So im here at work. Something funny just happened. I put an SP555 on layaway and figured Id get a chance to try it out before purchasing it. I Asked my boss what he thought about it and if I could try it out. He said NO that I couldnt, which is fine...but added "you don't want that anyways, it's more for guitarists who want to play along with a couple drum loops and add rhythm over top and stuff, not really a good piece of gear." LOL

I was like, well actually I was thinking about using it to make beats on. He doesnt know Im an SP enthusiast armed with an SP-303. He then says that "you need to get a computer and just sample old records and archive all the samples to you computer and trigger them with an external MIDI device. That's what you need to do for what you're doing" Then I tell him that I've BEEN using a 303 for like 6 years lol. He just kicked me out of his office. A co-worker added "yeah and then you can make your beats on time" LMAO...Im so glad I don't follow trends. But they must be looking at me like I need to upgrade, and stop playing with toys lol.

What makes it funny is he is a Dubstep DJ who triggers songs with an MPD. Doesnt make beats at all. Just shows how close minded a lot of people who listen to the "new shit" are these days....and by "new shit" Im refering to Dubstep, or Trendstep...if you will. Also shows how some people don't know anything about making music. It's a personal preference what you use. You can't tell me to use a computer after Ive already succeeded without!

at least homeboy knows the deal when it comes to flippin old records, where they hell do you work that your boss and coworkers are so aware of digital music production??? and it sounds like they are the kinda people who will talk down to you for tryin to make raw hip hop, i hate that shit, i don't know if its worse than talkin to total bone head radio listeners cause these people know their shit a little bit and can get all high and mighty like they know everything, i can't even get into it with those people, i just kinda brush em off and smile

last year i lived with a my homie and then two girls, plutonic relationships all around (which was pretty dope), and the girls and their friends would refer to my sp as an oversized telephone, and i would always say i was making interstellar phone calls when i would be in my room with the door shut, which was about 70% of the time anyway

LOL, an oversized telephone? Ive always heard "nice calculator bro".

I work at guitar center. There are a lot of high and mighty here, LMAO.

I just laugh it off when people are rude about the process of making music

Idiom, what is your work?
personally when im at work i mad track with my pc or my nanokey or my su10, so my boss cannot see what im doin (and the nanokey or the su10 are very easy to hide ehehe)

I work in a warehouse. There is no way I could make beats at work if that is what you're implying...

My boss was pretty much telling me that it's stupid to use an SP for production. He might know a lot about new pieces of gear that are compatible with computers and such...but he doesnt know shit about creativity! Gear is important, but you can't let it control you! He only sees the limitations pieces of gear has and doesn't use what gear he has to the best of it's capability...thats why he DJs Trendstep with ableton on his Macbook and MPD triggerpad.

What mostly bothers me though is this: I've noticed a lot of people who listen to Dubstep don't appreciate any music that has its own heartbeat...its own grittiness, a different drum signature, a different sound. It shocks me that these kids refer to dubstep as filthy,grimy, off beat...when really that's not an accurate description at all! A more accurate description is that it is very synthetic, wobbly, repetitious, and the SAME 2-STEP DRUM PATTERN OVER AND OVER AGAIN, IN PERFECT SWING.

SO as far as this goes...I think people who follow trends should not give advice on what piece of gear you should use to do your own, personal, original, unique, music. It is funny that he would get upset because he thinks its stupid to use an SP. Seeing what music he likes and what reasons he has for the gear hew uses to DJ, I should have known he would knock the SP555. But for my other co-worker to attempt at insulting me by saying something like "you can make your beats on time"...that just cracks me up. That sounds like "you can make your beats sound like every other beat that I like because they all sound the same; and I can't dance to anything that isnt within the same tempo or time signature that I am used to hearing"

sometimes its good when people think its a toy cause when you do try to beats on it it doesn't seem serious..its fun. it makes you not be overly critical about the shaping the sound but much more of a curious experimentation.

Word, that's what I discovered after I bought my 303. It's easy to use, and it sounds great. I never read the manual...just found out how to use it through experimentation. However, I wouldnt say it's just for playing around...it's a serious sampler. The sequencer is is pretty good, but I mostly just do my own measures straight into a recorder.

Your Boss sounds like a jerk. MPD+Ableton is essential for me, but so is my 303 with it. Dude has the audacity of turning up his nose like he is more knowledgeable or something.

Yeah, there's no excuse for dissin' someone on their approach to making music. Humility is an important personality trait that more people need to have! A good beat, or a good song, or even a good riff is all that really matters. It has nothing to do with how you created it. Does it sound dope or not...jeez...ya' just gotta love musical ass-hats.

Anyway, I do have to say that when I started messing with Logic (actually started with Garageband on my first mac), I was amazed at how fast the flow was - and so visual. Everything I needed was a click or two away - and the lowest end mac laptop with 2 gigs of ram was more than enough for what I was doing. I've been a hobby songwriter forever...I've used all sorts of tape machines and mixers, and patch bays, etc. over the years.

But, the computer also made me realize that I had lost some of the organic aspects of writing. Copy/paste is cool, but it goes stale really fast if you're not careful. And some of the best things I remember putting together came from hooking up hardware shit in weird ways, and just jammin' away while creating a cool riff. The gear was all a part of the entire experience...

Things have changed a lot...

Alot of people get really caught up on quality, and really lose the fun in what there doin. also, i can't stand people who go round following trends, loose all originality and their ish sounds stale. closed ears.

sp's are fun to use, plain and simple, and also sound fcking dope. in my opinion they're the best tool for experimental ish, escpecially that dirty lo fi ish (new beat tape of dirt for xmas).

any way, fck him!!

Durp-step

If you all remember what fruity loops was like back in the 90's...thats what started my interest in making beats. After playing around with that program for a while I soon realized how dumb, corny, and limited that program was for making music. Felt like painting by numbers.

About 7 years later I started scratching records, juggling, and mixing. It was around the same time that the scratch documentary came out, oddly. But anyway, that led to me getting a cheesy digitech guitar pedal looper. I took that shit back after like 3 days cause it was a total piece. Then I got my SP right after I returned that digitech POS pedal. The SP was just supposed to be my new loop station...but turns out, I discovered that you could make beats on it. Started making beats on it and then Madvillian came out...and I did some research and found out that Madlib usesd the 303 for the entire album...I was blown away. It seemed as though I was in sync with what was happening in the music world of making beats

Now, after years of using the SP, I just have to laugh when people who never had one try to talk shit about it. The machines history speaks for itself. A lot of the new gear these days are just trends on top of trends...look at CDJ scratchers...WTF? WHY? LMAO! You cant let corporations gear dictate what you need to use in your studio. I forgot to add* they will always make you feel like what you are working with is an ancient dinosaur.

Yeah, I've been having slight regrets on selling my SP-808. It was feature rich for an SP in my opinion. Lot's of deep menu items and the mono-synth...shit. Just writing about it brings a tear

Anyway, I wanted to simplify, and thanks to Roland basically abandoning the original SP-808, it never saw a decent upgrade to better storage/memory (even though the A6 had a hard drive!)

But it is great to have such portability in the SX, and the array of effects and other features.

If only my 303 was portable...hmmmm

If I had an SP404sx Id try to make beats everywhere, any spare minute I could get. Ideas come and go, but the portability would allow you to capture them. Even capture record samples while youre digging in a record store....lol without purchasing the record. Does anybody do that?

don't sleep at this thread viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4448&start=30



...and for the 404 in a record shop, i 've done that when i got the sp404 last year, it was funny, people at the store thought it was a piece to hear music...and me i was sampling their (rough) records...