More beginner questions

Hey guys.

I posted a while ago about what I should buy with the MPC 1000, and I had'nt checked it until yesterday. I'd like to give thanks to Toecutter and Stereoroid for very helpful comments.

The time is near that I will purchase my long-awaited MPC 1000 and I'm so excited. YOu mentioned, toecutter, that I should look at purchasing either a multitrack recorder, mixer, or a digital recorder with a built in mixer... I do have a computer and I own Sound Forge and CueBase VST as well.

With these programs, would the moxer or recorder still do me any justice? I'd much rather the hardware, I just feel that I would have more flexibility in why way my productions flow.

I was looking also as a Kawai K5K Synth. Would this do me justice in hip hop productions?

My budget is around 2000.00 and I'd like to know the best way to go.

Maybe the cheapest way to go in terms of a mixer/recorder, monitor speakers, and possibly synth or keyboard (but I can wait on the keyboard or synth because a good friend of mine owns a Triton.)

Thanks for all of your input and all replies are welcome and appreciated.

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> I posted a while ago about what I should buy with the MPC 1000, and I had'nt checked it until yesterday. I'd like to give thanks to Toecutter and Stereoroid for very helpful comments.

Thanks - and I've learned a lot here too...

>With these programs, would the moxer or recorder still do me any justice? I'd much rather the hardware, I just feel that I would have more flexibility in why way my productions flow.

I think, if there's a chance you'll ever get a buncha people together to just jam, a multitrack is a v. good thing to have. You can record everything, then listen back and sample later.

> I was looking also as a Kawai K5K Synth. Would this do me justice in hip hop productions?

I have a K5KS, and I'm a total convert. It can create some seriously speaker-shitting sounds, basses, leads etc., plus evolving pads. The S model has the real-time control bank to tweak resonance and other strange parameters such as harmonic balance. Programming can be easy if you stick to modifying existing parameters, but building up Additive parts with envelopes, from scratch, can get really hairy and mathematical.

"Mad Props" to y'all (how white is that?)
stereoroid

Now you say that a multitrack is a very good thing to get only IF I get a bunch of people to get together to jem... what if I want to just produce beats to make a demo tape of my productions, get a master recording, and start to pull some lyricists together, and send some of this stuff out?

Also, what kind of multitrack should I look at buying and how much should I spend?? I dont want a shitty one, but I also dont want to drop a thousand dollars on one.

what good would a mixing console do for me?

Programming can be easy if you stick to modifying existing parameters, but building up Additive parts with envelopes, from scratch, can get really hairy and mathematical.

when you say parameters... are you talking of existing sounds?

I want to create really good quiality recordings of my hip hop beats.

Thanks for the reply.

Those are pretty big general questions... you may need a mixer to control the inputs (e.g. to boost mic signals), and definitely need one to mix down the output of a multitrack. But these days the budget multitracks include mixers, plus PC sequencers like Logic and Cubase do the same functions depending on the I/O hardware you have. I don't have a standalone multitrack, so I'm a bit rusty on that score, I can't say everyone got to have one.

Rustafarii wrote:

Programming can be easy if you stick to modifying existing parameters, but building up Additive parts with envelopes, from scratch, can get really hairy and mathematical.

when you say parameters... are you talking of existing sounds?

Kinda... the "core" of a each sound "Section" in the K5K is either a PCM sample or an Additive set. (Up to six Sections in each patch in any combination. ) Outside of those, you have more friendly parameters - filters, envelopes, or the macro knobs (on the K5KS only). You can't modify the PCM samples, of course.

Inside an Additive Set there should be a govt. health warning, or a sign saying "Here Be Dragons"! You have the power to manipulate all 64 or 128 individual harmonics in a sound, and apply multistage envelopes to each. There are some helpful selection settings, e.g. Odd/Even, Low/High for making global changes, but playing with individual harmonics and the envelopes is the way to get those powerful evolving sounds the K5K is famous for. There;s also the "Formant Filter", like a 128-band graphic filter with modulation, which I've had trouble getting to grips with, it can be too much.

The K5000S is the most popular K5K model from a sound design viewpoint, it's the "purist" additive synth with the knobs, without the GM sounds in the K5000W. I've had mine for 9 months now, schlepped it on a plane from Scotland to Ireland, and don't regret it. I'm sure I remember seeing a video of Dr. Dre hammering out a bassline on a K5000S, it was a while ago... but it's definitely up there with the best-sounding original synths ever, I think, the coolest pure digital synth, no emulations involved.

I just bought a mpc 1000 but i havent bought anything to go with what would i need and i have never used a m[c the only beat machine ive ever used was the zoom rhythm trak 234 do they have anything in common

Ahhhh.. no doubt, I get it now.

I think you pretty much just sold me on the k5k. I'm still a little confused about the multitrack and the mixers and recorders and such...

I guess I just need to know if I need them as part of my studio setup if I want to make serious-@$$ recordings to send out to major labels.

I DO have Cuebase and soundforge. I imagine that they wont be neccessary if I have all this hardware??

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