New Studio Gear & Set-Up advice needed! You guys are the only people I'll listen to!
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New Studio Gear & Set-Up advice needed! You guys are the only people I'll listen to! Posted on: 28.01.2013 by Jenniffer Paske 'Sup DJTT community
,I've got a little dilemma that needs your assistance & expertise I've been DJing since '94, but took a step back from it between 2002 until the beginning of last year, when I got myself into the world of Digital DJing & Controllerism (love that word). After a while I progressed to using Ableton & making my own stuff with the assistance of DJTT & Youtube- Cheers guys So far I've been using my laptop & an Akai LPD8 for production & my DDJ-SX for DJing. I've been really impressed with what it all can do & now the time has come to add some additional hardware for performing & composing. This is where I need YOUR help! I want a set-up that allows me to compose & perform without anything holding me back & I've figured that I'll need the following to get the most out of Ableton: (1) a controller for Ableton (2) Midi Keyboard & (3) 16 pad drum machine/ sampler. I've slimmed it down to 4 possible set-ups: (1) APC40, MPK25 & Maschine Mk2, (2) APC20, MPK Mini & Maschine Mikro2, (3) APC40, MPK Mini & Maschine Mikro2 or (4) Launchpad, LPK25 & Maschine Mk2 As you can see I am open to a variety of models & configurations, but would like to stick with AKAI & N.I. for hardware, and maybe Novation aswell. Can anyone give me any help with picking the right combination of gear, and maybe give me some advice on what the limitations of particular setups would be? I've done a fair bit of Googling on the differences between the models, but I really would appreciate a real-world point of view from somebody already using some of this gear & who has firsthand experience about what the the pro's & con's would be. Budget isn't too much of an issue although I don't want it getting any higher than the cost of an APC40, MPK25 & Maschine Mk2, which is about $1500AUD, but if I can save money on something I'm interested haha! Also, I have a Samsung 64-bit Windows laptop w/ 4Gb RAM/500Gb HDD & a 21.5" new 2.7GHz i5 iMac w/ 8Gb RAM if that helps.. So, DJTT Community - what should I & shouldn't I get? Is there a piece of gear missing that you feel is vital for the Ableton experience? Am I going in the wrong direction with what I've picked so far? | |
| Dick Korus 28.01.2013 |
Originally Posted by boarderbas
It would be more one or the other. |
| Jenniffer Paske 28.01.2013 | 'Sup DJTT community
, I've got a little dilemma that needs your assistance & expertise I've been DJing since '94, but took a step back from it between 2002 until the beginning of last year, when I got myself into the world of Digital DJing & Controllerism (love that word). After a while I progressed to using Ableton & making my own stuff with the assistance of DJTT & Youtube- Cheers guys So far I've been using my laptop & an Akai LPD8 for production & my DDJ-SX for DJing. I've been really impressed with what it all can do & now the time has come to add some additional hardware for performing & composing. This is where I need YOUR help! I want a set-up that allows me to compose & perform without anything holding me back & I've figured that I'll need the following to get the most out of Ableton: (1) a controller for Ableton (2) Midi Keyboard & (3) 16 pad drum machine/ sampler. I've slimmed it down to 4 possible set-ups: (1) APC40, MPK25 & Maschine Mk2, (2) APC20, MPK Mini & Maschine Mikro2, (3) APC40, MPK Mini & Maschine Mikro2 or (4) Launchpad, LPK25 & Maschine Mk2 As you can see I am open to a variety of models & configurations, but would like to stick with AKAI & N.I. for hardware, and maybe Novation aswell. Can anyone give me any help with picking the right combination of gear, and maybe give me some advice on what the limitations of particular setups would be? I've done a fair bit of Googling on the differences between the models, but I really would appreciate a real-world point of view from somebody already using some of this gear & who has firsthand experience about what the the pro's & con's would be. Budget isn't too much of an issue although I don't want it getting any higher than the cost of an APC40, MPK25 & Maschine Mk2, which is about $1500AUD, but if I can save money on something I'm interested haha! Also, I have a Samsung 64-bit Windows laptop w/ 4Gb RAM/500Gb HDD & a 21.5" new 2.7GHz i5 iMac w/ 8Gb RAM if that helps.. So, DJTT Community - what should I & shouldn't I get? Is there a piece of gear missing that you feel is vital for the Ableton experience? Am I going in the wrong direction with what I've picked so far? |
