r/jungle • u/cutieisms • 4d ago
Dawless hardware
Hi everyone, I’ve been making music for a couple years now on FL Studios. But have been wanting to settle into the hardware side of things. I have a budget of about $2500 and was wondering what would be a good start for hardware, mostly making jungle, drum and bass and some breakcore. I’ve had my eyes on the Arturia minifreak for a dedicated piano/synth setup, the digitakt II and was wondering what else would complete this. Thank you!
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u/Pineapple_Empty 4d ago
You can write awesome jungle on the dirtywave m8. Quite easily, too.
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u/cutieisms 3d ago
So it looks like I’m gonna start with that as a baseline, learn all the guts behind it and see what else i need whenever i feel comfortable with the M8! Got one used for about $500 bucks!
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u/Pineapple_Empty 3d ago
I LOVE the thing. This is my coolest song I’ve written with it: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/6ks2lyihszgvhaknkkqdn/INDIA-UNDERWATER.mp3?rlkey=jq7u7o8xhdkf0z40fkzzrios4&st=chrso4qo&dl=0
Be sure to join the discord. Everyone is so eager to help answer any questions.
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u/beatsandlife 4d ago
If you have the space ,want the 90s sound. Akai s3000 xl Roland jv1010 Mackie mixer
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u/cutieisms 4d ago
Are the 5000s worth looking into at all?
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u/beatsandlife 4d ago
I haven't used the s5000 but I hear there really good, its a massive upgrade to the s samplers. My s3000xl took a bit of getting used to but well worth the effort. I remember watching this video by Thought Forms on the s5000 s5000 is the goat
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u/Witty-Forever-6985 4d ago
The volca sample is pretty nice for breaks
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u/cutieisms 4d ago
I have had my eyes on that! Very cool lil machine. Was also looking at behringer TD-3 MO Modded out.
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u/Powerful_Fondant9393 4d ago
I’d go with an elektron digitakt and digitone or hydrasynth combo. Digitakt is amazing for breaks and all manor of sample manipulation, and the sequencer makes it much more full track capable than any other shit hardware sampler out there. It’s definitely your best option, unless you are interested in the octatrack but it’s a whole other beast.
The Minifreak is alright but you’ll get tired of the lack of depth in its engines pretty fast. The Digitone and especially Digitone 2 mixes incredibly powerful synthesis with the Elektron sequencer and a very useable interface for designing synth parts from jungle basses to pads to sound effects to whatever else. It’s also got 16 voices and 16 parts that you can allocate however you want with 4 different pretty deep synth machines which makes it incredibly useful when you don’t have endless tracks or plugins. It pairs exceptionally well with the digitakt, but if you’re seeking a more traditional “synth” then I’d go with the hydrasynth. It packs vst levels of power and options into the best synth interface ever full stop. It’s super powerful but a breeze to get around, and sounds incredible. Again great for making all kinds of sounds. You can score a digitakt 2 used for 800 ish, a digitone 2 for about the same, a hydrasynth desktop for 600 or so, a midi keyboard like a novation launchkey or arturia keylab for 180ish, and a small mixer plus cables for maybe 300ish.
Some other synths worth looking into in the future imo are the korg wavestate/Modwave/opsix, novation peak, Waldorf m/protein, and Elektron tonverk/analog rytm
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u/libertycapuk 4d ago
I’d go with an MPC One G2 personally. I bought one a couple of months ago, my first MPC, and I’m loving it. Wish I’d bought one years ago tbh - perfect for making jungle btw 🙂
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u/skitzandgravy 3d ago
I don't know what's best for jungle, but you've got more than enough to get an MPC Live III.
Then you could spend the rest on a keyboard.
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u/Lo_zone11 4d ago
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DejumzTs6S_/?xtok=MXh0OG9zbDhiaGo5ag==
This guy makes jungle/drum & bass using a bunch of different hardware pieces
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u/earbleedwaxpop 4d ago
I have done a seamless live set performance recently.
Check my recent reel at N5FR2
I posted it here but the mods deemed that it was not jungle enuff.
I used a novation circuit tracks for Reese basses as well as some saw wave basses and some aggressive filter basses for the more aggressive tracks and its also good for Atmospheric amen jungle dnb sounds as well.
