First dawless gear: M:C or Digitakt/Digitone ?

[SynthWizard]

0			0

First dawless gear: M:C or Digitakt/Digitone ?

A bit of background.

I’m kinda new in electronic music production, even if I’m not a newbie about music and synthesis theory. I also played a bit in Ableton Live and a lot with Pocket Operators (the KO! and the Arcade).

As I feel so lost on the Ableton Live’s blank page, and as I loved playing with my standalone Pocket Operators (linked to synths on my iPhone), I’m thinking of buying a gear to jam with, standalone for know (or if possible maybe with my POs) then later maybe I’ll invest in another gear if I like playing music that way.

After watching A LOT of videos about grooveboxes and dawless gears (M:C, M:S, Digitakt, Digitone, Novation Circuit, Roland 101, Korg Electribes, OP-1, OP-Z...) I finally found that I’m very interested in Elektron stuff, in term of workflow, features and design, and especially the Model:Cycles and the Digitakt.

Now I’m really hesitating : should I start gently and buy a Model:Cycle that I know well now after I watched ALL the YouTube videos about it and maybe I’ll feel limited or bored quickly, or crack the wallet for a Digitakt and maybe be able to learn it and jam with it during years ? I know, that’s very different gears.

What I love with M:C is that it’s all packaged. No need to import sounds, his limitations and simplicity being a starting point for creativity. Also I love his portability: being able to bring it to me in a park or coffee (waiting for power handle), or playing in my bed is a great plus. What I don’t love with M:C is that it kinda always sounds similar and I’m afraid of being bored after few months. What I love with Digitakt is that it looks easy and fun to sample stuff and play with. I’d like to be able to easily sample my guitar, musics or synths from my iPhone or MacBook. I don’t want to take hours to choose samples and put them in an SD card, so Digitakt looks good on that point. It’s also way more versatile letting me jamming with many different music styles: I love electronica, trip-hop, techno, hip-hop, dub... What I don’t love with Digitakt... it looks a bit heavy and less easy to transport it, but I guess I’m still able to play with in the bed even if I need to plug it.

And finally, even if I like sound design, what I want is being able to jam in live, without that much interruptions (for myself or friends), like I can do with my guitar or piano, spending hours exploring new chords and techniques that comes to my mind while I’m playing ! What I don’t want is to be required to design and setup all my sounds before and then just press play on a live situation (a bit cliché maybe ahah)

Sorry for the looong post, I feel lost and nobody around me can help or advise so I’m here. If you guys got the courage to read that all, I would love to get your feeling and advices ! Thanks !

submitted by /u/rmluux
[link] [comments]