Additional Equipment?

[madhatter]

Hey everybody. I've recently become very interested in producing, and making beats... And I would like to start making some beats of my own. I've done quite a bit of research, and I know that a MPC is pretty much essential. I've compared a few of them and I think I'll be going with the MPC2500. But my question is, what additional equipment would I need to get started? I'm sure you just dont buy a MPC, plug it into the wall and start going... I want to get decent quality equipment, but I dont want to spend a fortune either.

Also, any additional tips/advice that anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

.: Mad Hatter :.

[Desertease]

an mpc is a drum and loop machine and thats pretty much all it does, (or all i use it for). since your going the hardware route you will need to buy yourself a good synth/workstation for melodies and strings and such. if you feel like spending 2 grand on a keyboard go with the roland fantomx6. if you want to spend less than that go with a juno d or a korg z1 and then look into sound modules, after that you should be ok with beat creation. also with a mpc i would get a turntable and some vinyl and record it into the mpc and make loops there.

hope that helps you and gives u a general idea on what you are going to need

[madhatter]

i definatly think that hardware is much better for me... i prefer to be more hands on... thats why i didnt wanna go with any computer editing. but yea man you helped me alot, i appreciate it. do you have any suggestions as to which is a good turntable to start with? and with all my research ive been led to believe a computer is nessecary for some minor adjustments, and for overall file storage. is there any truth in this? and if so do you have any input on that?

Thanks again.

[bigvernthearkitekt]

I think that including a computer in your set-up for recording and track storage is a good idea and here's why.

You always want to be able to go back later and edit/mix (or have someone else edit/mix) the individual tracks of your work. Plus if you are really serious about your beats and ever want a professional engineer to mix them, you will still have all the individual tracks , so your finished product will sound that much better. True you can save on the mpc as well. It's just that most mixing will be done on the computer, so saving the tracks in the computer is a good idea.

Every time I sell someone a beat, they get the individual tracks and my two track mix, so when they lay vocals we can adjust things if needed.

I'd recommend a computer with at least 1gb of ram, a decent processor, and some type of interface that you can record high quality audio into. You will need some type of recording software, preferrably one that allows you to record multiple tracks at the same time so you can track out the beats you make on your mpc to the computer for later editing.

If you are going to buy a turntable for just sampling, you don't have to drop a whole lot of money. Any direct-drive turntable with a decent needle and audio outputs will work.

Hope this helps.

[Desertease]

Bigvern basically said everything i was gonna say lol. make sure it's a direct drive cuz belt drives become a pain in the ass after a while. get the computer and go with cubase cuz i hear really good things about that program. you can also look into getting pro-tools but be careful due to pro-tools only works with certain interfaces..

[madhatter]

wow guys, you definatly helped alot. i really appreciate it.