wat up fam i havent been on the site for a minute cause my mv was giving me some tech trouble so its still out on repair til mid october. so since i had to finish up a project i was working on i needed something to get it done with so my boy hooked me up with reason 4 and fl studio 8 so i found a way to rewire them up to each other were reason is rewired into fl studio and to trigger my sounds im using the akai mpd 18 on a regular ass gateway laptop running vista 32- bit pack 2 and dang man its the fuckin shit i can get the mpd 18 to sound like the mp 60 cause it has a swing option and quantize and trust me playing chops on it is sick cause you can set up reasons nn-xt to work like an mpc cause it lets you do cut offs with your samples & then in fl studio i can fuck with all kinds of keyboard plug ins now. to be honest me now knowing about this combo im not sure if im oh cop another mv cause this combo is like an mv on crack ,meth & ex straight fire fam.

I used to own an MPD16 (old version), but I didn't like it at all. Had no additional software except for the Lite versions that came with it too, so that might have been my issue. Never quite found the pads comfy and never actually got a proper work flow going.

Mind you though, that was my very first piece of beat making gear too.

All in all, not a great experience and I'm never going to switch. It's probably also why I don't like software that much, but I'm def combining software and hardware more and more these days.

Software can be awesome when it comes to using it as a sound module with the MV though.

tbh get rid of reason and go all FL

you will get a lot done a lot faster

FL can do everything reason can do and much more

but if something works, it works, you shouldn't fight it. hardware is great, but if you are having more fun with one or the other, than just do it and don't feel guilty about it

truth. the best set-up is the one that works for you! I've heard tons of beats that are dope as hell and came from some busted ass pc rocking cool edit pro, or fruity loops. unless you are way into the tactile feel of working on the MV, there's no way that It can compete with a decent software set-up with a pad controller in terms of power, features, flexibilty etc. especially on windows where you can just pirate the hell out of everything. for some though, myself included, I dig working within limits and having the hands on approach to hardware setup. either way that's fresh that you found the set-up that you're hyped on.

Yeah, the actual process of making beats or any kind of music really on a piece of hardware is for me reason enough to not go full software and make music with a mouse.

I'm aware that software these days will give you an insane amount of additional features over most hardware, but nothing beats the feel of messing with an MV for me... at least so far.

When it comes to features, one should always reconsider how many of those you'd use anyways. Sometimes or I should say often, and then I'm looking at the SP-404 crowd here and their crazy beats, the basics is all you truly need.

the pc w/ hardware thing is a great option for some cats. lately i've actually realized that some of the limitations i'm hitting within hardware would be eaaaasy fixes if i were just using ableton or acid or FL.

i never even made a distinction between hardware and software until i came on to the web forums and saw people felt so strongly about it....i always thought to just do whatever it takes to get the job done.

they are all computers to me

and alot of programs dont negate the use of hardware...they complement it

you can still retain a hardware gritty sound if you touch up your tracks in a DAW after making the most out of your sp as you can

Clean or gritty, I think both hardware and software can accomplish this.

i think you are kind of missing the point

I was lookin at the MPD18, it's awkward trying to use the pads on my Axiom25. Have you used it for laying down melodies or basslines? Any opinion?

Yeah, I shouldn't have post that, I think we agree. I had written something entirely different first, but deleted like three quarters of it. My bad.

whatever, i know where your coming from

obviously the mv 8800 is complete unto itself, you dont really need much else except maybe a keyboard

but mixing tracks on the 555 alone is like playing lights out. you fix one thing and another thing needs fixing

remember that game?



i wonder if playing this alot as a kid effected my choice of sampler