OK so I’m a musician but admittedly know very little about music technology. What I want to do is hopefully pretty simple I think I’m in the right place for help…
First for the hardware, I wanna be able to sample sounds (guitar/beatbox/anything) live and play them on a loop, each sound to an individual channel so that I can fade/mute/drop each sound individually, quickly and with ease. Then the next step, which I’m assuming requires the laptop, would be to have a way to make greater adjustments to each track individually, like delay, pitch and other more complex effects, but also done live and relatively quickly.
I hope I can get some awesome suggestions of equiptment that would work for me… And yeah I should mention I’m on a budget so nothing too crazy… Thanks in advance for your help!!
Maschine would do it.
A well mapped A&H K2(or similar) + Traktor would do it.
For sure there’s a way to get Ableton to do it.
I’n not entirely sure how well the Maschine sampler performs “on the fly”, but the Maschine is extremely powerful + gives you the added bonus of recording as a one shot sample and then sequence it on the fly using the step sequencer, or even “play” it in keyboard mode.
For traktor you can record loops and assign them to decks. There are 4 decks maximum, but if the decks are set to remix mode you can have 16 loops per deck. Effects and faders/equalizer are per deck, so you’d have to group things.
+1 Ableton Live + APC40 would be the easiest way to do it IMHO,
Don’t forget you’ll also need a sound card capable sampling those sources, if each element you want to sample are initially being played together you may need a pretty big card with plenty of inputs to record the sources independently.
How many inputs will you need? Just one mic or several? You’d at least need a multiple mic amp if you plan on using a few.
The APC is a good controller, but it only controls the software, you need to take care of signal inputs by a seperate audio interface + mic amps.
I don’t know how much cash you have to burn on this, but a good mixer with an eleborate soundcard may be nice too. If you want to route audio to external effects for instance.
If you are in the US, a Xone:4D would be way too expensive, but if you live in europe you can pick one up secondhand for about €850,- You would not need an additional conroller, as it’s suitable for ableton out of the box (you will be required to do additional mapping, as you have to do with the APC too). It’s an integrated controller, mixer and sound interface and has more digital audio channels than most standalone interfaces.
Ther are other mixers out there, but they are usually limited to 4 inputs. (Rane sixty eight, 6 stereo in and 2 dedicated mic channels)
You mention you’re on a budget. If you want AKAI, RANE or A&H XONE gear, you are pretty safe in buying them secondhand. This is well built kit that is usually treated well (there are some very notable exceptions to be found here). Pioneer is good too, but tends to be treated with less respect. If you buy an audio interface (or mixer) secondhand, check all channels for noise and output levels.
+1
And while Ableton definitely has a steep learning curve, there is tons of good documentation. Start with YouTube, and the manual. I also found Lynda. Com to be very helpful, though it’s ableton not the apc40
^^ yes! i’m really impressed. his effects work is top notch. even though it’s rehearsed it’s so good the skeptic in me starts to wonder if he’s actually doing it all live.
i wonder if he could hold down a 2 hour set as a headliner. that would be tough.
OK awesome. Thanks for all the replies! I’m looking into all the gear (and the pricesslight_smile: that you’ve all suggested… Ableton also seems pretty indispensable too.
I checked out kid beyond and DUBFX, so sweet. I like the way dubFX has so much control over his sounds and effects without the use of software. That might be a route I’d like to go down. Kid beyond seems to just be over dubbing on one track? I want to be able to sample sounds to individual tracks (on the fly).
On a side note I was kinda bummed out to find SO MANY DJ’s doing similar stuff to what I envisioned. I know it shouldn’t matter but yeah…
Pretty much all you have to do is type in “beatbox loop” in youtube and you have everyone and their mom trying to do just that. I was just really surprised to see so many people looping beatbox with singing/guitar etc. For looping almost everyone’s either using the RC-50 Loop Station (Like DubFX) or Korg Kp3’s (Like Beardyman who you should totally check out if you haven’t yet).
I’m over it though. The point is to have fun and not worry bout wat everyone else is doing… So I’m just gunna pick up whatever gear I can get for cheap and start experimenting.
i dont know a whole lot but look into a kaos pad 3 i have one and you can directly take samples from a mic or line input, edit them and put effects on them. but you can only have 4 at a time. might be worth looking into.
. What I want to do is hopefully pretty simple I think I’m in the right place for help…
slight_smile: that you’ve all suggested… Ableton also seems pretty indispensable too.