Yo, I started making beats (underground hip-hop ish) about 5 months ago and the SP505 was my first investment. Well worth it! For the price and functionality, I don't know of anything better. The alternatives are probably an ASR or
a Korg Electribe ES-1...With the ASR you lose the sampling ability (from what I understand of it, which is limited) and with the ES-1 you can only do sequencing of 2 parts. Which basically means you can do a verse and chorus or intro and main beat or whatever...but tossing in a bridge, outro, or any sort of change is out of the question...so that sucks. The 505 only allows for 4 parts, but that is twice as many as the Korg and will give you what you need when you're starting to create full sounding beats with enough changes to make it interesting.
The question you have to answer with the 505 is how are you going to get the beat off the machine and recorded into another format (ie, a cd...so you can bump it in the ride or wherever)? Now, you'll probably be running your 505 into a mixer of even straight into a receiver via rca cables to get the audio playing, but your going to want a way to record it.
What I do is run the audio through a mixer and into my computer (the mixer is somewhat optional, you can do basic EQ'ing on the 505) and into my computer. I use the Tascam US-122 as my computer's audio input...that allows me to take RCA cable input into the computer (it is also MIDI capable--I think--and it definitely has those three prong mic in's as well). When I bought the US-122, it came packaged with Cubasis (now Cubase SE) which allows me to do basic sequencing, multi-tracking, mixing, and mastering. Cubasis also allows you to use VST plug-ins, if you want to do beat-making or effects in the software. Once I've got the track sequenced how I want, I convert it to an audio file and burn it to a cd...and boom it's done.
This may sound like a lot of pieces but here is the cost breakdown...
505 $300
US-122 (came bundled with
the Cubasis software): $200
Used mixer: $120
--almost forgot the turntable
$50-400, depending on whether you want to be able to scratch or just use it as an audio source...
So, total= $800
And you can probably start with just the 505 and the turntable and be perfectly content (at least I was) for a couple months, before you'll have **** hot enough to want to share with yer peoples.
Obviously, there's lots of other ways to record it...mini-disc, cd-burner, tape, four-track...but none of those ways give you much sequencing, effects, mixing, or mastering control, if any at all. And, those are the areas that are going to take a nice beat and give it that "produced" feel. In fact, my next purchase is to get the next version up of Cubase which will allow me to mix a lot more tracks and will make sequencing a lot easier. But, for the money I've put into what I have now, I'm definitely way happy with the results I've achieved.
Another reason you will probably want some sort of recording/sequencing/mixing/mastering software is that it will allow you treat the song in a more linear fashion. What I mean by that is that you may have a beat that is 4 bars long and you only want a certain vocal sample to play once every 16 bars...Well you can either make the part 16 bars long then, which will take an assload of programming, or you can use up one of your parts to trigger it once every 16 bars. Neither option is very good. In software, that's way easy to do. You just drop in the sample on a new track and yer done. Still, I'd much rather use my 505 to create the backbone, basic parts of the beat because it is so easy to use in terms of programming a single part. As a beat plays, you can just hit yer pads and it will remember where you hit it. You can erase those hits or edit them as necessary. Very easy.
Oh...one other thing...if you buy the 505 or any other sampler, do yourself a favor and buy a good drum loop sample cd in whatever type of musical form you want to do. I spent $100 on a release called "Strictly Hip-Hop" from e-Lab and it was well worth it. Programming drum parts is time consuming and a loop cd is a good way to take that challenge out of the way when you start. Now I go back and dig for individual drums off of vinyl...but just as often I still use drum loops. Plus, with the 505 you can cut up those loops and re-assemble them ( use delay a lot to do that) and create totally new beats anyway, if you're concerned you'll have the same drum track as someone else.
And, get as much vinyl as you can...I make my beat off of samples from all sorts of ****...80's synth pop, jazz, funk, rock, classical, film soundtracks...whatever. The 505 will let you apply 30 different effects, plus once you chop it and rearrange it and put it to your drum beat it is gonna sound radically different than the original source. Some of my best beats come from unbelievably lame original songs.
So, there you go...a ton of info that may or may not be of value. Either way.
But my final verdict? Go buy the 505.
