controller choices help please

[tellurian]

Hi all I am new to this forum and currently have ableton 6.07 which I am very slowly learning via youtube and manual :)
I also have komplete 5 which i just bought on special so havent even opened it yet :) so alot to get to grips with there as well :(

I have a novation zeroSL which i have running thru automap into ableton and two cdj1000's mk3's plus a denon DNX1500 mixer all running into pc thru tascam us144 interface.

I was thinking of adding some kit that will help me play more "live/hands on" on live and also with my cdj dj gear as I am a musician {drums/guitar} and I want to have the input into songs i am dj'ing as well as do some samples remix/edits of songs as well as hopefully start to write some :) {along way off yet}

Anyway to cut to the chase...Iam looking at the following either some or all and want to know is it too much stuff or will the software i now have suffice etc etc
Wish list
kaossilator pro
korg MS1 micro sampler
Novation launchpad (will this work with 6.0??? I know it comes with lite 8.0)

I have also looked at Machine by native instruments which looks pretty cool as well.....
Any help/advice much appreciated

[River]

I have a Korg ER1 which is like a basic drum-synth and step sequencer, makes some very cool drum sounds and blips-blops and its very hands-on for knob twiddling.

I have it setup so its synced to live via midi, so hitting play in live starts the step sequencer, stop stops it and its all in time.

If you wanted to make little loops on the fly, add FX etc and drop them in I think it'd be a great choice, it has some delay on it, and the decay you can get on notes would be great for buildups/breakdowns to.

Bout £100 of ebay.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2336/2501878988_f7d3e51f87.jpg

[River]

BTW I used to play out the keyboard version of what you have, the SL25. That was a few years ago now before all the grid-style launchers appeared.

For every track I went through and cut it into 4 signiture loops from different stages of the track, and one clip for the whole track. I then had a folder for my tunes, and each tune had a folder with the track+4 loops.

I had 4 channels, colour coded to stickers on the midi keyboard, and I had the keyboard keys bound to clip 1-2-3-4-5 of each track.

That way you can mashup between the full track and loops (which you can send to FX, drop in filtered etc) and play the whole lot with the keyboard.

On certain tracks I'd also take one major signiture loop of the track and move the 'start play here point' around to 4 different parts, and put those over 1-2-3-4 clip slots. That way you can 'play' the loop, e.g. beat1, beat1, beat1, beat 4,4,4, loop it starting at 4 for a bit, then hammer 3,2,1 let it play from 1 for a bit etc.


You can get some pretty mad stuff going on with that setup and a few effects, I never really mastered it as well as I'd have liked though so good luck :>

[tomflynn]

Have you looked at the akai apc20 or apc40, it's perfect for live, i haven't used it but did check it out and it sounds like it could be right up your street.

Like you say, the mashine is rocking, also very good! :)

[tellurian]

cheers guys useful stuff...thing is everyone seems to like such different things LOL and its pretty hard to actually know what is right or wrong till your like $1000 out of pocket :)

having said that i think i
1.Should upgrade to live 8.0
2.buy launchpad (cheap as and designed for ableton)
3.install komplete 5.0 and get to grips with the HUGE software involved with this.
4.purchase Machine for the sampling /drum stuff

this in conjunction with the zeroSl i already have should pretty much give me a pretty solid studio for doing pretty much anything....as well as portability and live capability.

Now i need 12 months of solid heads down to get to grips with it all :)

[tomflynn]

To be honest dude there is no right or wrong setup. It's all about what works for you, what you feel comfortable with.
You'll get a lot more done if you know your gear inside out, rather than having all this stuff and hardly knowing how to work it.

I'd go at it bit by bit, buy something and learn it inside out before you get into something else.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that buying new stuff is going to make you sound better.

I love the determination though! :)

[tellurian]

To be honest dude there is no right or wrong setup. It's all about what works for you, what you feel comfortable with.
You'll get a lot more done if you know your gear inside out, rather than having all this stuff and hardly knowing how to work it.

I'd go at it bit by bit, buy something and learn it inside out before you get into something else.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that buying new stuff is going to make you sound better.

I love the determination though! :)i hear you ...just that i want to do the business and i want to make it as interactive as possible, but i also dont want to shell out big bucks for a white elephant, and at same time as i improve i want something that lets me go from slo to pro without having to constantly upgrade sell or otherwise reinvest in new gear ....kinda want to do it right first time.
second hand gear is worth shit and with so many new toys out every month its hard to figure whats the business....having discussed with peeps other than music shop no nothings i have a plan that should see me right for a few years any way:eek:

[tomflynn]

Trust me, you will be upgrading, selling, changing stuff, breaking stuff, and more lol it's just the nature of music making!! God I love it!