I just copped a new MPC 1000 and......

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
djadonis206
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Post by djadonis206 » Tue Apr 04, 2006 3:23 pm

Good for you - I had a 1000 a couple years ago when they first came out - I had a 2000xl before that

they sound hot and are good to have around the studio - but not to hate, I just don't see what you can do on a MPC you can't do with Ableton

but then I'm not one to actually play drums into a midi file - even on the MPC's I used the grid page to input my notes - I know pretty much where most drums go and i experiment from time time - I had a partner who strictly played everything in on the MPC - even the 4 / 4 kick - I'm like dog, you can just draw that in

so...having said that - enjoy that shit, now that 2.0 OS is out you can chop up your samples the old shcool way

!!!
Last edited by djadonis206 on Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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dbolt
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Post by dbolt » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:57 pm

I think the timing problem your having deckme(N)tal is coming from common latency with midi. You have to Tweak Ableton alittle to make sure your latency is at the minimum. A good Audio interface (I/O) will help. I have a Tascam FW1804 and it has a 2ms latency and depending on the VST or AU Plugin I can have the latency just a little more than 2ms........


Later
Dustin

HD1
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Post by HD1 » Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:24 pm

djadonis206 wrote:they sound hot and are good to have around the studio - but not to hate, I just don't see what you can do on a MPC you can't do with Ableton
think its more about tactile interaction more then compositional possibilities
bing bing!

snowtires
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Post by snowtires » Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:43 pm

here's something, if you know what you're doing, a computer can work better than an mpc. computers just take longer to master, and that's why so many people gravitate towards the mpc. i have an mpc 2000xl and have had it for about two-three years now, after programming with a computer for most of my life. i wanted to have something i could bring with me to gigs, that wasn't a laptop, because laptops crash (i found out that mpcs do, too, just not nearly as much).

it serves its purpose and it's definitely awesome when you want to just quick throw down a beat, but how many of those beats that took two seconds to make end up in a song? if you want the song to sound good, you're going to have to sit down and mess with the beat, whether you're on a computer or not, and that's where computers destroy the mpc.

if the mpc sounds like it has a better quantizer, did you ever think that it's the opposite? think about it: computers are made to be precise. what you're hearing by the computer playing stuff back slightly out of time is a result of what i like to call 'having no rhythm.' i will admit that the 'record quantize' seriously sucks in live, though, but i've had some beats seriously mangled just as much by the mpc's.

as far as sound, the mpc can definitely crank out volume, but you need a compressor if you don't want everything to be distorted to hell by having such a hot signal. that's one thing i wish live had: as hot of a signal as my mpc. i have to turn everything to around 30 or 40 (in velocity terms) to get it at a non-ear shattering level.

as far as sound quality? what you put in is what you get. samples will sound the same on a computer or on an mpc, it's not like the mpc is this magical beat device that makes everything sound good, no matter how much the hip hop guys tell you it will.

don't get me wrong, i think the mpc is great, but other than the fact that it's faster to record beats, if you want real control over everything, a computer is always going to win. mpcs are just too expensive to make sense anymore. the new mpc 2500 costs, what, $2000? for $2000 you could get a CRAZY computer, with about 1000 times more memory and more power than any mpc will ever have.

HD1
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Post by HD1 » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:20 pm

good points snowtires, but you say record quantize sucks on live and mpc just as much ? That's probably a slip-up right ?

anyways, you're completely right about having to really git into the nitty-gritty when you are producing a track...BUT...ii think an mpc1000 would compliment a computer nicely in that you can just play with it, without having a groove in mind. course you could do this with live, a midi interface, and a keyboard......but it probably isnt as smoove....


i'd like to know if the pads are as sensitive on the new 1000 as on the rest of the akai line, then it would be neat for 'sketching' beats, bringing onto the computer to finalise

oh, and using at a gig to play beats while live changes set....
bing bing!

rikhyray
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Post by rikhyray » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:59 pm

RopeyPunter wrote:good points snowtires, but you say record quantize sucks on live and mpc just as much ? That's probably a slip-up right ?

anyways, you're completely right about having to really git into the nitty-gritty when you are producing a track...BUT...ii think an mpc1000 would compliment a computer nicely in that you can just play with it, without having a groove in mind. course you could do this with live, a midi interface, and a keyboard......but it probably isnt as smoove....


i'd like to know if the pads are as sensitive on the new 1000 as on the rest of the akai line, then it would be neat for 'sketching' beats, bringing onto the computer to finalise

oh, and using at a gig to play beats while live changes set....
No these are different pads, I didnt like them so much so asked Akai guy on the Messe and he said they have less sensors 4k,2K and MPD use all same pads,.main reason why I didnt buy 1k till now . The rest of the Akais are too bulky for me, one option would be to use MPD with the 1k, 32 pads !!! might be interesting.
I like having hardware seq live and seems Live likes it too, behaves much better as a slave (to Korg MX).

