Heh, right, it totally is...
There are a few exceptions yet, like taking the variety of a digi-synth (soft / hard, doesn't matter) and plug it before some good analog fx, the result is totally fair.
Liam did it a few times, I think, it's no betrayal if you're a hardware veteran...

The only thing really pee-ing me off about software is the look & feel of it. I know people being able to be creative with software, which is what I admire, because I can't work without touching the gear. Sure, you can buy midi-controller for that, but that's not what I meant. I like the look of the stuff in a real studio. It's more expensive - sure, it's harder to care for - yes, it breaks more easily - absolutely
and it takes up more power and space - right.
But if you feel bad using it and/or it doesn't inspire you, what are you gonna do with it?

Plus, computers freak me out, they never work in my favour, they make me shout at them and they ruin my day.
Gimme one more bluescreen and I'll throw stones at old women.

As for the samplers, I think the Akai fx are very nice, it might be just me, gotten so used to them (plus, hearing all the Prodigy stuff makes you even WANT the Akai-sound to be reproduced...), and they're totally capable of being Lo-Fi as hell.
But if you want unique filters and fx, go for the old Ensonic samplers. Very good sound but yet very special and exclusive.

Do you mean the W-30 by saying 12 bit...? ;-)
I checked it, it's okay, but you can do that with better samplers and a bit reducer or bad modifiers as well.
The W-30 is on a low course at eBay right now, so for all of you wanting to follow Liams footsteps... go get one.
But don't expect much, it's very simple (and therefore adorable as {*%@#

Go get an Akai S-950.
Very cheap and powerful.
12 BIT/10 OUTPUTS/TIMESTRECHING

See you.....

Yeah, DJ Friction uses one, very alternative.
I was offered a S750 a few month ago, for very few bucks, but this is a sampler no one's gonna love.
It really is too shitty...
The 950 is on the edge, if you ask me.
You get a S1100 for a few bucks more and you have all the cool fx built in.
I saw some at eBay for a total low-price, looks like everyone is jumping on that software train now.

isn't it risky to buy over E BAY?
i mean i comes from south africa and erm...i've never seen sumthin' off EBAY from south africa...will

I don't understand it, I wrote a reply yesterday, but it didn't show up here. Well, at first it did, but it's gone now.
Nevermind.

skru dat , the track was b0ll0cks anyway - as soon as i listened to the track over speakers(not earphones) i realised it's crap - anyway...

A wise man once told me:
Those, who are mixing with headphones, shall immediately end their lifes.

You'll never see a recording engineer using headphones for mixing.

If you wanna take it on a more professionel level, I'd say, get yourself a pair of Yamaha NS10's.
The worst speakers ever.
Why buy then?
Because they're the best monitors you can get.
YOu'll hear every small error in your mix.
They do not sound good, but that's not what you want, at a mixdown.
Or else, get some Genelecs.

to my horror i've dicovered AKAI do not sell musical products in south africa anymorez....noooooooooooooooo!
No i thinks i wanna buy a sampler and then a ELECtribe mmm...
buuuut....w0t t0 buuuuuy??????
PLZ tell me wot is a good sampler for a cheap price - there is like no second hand market here - i wish i was there - --mmm...ummmm...he he he ok gimme ideas and it's gotta be really cheap...is the SP-303 any good?
they offered me that as there special cheap bargain sampler...
any suggestions???

Then use eBay, or look at a local musicstore if someone is gonna sell his/her stuff.
Or look at the web for used gear.
They are not hard to find, really.

Well, I can't say what sampler you should buy, because I don't know what type of music you wanna do, I don't know if you wanna use it mainly life or in the studio, I don't know what kind of sounds and technical specifications you expect the sampler to have a.s.o.

Let's do it this way, you tell me what you wanna do with it and what it should be doing in your setup and I'll look what I can find for you.

Greets
Ekko

Oh I made like this Drum+Bass track with fruity loops

Wow, I didn't know that!

If it's really out already, we have a nice chance to get one soon...

I thought of saving money for the MPC3000. I overthink my plans now.

Cheers,
EKko

Are you talkin' 'bout the Akai MPC-2000?

