New To The MPC. Simple Question.

I have been a recording artist/ writer for a while and am just getting into production. I have put together some decent stuff with Reason and a midi controller, but I am trying to take my production a different direction already. Ha. Here is what I am thinking, please tell me if you have any insight on what else I should add or subtract from the setup I am working on.
The goal is to get entirely away from the computer for the actual composition of the music. (I will probably still track everything out on a computer when I feel I have something worthy of messing with) I have a spare bedroom in my house that will be dedicated to this. All that is in this room right now is a desk, MPC1000, turntable and a couple thousand pieces of wax. I know I am needing some monitors, and a mixer. Eventually I will probably add a synth of some sort, but not right now.
My first obstacle for me would probably be routing (super noob) but I know I can read up all I need to know on that so I will not bother people here on that. The main question is this. What else do I need to start with, or will this give me a pretty good start in itself. And as far as the mixer goes, how many tracks would be a good amount to start with? Would 8 allow me to grow into it a little bit or should I start with 12. Like I said, I really have no idea how I am going to route everything, but I want to know how much I need to start with before I go buy something too small or too large.
Sorry for the rambling, and thanks in advance for the help.

go with 12.

someone once told me

"dont waste money on something you are going to upgrade later"
or something like that.

yeah go with the 12.

unless you get it super cheap then go with the 8.

The set up you got now is decent but you will need good monitors soon.
As for a mixer, do you mean a multitrack recorder? Because if you know how to bounce tracks it doesn't matter how many tracks you got. The end result will be two track, left and right sound.

T.Sinatra wrote:I have been a recording artist/ writer for a while and am just getting into production. I have put together some decent stuff with Reason and a midi controller, but I am trying to take my production a different direction already. Ha. Here is what I am thinking, please tell me if you have any insight on what else I should add or subtract from the setup I am working on.
The goal is to get entirely away from the computer for the actual composition of the music. (I will probably still track everything out on a computer when I feel I have something worthy of messing with) I have a spare bedroom in my house that will be dedicated to this. All that is in this room right now is a desk, MPC1000, turntable and a couple thousand pieces of wax. I know I am needing some monitors, and a mixer. Eventually I will probably add a synth of some sort, but not right now.
My first obstacle for me would probably be routing (super noob) but I know I can read up all I need to know on that so I will not bother people here on that. The main question is this. What else do I need to start with, or will this give me a pretty good start in itself. And as far as the mixer goes, how many tracks would be a good amount to start with? Would 8 allow me to grow into it a little bit or should I start with 12. Like I said, I really have no idea how I am going to route everything, but I want to know how much I need to start with before I go buy something too small or too large.
Sorry for the rambling, and thanks in advance for the help.

The amount of inputs you'll need on your mixer will be based off of how many instruments/mics you'll need to run simultaneously. I have a 12 track mixer because I run audio from my 2000xl, MO6, Phantom Mic, Reason, Triton LE, and several other mics. If you intend to build a decent size setup, then go for larger boards, if not, then choose accordingly.

Gear that I would add to what you already have:

Decent headphones
Preamp or DJ mixer for your turntable(must have)
studio monitors
Lots of 1/4 inch cables
Synth (I'd go with the microkorg if I was just starting out)
and some drum samples to get you started.

Ill-Green wrote:The set up you got now is decent but you will need good monitors soon.
As for a mixer, do you mean a multitrack recorder? Because if you know how to bounce tracks it doesn't matter how many tracks you got. The end result will be two track, left and right sound.

I co-sign that.. and on the same note.. you should invest in a decent sound card/interface before you start tracking your songs to your computer.

Thanks for the replies.. As far as the soundcard.. I currently use a 1212m at my other place where I track my vocals.. should i stick with something like that when I set up this little rig at my house? And not that it will be in the very near future.. would i be better off getting a small synth like the microkorg.. or using a midikeyboard with some rack units?.. thanks for the comments and the help.. i appreciate it..

T.Sinatra wrote:Thanks for the replies.. As far as the soundcard.. I currently use a 1212m at my other place where I track my vocals.. should i stick with something like that when I set up this little rig at my house? And not that it will be in the very near future.. would i be better off getting a small synth like the microkorg.. or using a midikeyboard with some rack units?.. thanks for the comments and the help.. i appreciate it..

The EMU 1212 is sufficient.... it has everything you need as far as I/O's are concerned, I just didnt want you running your audio through those little 1/8 inch jacks that came with your PC from the manufacturer. As for your second question... it really depends on what type of music you intend to make. If you will be sample heavy ( I am assuming you will be since you mentioned you had several thousands worth of vinyl), then I would grab atleast 1 sound module or keyboard. But if you intend to be synth heavy, then Id go with rack units and a midi keyboard.

On second thought, just go to Guitar Center, find ONE keyboard/sound module that suits the sound you are looking for, and focus on your MPC along with that ONE piece of gear until you have mastered THAT particular sound and exhausted its possibilities. Then you should be fine moving on and acquiring new modules. I say this because, Ive seen it happen plenty of times, and I do it from time to time, where I buy 3-4 new pieces of hardware and never truly exhaust the potential of any of them. Get your money's worth out of each module before you move on.. just my take.