feelings of people who went from hardware to software and who went from soft to hard

dmajor100

dmajor100

New member
all of ous have seen it a million times right mpc vs maschine,fantom and motif vs native instruments,mv 8000 vs bpm, and hardware sound vs software sound. This is not a thread about whats better cause if your a creative person you can make something out of nothing. This is more of peoples personal experiences and the outcome of your products that you felt you had to change in order to give you a better feel,workflow or creativity of making music. What machines drive you to be a better producer even tho its not really the machine but you kinda get were im getting at. What didnt you get from one maschine that another provided and how did you feel after the switch. This thread is not to cause little ***** fights over something we all love and wish we had cause i know i do just cant afford it.

YOur gear list
HARDWARE
mpc 4000
Ni maschine
Motif xs6

Software
logic 9 express
sylenth
absynth
kore 2
ultra analog
omnisphere
battery 3
gorge duke soul treasures
 
Really cause man im really debating to just sell my mpc 4000 and motif and getting a massive vst collection but only,the best omnisphere,trillian, nexus,massive,absynth and more. But just not sure
 
I feel software has innovated today's music world...djing and producing. Hardware will always be weapons of choice. :)
 
i use both but it all depends on what kind of beatmaker you are are you just a crate digger or do you do all kinds music

1.do youre research
2.dont fall victim to gear lust
3if theres a place to check out eq like gtc go do that too
4 do go rambo cuz u saw some else studio
5 u only need one sampler
6.get what u need if u cant play keys you dont need a gazillion keyboards
 
Yes gear lust is a ***** and sure we all been victims of it but when ya now what suita you u slow down. Basically ive tried high end software nexua,vanguard, absynth,massive, reason and none have the depth of my motif espically on acustic sounds. I dont have a high end soundcard but how much more better can it sound. The thing with software is that its quick and is easy to so complexed arrangments esically in maschine workinf with samples. But after day and day of being on a computer and mouse clicking and waitinf for each patch to load it gets very very boring and no feeling. I can more twice as fast on my motif for browsing patches and more important is the sound of fullness and nowing your on a actual instrument.
 
i prefer software for sampling and doing drums.
going through presets is much faster on hardware synths i think.

---------- Post added at 07:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:45 PM ----------

i started when i was 16 with the MV-8000.
After owning the MV-8000/MV-8800 for about 3 years i decided to go Fruity Loops and never went back.

DJ Jean/Techno eJay was actually the first 'game' i ever played with when i was like 12.

i didnt know how to use Fruity Loops.
i didnt know it had a mixer/i didnt know it had effects/i didnt know you can use a slicer instead of saving all the chops and than load them in the sequencer/it didnt have the FPC yet.
still i made 2 beats on it by just using the step sequencer.

But i basically learned how to make beats on hardware.

Right now im planning to use my MP-7 in Fruity Loops but i still want to learn the MP-7 more.
 
mark1234 said:
i prefer software for sampling and doing drums.
going through presets is much faster on hardware synths i think.
Click to expand...

Agree. My hardware has numbered patches, and I get a big shiny card telling me exactly what patch is what. Much easier than using software browsers - especially when you get those plugins that load up different components for different sounds.

That said, the big advantage, imo, is the ease of updating software. One of my hardware synths is great, and I use it as much as I can, but the only way to upgrade sounds is to buy refill cartridges, and this thing's so old I've only found a handful of them on eBay.

I use a combination of both, but lately, I lean more and more on software.
 
I just bought a MV8000, after using FL Studio with an MPD controller for years. I also have a Micron synth and a Midi keyboard, but I'm excited to get away from my computer. I look at computer screens way too often, and I hate to have to use a computer for my music, too.
 
just got my mixer and now about to really bang out on my mpc 4000 and motif xs and get those in the zone modes. From being on software for a while i know that software is powerful and is flexiable but this is not everything when all i really need to do is just make music. Now being back on a fully harware station i feel a complete different feeling on inspiration,focus,feeling,and no worries about crashes. there are sacrafices in some areas of the work flow but also some gains in it as well, all in all i think the feeling of hardware is better and even tho i have a maschine i can not fool my self that its just a midi controller and not a real instrument.
 
