I'm just starting out with producing techno and really enjoying it. I'm using Cubase Pro 10 as my DAW and looking for some advice on expansion in terms of hardware. I'm looking for some advice on MIDI controllers and hardware synths etc that have a fairly plug-and-play workflow with my DAW and that can help stimulate creativity away from pointing and clicking with a mouse.

Cheers in advance for any help!

 

Moog sub37 synth and it comes with a VST editor. Doesn't get much more straightforward.

 

I can only sugeest you using good distortion/ reverb
for the hardware I think it was the best hardware for it's price Behringer Model D
and for the effect
Sherman Filterbank
(if you can find batter distortions effect hardware I will pay you money )

 

Last edited: Dec 31, 2018

Nice suggestions so far. Gear I hadn't thought of yet! Anything on the more budget friendly end would be good too if there is anything half decent (like the Behringer Model D)

 

What style of techno?

Hannes Bieger

Raffaele Attanasio

MrDataline

How to Make Techno with Tom Hades at ADE 2018

I can recommend for hardware:
Delay/Reverb: Strymon or Eventide
Drums: Elektron Analog Rytm MKII, Roland TR8.
Synth: Moog, Prophet.
Sequencer: Squarp Instrument Pyramid mk2

 

Last edited: Jan 1, 2019

Maybe you gonna laugh but this box makes me crazy about creativity for techno!!!

 

A good quality electronic keyboard/synth is a lot easier to work with than soft synths, in my experience. I do use Arturia Keyboards in my laptop and access that with MIDI. A real synth also costs more, but only hurts once. Then you have a good synth you can play anywhere that will double as a controller. If you look around here enough, you realize most people spend more time twaddling the latest software that they never actually finish/create any content.

 

All the Behringer synths line are amazing for the price.
Korg synths are very nice,Minilogue,MS20,ARP Odyssey.
Roland SE-02 sounds amazing too.
All these models are analog and cheap.But big sound!

Other current Roland synths are not analog and don't seem awesome sounding,at least for me.

Have a look on used market if you're on budget,there are thousands synths out there for few cash.

 

Last edited: Jul 15, 2019

Some years ago I sold all my hardware synths because I wanted to make my music only with vsts and I realzed I've been stupid.

I'm buying again hardware synths currently,real analog synths are so more juicy!And yes you are more productive and fun with hardware synths.

 

I'd say if your serious about this and you intend to stick with it learn one of the with a lot of features.
Z3TA, Serum, Massive(not x),

Serum would be a great place for you to start in sound design because of the Visuals it gives you while changing the LFOs
The most important thing though is to learn what is doing what. I'm super guilty of being a preset user and i hate my self for it often.
im about to be 31 and im just now learning how to properly mod synths.

Another GREAT learning tool but is just insanely intimidating is the stuff like VCV Rack(Free but I dont think a VST) , Reaktor Blocks, Softubes Modular,
Most people would not agree with me on this. I my self have not learned these yet. But if your gonna learn, learning from one of those
I think would give you a way better understanding of LFOs and Mod's Cut offs etc.
Plus if you want to venture into the hardware world later you'll be a cable patch god ;P

 

My heart sank a little bit as i read that.
My feel feels go out to ya brah, I had some super nice stuff too when i was first starting out and had no idea. Talking like $900 mics that got swapped and traded for dirt lmao.

Live, regret, learn, repeat

 

Music isn't a competition my friend,you don't care about that!

Modular synths capabilities are infinite and you can produce unique sounds but they are the opposite of productvity.You spend hours making often too much modulations and in the end you get a crappy sound.Or not very nice.
Often simple is better.It's my opinion.

I try to learn of my mistakes and to not repeat them again.
I swore myself that I will never sell my current synths babies!

 

Before spending any money on hardware synths I would rather invest into acoustic room optimization if you not already did so. To be able to hear what you produce is much more important than any Hardware Synth.

it all depends on what you want. Software only, can be as productive as hardware and even more since there are no real limit and no latency to deal with.(unless you use Maschine or MPC).
But yeah limitation can improve productivity, since you have to make final decisions more often.

 

Last edited: Jul 15, 2019

VPS Avenger is also a great Synth and it is very easy to get great sounds. The (Multi) sample import is super fast. Main weakness at the moment is its slow rendering GUI compared to other synths.