So, you’ve done the hard yards, worked your ass off, kept a tight reign on your spending, and have managed to save up enough money to buy your first, virgin piece of musical equipment. What do you do now? Do you walk into a shop and let the salesman know you have absolutely no idea about what you want and let them decide for you? (read:- rip into your wallet without mercy) .Hopefully by the end of this article you’ll have an insight into where others (like myself) have gone wrong, so that you don’t make the same mistakes.



1. Know what you want before you walk anywhere near a shop with an open wallet. There is usually more than enough info on the internet to at least lead you in the right direction. Be wary of ‘groovebox’ type solutions, they aren’t the be all and end all of electronic music. Whilst they might get you started, if you’re after a piece of gear that will be with you for ever, it most likely won’t be one of those.



2. If you are lucky enough to be able to buy more than one piece of gear at once, think long and hard about what you want. It’s better to spend more money on a better model that will last you longer (maybe has more options, or can be upgraded), than to spend the same amount of money on lots of somewhat mediocre equipment just for the fact that you can say ‘hey look at me i have 42 samplers, 53 synths, 24 drum machines, and an 8 channel mixer (because thats all i could afford)’. Also, it can take months, or even years to become fully accustomed to using any one piece of equipment, so going on a spree might not be the best thing, even more so if you are new to it all.

I’ve seen many people go out and spend big on all the latest gear because they can, and still don’t do anything more than tweak presets a little because they have all this gear that they don’t know how to use.



3. Most people have computers these days, so its natural for most of us to have at least come accross some music software in our time. Some reading this then may already be aware of the myriad of software based music production tools available. For those of you who aren’t, or haven’t seriously considered this avenue, do so. Try out some software demos, see how you like it. You might find that you can get away with more money in your wallet, more space in your studio and a better result if you are more inclined to working with computers.



4. Don’t forget that more important than what you are using to write your music is what you use to hear your music. Headphones are generally okay for thrashing out ideas at 3am when everyone else is asleep, but don’t attempt any kind of mixdown work using them because they, well they are just bad! Basically you need a good reference speaker that doesn’t lie to you, or if it does you know what its lieing about. Monitor speakers are an issue that warrant a whole article on their own, so without going into too much detail about them keep them on your list of things to buy. Better earlier than later.



5. Check the trading post for a good bargain. If you can live with a scratch or two, or a wobbly err knob here and there, then you’ll be able to pick up some decent gear at decent prices. Just check the current retail (if applicable) and second hand rates on the internet, and there are usually a wealth of user reviews on sites such as www.harmony-central.com . For example, I found my first synthesiser, (a Kawai K3M) in the trading post for $150. Whilst not being the flashiest of beasts, it has 6 voices with analogue filters, and can make some sexy warm pad type sounds as well as real 80’s sounding bass type leads. I found 2 pages full of synthesisers as a result of a search on www.tradingpost.com.au . And most were under the 1000 dollar mark, with retail prices over twice that!



by serotone