"Legendary MPC Swing"

my first piece of equipment was an mpc. i tested my mpc and software side by side. same sounds same speakers and everything didnt hear any difference. i think most people that say so havent used both a lot.
 
there isnt any magic swing on the mpc i can make my drums swing on the mpc and in fruity loops just the same. you just have to know what the hell youre doing.
 
i was thinking it was a quantize feature called "mpc swing". On my drum machine to make it have that swing i record it live or 32 note triplets.
 
clarhck5 said:
my first piece of equipment was an mpc. i tested my mpc and software side by side. same sounds same speakers and everything didnt hear any difference. i think most people that say so havent used both a lot.
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Yep when I listen to my old mpc tracks I realize there is no majic.
Massive placebo effect for many people. The mpc has very editable swing parameters, but many software, and some other hardware sequencers do too.
It comes down to the user, and thier ability to program swing either by turning off quantize (playing your own swing), or knowing what values to set to make the beat groove.
 
I can achieve swing in Reason, it actually has very good quantization templates and you can get whatever feel or groove you're looking for. I know that FL has the Shuffle function, and Cubase has it's own quantization features with shuffle. You can get a groove in most software sequencers, it's nothing exclusive to the MPC. I've owned a 1000 and I can get the same results in Reason. It's all about preference.
 
Let me try to reconstruct/deconstruct part of the "MPC Groove" mythology:

The original LM1 drum machine was famed for having a certain kind of punchy R&B feel. This had more to do with the samples than any kind of special quantization. The effect was similar to what people noticed about MiniMoog's envelope response being very "punchy". If you want to see how to create this kind of "punch", Craig Anderton has a great Battery tutorial on NI's website.

Roger Linn admitted that some particular series of MPCs had "sloppy" quantization, but that this was not deliberate, but an artifact of either underpowered or bad programming. This "sloppyness" was perceived by some as a certain kind of "groove".

I don't recall if it was Electronic Musician or Keyboard, but there was a whole series of articles a while back about how to create certain kinds of "grooves" by quantizing particular instruments - kick, hats, snare, etc. - in very specific ways.
 
I'll just say this...Mpc's have a nice swing, even if you arn't using swing. So if you arn't using swing in software, it's going to sound real mechanical. On an mpc, it's more natural. Once you get into swing functions, it's not that different. But sure, you can achieve the swing of an mpc, or replicate it well, however you want to say it, in software. To me, if i never used an mpc, i would know how to go about this though. Well, i didn't really even think about swing before my mpc. It was only after i went back to software where i felt that it was "too mechanical". But reason had swing, i started using that, i feel it's easy. But learning how to use it came from an mpc. So i'd recommend getting your hands on an mpc. You don't need to master it, just mess with one for an hour, or make a song. I have found my mpc to have been a great teacher for me when it comes to making beats but not actually the best tool for me. I would encourage anyone to go out and buy a used one, mess around, sell it for the same price or more. It was one of the best things i've ever done in terms of honing my software production.
 
MySpace Gangsta said:
4 those that have used both a MPC and software, is the MPC swing really as "legendary" as some people claim it 2 be?
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No! It is a complete myth! I own an MPC3000 and have NEVER heard any groove come out of it that a software sequencer couldn't have done. It's quite mathematically precise, as it should be.

I don't know where this rumor came from, but it's driving me insane.
 
yeah, that swing is just quantizing, no mystery. you can get that swing with your fingers if you have good rhythm
 
an MPC sounds more natural, have a better sound then software.. and because of this, it'll have more groove and swings become real..

It's NOT in the swing, you can do swing on FL or anything, I think the MPC's "MAGIC" is in the sound. I'm usin FL Studio cuz' I have no money to buy an MPC.

But most of you MPC heads probably never used softs like Fruity for a really long time, cuz if you'dve did you would know what we're talking about.

I will believe that there's no difference when somebody shows me a REAL groovy beat made on a PC software, but I never heard a soft beat that'd really got me bob my head. That's why I keep gettin' money than sittin' in front of the PC.

and don't come with 9th Wonder, he's one of a hundred, and he puts his FL tracks through a 5000 dollar analog mixer, or some hardware preamp and sh.

It doesn't matter which has a colour to the sound, or which is accurate more. Hardware sounds better. You can do a wack unquantized drum pattern on an mpc and it still sounds good.

