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Guys, I need your help. What is best, Hardware or Software? I'm looking to produce some banging Acid Techno and need to get that fat sound. What should I buy to help me?

As someone who has and uses both...software wins most of the time. Purely for speed, and convenience. It's nice to get the toys out once in a while, although every time I do I'm reminded how convenient software really is I think on a sonic level, the gap between software and hardware is all but closed, at least with some synths.

Workflow wise, hardware is very different and will inspire you to work in different ways.

All of which is to say...whatever suits you best. From a listeners perspective, I don't think anyone will know any different. Especially if you use something like the ABL as Loque posted.

come1 wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Guys, I need your help. What is best, Hardware or Software? I'm looking to produce some banging Acid Techno and need to get that fat sound. What should I buy to help me?

Listen to your favorite beats. Find out what they used in their production phase. No one here can tell you what to buy.
Good luck.

You can do it with just Reason alone. Then, expand in the future.

come1 wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Guys, I need your help. What is best, Hardware or Software? I'm looking to produce some banging Acid Techno and need to get that fat sound. What should I buy to help me?

Too little info, especially with regards to your experience, workflow preferences, etc.

DAWs - and nowadays that's any DAW - give you almost limitless possibilities in terms of sounds, editing, effects processing, etc. That can be both a blessing or a curse. A blessing, because almost anything you imagine can be realised, you just have to know how. A curse, because - unless you're very disciplined (or have a strict deadline) - it's very easy to get lost in rabbit hole of editing minutiae details that no one else will hear and polishing of the 8-bar loops. I've experience both and combined with very limited time I've to dedicate to music-making it resulted in me being able to finish 2-3 tracks in a space of 12 months...

So just today I picked up 2nd hand Analog Four Mk1 and I plan to add Digitone and/or Digitakt to it in few months and see how that hardware-only workflow suits me.

Regarding acid techno specifically, all you really need is already in Reason + the ABL3 that was linked above

It's impossible to say one way or the other, what works for one person may not necessarily work for you.

That said... I do 90% of my stuff entirely in-the-box, but I have a little Volca-based hardware setup for when I fancy a break from a screen, which I tend to record live. This lends itself really nicely to more spontaneous/hypnotic kind of stuff (so it might work well for you), and recording everything live works well because it completely removes the temptation to mess around with it after I'm done - if I want to change something, I have to record another take which is much more of a commitment, so it's something I tend to consider more carefully. Also, recording everything live restricts me in terms of how many devices I want to use - 3 is a good sweet spot for me, and that limitation sometimes leads to interesting results that I might not otherwise consider.

There's nothing to stop you from using both together, but I find working with both hardware & software to be a bit of a pain, and the main draw of software for me is the ability to layer things up quickly and conveniently. fwiw I bloody love my Volcas (and my Monotribe!) and I'd particularly recommend the Sample/FM/Bass and/or Keys in a heatbeat.

come1 wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Guys, I need your help. What is best, Hardware or Software? I'm looking to produce some banging Acid Techno and need to get that fat sound. What should I buy to help me?

So.. first post and you joined a Reason-centric (software) community to dredge up an historically highly debated topic?

Loque wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

https://shop.propellerheads.com/rack-ex ... -bassline/

That's pretty much all you need.

it's not about the tools

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

it's not about the tools

Acid is pretty much about a 303, 808 and 909. Maybe a 101. Except the 303 everything can be done with nearly every synth.

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

it's not about the tools

I agree and i disagree (and i know very well that you will understand me haha)

Loque wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

it's not about the tools

Acid is pretty much about a 303, 808 and 909. Maybe a 101. Except the 303 everything can be done with nearly every synth.

no, creativity is breaking out of those rules. make acid with any synth.

I know many people are purist. playing the blues only with a strat...

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Loque wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Acid is pretty much about a 303, 808 and 909. Maybe a 101. Except the 303 everything can be done with nearly every synth.

no, creativity is breaking out of those rules. make acid with any synth.

