaha CS1x and a sh!t ass sampler that i learned the basics on before i bought a computer and alot of gear in the past couple years. i still am amazed by the sounds i can get when i break out of the CS1x becuase i know it like the back of my hand. on the other hand, i had a whole new world open up for me when i found software and have been relying heavily on these programs for my production a long time. point being, i wouldn't be where i'm at with my music and couldn't imagine trying do do it without either. the editing and programing process with software is far easier and more descript while there is still no substitute for analogue sounds. my recomendation is to buy a computer but remember your analogue roots, best of luck.
adam
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Post by adam »

Software is the best thing to do next, but instead of argueing that, i'll argue something else ;)

Microkorg: learn it in and out. Learn how to write your own patches properly. Delete all system patches and you'll be forced to learn quickly. It's not hard to do.

303? DON'T. There is no future in owning a machine that will cost you more than a computer and will probably only be used a couple times once you realize the lack of use for it in production. A microkorg can do everything the 303 can if you know how to use it. Of course, a sequencer would help with it, hardware ones do exist. It's much more flexible than something like a tb-303.

Electribes, in my experience, have been trash but really experiment with it and see what kind of workiable sounds you can get out of it. As for other drum machines, if you insist on going all hardware still, look for something else with some flexibility... there are lots of sampler/drum machine combos that will give you more flexibility and even better for your situation might be something like the Machinedrum (brought to you by the people who made SIDSTATION I think and capable of producing high quality sounds and even emulating your 808s and 909s if you really care to).

With a solid drum machine and synthesizer, you've got some good foundations going for beginning production and performance. In my opinion, the next very important step would be a sampler of some sort. I actually use a sampler when playing live and it's sort of what I "do" as half of tractile when playing live, although i am in essence doing what the other half ddoes with ableton, just with hardware and not nearly as flexibly.

For production though, I would definately reccomend tthat software comes into the mix somehow.. even if you set things up so you don't need it when you play live (funky edited vocal sampleing, etc - saved to a sampler), you will find that using just hardware is extremely limiting. Editing alone is extremely important in any sort of production and is often where all the fun and funk comes out. Writing on the computer (and combining tools like Reason and recordings from your microkorg) is a good way to go. If you try to record music done all with hardware without any thing else, I imagine it will come out sounding a little... well, I won't say any names or point fi fingers, but there's a few artists floating around over the past 3 years or so making some really boring music and all it needs is something a little extra that they would get from taking it into the software some more.

Hope some of this helps.
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