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With electronics you cannot buy your way into understanding them.
Work with what you have, until you get it- buying more stuff will confuse you further.
The *best* all in one box in my view is the Deluge.
Aside from the Elektron gear it is the most difficult to get your head around.
With capability comes complexity.
My advice is stick with Garageband- if you need it portable, use a laptop.
Stay the hell away from Elektron.
They are awesome but if you are struggling with an MPC One then the Elektron workflow isn't something you will enjoy.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
My experience with elektron was a bit like trying to bash a hole through a brick wall, with my head.
Only use a groove box where the workflow will enhance the output- dance/electronic music is a good example.
Computers are better in other scenarios.
Or try an iPad.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
In that case you are back to an MPC.
You will need to learn how to use it though.
There isn't much out there that is easier.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
I bought @monquixote 's circuit tracks earlier this year and it's been brilliant, very useable interface with some surprisingly deep controls for a screenless device. I've loved having the freedom from my computer and being able to sit on the sofa with headphones on and jam away.
The other leftfield choice might be a teenage engineering OP-1 if it's not altogether too weird for you. It's not going to give a studio quality polished result obviously but for creativity and experimentation in one convenient box it looks pretty awesome.
IMO, we don't really need hardware these days - nice if we have the space, but not required to make music.
I know that is a bold statement, but hear me out.
I'm using Reaper, having tried PT, Logic and a few others, Reaper just seems to fit all the brief for me, there is nothing that can't be done with it.
I use a plugin called Unify, by Pluginguru, which has been developed over the last 3 years? maybe, it hosts any VST based plugin on your system, along with it's own built in sampler / midi sequencer / synth / FX, and it allows any mix to be saved as pre sets, including embedded instances of itself.
Quite hard to explain how fully featuered it is, but basically it is a single plugin that can play an entire composition via a single keyboard by having mapped areas and latched keys - pretty amazing really.
It actually allows embedded VSTs to perform better than if they were directly inserted on a track, something to do with multi thread performance.
So with Reaper, and Unify I have an entire studio within 2 pieces of software, and I use this to build up a track and the idea is that I can then do guitar recording as an overdub, I usually record an effected sound-either an amp recording or a pedal chain, along with a DI, and I have the Slate subscription which includes Overloud amp sims, I don't really exploit the subscription as much as I should because it relies on Ilok, but I do tend to build up tracks from audio stems, so once they are bounced I can use Fabfilter stuff for eq and compression on any machine.
Last couple of weeks have been a bit of an eye opener really, how little stuff I use, but how powerful it all is, I'm getting great results with an i5 laptop and a Korg nanokontrol, and am just upgrading that to a nanostudio for the extra knobs and faders ( all very useful in both Reaper and Unify )
A good set of headphones, or a simple Focusrite IO is all that I need on top of all that, plus a few free vsts like Spitfire LABS and BBCSO, and there's not much I can't do ( I am no pro though )
But mixing audio to a professional standard, and making new ideas is a breeze.
I was just coming round to the conclusion that an Akai Force may be the ticket - But maybe not