Making music....need advice on rig + setup.

[WHITE DEVIL]

What's up y'all.

I'm looking to possibly get into a little composing of my own. I'm mostly interested in making everything from ambient to trip-hop to orchestral type music.

Most likely, I'll hire a tutor and take proper piano lessons before or during, but my main concern is wondering what to get as like a good startout kit.

I'm lookin to spend about 2000 to start, possibly more later depending on whether or not I will actually stick with this.

So somewhere~ 2gs. Obviously ima need a keyboard, music software, beyond that, should I work on maybe getting a small mixer or something I can plug instruments into? I play bass and have an electric guitar I'd like to work in as well, so whatever y'all would recommend I think ima go with.

I'm not looking for super good quality equipment, just something that is at least partially capable.

Also, I doubt I will be working with ANY vocals at all, and any instruments will be plugged in, so I don't need a mic or any equipment regarding a mic.

 

[HERESY]

I'm mostly interested in making everything from ambient to trip-hop to orchestral type music.

While you can use just about any keyboard workstation to pull off those three styles of music, I would say the Karma would be my first choice if I were going to do ambient or trip-hop, and I say this because of all the weird combis you can make right out of the box.

I'm lookin to spend about 2000 to start, possibly more later depending on whether or not I will actually stick with this.

I would start out with a cool computer, midi controller and program like reason, logic, cubase sx or pro tools. You can use vst's and programs like sampletank, trilogy or Giga sampler for sounds.

So somewhere~ 2gs. Obviously ima need a keyboard, music software, beyond that, should I work on maybe getting a small mixer or something I can plug instruments into? I play bass and have an electric guitar I'd like to work in as well, so whatever y'all would recommend I think ima go with.

No, a mixer is not needed IF your audio interface has enough inputs. If you want to record the direct signals from bass or electric guitar you're gonna need something with a HI-Z input or some type of direct box to match/convert the impedence.

I'm not looking for super good quality equipment, just something that is at least partially capable.

Right now your main focus should be a trump tight computer (build this yourself) and the interface thats going to go along with it. If you have 2 grand to spend on gear (not including computer and programs) you can get an m-audio, presonus, digi design or motu interface. The price will go up depending on # of inputs and quality. An mbox can run you 400 and it has limited inputs (like 2 or 4), crappy converters and stupid pre amps. A digi 002 can run you 1200, and it has more inputs (18 total when using the adat connection),ok quality converters and ok quality pre amps.

Also, I doubt I will be working with ANY vocals at all, and any instruments will be plugged in, so I don't need a mic or any equipment regarding a mic.

Heres a bit of advice. ALWAYS mic your guitars AND run them direct. You can get different tones that way, and if done correctly (meaning nothing is out of phase etc) you can mult one or both of the tracks for further processing. Not only that, but you can bury the direct track, eq it differently from the mic'd track and use the mic'd track as the "body" of the track and have it trigger the direct track via a GATE.

^^^Too much info for you...

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

Thx H.

Been putting this off for too long.

 

[HERESY]

if you need help just shoot me a pm.