Not sure I'm in the right forum with question (mods please move if necessary)

After a couple of years in music production on a pc, I would like to go back to the basics and I am truying to find the absolute minimal hardware device which allows to produce a decent dance track. My eye fell on the 404 and since you are the experts I would like to know your opinion.

Thanks in advance.

not really

the 404 would work well with some other pieces of gear, but on it's own it really isn't ideal for producing dance music

you'd be better off looking at the MC range, MC-303, 505, 808, 909
they have synths in them and also allow step-sequencing

or a korg electribe, the xoxbox-style pad setup seems geared toward dance/house/techno/etc.
plenty of demos on youtube

edit

Dance music, not so much.

Now if it's grimy hip-hop you're after... =)

Get a Korg EMX you'll fall in love.

yeah, korg makes nice samplers for dance music. 404 is for lo-fi hip hop mainly, but I guess it depends on your own skill level really.

Oh come on, you guys are definitely splitting hairs.

"lo-fi hip hop" is very dancy. It has a beat and is electronically timed....

The aesthetic characteristics of your samples define how people will react to the music.

the 404 is a sequencer that can sequence up to 12 mono samples simultaneously before you experience glitch/problems.

If that sounds good to you, you will be very happy with it. If that sounds like something that's not up to what you think you need, shop elsewhere.

I know from personal experience that the 404 can make the most stationary booties shake and bring the house down into tribal dancing madness very easily.

My .02 cents.

That's why I said that it depends on a persons own skill level and knowledge of song arrangement. I don't make dance music so I don't want to mislead someone. Some electronic dance music is very complex in arrangement which would require creative or hair pulling solutions on a 404. Plus I remember a Korg having real nice electronic sounds already in the box, plus a tube amp thingy built in sounds phat to me.

Plus some kind of onboard synth would help tremendously. You can make almost any kind of music with almost anything but some boxes lend themselves more to certain types of production. I used to make albums 100% in soundforge but if someone asked me if it was a good idea I'd have to say no. Step sequencing is pretty much essential for most dance music at some point in the production chain. Better to have it in the one box you want to use for production than to have to make patterns on another device and import them right?