Photo: Egor Komarov via Pexels Going fully dawless is one way to work, but plenty of producers want both worlds: the hands-on feel of hardware and the arranging and mixing power of a DAW. Ableton Live is a natural hub for that, because it is built around jamming and recording. This guide covers the practical … Read more
Photo: TStudio via Pexels The moment you own two pieces of hardware, you have a new problem: keeping them in time. Sync is the least glamorous part of a dawless setup and the part that most often goes wrong. This guide explains the main ways gear stays locked together and how to set them up. … Read more
Photo: Egor Komarov via Pexels A groovebox is an all-in-one music machine: sounds, a sequencer and effects in a single box, with no computer required. For anyone building a dawless setup, a standalone groovebox is often the whole studio. This guide compares the main options by how they actually work, so you can match one … Read more
Photo: Alexey Demidov via Pexels Eurorack is modular synthesis, where instead of buying a finished synth you build one from individual modules and patch them together with cables. It is endlessly flexible and genuinely fun, and it is also the easiest way in music hardware to spend a lot of money by accident. This guide … Read more
Photo: Egor Komarov via Pexels Elektron boxes have a reputation: deep, a little intimidating, and utterly addictive once the workflow clicks. They share a famous step sequencer with parameter locks, which lets you change any setting on any individual step. If you are choosing your first Elektron, the question is not which is best, it … Read more
Photo: Elperfectoinsecto, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The MK2 keeps the same pad-and-sample workflow as this original SP-404. The Roland SP-404 MK2 is one of the most popular boxes in beat-making, and for good reason. It is a sampler, a performance instrument and an effects unit in one portable package. This guide is about … Read more
Photo: John Taran via Pexels Dawless means making music without a computer running a Digital Audio Workstation. Instead of a mouse and a screen, you build tracks on hardware: a sampler, a drum machine, a synth, a sequencer, all wired together and playing in time. For a lot of bedroom producers it is a way … Read more