New to Music Production, Need Advice as a Fledgling

Hello all,

I've been a long time music fan. I've been in a couple bands, played guitar for 10 years now; but over the past few years I've gotten heavily into genres like EDM, and I've had so many ideas for music yet no way to make it happen. So after watching videos of Memorecks and other incredible sampling producers/artists, I've decided that I'll invest a bit of money and get some production hardware and software.

My current issue is as to what hardware and software to purchase because there are so many options in the market.

For software I was probably going to purchase either FL Studio or Reason, both seem fully capable.

But with hardware it gets a lot trickier, and that's why I've come to these forums. I see producers making amazing music on MPC Pros and Renaissances as well as high end models of MPD series.

So my first question is: as a beginning producer/artist should I just drop $100 on something like the MPK Mini MKII or MPD26, and is a keyboard something that will have a huge impact on my music production (I don't currently have a keyboard or any other equipment)?

Second Question: If I'm to spend a bit more money say from $200-400, should I go with something like the MPD226 or 232, or does the MPC line such as the MPC Studio have a lot more production controls that would make life a lot easier?

Thank you all in advance for your responses,

Snuss

The MPD and MPK are controllers that dont come with any software. The MPC Rennaisance and the MPC Studio are contollers that come complete with the MPC software. None of these controllers will work without software. So theyre not known as standalone hardware, as you'd find with older MPCs like the 5000, 500, 1000, 2500, etc.
My best advice to you is to hang on to your money and spend some time reading up here on the forums and Akai's website to find out what's more suitable for you. Theres a lot of info to take in, and theres a lot of other hardware, software and controllers on the market. So dont rush into it. Get the most out of your money by doing the research.

distortedtekno wrote:The MPD and MPK are controllers that dont come with any software.

From what I can tell on the Akai website, most Akai controllers (maybe all their current gear) include some software....

(from MPD line): "Titles include: Akai Pro MPC Essentials, Big Bang Drums and Big Bang Cinema from Sonivox, Ableton Live Lite, and Software Preset Editor. - See more at: http://www.akaipro.com/product/mpd218#s ... EgiLr.dpuf"

Live Lite is more than enough to start learning how to make simple tracks and you can always upgrade it later. If you decide to get a more fully fledged MPC later you can turn around and sell the pad controller, they tend to hold value if not heavily abused. It never hurts to have extra controllers either.

Pretty sure you can test out Live for about a month with their trial versions; you don't even need a controller really. Plus there's tons of stuff about producing with it. Why not just download it and see how much you can do with just software?