T.I.M.
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Post by T.I.M. » Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:10 pm

RopeyPunter wrote:so whats the skinny on taking the nice-n-tight midi from mpc and using it in live ? You got to save the grooves as midi on the mpc, and transfer them as data to your computer I assume.......that is if live's midi timing is as bad as people say, but I dont know if thats the case...i think its probably the mpc's quantize & groove stuff thats really tight, and whatever you spit at live via midi should be recorded identicaly to what's sent.......true ? false ?

I use midi clock to control the start and stop on the MPC. It keeps the feeling of

the mpc. I do get midi latancy from Live though. I hate that... Still trying to

experiment with different ways to interact the two. I also noticed if you render a

loop from Live the tempo's from the MPC and Live are off. You have to re-adjust

them.

John Sweet
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Post by John Sweet » Tue Apr 04, 2006 9:26 pm

dbolt - Does tweaking a buffer for lower audio latency reduce MIDI latency?

HD1
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Post by HD1 » Tue Apr 04, 2006 11:59 pm

T.I.M. wrote:I use midi clock to control the start and stop on the MPC. It keeps the feeling of

the mpc. I do get midi latancy from Live though. I hate that... Still trying to

experiment with different ways to interact the two. I also noticed if you render a

loop from Live the tempo's from the MPC and Live are off. You have to re-adjust

them.
sheet, thats not exactly a fluid workflow
bing bing!

louZ
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Post by louZ » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:20 am

RopeyPunter wrote:so whats the skinny on taking the nice-n-tight midi from mpc and using it in live ? You got to save the grooves as midi on the mpc, and transfer them as data to your computer I assume.......that is if live's midi timing is as bad as people say, but I dont know if thats the case...i think its probably the mpc's quantize & groove stuff thats really tight, and whatever you spit at live via midi should be recorded identicaly to what's sent.......true ? false ?
It's not very convenient at the moment, since Live has no groove template feature (yet). I have some groove templates for GURU taken from MPC midi files. You can use GURU inside Live.

The original MPC midi files are floating around the web too. I might still have them somewhere...

HD1
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Post by HD1 » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:39 am

i dont know what groove templates means.....can someone explain it please, I'm stupid. seriously, I dont know what it is.....is it just another way of saying midi file with patterns saved ?
bing bing!

mercyplease
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Post by mercyplease » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:42 am

RopeyPunter wrote:i dont know what groove templates means.....can someone explain it please, I'm stupid. seriously, I dont know what it is.....is it just another way of saying midi file with patterns saved ?
Are you a robot
:wink:
HA HA HA :twisted:

thelike5
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Post by thelike5 » Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:45 am

I just wanted to add to this post...

I have been eyeing the MPC-1000 since the arrival of version 2.0 and the new rather slick black casing. I guess I have always wanted one, and years past couldn't really afford it. I saved up and purchased a Powermac G4 933 mhz and a gig of Ram. I re-installed Live 1.5 on it then upgraded to 2.0. I have learned a tremendous amount on this machine and have no immediate desire to upgrade me machine. I keep coming back to Live and throughly have enjoyed using it. I learn new things all of t?e time, when I have the time.

I do think in the next month I am going to pick up the MPC-1000. Part of the purchase will be a "nostalgic buy" knowing that my favorite hip-hop was created with the MPC's. I'll admit it. I'm 29 years old and still go back and listen to all of the stuff from time to time that got me excited about making music in the first place. (Tribe Called Quest, GangStarr, Organized Konfusion, DJ Shadows Endtrucing, etc.). I'm sure a ton of the techno (especially minimal classics) got the MPC workout. The machines do have a nice "groove and feel" that's all there own and are rather easy to haul around. The usb port will really benefit me for the times I want to quickly grab samples and work in a different enviorment. I'll probably abandon Live for a little while but I know I can always come back. :wink: I'll surely miss the vst plug effects I've collected but will definetly benefit from learning another way to work on samples.

Just need to make sure girl dosen't find out what this thing costs! Don't ask, don't tell, right? :wink:

mike holiday
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Post by mike holiday » Wed Apr 05, 2006 4:02 am

i used to only use hardware and use MPC 2000 as my sequencer
(tracking on my computer, once i got one. Recording to DAT before that)
i loved it
bought it in 1998 for $1200 sold it in jan 2004 for $900
thinking would buy the 1k
on live v3 at this time

but once my mpc was gone i realized i didn't miss it at all
(useing clip envelopes to sequence drums in live 3)

never ever missed it, and bought a powerbook instead of the 1k
dual 1.8 G4 10.4.9 w/768 ram & A&H xone 3D


"I ain't often right but I've never been wrong"

deckme(N)tal
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Post by deckme(N)tal » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:08 pm

i just tried my mpc for the last 10 days...
and i have a question..how all the people that uses only live as sequencer now, can say that they don't miss mpc?
I mean, sequencing on the mpc is really another world...and there is no comparison...sequencing midi with live seems so lifeless now to me...

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