| I remember like it was yesterday when I discovered | | | | - Several guitar stomp boxes that I was using for FX (I |
| as a teen my first make your own beats program. My | | | | still do this, just cause it's fun lol!) |
| friend had an MPC..a few months later I had my own | | | | - An cheap 2-track recorder to record the stereo |
| MPC. If you don't know, an MPC is a digital sampler | | | | output of the mixer The problem with this, was that |
| with a built in sequencer. Neither my friend or I had a | | | | since the recorder only recorded a stereo track at |
| clue about making beats...or at least any that sounded | | | | once, I had to make sure the song was tight on one |
| good. I remember I spent the first few months just | | | | take. This put all sorts of ugly limitiations that I don't |
| sending my TV signal through the built-in audio effects | | | | miss these days. People who start out with software |
| to see how weird I could make them sound! | | | | for their first make your own beats program usually |
| The problem is, my make your own beats program | | | | don't know how good they have it. Doing things |
| had such a huge learning curve, that a noob such as | | | | without software used to be a MAJOR PAIN! |
| myself had no chance in hell of figuring it out. So I | | | | Fast forward ten years and I feel I have the ultimate |
| (stupidly) bought more and more gear thinking that this | | | | setup. I went from a several thousand dollar project |
| would solve the problem. After a year I had | | | | studio to...a laptop and a single piece of software for |
| accumulated: | | | | my make your own beats program! That's right folks. |
| - An MPC (for sampling duties) | | | | To say I trimmed my setup down to the bare minimum |
| - 2 virtual analog hardware synths (for melodic lines | | | | would be a massive understatement. The end result is |
| and basslines) | | | | that I get WAY more work done. I can burn out a beat |
| - A mixer ( to mix the MPC and synths, also to EQ, | | | | every ten minutes if I really wanted to. |
| pan, and adjust the levels of the different parts) | | | | |