And we software heads always want to get hardware sound, but I never heard an MPC head tryin' to make an "FL SOUND".. get money..
 
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Straight said:
an MPC sounds more natural, have a better sound then software.. and because of this, it'll have more groove and swings become real..

It's NOT in the swing, you can do swing on FL or anything, I think the MPC's "MAGIC" is in the sound. I'm usin FL Studio cuz' I have no money to buy an MPC.

But most of you MPC heads probably never used softs like Fruity for a really long time, cuz if you'dve did you would know what we're talking about.

I will believe that there's no difference when somebody shows me a REAL groovy beat made on a PC software, but I never heard a soft beat that'd really got me bob my head. That's why I keep gettin' money than sittin' in front of the PC.

and don't come with 9th Wonder, he's one of a hundred, and he puts his FL tracks through a 5000 dollar analog mixer, or some hardware preamp and sh.

It doesn't matter which has a colour to the sound, or which is accurate more. Hardware sounds better. You can do a wack unquantized drum pattern on an mpc and it still sounds good.

And we software heads always want to get hardware sound, but I never heard an MPC head tryin' to make an "FL SOUND".. get money..
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Why, why do do people still think Akai makes samplers that color the sound, lol.
The mpc is very accurate. So is a $100 soundcard like a emu0404, m-audio 24/96, echo mia, etc.

mpc's don't color squat.
mpc's are accurate as Nolan Ryan on a no hitter.
Software recording from a likewise colorless soundcard will sound no less accurate.
It's more factual than Ibuprophen relieves headaches.
 
Mattman, I didn't say MPC colors anything.. I say if you got a kick, a snare, 2 hats sample and do a drum pattern on MPC, and do the same in FL and export them it won't sound the same. That's a fact.

Show me a tight FL studio drum beat.
 
Straight said:
an MPC sounds more natural, have a better sound then software.. and because of this, it'll have more groove and swings become real..

It's NOT in the swing, you can do swing on FL or anything, I think the MPC's "MAGIC" is in the sound. I'm usin FL Studio cuz' I have no money to buy an MPC.

But most of you MPC heads probably never used softs like Fruity for a really long time, cuz if you'dve did you would know what we're talking about.

I will believe that there's no difference when somebody shows me a REAL groovy beat made on a PC software, but I never heard a soft beat that'd really got me bob my head. That's why I keep gettin' money than sittin' in front of the PC.

and don't come with 9th Wonder, he's one of a hundred, and he puts his FL tracks through a 5000 dollar analog mixer, or some hardware preamp and sh.

It doesn't matter which has a colour to the sound, or which is accurate more. Hardware sounds better. You can do a wack unquantized drum pattern on an mpc and it still sounds good.

And we software heads always want to get hardware sound, but I never heard an MPC head tryin' to make an "FL SOUND".. get money..
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You don't know what da fvck you're talking about! It sounds like you never used a MPC before and talking about its sounds and shyt.
And 9th doesn't use a $5000 mixer he has a humble setup and his mixes ain't good. When people talk about 9th then only because he uses FL and has a nice feel for samples and flipping, but not because of his mixes the mixer has nothing to do with that.
 
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If the mpc is'nt coloring sounds, and FL is'nt coloring sounds then they will be audibly identical.
 
Straight said:
Mattman, I didn't say MPC colors anything.. I say if you got a kick, a snare, 2 hats sample and do a drum pattern on MPC, and do the same in FL and export them it won't sound the same. That's a fact.

Show me a tight FL studio drum beat.
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It will sound the same. You've probably just been hearing lousy software producers.

http://www.myspace.com/bigryanbeats

The beat on my MySpace page (which I haven't touched in ages) was done entirely in Pro Tools. Can you tell that that wasn't an MPC?
 
When I bought a my Echo Mia I did a side by side comparison with my mpc. Practicly identical.
Your software makes no differance in how good samples sound when played back whether it's the $2000 Nuendo, or the free Audacity.
Fl processes audio at 32 bits internaly so arguing against it's sound is pointless.
What soundcard did you sample into fl with?
Do you run you mpc into a analog mixer?
There are many variables that can effect the sound besides basic sample playback.
 
I see how quickly this thread turned into a software vs hardware thread....I rock the mpc1k and software and I am sure that you can get the same swing out of your software that you do in the mpc as long as you get the same groove templates from Akai that they program into their machines, then load that template up in your software.
 
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