Microsoft Surface Go 3 as portable workstation?

[funktoons]

I'm looking for an affordable multitrack looper/DAW system I can use for multitrack beatboxing WITHOUT having to use VILE HIDEOUS "tempo first" pattern based sequencing. I want to record my beats as audio to MY TEMPO and be able to edit my tracks as pure audio. I despise click tracks and pattern based recording so much, it made me want to smash my drum machine for making everything I tried to get funky with sound like krafterk playing to vile click tracks.

I used to want a Zoom R8 as a $300 all in one solution, but now I see there's a new generation of recorders that I don't if they have mics or not.

I'm really leaning towards wanting a microsoft tablet based solution as my galaxy tab just got stolen at the library, and for $350 for a Go3 refurb, I could do a lot more than just multitrack including graphics, video editing, DJing, web surfing and more advanced editing than i'm sure the R12 is capable of. using VSTs would give me a much broader range of EFX to chose from too. the R8 didn't have a vocoder!!!

software that SPECIFICALLY can use audio to create "MIDI hits" out of my beatboxing to replace sounds and otherwise generate a "me based master clock" is my dream here

I'd have to buy at least 1 mic and a preamp which would add to the cost, but "killing all birds with one stone" is looking like my best option.

what I'm interested in is recommendations for a cheap, EASY TO USE DAW I can use with VSTs and that will let me record my music at whatever tempo i want without patterns, or at least that will let me fine tune a loop to use THAT as my click track & master clock.

modular users HATE ME for my rabid contempt for sequencer grid music. why do you all let yourselves become slaves to master clocks?!!! I just don't get it at all.

any suggestions for a cheap HQ mic preamp would be nice too. in an ideal world, stereo phantom power would be nice, but as I just want to beatbox, a dynamic capable preamp is all I'll be needing for now.

any suggestions are appreciated. thank you in advance.

[JamminFool]

why do you all let yourselves become slaves to master clocks?!!! I just don't get it at all.

because...timing?

[morelia]

modular users HATE ME for my rabid contempt for sequencer grid music. why do you all let yourselves become slaves to master clocks?!!! I just don't get it at all.

It's hard to know how to take this. Especially as I just fired my singer as he could not keep time. It was like the only beat that occurred was somewhere inside his own mind. He had no ability to follow the timing of others and like you, became angry when others suggested the timing issues were a symptom of his particular talent deficit.

I'm not saying that is you. If you want to do this because after much effort it has become obvious that the only way to realism the music in your head is to free flow it in your own timing, then all I have to say is go for it. If you know what you want and have strong feeling that it is your only path then I think that's a great position to be in. Timing is more about communicating with other musicians, so in my case I can't have a vocalist singing out of time with a click track that 3 other people are following, and then getting annoyed because he doesn't understand why the click track has to be there.

A decent DAW doesn't come much cheaper than Reaper. Free, until you get sick of the once a day 10 second wait to load, then pay $60 for it.

Then again, if this feature is in the Lite version. Maybe Live is a good choice.
https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/conve ... o-to-midi/

Not sure about midi creation from audio. There are drum trigger apps like the xln audio one. You may be looking for something to add your own unique samples though so that would be harder to find. Transient detection must be easier hence the number of drum replacement options.

Probably not what you want to hear but to me it seems Melodyne would be a great purchase for you. You can edit the hell out of your beat and then export as midi. You choose what note you want each beat to be. Not sure which version you need to do that though.

I had one of these https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/st ... jects-vtb1 for years. Very cheap and sounded good to me. Although I ran it pretty hot to really hear what it was doing. It seemed to have pretty good tonal range.

[funktoons]

why do you all let yourselves become slaves to master clocks?!!! I just don't get it at all.

because...timing?

or... SOULLESS mechanical funk killing abomination... it's a matter of perspective. I DESPISE techno precisely because of that vile steady "thump-thump-thump". even trying to PLAY beats to that hideous click track made me play more mechanical with no funk or syncopation.

I want to FREE STYLE, not take orders from a clock. I just can't work with pattern based recording AT ALL. I DESPISE IT!

like I said, sequencer loving modulars hate me

as to the "timing thing", I've been beatboxing and dancing since the 80s. I just love SYNCOPATION. I visualize tempo as a rolling egg that speeds up and slows down, that loose funky syncopation thing. I have no problem beatboxing to other people's FUNKY beats and staying on time. they speak "my language"... FUNK. I just can't get funky to click-click-click any more than I can DANCE to thump-thump-thump. rigid beats turn my happy off and busting beats is a celebration of life for me.

everyone has their own creative process. mine DESPISES robot timing. I quit dancing when REAL hip-hop died around 1989 because I just couldn't stand new jack booty/gangsta rap or even WORSE house/techno and I still hold a grudge for both ruining music.

that's why I got excited about the zoom R8. it's a multitracker that can do looping. If I could just beatbox my own metronome, and then loop it, I have timing that I can relate to and FEEL. just like with dancing, if I can't FEEL the rhythm in my nads, I can't dance.