Sure, but we're not talking about "creativity". We're talking about "banging acid techno" which generally can only be replicated with a very specific synth/drum machine - namely the 303, 909, and 808. Of course, these days there are other synths that do a pretty good approximation of the 303, 909, and 808 so it's much easier without faithful emulations (or hardware).

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

I know many people are purist. playing the blues only with a strat...

Yet - all things being equal - they're no less creative, I would imagine. Right?

EnochLight wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

no, creativity is breaking out of those rules. make acid with any synth.

Sure, but we're not talking about "creativity". We're talking about "banging acid techno" which generally can only be replicated with a very specific synth/drum machine - namely the 303, 909, and 808. Of course, these days there are other synths that do a pretty good approximation of the 303, 909, and 808 so it's much easier without faithful emulations (or hardware).

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

I know many people are purist. playing the blues only with a strat...

Yet - all things being equal - they're no less creative, I would imagine. Right?

no, you don't need to simulate a 303 or any of that stuff. that is a cliche. not creativity.

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

no, you don't need to simulate a 303 or any of that stuff. that is a cliche. not creativity.

Nope. That's like saying "heavy metal doesn't need guitars - that's cliche". So Marco, you're seriously attempting to redefine an entire genre of music that's been around since the late 80's?

EnochLight wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

no, you don't need to simulate a 303 or any of that stuff. that is a cliche. not creativity.

Nope. That's like saying "heavy metal doesn't need guitars - that's cliche". So Marco, you're seriously attempting to redefine an entire genre of music that's been around since the late 80's?

nope. that's saying you don't need a specific guitar for heavy metal. you can use any guitar. same as for 303. you can use any synth. freedom. think outside the box.

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

EnochLight wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Nope. That's like saying "heavy metal doesn't need guitars - that's cliche". So Marco, you're seriously attempting to redefine an entire genre of music that's been around since the late 80's?

nope. that's saying you don't need a specific guitar for heavy metal. you can use any guitar. same as for 303. you can use any synth. freedom. think outside the box.

I look forward to your blog post about this.

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Loque wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Acid is pretty much about a 303, 808 and 909. Maybe a 101. Except the 303 everything can be done with nearly every synth.

no, creativity is breaking out of those rules. make acid with any synth.

I know many people are purist. playing the blues only with a strat...

Than it's no Acid.

Loque wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

no, creativity is breaking out of those rules. make acid with any synth.

I know many people are purist. playing the blues only with a strat...

Than it's no Acid.

Then you can’t make acid using Reason... what a lame genre Acid then is. Only for purists I guess...

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Loque wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Than it's no Acid.

Then you can’t make acid using Reason... what a lame genre Acid then is. Only for purists I guess...

ABL3... So it's np...

Loque wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Marco Raaphorst wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

it's not about the tools

Acid is pretty much about a 303, 808 and 909. Maybe a 101. Except the 303 everything can be done with nearly every synth.

If it would still be working on modern OS the free ReBirth-338 would be the perfect all in one box tool for acid.

jam-s wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Loque wrote: ↑

14 Nov 2018

Acid is pretty much about a 303, 808 and 909. Maybe a 101. Except the 303 everything can be done with nearly every synth.

If it would still be working on modern OS the free ReBirth-338 would be the perfect all in one box tool for acid.

Yepp... Great times. The extra filter was fun pure. PH should had named them EOE, gog and BOB, integrate them in Reason and everything would have been fine

If you have good technique and knowledge/experience, know your tools, you can make it sound good with software, hardware or both.

Anyone made some acid track with Antidote' diode filter ? I made a basic acid bass patch with it and thought it sounded pretty good (but I suppose it can't go as deep as ABL3).

Probably better to start off with software.

Modern VSTIs, REs, Reason devices are very capable these days and many artists are producing in the box.

Focus on your DAW, (get a good controller and computer as well) then from there find out where you are lacking.

Reason comes with a wealth of devices and some REs and VSTs can be had for very cheap.

Once you become truly invested in producing then maybe get some hardware but it isn't needed to produce electronic music these days.


You'd be amazed what some folks produce using basic stock plugins.


I came from hardware in the 90s, spent most of last decade in a hybrid setup, and most of this decade using mainly software.