Autechre getting into electronic music composition

Sounds like you've got plans to get a decent ammount of stuff, and all the best with it!

Might recomend spacing it out a bit/ a lot, to give yourself time to get accustomed to each bit as you get it. Will give you a chance to learn each bit to a decent degree, and also give you a better impression of what you feel is missing from your set up. so that you can make more infromed choices. Instead of asking "what synth should I get" you'll know you want something with 3 osc, multimode filter, decent patching options etc etc, would tighten up your search a bit, and make it all a bit easier to choose.

Get the basics, enough to be able to start making music, doesnt mean it has to be cheep crap mind =D Just get the laptop you like, a solid soundcard and some good monitors, should get you started.

Im split between macs and PC's, Macs are certainly better known for their reliabilty (although I've NEVER had stability issues with my XP laptops) but on windows there is certainly a much wider choice for software, not just Sequencers, but all the odd little plugins you find about the place, some really great and unusual things.

This is clearly a troll, but on the slight chance I'm mistaken I'll give an honest answer:

Don't buy music gear until you are already comfortable/competent in software. You don't even know if you enjoy making electronic music, yet.

The only exception is a good soundcard and a set of monitors.

P.S.

If you truly think Macs are better for making music, you may as well give up now. Such a sentiment indicates a lack of critical thinking required for such a creative endeavor.

Hell yeah.

  On 9/6/2010 at 5:55 PM, cuntainer said:

  On 9/6/2010 at 5:40 PM, luke viia said:

  On 9/6/2010 at 1:47 PM, cuntainer said:

the thing is, when i am going to buy something, i dont want to buy something mid-range, and then after some period of time realise i need to upgrade it, that is why i was going for the pro, but that is exactly why i asked what would be sufficient. yeah i can easily see where your coming from, but to be fair, you dont really know who i am, i am not just someone who gets an idea in their head about wanting to buy something cause it's cool and then gets sick of it after a short period of time, i have wanted to get this shit for years, i have used fruity loops before and a few other programs, but i actually want good shit, my pc is fucked and freezes if i use programs like that, i want some quality gear, this isn't something out of the blue.

 

while that is understandable for laptops and the like, as far as most other music-related hardware goes, you don't have to worry about that quite so much. you can almost always re-sell any worthwhile equipment you own and get a good chunk of your money back, which you can then use for upgrading to something else.

 

for instance, i bought a yamaha ps-55 keyboard on craigslist last year for $100. now I'm upgrading. I'll list the yamaha on craigslist for $100.

 

i guess what i'm trying to say here is, don't make this more expensive than it has to be.

 

 

this is fantastic advice.

 

 

exactly the reason why i like to ask questions of forums.

 

but i definitely want something portable, hence laptop, and i've used a few laptops, ones my dad has got, and they just fuck up after 2 years or less and you need a new one, and macs last for years and are still good after years and the battery last 3 times as long, and they run smoother and dont freeze from too many programs, definitely keen for a mac.

My laptop is 5 years old, a shit Gateway, and it worked just fine until I updated Vista (which, yes, is known for being aggravatingly shit). I run FL9 on 2GB ram, 2.1Ghz processor, a shit soundcard... and I get my music made just fine.

You can easily get a decent PC for a third of what you could get a mac for, but hey, the choice is yours... I just prefer to go the cheapest route that still works effectively.

Beating an unconscious horse here, but:

My best advice would be to simply download a few demos of popular DAW's and see which one you like best, then go from there.

Having fun mucking around with the instruments in Live with the QWERTY keayboard? Great, get a MIDI controller.

Dislike the learning curve of Reaktor, Max or Pd? No problem, Audiomulch and EnergyXT are both akin to 'modulars for dummies'.

When I first started making noise all i wanted was hardware and a Mac myself, then I realized I loved what I was making despite the fact that I had a four year old laptop running XP with some hit and miss cracked audio software and a pair of shitty earbuds. The old ass laptop has gone by the wayside, the buds are still here though and make an occasional appearance if I'm in bed sketching a new sound. My super duper hi-fi gear consists of a $20 Technics amp from the Sal and a pair of old ass speakers that my friend gave me. It's hooked into the audio out of my laptop when needed.

It's all about how you want to do things and what you're comfortable with. I implore you to hang out with your friend a bit more to get a feel for hardware and see if it's truly your calling.