I've been DJ'ing (trance and hard house music mostly) for two years. I've done countless small gigs and several fairly large ones and I'm thinking about broadening my horizons and going into production, but as I'm only 15 it seems a pretty daunting task considering the expenses. I currently own a 400MHz iMac with a basic version of Cubase VST, but I'm wondering what other things I need (sampler, synthesizer, mixing desk, etc) — or rather, which ones you could recommend. Cheapish ones please. Also another question, regarding CD writers: a Philips CDR770 or an Iomega USB CD‑RW drive?
DJ Duggy
Assistant Editor Sam Inglis replies: For dance music, the main things you're likely to need are a sampler to provide sounds, a keyboard to trigger them, and a MIDI interface to get the MIDI data in and out of the computer. If you end up with more than one sound source, you'll also need some way of mixing them together. In your position, you could go for a 'budget' sampler such as Korg's Electribe S or Zoom's ST224 (reviewed SOS August 2000 and January '99 respectively), a second‑hand but more professionally specified sampler, such as an older Akai or Emu model, or a software sampler that can run with Cubase, such as Bitheadz' Unity DS1 (reviewed April '99), or even inside it, such as the forthcoming Steinberg HALion. The advantage of the latter option is that you can do everything inside the computer, and there won't be any messing about with cables or synchronisation. The disadvantage is that you won't be able to take it out to gigs, if you ever want to do that.
Yet another software idea is Propellerhead's Reason, reviewed in the March issue of Sound On Sound. This almost completely self‑contained music production system has features that include analoguestyle synthesis, drum programming, effects, and two methods of sequencing. Though it doesn't offer a user sampling facility, it does allow you to import audio in popular formats such as AIFF and WAV, and then manipulate it with a sampler 'device' and use it in your tracks. You could potentially get around the lack of user sampling by recording audio into Cubase, saving it in AIFF format and importing that into Reason. The program comes with a large free sound and sample/loop library, and your computer should be well capable of running it.
As for a keyboard, unless you actually want to get involved with playing complex keyboard parts you could probably make do with one of the very low‑cost models made by companies such as Evolution. Unless you have several external MIDI sound sources/modules, moreover, you can probably get away with a simple one‑in/one‑out USB MIDI interface — Midiman make very cost‑effective small interfaces. You could also consider the new Roland PC300 controller keyboard, which has a USB interface for connecting direct to your Mac and costs under £150.
If you end up doing all your production in the computer, it makes sense to record your mixes within Cubase and then burn them to a computer‑controlled CD‑RW. If, on the other hand, you decide to use an external sampler for all your sounds, you could use a stand‑alone CD recorder, such as the Philips you mention, as a master stereo recorder.