Upgrade Your Rig

THE BEATMAKER
Akai MPC-500 Music Production Center
There’s a reason everyone from Dr. Dre to Kanye West uses this system (and its more powerful brethren) to create beats—nothing does it better. But the device has a confusing manual and maddening learning curve, so buy the exhaustive, indispensable tutorial at mpc-samples.com. $700. akaipro.com

THE RECORDER
Roland Edirol R-09 audio recorder
Canned sounds can wear thin. This high-quality recorder allows you to capture sounds in the wild—the chirp of birds, a garbage truck crushing its prey, your girlfriend having an orgasm—and then drag and drop them into the audio editor or drum sequencer. “It’s perfect for walking around and scooping up ambient sounds,” says Peter Kirn, creator of CreateDigitalMusic.com and author of Real World Digital Audio. “As a beginner, you just want to get as much experience with sound as you can. Listening to sound, picking up sound, being able to record all the time is a hugely powerful thing to do. A whole lot of percussion has been created by banging things around the house‹cardboard or pots or whatever.” Create an entire drum set out of found sounds, fade into a song as a train passes on the tracks, or mix in the din of a party or the roar of a frenzied crowd to add atmosphere to your songs. $400. edirol.com

THE MIXER
Alesis Master Control FireWire interface
This command center-like device takes some of the annoying mouse work out of  using recording software. Dedicated buttons allow you to tweak tracks, start and stop recording, and even jog dial through a take. The interface also features mixing sliders, just like in a real studio, that allow you to individually adjust the sound of each track. Another crucial feature: The back of the box includes eight analog inputs for funneling sound from microphones and other instruments into your computer via the FireWire connection. $500. alesis.com