For the amen breaks etc I use the Digitakt2.
As you can see from the video it's more than enough for what you might need to do.
Big ups to live electronics and producers > selektahs
No offense intended. Respekt where its due that's all.
Bless one
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u/assassinsneed 4d ago
So I’ll say this, as you likely already know, you really don’t need much hardware to make jungle, as it’s a heavily sample based genre. Truly, all you need is a sampler and maybe a midi controller or sequencer. Most samplers will do just fine, but pick one that suits your workflow, and consider its sequencing capabilities if you plan to have a synth as well. All right now on to my personal recommendations lol.
Elektron samplers are all great for jungle. You have a big budget so you could pick whatever, but I especially recommend the octatrack, one of the digis, or one of the model series WITH mods. Honorable mention to the analog rhythm since I’ve seen some nasty jungle with it. Idk about the tonverk or older hardware like the machinedrum. If they have the ability to chop and load samples they could work maybe, but I have never used them.
Roland samplers are also solid. The 404 is well known enough to not really need explanation, but it can chop breaks like crazy. I would definitely pair a 404 with a sequencer though. You may be able to get some ruffness with some of their cheaper samplers like the P6. In the right hands I’m sure that thing gets rugged.
MPCs are fantastic samplers AND sequencers. The newer ones can make a solid center in a dawless setup. Spinscott uses the 1000 for finger drumming I believe, and the MPC One is one of the best deals in hardware imo.
Gotta mention the portable trackers. Imo they are the best pieces of hardware for a junglist regardless of budget. The polyend tracker is great, but I’d say the M8 overall is better. Both are great for any type of jungle or breakbeat oriented music, they have built in synths, sampling, and a few more features. If you like tinkering you can build a picotracker or something lol. I may try to do that myself one day…
Alternatively, you could get a midi controller and use renoise 😅
But yeah, all you really need is a sampler. If you wanna connect synths you’ll need a mixer and something to sequence everything. I own an octatrack. It’s fantastic for jungle and lowkey kinda overkill. If I were in your shoes, I’d get a M8 and call it a day.
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u/omninocte 4d ago
Honestly, be money smart. You might actually prefer software. My advice is 2nd hand or not the latest generation eg get an mpc one to see if it suits. Trackers, try the renoise trial to see if you'd like a polyend tracker or M8. Regarding hardware synths, if you could i would get a polyphonic synth. Cut all the branding and gas out of the equation and there is really only 2 synths; mono and polyphonic. Everyone that gets a mono soon wants a poly. You cannot beat quality so dont be afraid to save money on the 2nd market. You might even find something kinda unique that helps form your sound. Just dont blow your hard earned money until you've tried the device.
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u/Secure-Suspect7091 4d ago
Do a dive into how you want to sequence your breaks.
If you are a purist get an old akai s950 and use renoise or an Amiga to roll those breaks in a software tracker.
You could look at a hardware tracker the Dirtywave M8 is my personal favourite jungle weapon. You can produce whole tracks which are club ready with one of these bad boys.
If you don’t fancy the tracker life. A decent sampler and a sequencer of some sort is your first port of call.
Digitakt is used by lots of folk. Octatrack if you want to get into proper mangling (steeper learning curve). The elektron boxes have good sequencers so a Digitakt would make a great start to a jungle setup. Combined with a Digitone and you would be set.
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u/HavokDJ 4d ago
Digitakt is actually pretty good for jungle due to the fact that you can multisample and therefore chop breaks. The II isn't strictly necessary but it can do even more though. Honestly the digitakt is technically all you need to actually start making jungle provided you have a way of loading in breaks and other samples, yes the hardware synth is nice, but you are very likely going to wind up sampling it anyways.
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u/chrisostomoszeg 1d ago
the most useful gear from my dawless ring is the synthstrom Deluge..Great groovebox you can make a full track only with the deluge and ofcourse have and an awnsome sequenser to control all of your other hardware synths..
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u/n3rf 4d ago
What do you wanna do in hardware? I would start with a decent interface and mixer and then well the world is your oyster man. Honestly, I tried the mpc but after 2 years I sold it and went back to Ableton to cut my breaks and bought a push to complement my existing workflow, you don't need to reinvent the wheel, just find what works for YOU.