i stared with FL studio 7 and an old dell desktop running xp. one of the old Pentium, once i got the hang of it i was cool but, my music did have a stale feel. i got some controllers and learned how to reduce latency and that helped a lot but i still had virus problems. from there i switched, i wanted to go mac but that was too expensive so i went Linux. no more viruses, lots of free software but i hit a huge learning curve. i learned to use a Linux D.A.W. but i still really missed fl studio before i was blessed enough to find w.i.n.e., now i had the best of both worlds. one thing that always bugged me was those who said that working with hardware felt better and i didn't know what they meant, till a friend told me to try guru to get that old hardware hip-hop work-flow. to my surprise i did like it better, and i immediately incorporated it into my work flow. now that my current computers are aging and i don't wanna spend on new computers so I'm buying cheap hardware samplers and synths to take the strain off my processors. this journey has had an effect on my music, it sounds fuller and more natural than ever before. HARDWARE: Roland SP-606 Roland MC-505 Korg MicroKontrol Korg PadKontrol Akai MPD18 Akai LPK25 Creative Prodikeys PC-MIDI Mixman Dm2: 3 of them Ion Discover DJ Numark Mixmeister Control: 2 of them Berhinger BCD3000 Berhinger Xenyx X1622usb KRK Rokit5 Mxl .006 usb Mic SOFTWARE: O.S.:Ubuntu Studio 12.04/KxStudio Native APPS: Ardour Hydrogen Mixxx Zynsubaddex APPS Running through W.I.N.E.: FLstudio 11 Guru Mixmeister BeatCleaver Edison bomes midi tranzlator COMPUTERS: HP DV7 for mobile DAW work. HP Pavilian DV9000. for my dj rig Dell DM061 Desktop as my main daw

---------- Post added at 11:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:17 AM ----------

i stared with FL studio 7 and an old dell desktop running xp. one of the old Pentium, once i got the hang of it i was cool but, my music did have a stale feel.

i got some controllers and learned how to reduce latency and that helped a lot but i still had virus problems.

from there i switched, i wanted to go mac but that was too expensive so i went Linux. no more viruses, lots of free software but i hit a huge learning curve.
i learned to use a Linux D.A.W. but i still really missed fl studio before i was blessed enough to find w.i.n.e., now i had the best of both worlds.

one thing that always bugged me was those who said that working with hardware felt better and i didn't know what they meant, till a friend told me to try guru to get that old hardware hip-hop work-flow.

to my surprise i did like it better, and i immediately incorporated it into my work flow.

now that my current computers are aging and i don't wanna spend on new computers so I'm buying cheap hardware samplers and synths to take the strain off my processors.

this journey has had an effect on my music, it sounds fuller and more natural than ever before.


HARDWARE:
Roland SP-606
Roland MC-505
Korg MicroKontrol
Korg PadKontrol
Akai MPD18
Akai LPK25
Creative Prodikeys PC-MIDI
Mixman Dm2: 3 of them
Ion Discover DJ
Numark Mixmeister Control: 2 of them
Berhinger BCD3000
Berhinger Xenyx X1622usb
KRK Rokit5
Mxl .006 usb Mic

SOFTWARE:
O.S.:Ubuntu Studio 12.04/KxStudio
Native APPS:
Ardour
Hydrogen
Mixxx
Zynsubaddex

APPS Running through W.I.N.E.:
FLstudio 11
Guru
Mixmeister
BeatCleaver
Edison
bomes midi tranzlator


COMPUTERS:

HP DV7 for mobile DAW work.
HP Pavilian DV9000. for my dj rig
Dell DM061 Desktop as my main daw
 
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I started getting into making beats when I was 16 -- 1996. I began with hardware but since the internet wasn't the treasure trove of information that it is today, I found myself having a hard time learning things because manuals are often confusing/unclear and I had nobody locally who could help me out. When I mentioned "MIDI," most people thought that I was talking about playing a MIDI file on my computer to listen to. (Those were actually popular before mp3's...)

Anyway, I stuck with that for a while but computers were getting faster and faster all of the time and music software began to come out. I had stuff like Reason, Acid, the first version of Fruity Loops, etc. I ended up selling what gear I had collected because I believed that doing it all on a PC was the smarter decision. I was pretty productive for quite a while but after a few years I ended up getting really bored. I couldn't figure out why at first, but I eventually realized it was because I was missing the experience of jamming and experimenting. While it is technically possible to do those sorts of things today with computers, it's just not the same. Plus, it seems like I've always dealt with some degree of latency no matter what audio interface / controllers I've used, which I find annoying.

I eventually decided to try hardware again after being a Fruity Loops addict for several years. I bought a MPC and some Korg Electribes and I had never had so much fun making music. These days I am hardware only and I only use my computer for a few things: recording audio, and editing / storing samples. No matter how much I love hardware samplers, it is so much faster to edit with a mouse and a computer screen. When I make music with hardware I tend to have much more fun, which I think is important because I am more inspired, more experimental, and more focused. When I use something like FL Studio I get overwhelmed by the amount of options that I have... this especially holds true if you're like me and have dozens upon dozens (if not hundreds) of VST instruments and effects. It's easy to get sucked into the minutiae of details and waste hours of time doing micro edits and messing around with stuff that ultimately isn't that important. I also tend to overproduce when I'm using FL Studio, so my tracks are far too cluttered.