Yeah, since there is a MPC and a MPS, I just placed a small x there. The latest machine is the MPC3000, haven't used it yet, but the MPC2000 is the best for live-shows. YOu have big buttons and a clearly arranged (but a little small) screen, that always shows you only the most important values.
The MPS is like the smaller brother of it and isn't made fabricated any more because most people decided to get the 'real' one, the MPC...
I'd do so as well, btw.

It is very cool if you are interested in music and the technical side of it, but it also is very expensive (since it's a private university) and I don't have much for a living right now.
Because of this, I had to take some side-jobs and this again makes me so pretty flabby, cause it's mostly nightwork *yaaaaawn*
Anyway, I like it this way.
Greets,
Ekko

It depends on what you feel is a reliable price.
The standard HipHop drummachine / sampler combination is the MPx2000 or nowadays 3000.

Okay, once again: Good programs for sequencing are
Cubase VST 24 / 4.0, Logic Audio and Ableton Live in the more professional area.
Then there is Sonic Foundry Acid, with which you can only arrange audio-files, there's no Midi-implementation,
Fruity Loops, which you already checked out, this is just a step sequencer with less Midi-implementation,
FastTracker, which is the best tracker out there (according to Zed  ) and a whole bunch of smaller programs that virtually copy the ones mentioned above.

For FX you really should get some PLugins.
PI warp and Northpole are free filter plugins that freak up the
sound very weird.
I don't start to tell you about all the others, you should check 'em out yourself. There is great stuff out there.

I'm on a private university for musicians and engineers,
we have loads of gear here (it's a dream, really... I often skip my free time to just hang out with the machines...)

Beware of that machine if you have a mac, you can't transfer a3k-files or waves from the mac to the yamaha. For now. Maybe there'll be a tool sometime, but since the machine is out on the market quite a good time by now, there's only a small chance.

But it's a great sampler anyway, the best is, that you can sync the LFO to the Midi-stream, which actually allows you extremely tight timed oscillations. Not too much instruments allow that.
The rest is the normal stuff, 4 Outs (I think... Or were it 6?), 64 Voices Polyphony, about 50 different FX, but it only comes with very less ram delivered, better stock up to at least 32mb (we have one with 128 at our school, that's okay. Too less anyway. Another pro for the software: No space-limitations. YOu can use all the vast space of your HD. But be aware that you'll need a small partitioned HD with fast access-times to stream long files at once and timed).

Haven't checked the EQ yet, but I guess it'll sound like every built in EQ, if you know what I mean.

Get a software sampler.

Cheaper, smaller, way more comfortable (Halion reads many formats), more flexible, easy to update, offers better editing-possibilitys and has more options to alter the sound.
Plus, you can drop some plugins behind the samplers out.
You get free software sequencers, which are actually mostly better than any build-in sequnencer of a sampler.

If you can't let go of a real sampler, I'd recommend the Groovebox. The MC 505 from Roland. It's nearly a small workstation.
You'll got a step-sequencer and a synthesizer and a drummachine in one piece. And you have an extreme funky toy on it, the D-Beam COntroller (silly name), which allows you to alter the sound by just waving your hand over the controller. It's all controlled by the wind you make over it. Looks great in live-shows, believe me... Or get drunk and hang out a night over that machine, I bet you've got amazing results the next morning.
You can also buy the MC 303, the baby-brother of the 505, it just lacks the D-Beam Controller (total pity) and some sampling-space if I remember correctly.

It's nearly the same with the SP-505 and 303 you talked about.
The Boss-machines are a bit more developed, the 505 for example has a bigger LCD-screen which allows you to actually see the envelopes you create. (Which you will never need, rely on your ear, man.)
But I find that the ROland machines sound a bit more grunty, if you want them to.

It's a question of taste, I can't help you with that. Borrow the machines for a weekend and chek them out yourself.

