Help me spend money

sorry about the long post

I have an ASR10 a MPC3000 (both already maxed out mem.) and a $3000 (could stretch it to 4 if need b)budget.
I want to make hip hop with recording industry (or at least really good trunk music)sound quality vocals and all
Please help me spend my money wisely.
I have access to a apple g4 1.33ghz laptop for about the same price as it would cost me to build a custom pc to run all this. I know my way around a pc but heard mac is better for music production but i've never used a mac for anything.

1. pc or mac laptop?
2. which program? pro tools? reason? logic? other..?
3. midi stuff that i need ?
4. new sounds for the Asr10?(does anyone sell sounds they've sampled form the motif or mophatt? wav format is fine i can convert i see moog kits never seen motif) or ebay the asr and upgrade? if so to what?
5. good monitor speakers?
6. anything else i may need?

Reply's welcome from anyone with any experience. There are so many choices i just want to hear about some combos alredy working b4 i waste time and money trying to put one together. Thanks all for your time!!

Figure out how you want to work before dropping anymore dough. One thing you definitley need is a mixer, a mic, and something to record on (tape deck, CDR, DAT, Pro Tools).

You have a number of different options.

If your mixes suck then you can probrably benefit from some good monitors like the Mackie 824's(1,050$)

Or just a whole new computer(1,200$), midi interface(100$), soundcard(500$ or less) and software(200$)

Another thing is a mic, sm7(400$) sm58(90$)

Or a Preamp, Grace 101(600$), Great River Me-1Nv(1,050$)

wish i had money like that

Here's my setup for reference. Same setup since 99'...

Dell PC 850Mhz 526 Ram w/burner and can run 24+ tracks with effects on Cakewalk ProAudio 9.(you could get a computer twice as fast for under a G nowadays)

Echo Layla soundcard has 8 in 8 out and midi(600$ but there are plenty different ones now for less than that).

Behringer 12 channel mixer(180$, I don't recommend recording through cheap mixers, it muddys up your sound, I use it just for playback).

Grace 101 preamp(600$ and one of the most important pieces, it makes any mike sound 10x better, it's only 1 channel though).

AKG c3000b(300$, I regret buying this mic but have to deal with it until I get some loot for a REAL mic).

For monitors I'm just using my home stereo that I've had for over 8 years, a Pioneer reciever and Technics speakers(200$)

For under 3000$ you could easily buy a good setup, good luck.

Thanks for the replys so far!! i shoulda mentioned i'm a dj so i have turntables, speakers, cdj's, dj mixers, also mackie cfx12 mixer and a couple of cheap mics. i've been at this for years i've had the asr and mpc for 7 or 8 years. What i really want to do is step into the world of computer recording i'm looking for advice on which system to build. i have a couple of friends who are spending big money in studios and i wanna build a good pre production system to intercept some of that cash.

You should prolly check out hitsquad.com and see what types of editors/multitrack programs are out there for PC/MAC before you drop the money. For PC multitracking personally I would choose cool edit or vegas. Editing, I would prolly go with cool edit or sound forge.

MAC, I would do pro tools.

I'm not saying I'm an expert or anything but with my setup, I've recorded 4 full albums, 1 was my cousins mixtape album with a remix that got played on Hot 97 a lot last year. I also recorded 2 full albums for my current band and our new single is getting played on the radio in Chicago almost every day. The sound quality of our songs is almost the same as the other songs recorded at real studios and it still trips me out whenever I hear one of ours on the radio because we recorded it in my bedroom.

hey drumtek u are def. right about that behringer 12 channel mixer. i just started producin a few months ago and didn't know anything about anything when it comes to producing. so i went out and bought that behringer 12 channel mixer to add it to my mpc2kxl and turntable. i can't get it to come out right when i record into my computer (as u can see on my battle beat vs. djames). so i guess you are right about using it to record. so what is a good mixer to record into the computer with.

That I know of there are no mixers under 500 that will give a great sound. My friend has a Mackie 24 channel board that he paid 1,400 for and it still sounds muddy and dull, the eq is wack to. One thing to try is to just bypass the mixer and plug straight into the soundcard, or you can start looking into preamps like an audio buddy 2 channel for around 80$. I've heard good results with it that sound better than the behringer boards. After that there's a RNP from FMR audio and it's 2 channel also. It's a bigger step up and costs 500$, it'll make your sounds cleaner and make them stand out more. I have a Grace 101 single channel but I can't run stereo stuff through it, it cost 600$ but it's dope as hell, I use it for kicks, snares, live instruments and vocals, all mono stuff. There's a Sytek 4 channel preamp that is supposed to be pro quality for 800$. Anything above that and you get the 1,000+ Pro Studio grade pre's like Neve's, Manley and Avalon.

thanx man. im going to look into some of the products that you posted. peace

dude put out a 12 inch

?

thanks Drumtek for listing your setup thats the type of feedback i need combos that are already working anybody else care to share a working combo??

IMO, i would hook the mac laptop up for whatever price youre getting it for. since you said the same price as building a pc i assume around $500-600, i would suggest protools cuz it is mad easy to use and there are a lot of plugins available for it. your gonna have to go firewire with the mac so your only option is the Digi 002 rack or control surface one. the rack is $1200, the other is $2200. get the rack if you wanna save money. now you need a mic. i have neumann tlm 103, it is f*ckin dope but retails for $975. i got lucky and got mine for $550 brand new. but look into audio technica, they make real nice budget mics for around $500. at-4040 or 4050 are good models i think. so you are down around $2200 so far right? you got another $700-900 left. i would either look into a mic pre or a plug in pack. there are several mic pres you can get for that much money, but i would suggest looking into the plug ins for now and get a realy nice mic pre later for around $1000-1500 cuz the digi 002 has mic pres in it, granted they are not that great. but you can emulate a lot of pres with plug ins. if you look at the waves plugin bundles there are several really good sounding plug ins. but if you want to go all out look into the TC powercore. it is a firewire processing rack mount unit that houses several different plugins and provides a seperate processor so you wont tax your computers processor when adding plugins. the firewire version of this is $1500 though. i got my eye on it but i got to wait til i upgrade to osX.

so those are just some suggestions. if i could take 3 gs and buy a set up, that is where i would go with it. there a numerous ways to do it though and someone with an opinion about each of those ways, so in the end it comes down to what you like the best. go hang out at guitar center or somewhere like that and spend a few days checking stuff out and talking to a lot of people. bottom line though is to just get some stuff and get to using it. good luck.