Gear geekin
August 30, 2012 12:32 AM Subscribe
Starting package of gear for live electronic music?
I'm a keyboard player and know some classical music theory and want to try my hand at electronic music.
I want to approach this a bit differently than most others. I want to make the music with the desire to play it live from the start, meaning I want to be able to generate all the sounds on the fly without anything prerecorded. So far I have been thinking this means lots of looping and layering (ala Andrew Bird or Zoe Keating) and probably spending $500-1000 initially on hardware.
So far, what has enamored me (and is in my price range) is the Microkorg, the Kaoss pad, the Kaossilator, and the Maschine. I would be able to buy two of these things (with cables and such), three at the most. My minimum requirements are a keyboard, since that is my skill, with synth/effects, a loop station, and sampler pads or some kind of percussive input. The Kaoss Pad seems to have pretty good looping capabilities, and I'm thinking that the Microkorg + KP3 could be a really good minimal starting route. Paying 200+ for a separate small looping pedal seems kind of ridiculous. I'm really attracted to the Maschine for playing out beats and samples, so maybe that'd be good with the KP3/Microkorg. I'm not sure how dependent on software the maschine is though. Also, Daedelus' Monome is pretty awesome (or the Novation Launchpad, for my budget), but probably not necessary for me now.
I would like to avoid using a laptop, although I do have both Ableton and Reason. I'm thinking this would take away from my whole live playing goal, and it just seems less genuine. This could just be my own irrational hangup though. I'm a programmer by trade and can pick up the software pretty quick. If I were to go the software route, I could probably just get a Maschine and use the midi keyboard I already have and save quite a lot of money. That way I could loop on the computer, get synth and effects on the computer (eg. audiomulch), and not need the hardware. Maybe I could get a touchscreen monitor or something to make it better to use live. This route does not interest me as much as the KP3/Microkorg route though.
I really appreciate any suggestions.
I'm a keyboard player and know some classical music theory and want to try my hand at electronic music.
I want to approach this a bit differently than most others. I want to make the music with the desire to play it live from the start, meaning I want to be able to generate all the sounds on the fly without anything prerecorded. So far I have been thinking this means lots of looping and layering (ala Andrew Bird or Zoe Keating) and probably spending $500-1000 initially on hardware.
So far, what has enamored me (and is in my price range) is the Microkorg, the Kaoss pad, the Kaossilator, and the Maschine. I would be able to buy two of these things (with cables and such), three at the most. My minimum requirements are a keyboard, since that is my skill, with synth/effects, a loop station, and sampler pads or some kind of percussive input. The Kaoss Pad seems to have pretty good looping capabilities, and I'm thinking that the Microkorg + KP3 could be a really good minimal starting route. Paying 200+ for a separate small looping pedal seems kind of ridiculous. I'm really attracted to the Maschine for playing out beats and samples, so maybe that'd be good with the KP3/Microkorg. I'm not sure how dependent on software the maschine is though. Also, Daedelus' Monome is pretty awesome (or the Novation Launchpad, for my budget), but probably not necessary for me now.
I would like to avoid using a laptop, although I do have both Ableton and Reason. I'm thinking this would take away from my whole live playing goal, and it just seems less genuine. This could just be my own irrational hangup though. I'm a programmer by trade and can pick up the software pretty quick. If I were to go the software route, I could probably just get a Maschine and use the midi keyboard I already have and save quite a lot of money. That way I could loop on the computer, get synth and effects on the computer (eg. audiomulch), and not need the hardware. Maybe I could get a touchscreen monitor or something to make it better to use live. This route does not interest me as much as the KP3/Microkorg route though.
I really appreciate any suggestions.
Best answer: A lot of the guys that do really cool Looping stuff use Ableton Live with a Midi Footpedal Controller.
Its just so much easier and full featured compared to any of the Looper pedals around. The people that do it really well don't even look at the computer. - its off to the side of the stage doing its thing in the background.
