Sampling 101, question for the new guy

jonpaulr123

New member
Hey everyone, I'm a musician who is just starting to get in to sampling and making drum grooves. I'm really interested in creating interesting drum and synth sounds like you hear from bands like air, war on drugs, postal service, and bon iver to name a few. Ideally, I would like a hardware sampler that I can put my own sampled sounds on and make grooves or synth parts on it. I believe what I'm looking for is an MPC, is this correct? If so, what do you guys recommend?

I have a new MacBook Pro and I use Logic Pro.

Thanks so much!
 
yes, an MPC would satisfy your requirement for a sampler, but there are also other choices that would work. A lot of people are making the SP series of samplers from Roland work quite well, so thats at least a price/feature alternative (the MPC being obviously more comprehensive and feature rich). there's others too. The new stand alone MPC series is a great return to what made the MPC great in the first place. I do not think you would be disappointed. Options are in your favor.

the MPC does not have a synth engine. it is a sampler only, if that makes sense (no oscillators, etc.)... but you could sample and edit wave forms to get creative with synthesis/sound design -through- sampling and use a sampler as a "synth". Or, sample your own synth patches and edit/chop/play. It's a fun and effective approach to production.

I too, enjoy the sounds that Postal Service creates. very gentle, groovy and soothing.
 
MPCs offer a nice workflow, but they aren't for everyone. Ableton Live is powerful enough to accomplish the task and offers some flexibility. Software, in general, offers flexibility that an MPC can't...but MPCs are killer if you can work with them. I'd love to own one tbh. If you go the MPC route, I recommend the MPC1000. The new MPC/Software line is cool....but Akai has a long way to go on software design - personally not a fan after working on the MPC Studio, but it might work for you.
 
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The digital tech is good enough IF USED RIGHT!

He is right...DAWs are very capable of getting the sound you're looking for, but you might enjoy the process more working with a hardware sampler over a laptop.

If you got any friends who happen to have hardware samplers, or if you have a music shop with samplers to demo, it might be in your interest to try before you buy. You might find you hate the workflow provided via hardware.

If your money is burning a hole in your pocket lol, the MPC isn't a bad choice at all. Although the Octatrack MKII might be a better fit, given the bands you listed.

I got the itch for a hardware sampler myself and i've been looking at what's on the market as far as new samplers goes (as you can guess in this age, not much), and the Octatrack MKII is praised for it's ability to really mangle and destroy samples, once you get past the learning curve.



Here's a link of one in action:


YouTube




Hope this helps....
 
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