Too much gear not enough skillz

[Shonsteez]

Yo man all that gear u copped is def not a waste, just be patient and pay your dues....trust me.
As far as sampling goes - i look at it like this: its simply another medium in which u can make your sounds a certain way....thats it. No tricks, no special meaning, just the simple fact that u obtain a particular sonic texture that u absolutely cant elsewhere. And thats the key to understanding what u use IMO. Samples offer a particular feel and medium to work with and thats the exact reason you should fuck with them if thats your thing.

 

[Chrono]

i actually got out of hiphop and immersed myself in anything music. i collect records for the music so that really helped, but after listening (in ipod) to so many other genres i began to understand how their music was made.. which instruments were used and how. then I went back to hiphop (months later) and i began to understand how rza or premiere was using the samples by asking myself the same questions as i did about the other genres.

for me it really helped to get myself out of the forest and journey up a mountain and look down at the land..

not to mention a clear head is needed.. i brought my party tendencies into my production for years and wondered why my music was going nowhere, that reinforced my depression.. i actually think i was subconsciously buying the equipment because i knew it was my salvation out of the murky distance of intox.. who knows..

but like shon said, "put in your dues" and you will gain personal experience and familiarity with production in-general. You will get yourself in a position to create your ideas instead of 1/20 attempts being semi-nice.

Some people will tell you that certain people are born with this and others are not.. i think that enjoyment and dedication is the key because the technique and "ear" are developed in time.

 

[caseysherrell]

Yeah fo real! You the dude for at least coppin' to it! I did the same thing in the beginning, I aint gonna lie, but I would not have copped to it then, so you bigger than me dawg! Anyways, I cut it down and got rid of everything except my MPC and Fantom and Mac with a couple VST's and a Turntable! I learned those front to back and then added 1 piece at a time as needed and only if needed back into my arsenal.

See, when you start out, if you can afford it, you buy equipment because beatblock sets in or cause you think it will put you over the top and make your fire hotter, truth is it doesn't and you eventually figure it out like you have here! Props to you for that!

Now - Take your MPC 2500 and the Triton and a turntable and move on! Keep your Mac, PC and soundcard and all that but if you don't want to sell the rest, put it in storage and after you master or learn a piece throughly, bring back one piece at a time if and only if you need it!

My new rule is: If a piece does not get touched for a month (and I am spending a fair amount of time making music) than I put it on the chopping block. The chopping block is this: if it sits there for another 2 weeks without a descent amount of use and again, I was spending a descent amount of time in the studio, then its gone! Basically 6 weeks without using something means you or at least I don't need it! Now, this does not count for classic pieces, like my TR-808 or Fender Rhodes, etc... those are classics and I will never part with them!

Oh, and another thing: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING A SAMPLE BASED PRODUCER! NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE OR HOW MUCH GEAR YOU GOT! PERIOD! Tons of great and famous producers are sample based producers and many many more do it part of the time at least! Personally, I sample sometimes when I am having a beat block, or when I just need inspiration, but I know producers who are mucho talented that sample in almost every beat they make! Now, I say sample not looping! Not dogging looping, but taking a sample and flipping it and making it your own and adding to it is much different then taking a sample and looping it over and over without any editing and adding a boom bap drum beat! That kind of sampling is OK, but you don't need alot of talent for that! So it kinda depends on where your coming from and where your trying to get? Either way, gear can definately interfere and even halt progress and creativeness! Less is often more!

PEACE and I hope this info (however simple it is) might help you!

 

[2GooD Productions]

Actually a combination of things will help, if you had someone that actually is good at playing thats a good person to hook up with to teach you stuff on the fast track with keys, or get videos, or as you suggested and I have also done is get midi files of the stuff that is out right now, I use band in a box, this way I can open up any song and it will show me the exact chords and notes that are play and it allows you to improvise too that is a much slept on way besides going on youtube and checking some of the people out that figure out how to play songs and show you the basic way to play the song with the chords etc and then begin practicing.

Great advice, I learned so much about chords from opening up midi's. I even had a stage of remixing using the mid's. I made my Eleanor Rigby(All The Lonely People) remix that way, just changed up the instruments.
Same with my "Money For Nothing" dnb track.

 

[slik da relic]

alright, lets look at this:

A PC: keep this for Illmuzik, not REAL music.

Apple G5: keep this for REAL music, not Illmuzik

Dual monitors: i dont know what make or model, but u keep these

Korg Triton: sampling keyboard workstation, keep

MPC 2500: sampling drum machine, keep

Roland Juno G: this is where shit gets tricky... i think this is what i wouldve left at the store, but only if the 106 (below) is broken

Roland 106: well, if uve had this for 20 plus years and it still functions, then i would keep this, if not then its the Juno G

A couple of Decks and Mixers: u only need one of each, and the G5 can do this as well

Sound Card by Focursite: nope

Waves Plugins: nope

And a **** Of other plugins: nope, nope, and HEEELLLLL NO!!!

bottom line: my philosophy will always be, 1 sampling drum machine, 1 sampling keyboard workstation, and 1 analog keyboard... if u cant work with that, then u need to step back for awhile and ask urself if u can really do this... another thing is u have to concentrate on ONE thing, and one machine or program... u got enuff here to make at least THREE fully functioning studios... i took u the hardware route bcuz thats the route i took... of course ur final mix can be on the G5, but ur creatin on real machines, dont bog down ur cpu with all that extra stuff... use it for just mixdowns and ull have a nice speedy G5... then use ur pc and download it to ILL!!! just my 2 cents.

da relic

 

[glassJAw]

Damn man. AllI have is a Macbook, Reason 4.0, M-Audio Oxygen 8, a vintage Pioneer Record Player, and amplifier to connect it to my Macbook. I feel like I'm getting good with what I have.

 

[Griffin Avid]

Roland Juno G: this is where shit gets tricky... i think this is what i wouldve left at the store, but only if the 106 (below) is broken

I don’t get this bit of advice here. Since the Juno-G and Juno 106 sound nothing alike and one is analog and the other a ROMpler…one can take samples..the other can’t. Even comparing the feature set, the two are completely different. How are they even the least bit related besides the name Juno?

As far as too much gear is concerned…that’s not a crazy set up to be honest. Buying it all at once, if that’s what you did, is a little foolish. I don’t see where you’re saying what your exact workflow is, but there is always a way to integrate all these pieces easily. What I do see missing is some kind of MIDI box like a MOTU Express to route all those MIDI connections and extend the flexibility of your studio.

What's your workflow? Computer sequencer? MPC main sequencer? Juno-G main Sequencer? Are all of these boards only used as tone modules?

As far as loops go, you need to consider how to manipulate the loops. Almost every piece in your studio can do that – along with a zillion plug-ins.

No bit of studio gear is a waste if you figure out how to multiply its usefulness by your other gear. You have 2 machines. Why remove 1 from production to surf the internet? Get some anti-virus and say off the questionable sites. You can easily use 1 machine as a tone module and load it with all those ‘CPU hogs’ and free your main sequencing machine.

There should be some kind of concrete reason you buy any piece of gear; some kind of role you expected it play in your production. Some cats buy stuff because everyone else uses it and the name is familiar. At first, you use that piece for what you added it for, later on and over time you find/stumble across additional useful features.