Greets,
Ekko

The Karma is a nice instrument, but one the sort that let's *you* do everything, or *it* does everything for you.
For example, there are four buttons you can use to trigger complete presetted chords. Drum-tracks, bass tracks, melody, textures, even vocals. It does everything for you, if you let it. Don't let it! I wonder in how many new charty songs this crap will appear. I still remember Blu Mar Ten using the preset-soundcheck-chord that most Roland synthies have.
It was annoying, this chord was made for the user to check soundlevel and panning and fx and so on...
And yes, you can use something like a tracker with the Karma, it of course has a built in sequencer and some other toys like that tracker like-thingie (in fact, it reminds me of the W-30's sequencer, to be honest) and a Karma-specific mode were you can access certain sounds to certain parts of (your own or presetted) compositions, but the clue is: You can modulate every single bit of every sound by using the little stick at the left and/or the reassigned keys from the clavier and/or some other keys. So you can use all your fingers at once to alter the sound. If you have full control over your fingers (+ absolute pitch, would be helpful) you can do the most weirdest things with a complete song at once you'll never even dream of.

Karma stands Kay Algorithmic Realtime Music Architecture and that long shit means it uses Stephen Kay's extravagant algorithms to create new sounds. That's what Korg was to make us believe. It's not thaaaaat special, but still an amazing instrument. I wish they would stop building such complex synthies, but use that good synthesis instead without all the additional crap like preset-goodies and 'here-and-there-details' you'll never need. Just the core please.
Modern workstation, but has a very very good sound.

Bad is, there's an update for a new operating system and I have to check it out as well.

yes, and that's a big transgression actually (at least at my territory), if i was a moderator here i'd ruin all the stuff and ban you!

Mhm, I renounce to ban myself.
Besides, I talked bull anyway, I still thought we were in your offtopic-area, so I didn't offtopiced anything, *mwuahahaha*
Okay.

Please continue with the original maneuver, Captain Zed
yes, i'm also big fan of "private parts" movie...

Actually, it was related to the Captain Dread-adventures,
what is Private Parts? Sounds like a porn movie...
Still haven't seen Uranus Experiment.
I d/led some nice porn music, I used to relax to some smooth Bossa Nova or Samba when I come from work, but now that I discovered cheesy porno-music, I can TOTALLY relax.
Well, while it's pretty annoying if you have actual samples of the film in the music (you know...), it's just very slow and mostly even neutral music.
I still don't know how to tell the next chicks that I hear music
which is played in porno-films.

Only programms I know are Buzz, Modedit, Modtracker, Fasttracker the best tracker in the mid90's, Ultratracker.
Of course they are all very very old, but fun anyway.
Yeah, you caught me, this was just namedropping, in fact I  know about nothing about modern trackers.
If I would have the time to, I'd love to organise me the good Ultratracker and get into it again, but I don't have the time nor the money for a second PC and the card required for it.
Besides, I'm kinda fed up with learning things at the moment, I had to learn every important bit of Korg Karma-programming and I'm about to overwrite old memories with new ones already.
Don't even have time for sidejobs anymore.
Okay, I did again, I screwed the main-theme, I offtopiced' an offtopic-thread.

Please continue with the original maneuver, Captain Zed
Over & out

feck i'm bored ::)

Are you hanging around at your internet-cafe-thingie once again...?

Man, that must be terrible!  ;D

I don't want to pigeonhole them. The next album will be different any way, so why make any description now?
It's just good music.

Might be a synth or a sample.

You can hardly say it's the one or another, synthesizer and sampler are somewhat equal, both use certain editing methods. The difference is the soundsource, a sampler takes samples, sounds that already exist and a synth takes an oscillation or a wave.

In this case, I'd guess it's a synthie.
Some distortion on it - ready

How old are you, Ekko?

Why you wanna know that?
You could have a look at the members page to find out.

And in the synthesizer topic those are English money in dollars how much would that Fader cost?

Fader? Do you mean that Lexicon Reverb?
I guess you are relating this to the Narayan-sound we talked about. Well, don't forget that, to build the sound itself, you'll need a synthie at first (some software thingie should do) before that machine would be of some use for you.
Well, 15.000 Euro would be about 13.230 US Dollars, so you might save quite a while. And if you wanna get that delay (oh, I think THAT is what you meant!), you should first find out which one you wanna buy. There are loads of good delays out there. I would recommend a software delay, easy, cheap, good. The Ohmboys delay is superb, if you ask me.