I am VERY confused, please help me out!

S

SuperTasche

New member
Hello people,

I am a hobby producer in the electronic area (everything from tech to uk bass music).
Untill now I worked with FL Studio as DAW, Massive and Albino as VST and some drum&fx samples.
Since I am tired of working with the mouse I wanted to set up a little home studio.
I wanted to start with an AKAI MPD32 for drum sequencing and a keyboard (dont know yet) to play melodies on the synthis.
Next thing...
I also wanted to start sampling from vinyl and try out some hiphop beats.
I've never sampled anything before, I'm a total beginner in this regard.
So today I was browsing videos about vinyl sampling on youtube when I found that guy using NI Maschine to create beats from samples.
That's where the confusion started. Probably 70% of the comments on Maschine vs MPDs where like:
"Yeah man, that's the way to go, forget all about MPDs and even MPCs, Maschine is the future, and don't miss out on Ableton Live if you want to produce a whole track."
It also said that FL Studio is not the best DAW to get away from the mouse (which was my intention in the first place).
I always wanted to try Ableton but it seemed much more time consuming; I like the simplicity in FL Studio.
So all in all, starting to buy 2 hardware components for about 400€, I'm now stuck with buying either a MPD + Ableton live (600€) or Maschine + Ableton Live (800€).
By the way, I read it IS possible to have full control in FLS with a MIDI-Controler, but I'm still pursueing the "Less mapping, more music making." approach.
I am frustrated now cause I don't know what to buy and the expenses are getting higher and higher with every forum thread I read. :hmmm:
Is there someone who gets me and can help me out?

PS: Before I start the studio thing I first wanted to get me a new MP3-Dj-Controller. I just sold my old one and was looking to get the Traktor Kontrol S2. Maybe I can solve my financial crisis by forgetting about the jogwheels and get something which can be used for home producing AND DJing.
Is there a software/hardware combo to manage a two deck + EQ situation without getting lost? Hard to let the Faders and Jogwheels go but on the other hand the potential for live producing would be open. I hope what I wrote is understandable.

Anyway,

greetings from Germany,
die Tasche
 
Ignore the comments, you'll just get more confused. Maschine is self sustaining. I've had it for 3 weeks now and have loaded up some songs via a cdj and chopped them up in relatively short order. It's very easy and quick. The Maschine software itself gives you the tools to put together an entire song. It's got some quirks to be sure, no timeline to determine how long your song is, automation is good but lacks the A to B line's/dots etc like Ableton has to get a good linear fade, you can accomplish this but it takes some time.

Having had a copy of Ableton and an Axiom 25 keyboard a few years back, I was so frustrated with Ableton, steep learning curve and the fact that the keyboard had to be mapped to everything so by the time I was done mapping, the time I had to mess about was used up and it was time to move on. Sold it all and after a few years picked up Maschine as a hobby to break away from my cdj's. So far so good, but like you, I've come across posts saying that you need a DAW etc etc. Ultimately in the end it's just a controller and some software, this particular package is married together to work flawlessly with each-other probably why I was able to get started much faster with it than Ableton.

If you can, see if you can demo the unit or pick it up if the shop has a good return policy and give it a whirl.
 
Hey Jagaloon,

thanks for your interest in my problem. I've already decided to go for Maschine and first of all stay with it. I will however also try to integrate it into my FL Studio production progress. With version 11 they will also add a live performance feature to FLS which makes Ableton useless to me. =) I can only advise you to try out FL Studio if you get to your limits with Maschine and want to spare time on "learning". I've been working with it for about 3 years now and from the first day on it surprised me how simple the workflow is. It's very easy to handle and at the same time has great potential. You can also load your Maschine Software as a plugin into your production and add sequences from your Maschine into your project. I am very amped to get a Maschine right now. ;)

Anyway thanks again and have a nice day,
SuperTasche
 
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