I remember back when you had to carry around a keyboard that weighed almost as much as you. Either that or you had to drag along over sized dinosaur floppy disk just to load your beats up (which alone took a minute or two). I remember when MIDI was very important. Before USB MIDI was famous. I’m talkin about when you had to MIDI your keyboard to a drum machine to sync them up, without a computer!

I remember dissin’ software beat making programs hard back in the day. Saying things like, “FL is whack! Reason is boo boo.” I never would give them a chance. It was almost as
if I thought using software was cheating or something. I always thought the sounds were cheesy and the sequencer was unnecessarily difficult. First time I ever tried Fruity Loops was back in 2001, and I hated it. Maybe it was due to not having a MIDI controller.

I was using Acid 3.0 back then to record vocals though. That was as far as I was gonna take it with software. Well, at least back then. I didn’t see a use for it. I was too
in love with my Motif 6. The first Motif ever to hit the shelves.

It wasn’t until 2007 I had the software epiphany. My home boy Greydon Square put me up on Reason 3.0. At first use I wasn’t blown away by it. He showed me how to maneuver around within it and some of the cool things it could do. He didn’t really use it too much for beat making back then. He was pretty much like me, all hard headed for hardware!

I went to the studio to have a song mixed and a friend of mine was using it. He played me some of his beats and I was shocked. He started showing me how the samples could be chopped in it and all kinds of stuff. Once I learned that you had access to your whole arsenal of sounds, I was on it.

Fast forward to present…I love software! It gives you the ability to use your eyes along with your ears and hands. It allows a smoother work flow as well. Hardware still wins when it comes to sound quality though. There’s nothing like a vintage synthesizer
or Rhodes keys on any of the older keyboards. But I guess that’s the compromise. Hey, who says you can’t have both? Best of both worlds right?

-Traumah

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