Can you get better sampling results using an MPC?

StanleySteamer

New member
Hey guys, as the title says I am wondering how good an MPC is for sampling vs is it just something that was used back in the day but still kept around. I have never really used an MPC and I am actually considering getting the maschine. I was wondering if using an MPC will give me better results with sampling as far as chops and arranging and what not since I know it will not help with overall finding new samples. I currently find my samples on the internet and chop them up in FL Studio Edison. Do you guys think that an MPC or a Maschine will give me a lot more control and better results? I am kind of looking for that kanye west/alchemist type of feel in my production
 
I've never had an MPC. I have a Maschine, and it's fantastic.

The only thing I've heard is some vintage MPC's might apply saturation when you're sampling, but I can't confirm or deny this. Frankly, the Maschine seems better. And more producers have them than you may think. If you go on beatmakingvideos.com you'll usually find a lot of those producers have them.

The main benefit to Maschine for me was the samples, particularly the drums. I don't have to layer kicks very often with Maschine. They have a giant selection of drums, from 808's to vinyl's that sound ripped right off a mastered record.

Also, Native Instruments has a great collection of tutorial videos on Maschine. It's very intuitive.

Personally, I use it as a plugin in pro tools going through an aux channel for each pad. Maschine isn't exactly arrangement friendly, it's more about making loops (or at least if you can get it arrangement friendly, it's something I haven't learned yet) which you can drag into DAW's or bounce all files automatically. I prefer to just have a template in Pro Tools with 30 aux tracks for pads, then hidden audio files I can record the Auxes into. This allows me to do a few things.

1) Focus on the arrangement of a song more. I can just have maschine running on a loop and record my rap vox, and any transitions can be done after the fact or just recorded in one of those hidden audio tracks OR just recorded into a Pro Tools Instr track.

2) I like to keep everything mono except for maybe one instrument. Maschine's software doesn't play nice when I want almost everything mono. But if I want a bunch of things mono as a plugin in Pro Tools AND I want one thing stereo, that's easy to do as well.

3) I can unhide all of those audio tracks, hit record on all of them, play the beat, then I can consolidate all of those clips and bounce them to a mix session easy.

This should be easy to do in any DAW though, and is just one of many workflows you could have.

One last thing, having Maschine can get you a discount on Komplete, which is what I got next. Ginormous selection of sounds and synths, you'll be able to cover lots of styles.
 
Hey guys, as the title says I am wondering how good an MPC is for sampling vs is it just something that was used back in the day but still kept around. I have never really used an MPC and I am actually considering getting the maschine. I was wondering if using an MPC will give me better results with sampling as far as chops and arranging and what not since I know it will not help with overall finding new samples. I currently find my samples on the internet and chop them up in FL Studio Edison. Do you guys think that an MPC or a Maschine will give me a lot more control and better results? I am kind of looking for that kanye west/alchemist type of feel in my production

One of the key factors for me to decide to buy a maschine would be for the sampling factor: the ability to stretch and alter tempo among many other things are able to be done straight from the control surface itself. check out this video and it may help with your question. fairly certain that you will be limited to using it outside of fl studio, not sure that the daw itself supports full control surface usage

 
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thanks for the responses guys. so lets basically change the topic of this conversation to can using a maschine give you better sampling results? as far as being able to chop samples and arrange and what not and also does it come with a good drum selection or is that more stuff I have to invest money into? If I have drum kits downloaded off the internet can I load them into maschine?
 
To me, great drums.

And yes you can load your own.

I only bought one of their expansions and was like ehh... It mostly added loops.

But I pretty much only use their samples unless I want a Rock feel. Then I use native instruments studio drummer
 
thanks for the responses guys. so lets basically change the topic of this conversation to can using a maschine give you better sampling results? as far as being able to chop samples and arrange and what not and also does it come with a good drum selection or is that more stuff I have to invest money into? If I have drum kits downloaded off the internet can I load them into maschine?

I know that there are a TON of amazing expansions for maschine as far as loading your own content, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to. They have a great faq section in their site. N . I makes great products, their price tag reflects that. The fact that it comes with its own self contained daw is great because you will get maximum functionality out of your purchase. Unlike the midi controller I just bought. Novation launchkey 49, cool 200$ later, I'm stuck with a controller that has pads, knows, faders and mod wheel that has to be manually assigned every time I want to start a new project and for the pads, they can not be reassigned via cc editor so I have to just hope whatever I'm using them in gives the option to reassign trigger notes and such.
 
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