Korg Forums

[2ndfretage]

hi all...

I'm a pretty novice player looking to start getting into some music production and would love some advice on which products to be looking at... i apologise if this comes across a little noobish but i'd prefer to ask all these questions in laymens terms as to not cause any confusion ...

To sum up my needs, I'm more interested in hiphop/rnb/some dance production, so drum samples are really important. Ideally I want a unit that is loaded with a s**t load of drum samples, not so much as loops, but more as single beats assigned to individual keys, allowing me to create beats from scratch. Of course, in addition the keyboard synth sounds have to be sweet too which brings me to this forum as i was blown away plying on the micro at the strore...

Ok so...

I'm looking at something like the X50, but here's what i'm hoping it allows me to do (and this is where I'm asking for your opinions...)

Is it possible to plug the X50 into my computer running a program (say ProTools) and simply record individual parts direct form the keyboard. Say for example i find some nice chords, record that. Come back the next day and lay down some soloish guitar sounds through the keyboard, and add that to the previous chords... etc. SO that after time I can keep building different layers etc onto this single track which is saved on the PC. Then, once it is all playing nicely can I start adding drum beats (again using the X50) INDIVIDUALLY (as mentioned above i.e. have a single drum hit/sound per key)?

In essence, I wanna know how easy it is (if possible at all) to build a track in layers/pieces all using the X50.

First of... can you use the X50 like this? Do the sounds get saved onto your PC as a separate standalone file or does the unit need to be plugged in to draw from each sample? Is there anything else that would be more suitable in this price range??

Secondly... how difficult is it to do any of this?

Thanks and appreciate any help...

[Tiayviel]

Question is - do you want to record the layers as WAV files? If so, every synth can do that, just plug in the output to your line-in of the soundcard. And yes, you can play single samples on the percussion kits, so you can first rhythm the hi-hat, then add toms, etc - if that's what you mean. But if you want music making of that sorts, I would recommend the TR. It's the same samples and everything as the X50, but it has a built in Sequencer -- it provides more flexible editing of phrases, quantization for perfect on-time beats, and a few more. Considering the way you're going to produce music either MicroX, X50 or TR is fine, but you might find the TR SEQ useful at times, especially if you plan to make drum loops this way.
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KORG Trinity V3-MOSS, N364, M50 -- http://viridian.pl

[2ndfretage]

thanks for that...

i have looked at the TR series but living in Australia the price difference is quite substantial.

i figure in terms of making percussion loops, once I find a few bars that i am happy with, can i not just use my editing software (pro tools etc) to copy paste?

how easy is it to play drum samples along with a prerecorded set of music running through something like pro tools? will it just add the samples as i play and i can visually move them around to fine tune?

[gothbin]

Why not use Midi, much easier in the long run, and more flexible. You can alter the sounds at mixingstage and beyond. I always wait with "printing my drums" to audio 'till mixingtime. Shuffling around samples ain't easy - so don't be hard on yourself.

I don't know how much you know of midi, but it is a good investment to learn at least the basics of midi. There are plenty of books on midi, and the UK magazine SOS has small helpfull books on these items.
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Korg N1, a R3, iElectribe & DS10, A Yamaha RM1x sequence remixer. Cubase 5, MOTU Midi Timepiece AV, Lexicon IOnix FW810 interface and a Roland A300Pro controller.

[emdezet]

I dare predict you'd go nuts recording straight audio from the board and shoving it around in pro tools. AFAIK timing is of the essence in hip hop. You might really consider recording the MIDI output of, let's say the microX first and print it to Audio later on in the process. This way you get to quantize or even draw in sound events at the screen instead of busting your balls over tight key-triggering performance.

Implicitly I recommend the microX over the X50. It has 900+ drum sounds and really extraordinary "ethnic" or "world music" sounds. If you are no accomplished piano virtuoso the 25keys should be no problem for you. Shifting octaves is done with the flick of a button.
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