"perfect rhythm" is dance poison in MY world. I'm sooo sick of soulless techno beats. that's my point, bring the funk back.

if my tempo drifts, it doesn't bother me because it's mine and I can relate to it. I was able to do a few funky beats with my 4 track cassette deck, but it had lousy sound quality and no ability to edit. I bet I even CHANGE tempos sometimes as I like slowing up and speeding down. that's where the EXCITEMENT is.

that, and it's ORGANIC and alive like techno isn't. there's no FEELING in precision AT ALL.

if i'm in the middle of dancing up a sweat and a beat turns techno, my feet instantly go NOPE! I will never take orders from a robot. I was tempted to smash my alesis HR-16. there was no way to make it follow MY tempo and its tempo is an unholy abomination from the bowels of hell in my world.

I don't want to sound like every other soulless robot.

[funktoons]

as to midi, I'm a long way away from needing THAT. that would be a next step when I have the ability to buy and house gear like I don't now. I just want a cheap portable system that'll STFU and let me do MY THING MY WAY because I'm sooo sick of NOT being able to make my own music. I want to get my beatboxing on "tape" and build it into complete tracks with studio effects, especially bass enhancing.

before I go electro, I'd probably get another telecaster and light string stretch tune it twangy for melodies. my guitar playing is better than my keyboard playing, in part I think because standard keys are too big and minis are way too small. either my fingers are crashing into each other, or not liking long stretches.

ideally, in a "real system" I'd beatbox parts then replace them with kicks, snares and wobbles etc. My mind was blown by a program that turns beatboxing directly into instruments. If there's a CURRENT program that can turn beatboxing into MIDI that you could use with whatever instrument you want, THAT would be my "go to sequencer". the last time I looked, all the programs that do that are limited to preset sounds. I'm turned off by such limitations as I'd love to get into synth sound design, and i'm MOST influenced by ZTT era art of noise & woppit, so sampling would be a big part of my style.

my tiny keys casio SK1 wasn't the emulator I'd hope it to be, and the emax II I bought was BUSTED. I didn't know I needed a keyboard to TEST IT. it had been dropped so hard it bent a rack ear. the NYC (advertised in keyboard mag) shop that sold it to me shipped it with half a manual and by the time I got the rest and another keyboard to find out it sounded like crap and was glitchy, the shop I bought it at gave me an "it sucks to be you. your 30 days are up. you should have bought the emulator. hahahaha!"

I was all worked up about emax "transform multiplaction" thinking it'd be a really cool morphing effect. had I known it wasn't I would have "added the emulator to be sure shot"

[funktoons]

as to A/C gear. i can't do it. I have nothing to plug it into. if it doesn't run on batteries or can't be carried in a backpack, i can't use it.

[morelia]

So you want something (software?) that takes your audio, and like the trigger software I suggested, replaces your beats with your own samples?

[JamminFool]

i understand what you mean, and that is all fine if you are working alone. but if you expect other musicians to always follow YOUR sense of time, then what has changed? Only that now they are slaves to YOUR sense of time.

the clock is a way to put everyone on the same page. and it IS possible to get funky within a steady beat. shut off the click track in your headphones and listen to your fellow musicians, for example.

[lfm]

the clock is a way to put everyone on the same page. and it IS possible to get funky within a steady beat. shut off the click track and listen to your fellow musicians, for example.

... or turn off the accent and just have clock going as tempo guide then making it 9/16, 6/8, 5/4 divisions or whatever varied all over the place.

To play along later to beats you did you still have to sense the groove, or you are lost.

Our brain looks for patterns to anticipate what is coming, and it cannot be only surprises, or listener will not see it as funky anyway.
- placing beats a little late is enough to get it groovy
- but not too much or magic is gone

Mitch Mitchel as one of Hendrix drummers has a style of his own, almost like you feel he goes astray but keep it nicely together in the end. The Isle of Wight album is one I come to think of.

But I guess everybodys journey is different....

[JamminFool]

---

(accidentally quoted myself instead of editing my previous comment)

[lfm]

Not Cortnoy funk but a taste of Mitchell is his bloom

[vurt]

are you sure modular users hate you? rather than just, not know who you are?

that said, why are we making a mountain out of a molehill here? turn off snap to grid, it's not rocket séances.

[syntonica]

Loops are your friends. Just create them by hand rather than using a step sequencer. I prefer my own shuffle, but like working with loops (really, chunks of audio/MIDI) to a point, as well.

That said, I think Multitrack Studio might suit you. It's cheap and uses a very strong tape machine paradigm, although you can create loops too, if you need them. It has a decent suite of plugins built-in and also takes VSTs and CLAP format plugs.

[Atlatnesiti]

Win is not really optimised touch use
You need iPad

[jens]

why do you all let yourselves become slaves to master clocks?!!! I just don't get it at all.

because...timing?

or... SOULLESS mechanical funk killing abomination... it's a matter of perspective. I DESPISE techno precisely because of that vile steady "thump-thump-thump". even trying to PLAY beats to that hideous click track made me play more mechanical with no funk or syncopation.

Sorry, but that's nonsense frankly - just because you have a click that doesn't mean you have to slavishly follow it. The click is just guidance and the groove has to come from you*. And - again sorry to say - any decent player knows this by heart.


*or to put it in more technical terms: the click is crucial for macro-timing, but not neccessarily for micro-timing.

The only real reason to not use a click is if you purposely want to change the tempo of the song. (But even then it's possible to just ignore the click if you really know what you're doing... )