Getting the "distinct sound" of an MPC, with using a DAW?

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Mattman04 said:
Same sound as the mpc2000, and like the mpc2000 it's a very plain jane sampler that imparts little of it own personsality.

My argument is that a sampler that reproduces the source very well is not worth buying for it's sound.
(Not saying an mpc is not worth buying. It is just for other reasons.)

Buy something old with crappy (in a good way) convertors if you want that vintage hiphop sound.
Emu emax, s900, Sampletrak, sp202, etc.
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I completely accept your thoughts. You think it's not worth to buy only for the sound, I think it worth, I have no problem with that. We're all different, and this is the beauty in this game.

but MPCs have a unique sound, that's all I'm sayin'.
 
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If the sound is so distinctive...it should be easy to pick the mpc out of the lineup...and its only 2 choices
 
I was gonna wait for someone to come tell me the difference between the 2 samples. Kick B came off the MPC. Kick A was the sample loaded directly into Sonar.

Again, they indeed sound different. But not to the point I would know the difference in the source of the 2 sounds. Especially when other options than MPC and Sonar exsist , and in the end effects will most likely be added from what you use. Put that same kick ran thru MachFive, Kontakt, Triton, Sampletank, MV-8800, ASR10(which actually does have a distinct sound but still not distinct enough I could recognize a song made on it), ect. Once you have every option in the world of where a sound came from, there's no way in hell you'll be able to identify MPC Production over other sources.
 
i'm not saying that other things don't have an affect on the sounds that comes out of any sampler..... but DACs does have a BIG influence on the sound.... find you an old TEAC cd player from the 80s, and then compare it to the sound of an PROCEED CD player... the difference is NIGHT & DAY... i've been into AUDIOPHILE grade equipment since the early 90s... to the point where i'd purchase
all separates including external DACs for anything that i had with a
digital outputs.
for instance, have you ever noticed how different your MPC sounds
when you use your DIGITAL OUTS. Thats because you're not using
the DACs from out of the MPC anymore, you're using the ADCs.


deRaNged 4 Phuk'dup said:
Good DAC does not compromise or change your audio in the least significant way.

Now you're confusing "good DAC" with the filters and pres found on higher quality converters. Not the actual conversion process on it's own.

That's like thinking a mic sounds good because of the preamp it's hooked up to...yeah, alot of people do that too.

And last I checked MPC conversion falls right in line with that of a EMU soundcard, M-Box, Korg Triton, Roland VS Multitrack, ect. None of these are competing with a Rosetta module. So telling me to test a high end DAC to be impressed by it's quality of I/O has nothing to do with what we're talking about, does it?

But it's not like cheap circuitry for quantising and transforming audio to/from information created in the late 90s should've been outdone by 2008?

Ginuine Analog vs. Digital is a totally different argument. But really think and research what you're typing before you're so quick to type.

Turning this into an argument of "better converters sounding better" is nonsense when we're discussing $20-30 scrapware converters found in everything from an MPC down to an MP3 player with a record button on it. There's a reason "good converters" can cost you the same as 4 or 5 MPCs.
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mjames4208 said:
i'm not saying that other things don't have an affect on the sounds that comes out of any sampler..... but DACs does have a BIG influence on the sound.... find you an old TEAC cd player from the 80s, and then compare it to the sound of an PROCEED CD player... the difference is NIGHT & DAY... i've been into AUDIOPHILE grade equipment since the early 90s... to the point where i'd purchase
all separates including external DACs for anything that i had with a
digital outputs.
for instance, have you ever noticed how different your MPC sounds
when you use your DIGITAL OUTS. Thats because you're not using
the DACs from out of the MPC anymore, you're using the ADCs.
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This is the annoying thing about this site.

People call me the "knowitall that can never be wrong" and then spout off this type stuff. We're not talking about TEAC CD Players, Fenders, High End DACs, none of that. This is about whether or not an MPC has a distinct sound.

I never said anything about any of this stuff you're mentioning. I'm talking about MPCs and the myth that they have any more of a distinct sound due to filters, compression, or conversion than anything from a Minidisc recorder to a Playstation.

Do all these B.S. end devices have different DACs? Of course.Do converters in everything from an MPC to a cheap Minidisc Recorder to an mp3 player with recording functions to an M-Box to a PC soundcard to whatever cheap scrapware have any significance in even a mediocre audio chain? Abso-fuccing-lootly not. lol.

People don't use MPCs for a distinct sound(at least not anyone who has even the slightest knowlege of audio chains)if you want a "distinct sound" you run that b!tch thru an audio chain to give it one.

My Avalon M5 has a "distinct sound", Apogee Rosettas have distinct sounds, LA2As, Neve Consoles, SSL Boards, I'd be disrespecting them for the quality peices of equipment they are by saying an MPC or anything else with the same type cheap-crap no personality I/Os I just listed does as well, even though they all have "different" raggidy scrapware I/Os.

If you bought an MPC for the sound, you're a victim of propoganda. If you bought it for it's millions of other functions, then you probably will agree that the "sound" is the farest f**king thing from the selling point you could have.

Real Vintage gear owners place the MPC, Triton, Motif, MV-8800, ect. on the same side of this discussion as they do a laptop. Difference is...they have a more valid argument, and if they're "about their sound", they're not running their vintage gear thru no damn MPC as a converter, are they?
 