Another thing that sucks about computer-based production is that certain VST instruments are incredibly popular and loaded with presets, so I tend to hear the same sounds all of the time. I also don't like the sterile, boring sound of doing everything in the box. I prefer the sound of hardware instruments going through a hardware mixer, hardware effects, and being recorded on an analog format like reel-to-reel. Everything seems to have more presence and character. It's the little imperfections that I like, rather than the crystal-clean perfection of DAW-based music. To be perfectly honest I'd rather have something like an Ensoniq ASR-10 over a top-of-the-line computer loaded with all of the music software one can think of.

I do not find computers inspiring for making music... and if I'm not inspired, I'm not going to make music. I also think that using hardware forces people to become better musicians and engineers because they can't use little handicaps like piano rolls and templates and have a virtually unlimited amount of FX processing.
 
ROFL. How did it feel to go from soft to hard? I can't reply seriously to this thread. I'm laughing too much.

When I use hardware, I go from hard to soft. :cheers:

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
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I somehow manage to go from soft to hard every time I wake up in the morning... must be magic! :o

Anyway, all jokes aside, producing music on a computer is like having sex with a condom on. The end result *might* be close to the same (not really), but the process of getting there isn't half as fun as doing it raw dog style.

I can totally see why hardware would be a turn-off for a lot of people. It's expensive, takes up a lot of space, and arguably has a higher learning curve. However, it's a million times more fun to use. Clicking around in a DAW ****ing sucks. It doesn't matter how awesome your computer is or what MIDI controllers you might have... it will never be as much fun as jamming out with some dedicated gear. Plus, people tend to experiment far more when they have hardware - especially analog stuff or even digital stuff with lots of realtime controls. That experimentation leads to awesome sounds / phrases / ideas. You just can't replicate the sound of voltage flowing through wires... harmonic distortion from channels slammed on an old mixer... analog in general...

There's some great VST effects out there, but as far as the instruments themselves go... meh. Not my thing. Every VST I've ever tried based upon an existing hardware unit sounds nothing like the real deal... and for most people that's not a problem. For me, however, it is a problem. I am a tone junkie. I am freakishly obsessed with the art of creating sounds and vibes, and I also program my own patches all of the time. I am super picky and I only buy gear that reflects my mental state and vision of the future. (My sig is very outdated...) I've already said all of this shit dozens of times in different threads, so I'll stop now. In a nutshell, all I can say is that the people who do everything "in the box" are missing out on an incredibly fun and rewarding experience.
 
I went from software to hardware and now I use a mixture of the two. There's nothing like turning on your machine and going straight to work with no wait for plugs to load and whatnot. I feel software wins out when it comes to saving and recalling your work exactly how you left it.
 
I started with fl studio 9 back in the winter of 2010-2011. I bought the executive package without doing much research on it, because I had purchase a cheesy program for 60$ and when I started trying to figure it out I ke
 
I started with fl studio 9 back in the winter of 2010-2011. I bought the executive package without doing much research on it, because I had purchase a cheesy program for 60$ and when I started trying to figure it out I kept seeing FL Studio on youtube. It looked much more in depth and complex. So I was intimidated seeing it but gave up on the cheap program and bought FL. Didn't know what a "measure" was and in the begging kept getting caught placing my snare at the first of a measure wear technically the kick should go.
Long story short I kept at it, ran across youtube "Warbeats" -(kickass) took to that well got good a hip hop with basic knowledge of "triad" chord progression and as of 2012-2013 . 2013 I began sound designing with native instruments Massive. Competed in a couple remix contest on remixcomps.com check me out on sound cloud.
-AllKushBeats
 
I was lucky to be born in the 80s so got to have fun with all the cool toys i started with a sp1200 and a s950 then from there went to mpc 60II and asr-x rack. I wont bore you with all the upgrades from the years but current set up is

Hardware
Roland mv-8800
Roland fantom xr
Roland spd-20 (expanded)
Emu mo phatt (loaded roms)
Zoom sb246 ( i love this box for grabbing drums to layer with and the filters are nice )

Software
Ableton 9
Magix samplitude
Pro tools
Battery

Then tons of other gear not related to music production ( Euphonix desk, 4 sets of monitors, 2 mackie HUI's, ect )

I will say music production has been dumbed down a ton when i see a youtube video of a guy using a mouse and drawing a beat in 5 mins it makes me think wow we have really lost a lot of the art of production. I started with i think maybe 30 seconds of sample time from my gear and now kids ***** and complain when they have a TB of sounds they cant work with and 900 vsti's. What can i say i miss record shops and meeting other old school heads who remember the days of cutting tape.
 
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