By manman
Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:01 pm
I'll just give you one piece of feedback that applies to me, with respect to getting something like the 500/1k vs Ren or something that requires software. May help/apply to you or not.
I'm generally a "software guy" when it comes to most things. I do software development as a profession, and I tend to gravitate towards it when faced with a choice of that vs a piece of hardware that has limited screen space to give you back info, etc. So I was REALLY unsure about the 'standalone' versions of the MPC, and thought I wouldn't want to go with that. The more I looked at opinions though, I found very few people that found the learning curve to be an obstacle, and a lot of people swore by the workflow. One of the bigger things that swayed me though (and I have DEFINITELY noticed myself when I work with certain software), is the idea that in software you can have so many options and things to tweak and mess with that you can get bogged down in all those small details, and lose focus on the music / your ear. My feeling was that for someone brand new, maybe it makes more sense to start simple, and work my way to more complicated / larger set of options as I go.
Now I just want to be clear- I'm NOT saying that is a legit worry for everyone. Plenty of people probably start on software and have no problem focusing on the music, or getting stuck on all their options. For me, that's just something I've experienced before, and got similar feedback from some other people. So far I haven't regretted my decision. I'm on the 1k every night for a good 4-5 hours just playing around and learning to use it. On a desk in my room, on my lap other places around the house, speakers, headphones, whatever. VERY happy I don't have to be tied to a laptop/pc, while I'm learning it. Feels pretty portable to me, but moving it around a lot outside the house, might be a little heavy. Hope that helps. I'm still brand new too, so I can only give you the opinion of someone not too far ahead of you
I'm generally a "software guy" when it comes to most things. I do software development as a profession, and I tend to gravitate towards it when faced with a choice of that vs a piece of hardware that has limited screen space to give you back info, etc. So I was REALLY unsure about the 'standalone' versions of the MPC, and thought I wouldn't want to go with that. The more I looked at opinions though, I found very few people that found the learning curve to be an obstacle, and a lot of people swore by the workflow. One of the bigger things that swayed me though (and I have DEFINITELY noticed myself when I work with certain software), is the idea that in software you can have so many options and things to tweak and mess with that you can get bogged down in all those small details, and lose focus on the music / your ear. My feeling was that for someone brand new, maybe it makes more sense to start simple, and work my way to more complicated / larger set of options as I go.
Now I just want to be clear- I'm NOT saying that is a legit worry for everyone. Plenty of people probably start on software and have no problem focusing on the music, or getting stuck on all their options. For me, that's just something I've experienced before, and got similar feedback from some other people. So far I haven't regretted my decision. I'm on the 1k every night for a good 4-5 hours just playing around and learning to use it. On a desk in my room, on my lap other places around the house, speakers, headphones, whatever. VERY happy I don't have to be tied to a laptop/pc, while I'm learning it. Feels pretty portable to me, but moving it around a lot outside the house, might be a little heavy. Hope that helps. I'm still brand new too, so I can only give you the opinion of someone not too far ahead of you
