Music Production: What Should I Buy?
Hey Guys I want to get into music Production. I have £350 pounds to spend ($444). So far I have Ableton live 9 and a macbook air. It would be great if you could help.
Thanks
Maybe a Launchpad and some good headphones?
If you already have headphones, get a Push.
a good comfortable mouse, a good comfortable computer keyboard. Midi keyboard.
if you do not have an audio interface, i would get one before anything else.
Monitors. I don’t know why anyone would suggest anything else?
Yamaha HS5 to be exact.
i think half the people would suggest a new guy uses a good set of cans and half would suggest monitors. At least with a good set of cans its cheaper and you take the room/acoustics variable out. For a new guy, sometimes its a little much for them to start looking at different monitors, different sound cards and also read about acoustics where you are making music. Way easier to just grab a decent set of cans and start learning the basics of producing.
.02
I know what you’re saying but producing in headphones should be limited to when needs must/referencing.
You don’t need an audio interface to use a pair of monitors either. Just plug them straight into the jack for now.
Makes a lot more sense to me and you get a much better representation of the sound.
A second hand pair of HS5s will be around £200. Leaves a good amount left over for a keyboard. Nice, basic setup to build on.
I recommended cans because you can get a far more accurate set of headphones for that price than monitors, and of course it doesn’t have any acoustic issues either. I’d always prefer monitors over headphones, but when you don’t have a lot of money I think sometimes it makes more sense to start small and work your way up to something actually worth spending money on.
Agreed.
From talking to T, GiK, and a handful of other people, it seems like the $400 budget the OP mentioned is just too small for a good listening environment, let alone the speakers to go into it.
On the other hand, you can get a very decent sound card and pretty good headphones for that price. And all you really lose is the feeling of sound in the room and low bass, which $400 monitors in an untreated room can’t do anyway. The stereo image is different, but that’s what reference tracks are for.
It’s plenty. Loads of people use HS5s and Rokit 5s (although I don’t like KRKs for monitoring personally). Spend £50 on DIY treatment even though it’s not necessary at first, then £100 on a Focusrite 2i2.
You’ll get nice enough sound from the Yamahas to learn without an audio interface and without treatment too. So you could get a midi keyboard instead if you so wanted. You’ll learn what to listen for much better than with a pair of headphones. It’ll be a longer learning curve and plenty of trips to see someone who has monitors otherwise.
KS2 is correct, but actually everyone’s been correct. It’s best to mix on good monitors, especially if you have decent treatment in your room. Unfortunately, as someone new to producing, you often least want to spend money on unexciting treatment for your room. Even without treatment, I’d recommend monitors, but production can be done on decent headphones. Even headphones however, really aren’t that exciting or fun as a newbie, hence my recommendation for a Push. If you can get something to make your production fun and exciting, odds are these other things will fall into place with time as you realize their true necessity.
And mostapha, glad you’re talking to GIK. I just got an email from Glenn and Bryan asking how the products were. Great service on their part and I love their products, although I have no comparison.
Really good experience with GIK here, they did all the custom treatment in my mastering studio. Pleasure to work with for sure.
I agree. get a fun midi controller or a fun sampler/drum machine. I’ve been eyeing the new korg electribes. Although, they aren’t out yet and I haven’t had any firsthand experience so I wouldn’t recommend it. I have the push and it’s pretty awesome, but maschine or livid controllers are good.
One of the electribes is out now. The synth I believe? Pretty good things being said about it thus far.
Tarekith, you get yours yet?
Yeah…they seem like great people. And their US factory is actually not far away from me.
Unfortunately, it’s going to have to wait. We got in a bit of a fight with our apartment complex (unrelated issue), and it’s no longer worth doing this room since we’re just going to move asap. But, on the bright side, we’re probably buying a house early next year…so I get to work with them to design a dedicated room from a better starting point. And except for possibly changing carpet to hardwood, the treatments are going to be the first things into the new room. It’ll still be mixed use in that my “work” computers will use the same screens and speakers as the production rig I use for all my badly-written half-finished songs, and I’m going to do what I have to have it work for both my DJ stuff and my “desk” (probably one setup on each short wall with 2 sets of speakers and some movable traps to block out the other desk). But it should wind up a good bit better than where I am now, even with the treatments.
Plus, this way, there’s very little “wife approval factor” involved, so I can use the uglier but more efficient traps.
I need to remember to give them your name as a reason I chose them. It was mostly what you’ve said here and there and Ian Shephard’s home stuido build videos.
Yeah…that thing looks like fun. The performance video they released from namm or musicmesse or wherever made me kind of want one. Sadly, you’ve gotta make sacrifices somewhere, and it looks like my choice is going 100% ITB except for my DJ mixer and my guitar.
My Electribe should arrive tomorrow, I’ll have a video review up in a few days hopefully.
I only have a midi keyboard, mouse, headphones, speakers, and some plugins.
SpinyStonefish, do you have prior experience playing any instruments? What type of music do you plan to produce?
If I were in your position, I would probably side with a couple other people here, choosing headphones as a first purchase. I would go for a decent pair of open-back reference cans (about 1/2 your budget) and spend the rest on a keyboard controller with pads (Akai MPK, Novation Impulse, Korg Taktile, Alexis VI, Novation Launchkey to name a few) and a sustain pedal.
IMO, this is a great starting point for someone learning the ropes. Gives you plenty of flexibility to start.