Emcee looking to get into producing/sampling.

As you may have guessed I'm fairly new as a producer. I'm naturally a lyricist but I don't feel like I should have to pay another man for a beat that I could just as easily make myself. All the so called producers I know use FL studio and I don't want to go that route. I really do not want to use a computer at all when it comes to my music. I plan on getting an Akai MPC 2000xl, Ensoniq ASR-10, Stanton str8. 150 turntable, and a Roland VS-1880 digital studio workstation. If I understand this correctly I am supposed to connect my turntable to a mixer and the mixer to the mpc and asr-10. And the ASR, MPC, and microphone to the VS-1880. Is this correct? What do I connect the speakers to? Is the mixer a preamp? And does the mixer connected to the turntable allow me to fade out the melody, percussion, or vocal to isolate a certain part I want to sample? Sorry I'm asking so many questions but I'm REALLY new to this. If anyone could help me or at least point me somewhere where I could find out specifically that would be a big help.

Bless

P.S. Just a minor question... Would I be able to scratch on the turntable/mixer? Probably a dumb question to you guys but even a sarcastic answer would help.

GodBless22 wrote:...I don't feel like I should have to pay another man for a beat that I could just as easily make myself. All the so called producers I know use FL studio and I don't want to go that route. I really do not want to use a computer at all when it comes to my music. I plan on getting an Akai MPC 2000xl, Ensoniq ASR-10, Stanton str8. 150 turntable, and a Roland VS-1880 digital studio workstation.

I'm REALLY new to this.

P.S. ... Probably a dumb question to you guys but even a sarcastic answer would help.

as you go along in your process, read that over and over again

first duke, you gotta slow down and do one thing at a time. keep a beginners mind intact

you know first you gotta find what works for you and then go from there. you'll be aight

i would do this get reason and try it out see if you wanna my get in the producers shoes. If you like it get a midi keyboard, then if you want more flavor get an mpc so you can make beats away from the comp. When you wanna record get usb interface or firewire interface use this and record all your stuff from reason and the mpc to sonar/live/cubase mix and master in there. Cheapest most cost effective way. Oh and for sounds sampling, I dont have the cash my setup is just a pc with reason. For sounds i usually pay cash for friends to transfer vinyl to cd, trade for vinyl online, or hitup libraries and see what they have in the music section. (Make sure you wanna make beats before you spend any cash after you get reason. I have no keyboard as of now but i can still make beats.) This is my 4th beat http://www.zshare.net/audio/29788769767c72/ made just with reason and jazz cds. Oh and don't let people try to talk you into to getting stuff you don't need. The man makes the music not the machine. Master your first thing if you can't don't go forward unless the 1st thing is holding you back or its just not your style of working. Hope that helps

I'm naturally a lyricist but I don't feel like I should have to pay another man for a beat that I could just as easily make myself.

There is nothing easy about this. That advice given is the best ever. I think you should just get an MPC and a turntable and start from there.

quezoxx wrote:

I'm naturally a lyricist but I don't feel like I should have to pay another man for a beat that I could just as easily make myself.

There is nothing easy about this. ...

Especially for newbies. I think you should actually have a "sit-in" session with the person(s) you're buying your tracks from to just watch them make a beat from scratch. Then, if they let you, try to make one yourself.
I could be wrong, but you'll find that it's really not easy to make a beat, especially originial compositions.

Wook

GodBless22 wrote:As you may have guessed I'm fairly new as a producer. I'm naturally a lyricist but I don't feel like I should have to pay another man for a beat that I could just as easily make myself. All the so called producers I know use FL studio and I don't want to go that route. I really do not want to use a computer at all when it comes to my music. I plan on getting an Akai MPC 2000xl, Ensoniq ASR-10, Stanton str8. 150 turntable, and a Roland VS-1880 digital studio workstation. If I understand this correctly I am supposed to connect my turntable to a mixer and the mixer to the mpc and asr-10. And the ASR, MPC, and microphone to the VS-1880. Is this correct? What do I connect the speakers to? Is the mixer a preamp? And does the mixer connected to the turntable allow me to fade out the melody, percussion, or vocal to isolate a certain part I want to sample? Sorry I'm asking so many questions but I'm REALLY new to this. If anyone could help me or at least point me somewhere where I could find out specifically that would be a big help.

Bless

P.S. Just a minor question... Would I be able to scratch on the turntable/mixer? Probably a dumb question to you guys but even a sarcastic answer would help.

Yea you have the basic setup down. That is very similar to how I do it. Don't forget the midi connections if you want to have your mpc control your keyboards though. A mixer does function as a preamp yes.

A mixer 'sort of' wll let you isolate certian parts of a song, but its never 100%. Depending on how the origional track was produced, you will always get some overlap. The low, band, high (and notch if you have a mpc 4k) filters are better than a mixer for isolating sounds. I think mpc tutors article on EQ and frequencies helped me a great deal to understand how sond works in this way and why you can't isolate certian sounds.


yes you can scratch on the turntable, but no, you can't scratch a mixer, unless you take a knife to it.


Your new potential setup seems dope. Only thing is what are you going to use for piano sounds and whatnot? Are you going to sample a piano and lay it out chromatically? That is why I think my compatriots are cautioning you, because it truly is better to buy small first and build your style around that to see what you are interested in using, and build your style slowly.


Good luck. And as always, research, research, research!

I ain't mean to offend nobody. I didn't mean to have you under the impression that I never composed a beat before. Once, I sat in with a couple of old-heads a while back and messed around wit tha MPC 1000 and a numark ttx for a few hours. It was easy enough for me after a hour or whateva. I use to play the drums and guitar and I play the piano now so I guess that's why I got a good ear for melody and percussion. Sorry if it wasn't supposed to be that easy. And don't be tryin to son me by tellin me what to get. No hard feelins or nothin I know yall was tryin to help and I appreciate the effort. I just wanted answers to the questions I asked. Nevermind though I figured it all out on my own.

Bless

Yo, Lithion. I appreciate that so much, dunn. A few of the things I had figured out on my own. But thanks about the preamp thing, It was killin me. I didn't mean scratch on the mixer I meant use the mixer/turntable combo to scratch but I know all that now.

As for as the piano thing. I play piano now so yes I plan on sampling a piano and other sounds just in case I may want to compose a little. But of course I will also sample sounds from vinyl because I think it's easier than composing from scratch. But I plan on using the asr-10 for sampling and effects or whateva and use the mpc for sequencing/drums. And yeah I got the research thing down too cuz I'd rather find out on my own than bothering yall with my problems. Appreciate all yalls help but especially Lithion for answering my questions. One.