You can do some really cool realtime sampling and looping with a Behringer FCB1010 and Ableton. So I'd probably recommend trying that out before you buy a Looper pedal.
posted by mary8nne at 4:46 AM on August 30, 2012
Its just so much easier and full featured compared to any of the Looper pedals around. The people that do it really well don't even look at the computer. - its off to the side of the stage doing its thing in the background.
You can do some really cool realtime sampling and looping with a Behringer FCB1010 and Ableton. So I'd probably recommend trying that out before you buy a Looper pedal.
posted by mary8nne at 4:46 AM on August 30, 2012
Buy a laptop and play around with ableton live first, and once you get a grip on what you can do with sequencers, samplers and synths, start thinking about either hardware synths or controllers. Nothing worse than dropping 10k on gear that you either don't need, won't use or will be out of date by the time you figure it out....
posted by empath at 7:14 AM on August 30, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by empath at 7:14 AM on August 30, 2012 [1 favorite]
You had best budget for an amp.
You get what you pay for when you buy a looper. A pedal on the floor is engineered to be operated with your feet, which if your hands are already busy could solve a lot of problems.
posted by Ardiril at 8:02 AM on August 30, 2012
You get what you pay for when you buy a looper. A pedal on the floor is engineered to be operated with your feet, which if your hands are already busy could solve a lot of problems.
posted by Ardiril at 8:02 AM on August 30, 2012
since you say using Ableton &/or Reason would seem less genuine, you might want to check out PureData, which would allow you to custom-build your own software (sort of). With PD you're pretty much guaranteed that nobody is making music quite the same way you are. It's open-source and works well with MIDI on all platforms. There's a pretty active online community that will help you get started and answer questions.
posted by univac at 9:48 AM on August 30, 2012
posted by univac at 9:48 AM on August 30, 2012
Response by poster: After some thought I think I'll switch gears a bit and go the 'Ableton-in-the-background' route. So that means I'll be getting:
1. Behringer FCB1010 (midi foot pedals)
2. Maschine Mikro
3. M-Audio Axiom 49 keyboard
4. Decent sound card (not sure which one)
I think that'd be plenty to get me started. This way I could do pretty much anything through software, and I could always geek out more and expand the collection down the line with a real synth and the korg pads once I've actually done some stuff and have a feel for it.
I live in the Seattle area and checked out craigslist to find that there's basically a haven of used hardware around here... pretty much everything mentioned so far is posted up. I'll probably break down and get at least the mini versions of the Kaossilator and Kaoss Pads at some point... they just look so cool.
Thanks for the responses
posted by aesacus at 11:15 AM on August 30, 2012
1. Behringer FCB1010 (midi foot pedals)
2. Maschine Mikro
3. M-Audio Axiom 49 keyboard
4. Decent sound card (not sure which one)
I think that'd be plenty to get me started. This way I could do pretty much anything through software, and I could always geek out more and expand the collection down the line with a real synth and the korg pads once I've actually done some stuff and have a feel for it.
I live in the Seattle area and checked out craigslist to find that there's basically a haven of used hardware around here... pretty much everything mentioned so far is posted up. I'll probably break down and get at least the mini versions of the Kaossilator and Kaoss Pads at some point... they just look so cool.
Thanks for the responses
posted by aesacus at 11:15 AM on August 30, 2012
« Older Should-I-eat-this-filter: Should I drink day-old... | "Somebody That I Used to Know" is an Elliott Smith... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
the Octatrack looks great, but is already over the high end of your budget...
as a keyboard player, will you be alright with the mini keys on the microKorg?
I think it's possible for a controller+laptop set to be just as "genuine" as playing things live, into a looper. example: this clip of Jeremy Ellis using Maschine + Maschine Mikro.
That's no less skillful than playing into a looper, i'd say. Obviously the guy knows his instrument; it doesn't fall into the "checking email" category of electronic performance...
Maschine works as a standalone AND with the computer, so you could go whichever route you're ultimately more comfortable with...but ultimately, you will get more use out of an instrument that you feel passionate about using. If that's the microkorg and kaoss pad, go for it.
posted by dubold at 3:07 AM on August 30, 2012