In this post, I'll talk about the music gear that I've used to do most of my songwriting. I'd say that you don't need expensive gear to make great music. A lot of the greatest musicians and composers of the world made music with whatever they had available. I always tell people the equipment is important but the musical skills you nurture are more important.
I bought the Yamaha NP-12 Piagerro 61-Key White in 2022 from Amazon. I wanted a keyboard that had external speakers so I could play in the park if I wanted. I also needed a simple MIDI keyboard that could help me write orchestral music. I like that it can be powered by cord and by batteries. It's a simple keyboard that gives you the ability to create masterpieces. I'd say the only downside is that it doesn't have a modulation wheel. That's ok because I have another keyboard that does that. 😉
Around sometime in the years of 2002-2005, Korg came out with this beauty! The Triton Music Studio Workstation/Sampler. This is an all-in-one system and one of the best I've had the pleasure to work with. It has been discontinued but I think you can still find this secondhand on places like Reverb.com albeit hard to find these days. In the Early 2000's, this workstation was the industry standard for many genres of music. I have created a lot of music with this. It has a CD-drive, a floppy drive and all the digital connections I need to bring MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface) into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). I LOVE this thing! 😀I've had it for over 10 years and I can always add new sounds to it via the sampler! I have to change the internal battery every now and then but the screen and everything else is working as new as the day I got it. A solid machine!!
I still remember the day when my uncle got this thing in 1998. It was like I went to music toy heaven. I often asked to borrow it! This Roland MC-505 Groovebox came out when the genre of Drum & Bass music was becoming mainstream. It has so much potential! After years of never seeing one, I was able to get my hands on one in 2022. It has a certain sound of nostalgia that I love and I still write music with it. Over 20 years later, it still has creative potential!
I must like KORG, right? Haha! I just recently started playing around with this sampler. There was a bit of a learning curve for me. It wasn't as straightforward as the MC-505. After spending 30 minutes to read the manual, I figured it out. It is quite easy to make samples with this and export them into a DAW. For me, it seems like a good sampler for Hip-Hop, Pop and EDM music samples. Of course, we can do a variety of genres with a sampler but many of the preset sounds within it are Hip-Hop, EDM and Fusion. It is a fun toy to work with when I just want to make a quick, simple, 4-8 bar sample.
When I started using the computer to record music, the Presonus FireStudio 26 was my very first Audio Interface that I bought secondhand. Because it was secondhand, I had a little connection issue with the headphone jack but everything else worked perfectly. This is a perfect example of using what you've got to create good music. Years later (2023 to be exact), I needed a new Audio Interface with the new music gear and computer that I bought. My new computer didn't have firewire as a connection option. Presonus has always done right by me so I decided to buy a newer model: The 1810c. It came with Studio One 6 and other free software and plugins. A great purchase!
A studio wouldn't be complete without studio monitors! I chose to purchase the Presonus Eris 3.5 monitors because they were affordable, active monitors and said to be powerful! I used to have an expensive pair of Behringer speakers that were passive speakers. I got a great sound out of them but I also needed a heavy amp to power them. As my studio space grew, I needed something more accessible (and less cords). These 3.5 are very nice! I REALLY love it when the speakers come with everything you need to get them singing! The sound quality is also decent! I'm able to get a complete sound profile to make my desired kind of mixes.
The last computer I used for my music and photo production, I built myself. I wish I could've kept the computer that I built because it was great! I had absolutely NO problems! But it became too slow to keep up with my new gear and software. Those software updates can be a curse sometimes. 😔 Sadly in 2023, I had to search the market for a new computer. I didn't even know about how powerful mini PCs were until I bought the MinisForum Elitemini TH80. I am satisfied! I bought this one because it has expansion slots for RAM and PCI for disk space. I installed all of my music software and video software and it's working as fast as I need it to. I do experience latency sometimes with my MIDI keyboard when I record but I am still troubleshooting that to find a workaround. I know there is a way to reduce that and get the optimal settings. After 6 months, it's doing well for me. 😊