| Buford Vitto 29.01.2013 | Push* |
| Buford Vitto 29.01.2013 | Dont get the mikro you will just want to upgrade once you get.to know the maschine workflow I used the apc40 maschine mpk61 combo and loved it but im about to upgrade to some analog gear and a pusg try some live looping |
| Jenniffer Paske 30.01.2013 | I've had a play on both, and for what I want to do with it & use it for, the Mikro suits me fine at the moment..Also, can you tell me specifically which features can't be accessed via Maschines' hardware interface & does require the use of a pointing device? Forgive me if I've missed something glaringly important that it's lacking or does too un-intuitively, but I believe apart from the pretty advanced software, Maschine is just another 16 pad drum machine/sampler. And that's what I want - it just makes more sense to me to try out Maschine aswell, whilst also getting a Midi controller with 16 pads, etc for Ableton. And the lights are pretty = that's a pretty important thing also lol. I'm just testing the water with Maschine, and if I fall in deep I can get the bigger one, and then I'll have both of them. Or if I go in another direction away from Mashine, I can always sell the Mikro without having risked $700. |
| Evia Nitch 29.01.2013 | Maschine micro seems like a good deal. Why pay almost double for that one extra lcd? -Reality: Micro is a toy. It cripples the idea of being able to rely solely on the hardware. You have to break your groove to go click with a mouse. |
| Jenniffer Paske 29.01.2013 | I've looked at the Push, and honestly if I could get a good deal on one I would consider it a lot more.. Unfortunately the cheapest I can get one for is $699AUD, and I wasn't really wanting to spend that much coin on something I only want to use for launching clips, not for creation. Sorry, I should've been a little clearer about how I envision I'll be using this stuff. Removing Maschine from the equasion would actually mitigate the purchase of push..But then I would be solely relying on ableton for my drums & samples, wouldn't I? I'm not sure how that stacks up against what Maschine can offer, but it's certainly a possibility I guess.. On another note, I've been checking out the Novation Impulse range of MIDI Keyboards & they are pretty good value compared to Akai, although once again as I'm pretty green when it comes to this type of hardware, I'm not too sure how they compare to Akai's MPK range.. The more I read & see about the Launchkey, the more I'm undecided about it. I did want to add my iPad into the workflow at some stage..Honestly, it's probably more for the novelty factor than anything practical, but you never know..inspiration comes from the strangest things & I'm sure once I start playing around and exploring the possibilities, I'll be frothing to get the iPad incorporated.. But I believe it would be better to have a higher quality keyboard than a whole solution, like the launchkey can be. One thing though - The launchkey does come with an impressive amount of software that looks pretty interesting. Where I'm leaning at the moment is: Maschine Mikro, Impulse49 or MPK49 (~$100 difference) & Launchpad. Although, having Push & a Launchkey49 or Impulse49 would be pretty sick wouldn't it? Not to mention free up a couple USB ports & take a little stress of the CPU having 1 less device.. |
| Dick Korus 28.01.2013 |
Originally Posted by boarderbas
It would be more one or the other. |
| Evia Nitch 28.01.2013 | Why do you need the APC, the push is about to be launched.... |
| Jenniffer Paske 28.01.2013 | Thanks for that dude, I hadn't had a good look at the launchkey before & it actually looks a little more suited to my needs keyboard-wise than the MPK does..And it's ony about $80 more expensive than the MPK Mini Yeah, I believe this thing is the perfect in-between of the MPK Mini & the MPK25.. OK.. Now the big question: What would be the better combination of the Maschines' + an APC models? |
| Evia Nitch 28.01.2013 | Maschine + Novation Launchkey + Ableton Push. |
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