Thanks, appreciate it. Will chuck a couple more up later.

While I'm here I have a small tech question if anyone can help. I have one of these. I don't use it for sequencing or anything, I just sometimes like chopping up a few samples and loading them on to play about with. Then if I wanted to record something I would record it live as an audio file into logic, or sometimes just recreate it in logic using the base samples.

I'm pretty sure theres a better way I could be doing this with midi but I don't know what it is. Is there a midi pad controller, basically like what I have, but plugs into usb and lets me drag samples into different pad banks and stuff, just to save me all the time i spend recording samples onto the sampler etc...and can I do all that within logic (express) or would I need separate software? Thanks

Finally (im impatient) got some vinyl decks.
Got a pair of gemini pt2410s with the worlds shittest mixer for £145.

The decks are great, they are the first gen after the technics motor patent ran out and seem near identical.

Ordered a second hand Kam mixer which should be here next week so using my housemate's numark mixer for now.

Fuck me beat matching is a whole other beast on these, got a learning curve ahead of me but loving the challenge.

I have never really listened to music on vinyl before and im still not one for thinking it is the best sound but I am finding I am genuinely sitting and listening to LPs now rather than listening to half songs then skipping ahead.

Found some charity shop gems over the weekend. Got Scream by MJ and Robot Rock for a quid each along with a bunch of other stuff.

Went Rough Trade and picked up the new Roska one and the Red Astaire LP which is brilliant.

I've gone Traktor to vinyl.

Traktor was fun for a bit but all that analyzing and that bollocks was annoying. If I went back to digital it would be ableton, I enjoyed the dabble I had on it.

Ultimately though I wanted to get away from any form of screen.

Yeah I have been browsing/drooling over discogs this week.

Picked up Wookie - Battle cos it is my favourite track ever. Bought a bulk load of garage off ebay too, really feeling garage right now, it is having a bit of a revival in south london and all the fit girls are on it like crack.

Haha.

Digtal and vinyl are different. I use either Rokit monitor speakers or HD25 mkiis for both.

Digital is crisp and clear, vinyl is smooth, warm and nice.
I just wanted to seperate myself from the vinyl obsessive, because, while I like the warm sound it isnt necessarily better. Just depends what you are after.

GurtTractor wrote:

There are things like these (8 of the best apparently here). You can use samplers (does Logic Express have EXS24?) to drag samples in and play them back, but sometimes pads correspond to random notes or possibly not at all. I think the best/simplest plugin for what you want is Battery. You just drag samples onto the cells onscreen, then assign them to keys/pads. You can also apply effects/compression/etc to individual samples. I've used the previous version which was quite nice, but I can't afford it atm. There may be some reasonable free alternatives out there. Actually I wouldn't mind nabbing Battery off them interwebs, because it's really very nice to use for 1-shots. But I don't really do that often, perhaps I should visit the Dark Legend thread...

Thanks for the info. Might take a punt on one of those cheap Korg Nano Pads. Can't go too wrong for £40. Had a look at some youtube guides to doing the Exs24 sampling which looks pretty straightforward. Should probably have worked this all out ages ago, it seems much easier.

Wound a couple of P90s today. They even worked.

Derp - I'm an idiot, ignore. Bloody secondary volume switch isn't obvious.

I rebuilt the turntable i'd needlessly repaired. The 'repair' was successful thankfully!
Was great seeing the old 1210 back in action. I felt all nostalgic.
Now i just gotta patch up the phono lead on the other one before I can sell em.

Quick question about using EXS24 if anyone can help?

So I worked out roughly how to use it, load in samples set zones and all that crap.

What I want to do though, is have say 2 different tracks (on the main logic sequencer), each of which is reading a totally  different set of samples simultaneously.

So I can click on Track 1, start pressing keys and its playing my drum set for instance.
Then click on Track 2 and start pressing the same keys and I'm now playing some piano samples.

Then if I were to record on both those tracks separately then play back,the drums and piano would be both be playing at the same time.

Whenever I've tried what I think will work, I end up writing over the samples I have already set for the other track. Like I can only have one exs24 for the project?

Does that make sense? Hard to explain! 
Been fiddling loads and can't work out how to do this.

Thanks, sorry think I explained it pretty badly. 

When I'm talking about the samples, I didn't mean recorded midi notes, but the samples on the keys.

Essentially I think I just want a different Exs24 set to each track, each with it's own bank of samples, so that when I select a track i'm then playing that track's set of samples.

That's what I couldn't work out though. As when I thought I was creating a new bank of samples on a new exs24, I was actually just changing the samples on one exs24 that was being read by multiple tracks.

Got my deposit down on my DDJ-SX now, will be picking it up on Wednesday. Seriously can not wait!

Anyone recommend some decent cheap speakers? With the amount of money going out next week I'm on a bit of a budget. The guy in the shop said he's got a deal on some decent speakers for £150 that were £220 but I can't for the life of me remember what they were.

Death Lamp

Woodi there's no such thing as decent cheap speakers.

I'm going for the M-Audio BX5 D2. £150 plus I'm gonna use them for my PC speakers too. The guy in the shop wanted me to spend £135 per speaker which I just can't afford.

They seem like very decent speakers for the price.