Early in my musical journey, I spent some time overseas recording my first full hip-hop demo. I came into contact with one Eminem-midwest type of rapper from the St Louis and an east-coast dude from Sumter, SC. People from the area put me in contact with the St Louis rapper. Eventually we ended up on the local Newspaper, had a radio commercial, and we even did a talent competition together. When we came in contact with the Sumter rapper, he provided the recording equipment and time to record. We dropped several songs together.

As far as recording equipment, I vaguely recall using something very similar to a Boss BR600 or a Zoom 24R. What I can tell you is there was a noticeable orange screen. Unfortunately these models came after I recorded my first demo. It was probably more likely that I recorded on the older Boss BR8 and a Boss DR-880 for the instrumentals. Both Boss and Zoom have quality recording equipment on a budget. If you are looking for a more mobile setup these would be the way to go. I have used Zoom for my DSLR camera rig setup which picks up great live sound.

After learning about different recording equipment, I found myself wanting an all-in-one set. The Roland’s MV8000 promised just that. This bad boy was on my wish list for quite some time. Needless to say I never was able to get around to purchasing it. The MV8000 promised beat making, sampling, faders for EQ, mic port and to top it off, it kicked out a CD of your finished product. I didn't have to spend wasted amounts of time and money when I would have my studio right there all in one machine.

The drum pads were eerily similar to the Akai MPC. My best guess is that Roland was trying to pull some of the Akai MPC customers in but without avail or did they? MPC heads are the most devout to their machine when it comes to their beat making. The valiant effort wasn’t at all a loss. Roland was able to upgrade to the MV8800 and not to mention, they allowed for mastering the track and the ability to save your effects banks. People are still posting about this product as late as 2018. The MV allows you to quantize and add swing to your beat which was done in the early 2000s.

Akai finally caught up and released their MPC Live which records vocals as a standalone machine. An artist is only a few clicks away from recording by going to the audio track, checking your inputs and then hitting the record button. NI Maschine & MKIII can record vocals as well but it is mostly through its software. Maschine provides the ability to chop and edit vocals and samples much like other digital audio workstation (DAWs).

DAWs are a whole other topic. But what I would say about DAWs is that they give you the visualization that standalones don’t give you. You have a better graphical user interface to work with. You can also import and export with DAWs because you are using the power of your PC or laptop. I’ve used MAGIX Studio, FL Studio, and currently using Apple’s Logic for recording. Protools is the Industry standard DAW for recording, producing, mixing and mastering. However, you can see companies like Roland, and Native Instruments, and Akai stepping up to the challenge to provide their consumers what they want.

If you are looking for an all-in-one, you may lose out on some dedicated features from a particular device that is dedicated to bringing the quality you want in that one feature. However, you can’t blame someone for wanting an all-in-one device. It provides affordability, portability, and it's less of a learning curve once you mastered that one device.