Remember back in the days? (Casio, yamaha, dr.rhythm)

I was wondering what how you guys started making beats, something brief and what equipment you had.

when i was 12 i had my first keyboard it was called Bontempi, it sounded like a harmonica, then upgraded to a casio a tiny one with batteries, i loved that keyboard, used to take it everywhere, then years later i had my first sequencer, a roland d-20 that's the one i started making beats with around 1993-94 i bought a Korg dr-660 drum machine to go with it in 1996 hooked it up midi to the d-20. THEN!!!!!! In 1997 i bought my MPC 2000 it just came out, i was sooooo souped!!!!!

now i own a motif 6, protools, and use mpc 2000 xl in the studio/korg triton

I'm wondering what you guys used back in the days?????

Very first drum machine......Yamaha RX21...Piece of crap, but good for learning the BARE BASICS.......

Second drum machine...... Alesis SR 16..... Much better than my 1st.... more advanced features, better sounds....miss that "fill" button though....

lots of other stuff I don't use anymore.....


Blame the MPC....

Back in the days I would pause mix to make loops and play my shitty yamaha keyboard over it, by having my aux selector switch half way between tape and aux!

then i had a cheetah drum machine and some sysonic drum pads, but they were cheap and died shortly afterwards (you had to load sounds with a cassette tape!)

For the meanwhile after that I produced live stuff playing my Drum Kit but that sounded too rocky!

I picked up a Roland MC303 sequencer about 1999 and used that to programme beats via midi with a roland sp303, that was when stuff started to sound a lot better

Nowadays Im workin on Acid 4.0 and the 2000xl - aint gotta lot more money to throw at it than that tho!

Oh and peace to your bontempi - I had one of those too!!

do you know that bontempi in french means " well whatever ! " , that's exactly the feeling you have playing on such a piece of sh###t .
Back in the day i had dr22o ( not so bad 8 bit sounds but weird seq ) , atari / pro 24 / roland r5 / ensoniq mirage ( the worst stuff to begin with , hexadecimal programming is not cool ) /tx 7 .

back in the days, I used a roland w-30, dr.rythm 660, roland tr-727, atari 1024st with notator and a korg ddm 20 percussion ( it`s a little drumcomputer with 8 percussion sounds and build-in stepsequencer)....freaky

Boss SP-202!

Boss DR-202 and a Akai S20.

yamaha su-200 and 2 turns. Then got the electribe ES-1 and acid, now 2kxl, korg ms2000r and a whole bunch of other shit

My first set up was cool. I had a tascam 4 track, a yamaha djx, a boss dr groove and sp 202 and a shitty mix and a cd recorder.....man those was the days where you would think you was ready for the world.

young: Yes! Cassette 4-track, that's the real deal.

Boss DR-5 and a crappy Casio keyboard with fake @$$ drum sounds: 1 crash (sounded like I dropped a pan), 1 kick (that sounded like a hiccup), 1 snare (that sounded like someone with a stuffy nose), and a dissappointing hi-hat

wow guys thanks for the trip down memory lane!!!!

bontempi means well whatever!!!!! lol

i'm glad we all kinda had a very similar setup coming up (crappy drums, crappy synths) it all inspires me to take it to the next level of sound, (my motif is startin to sound a lil outdated, jk)

bla bla thanks for all the replys, any 1 else?????

beets wrote:Boss DR-5 and a crappy Casio keyboard

I had a Casio keyboard first (I still have it to this day), I got it when I was younger back in the late 80s or early 90s. Then I got a Yamaha PSR-160 keyboard in which I later on controlled the sounds of my Boss Dr-5. Now my keyboard & Dr-5 are dust collectors. I'm getting the MPC1K or some other piece of gear soon.

Back in the days I would pause mix to make loops and play my yamaha keyboard over it

I used to do that with my Casio. Do a hit-hat for a minute straight, then come back and re-record over it with another sound. I also used to beat box my beats on tape too. I've done it all with minimal resources, now I'm ready for the next level ...hold on I am on that next level, I just don't have what I need to succeed Ok enough of my rambling

boss dr5 baby

We have a lot of DR-5 alumni in here, so was it a smooth transition to the MPC series?