Production time for me. Fantom XR vs other fantoms (and more sound module ?s')

OK guys I'm in an apartment in Philly and about to seriously start producing (I need to make some dough)

I'd like to spring some ideas off you all for production tools to see if my thinking is along the right lines.

I just got a fantom XR. since I dont have anything else to compare to it's sounding pretty good, but I'm really hoping it will shine for combining sampled waves with the factory patches. (IS there a difference between it and the keyboards soundwise?) Hell if not It will be cool having 6 expansion slots. I skipped all of the JV series so I'm thinking 1 new roland piece will be cool.

I've been playing around with Guru and soft synths, but on the G4 I'm using here it's not getting it. I've been thinking of upscaling my production tools for quite some time and I think it's time.

I"m considering selling my MPC 2k and getting a MPC 4000 (primarily for USB connection to the computer, and maybe selling my old motiff rack (saved from Katrina because it was on LOAN damn luckily) and getting an ES model.

Well to stop my rambling my final set up would be:

MPC 4000
Korg z1 (via EBAY)
Roland JD 990 (with vintage expansion card)
Roland fantom XR
Yamaha Motiff ES rack
Ivory/sampletank/mach 5 and library stuff for strings etc and filling gaps

IS anything overkill or missing (Besides finding good keyboard/guitar/bass players in Philly) ?????

YOU know I'm primarily hip hop /RnB but I wanted opinions from everyone around.

So what cha think?

[gizeh12]

Originally Posted by no ssl yet

OK guys I'm in an apartment in Philly and about to seriously start producing (I need to make some dough)

I'd like to spring some ideas off you all for production tools to see if my thinking is along the right lines.

I just got a fantom XR. since I dont have anything else to compare to it's sounding pretty good, but I'm really hoping it will shine for combining sampled waves with the factory patches. (IS there a difference between it and the keyboards soundwise?) Hell if not It will be cool having 6 expansion slots. I skipped all of the JV series so I'm thinking 1 new roland piece will be cool.

I've been playing around with Guru and soft synths, but on the G4 I'm using here it's not getting it. I've been thinking of upscaling my production tools for quite some time and I think it's time.

I"m considering selling my MPC 2k and getting a MPC 4000 (primarily for USB connection to the computer, and maybe selling my old motiff rack (saved from Katrina because it was on LOAN damn luckily) and getting an ES model.

Well to stop my rambling my final set up would be:

MPC 4000
Korg z1 (via EBAY)
Roland JD 990 (with vintage expansion card)
Roland fantom XR
Yamaha Motiff ES rack
Ivory/sampletank/mach 5 and library stuff for strings etc and filling gaps

IS anything overkill or missing (Besides finding good keyboard/guitar/bass players in Philly) ?????

YOU know I'm primarily hip hop /RnB but I wanted opinions from everyone around.

So what cha think?

I think i would ditch the JD990 since it is overlapping a lot with the fantom and get a nice bassline synth in stead. Maybe microkorg, juno 106 alesis micron. That seems to be missing right now.

Maybe the Motif and the Fantom have to much overlap to,, have you compared them?? Are they realy complementing each other???

The mpc4000 kicks ass btw, you can also install the adat board on it. That is great.

[opentune]

Originally Posted by no ssl yet

IS anything overkill or missing (Besides finding good keyboard/guitar/bass players in Philly) ?????

YOU know I'm primarily hip hop /RnB but I wanted opinions from everyone around.

So what cha think?

Well, i can´t contribute any ideas for your setup... but i would like to know
what kind of guitars (sounds/styles/players) you usually have in your
hip hop / RnB stuff...
I know nothing(!) about that kinda music, so i would love to get some
insight. So if you don´t mind to fill me in... would be great

[Albert]

I've found SampleTank to be buggy to the point of unusability. Mach 5 is also not quite there yet in my opinion, although it is certainly in a lot better shape than SampleTank. If you are looking for a software sampler for strings/orchestral you should take a look at the East West Quantum Leap Symphonic collection. There's also the MOTU Symphonic Instrument, the Mirislav Vitou software sampler, among others. You could combine any of those with Mach 5 and be in pretty good shape.

[juicemaster1500]

I have my mind set for a v-synth xt, it will be my next purchase, it has an interesting sound engine imo. I like multi sample type romplers too, but they can be a bit boring (altough nice sounding).

For realism, nothing beats a good sample library (except the real thing )