Word! Thanks for clearing that up, I was just curious...
I'm only thirty, but I've been making sampled music (mostly on an MP) for 15 years so I feel you in terms of flow. One of the things that feels magical about the MPC's sequencer to me is that it does what I ask it to! I can listen to any feel or swing and cop it on the MPC pretty quickly. When I used Live and few other DAWs, I always had to get clever to get the exact timing in mind. I will qualify that by saying, I have nowhere near the experience I do on an MPC and I can figure anything out eventually.
One very important idea for me, is that I almost never quantize now. Learning to really play the pads or keys will be infinitely useful, will allow you to jump between sequencers effortlessly and you'll have ultimate control over feel/swing etc.
I understand and have experienced first hand the power of VSTs, computer file management, and editing. I just feel there are too many options and, too many buttons! Not enough raw-*ss boom-bap! Definitely not saying it can't be done though!!
I'm talking fully loaded iMac 24" with all the good VSTs, a dope controller, a huge Glyph hard drive full of samples, and the best interface I could find w/ 24 i/0 and a nice analog summing mixer. I went all out and it still didn't do it for me. This is after countless years of trying to make friends with the computer for making beats.
The deeper I get into the music the more I realize that its the person not the gear. I'm always moving towards simplicity in my set-up and my composition, yet the music is able to get across emotions as complex as ever.
What I did, is asked myself what are the most useful and important aspects of the computer? I transferred the things I actually used daily on the mac into my hardware set-up. A few bread and butter analog synths controlled by an MPC, some nice effects, a mixer and voila! Cheaper, less headache and better sounding than all my computer tribulations. The 6 bedroom house full of records helps though=)
Back where I always was! You were right about the 500, kept mine about a week! I have a 2500 with JJ that I got in a trade, that sits collecting dust waiting for the bay. Just monitoring the turntable through it, it sounded clean and glossy.
An ASQ-10 isn't worth the dough with 60 prices being what they are. Mark my words, nows the time to buy a 60! The OS on the ASQ-10 won't matter. The 60 is a whole different story. One thing you can be sure of, that an old, beat-up 60 or 3000 will probably be less problematic than pretty new mpc 500, 1000, 2500, 4000....
Was that enough of a novel to plead my case? Good luck on your mission bro and when you realize what we all have, we'll see you back in here!