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Fu#k this "distinct sound" ish. This are all over rated nonsense. My beats in MV-8000 and MPC1000 back then has no special distinct sound in it that you could notice. Now I use Reason, Cubase, and Live and I could have a same quality or better than my beats made on those drum machine. Also for me, that "distinct sound" refers more to the way how you craft or mold your beat.(IMHO, at least now a days)
 
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Not to sidetrack but what do you think of that Powercore system Deranged, I've been looking at getting something new with my next bonus.
 
^^^Amazing. I would say better than UAD, but it's newer to me, so that may be why I feel that way. I got the compact system for $500. That's the hardware and all the plugs you'll ever need.

It runs smooth as hell too. I gotta say the price was it's highest selling point. I've paid that for 1 vst effect before, to get an entire FX suite and hardware to run it without interfering with CPU for that price is crazy!
 
deRaNged 4 Phuk'dup said:
If you bought an MPC for the sound, you're a victim of propoganda. If you bought it for it's millions of other functions, then you probably will agree that the "sound" is the farest f**king thing from the selling point you could have.
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Since you've made the decision, there is nothing to talk about. But please don't diss me just because I like my mpc. thank you. peace
 
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T Prod. said:
Since you've made the decision, there is nothing to talk about. But please don't diss me just because I like my mpc. thank you. peace
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If you catch feelings, that's your choice, I wasn't thinking about you when I wrote that very sincerely felt post.

Don't be mad at me, be mad at whoever put it in your brain that an MPC is to be bought for a "sound".

If that's all you bought it for, you coulda took that money and spend it on a module which actually does something to your sound. Lots of people like their MPCs, I love mine. But if you think it's giving you any type of "distinct sound" and that's your purpose of using it...you need to re-evaluate your reasons for liking it. harsh reality. :cheers:
 
^^^lol, you bothered? I gotta ask, cause that was a f**king waste of a post. More of a waste than this one.

Think what you think, bruh, you have the freedom to do that. I ain't trying to wreck nobody's world, make you feel inadequate, none of that. I just smelled bullsh*t and told people not to step in it.

I know my MPC don't do nothing special and still bang hits out this b!tch. This debate made me plug it up, I'm messing with it as we speak making tracks that sound like the could've came off anything, but enjoying the workflow, I forgot how smooth an MPC's workflow is. Button tap recording in loops rather than loading an audio file into SONAR to chop up...hell, I use Reason, timestretch and chops is f**king up my world right now. I could go on! But this sh*t won't sound no different than anything else when I'm done, lol. :cheers:

Stay true to your faith. You actin' like I just told you Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny won't real, sir.
 
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Real Talk deRaNged,

i never understood those cats sayin they needed the MPC for that Punchy Sound

when i hear a lot of the finished products from MPC-Users on forums, i dont hear it sounding Distinct at all.
A lot of them cats sound flat to, just like a software user could sound flat.
Im not good at mixing neither though,
But I think its the person himself adding that rich full punchy sound by using his tools right, not the MPC/FL untouched natural sound.
Hope i made sense.
 
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What Deranged and Mattman are saying is the truth.To get a punchy sound from an MPC,a mixing board is necessary and that's where the real tweaking is done.
I remember reading an interview with Pete Rock and he used the legendary Sp-1200 for a long time before switching to the 2kXL and while he loved or still love the workflow,he was saying that sounds coming out of the MP were flat compared to the SP and he eq'ed the samples beforehand.
The pads and workflow are legendary not the sound...
 
Override said:
baysick is right about hearing the mpc's converters...but as far as getting close to the sound, to start off, I believe the 2000 converts at 16 bit/44.1 kHz, you can use a bitcrusher plugin of some sort to get that rate, or just bounce your drums at 16/44.1 ...what DAW are u using?
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the okatu effect vst plugin will definitely dirty your drums up, too! either that or izotope trash.
 
mark1234 said:
i never understood those cats sayin they needed the MPC for that Punchy Sound
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Neither do I.

deRanged, please note that I'm not saying that you NEEED an mpc to make punchy drums. just to be clear, that is simply stupid.
 
the only contention in this thread was the notion of the mpc having a distinct sound...
 
J Bob said:
I can hear with my ears the difference in drums sound used through an MPC and used with a DAW, it almost sounds "thicker". Like for example, I can hear the difference in some Fantom X drums thats ran through an MPC vs run through a DAW. Is there a way to achieve the sound you get from an MPC on a DAW?
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In software its all about choosing the right samples and mixing properly. Using Reason 4.0 I don't have much of a problem making stuff bang. Actually I can get stuff to bang more because I have an access to a wider variety of sounds than I had with an mpc.


But I recommend something like Reason 4.0, or Live which IMO has a sort of MPC like interface with Live's Drumracks and Reason's Redrum (not really mpc like but it has great tweaking potential), but honestly you could use about anything out right now. Might want to try Battery 3 if you have a different DAW though just for a comfort thing.
 
Ahh, this brings back memories. I've copped lots of hate from upgrading (and I use that term based on my opinion) from an MPC2000xl to FL Studio.
 
CallMeNJ said:
Ahh, this brings back memories. I've copped lots of hate from upgrading (and I use that term based on my opinion) from an MPC2000xl to FL Studio.
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I dont really get what you saying though?
 
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