MPC 1000/2500

If you are into sophisticated compositions/productions and programming (and you cannot play keys or pads), I would not recommend getting an MPC. It is a very limited, old machine that is pain to program.

JJOS is of course better but I don't see any reason to use it when I have a laptop with Live, Reaper and Pure Data.

I regret buying the 1000. I would trade it for the latest Ableton Live Suite 9 with Max for Live any day.

I kinda agree but who knows, many people click with the MPC. I hated it even though I could see the potential. I hated navigating the menus even with the JJOS. Shame though as it could have been a great sequencer for me. I wish I was clever enough to write an OS for it myself.

I completely understand that, for example, the hip hop crowd digs it. I guess I am a too much of a tweaker for a machine like that. I love editing and precise control so that is probably one of the biggest reasons why it doesn't work for me.

Will probably sell it at some point and buy Live 9 with Max. I am just so lazy to do it and negotiate a price etc.

I think you're being a bit hard on it. I think its main drawbacks are the lack of parametric control on all fronts (sequencing, sample manipulation, effects processing) - it's mostly a dumb garbage-in, garbage-out machine. But that's also what's beautiful about it - there's a lot to be learned from this approach with real masters not only from the hip hop world (e.g. J Dilla) but also the demoscene (e.g. dune/brothomStates). Those limitations can lead to real ingenuity once you accept them.

The menu system is a little funky but only until you get the muscle memory. I only really found the sample editing (normalization, etc.) particularly tedious.

  On 2/28/2011 at 12:36 PM, yikes said:

i still contend that the the RDj album was sequenced with an mpc

I love this idea but I think it's more likely the same thing he used for Hangable Autobulb... which I'm guessing is Recycle + whatever editor people used with it back then (Logic?)

  On 4/3/2016 at 4:44 AM, sweepstakes said:

...it's mostly a dumb garbage-in, garbage-out machine. But that's also what's beautiful about it - there's a lot to be learned from this approach with real masters not only from the hip hop world (e.g. J Dilla) but also the demoscene (e.g. dune/brothomStates). Those limitations can lead to real ingenuity once you accept them.

I agree.

It definitely gave me experience and skills I didn't get from DAWs (even though I could when looking back but the interface and lack of necessity never led me to it).

I have to admit I can be concentrated on things when working with the MPC I would not bother with on a computer.

So there is definitely some magic in it but I have never finished anything on MPC. It is a sketchbook thing for me.

Another JJOS2XL question: I'd like to create nice "break" programs in order to use the classic breaks I like to manipulate (think, sesame street etc...). I love Renoise for that because you can use the "trigger sample from XX start point" command but also program your Renoise instrument so that the sample (I mean the whole break) keeps playing in loop until the next start point you enter in the timeline, allowing you to program really fluid drum breaks.

I'd like to mimic that behavior with a MPC1000 program but I actually doubt it's possible!... If I use the "Chop" function, create say 8 chops and assign them to pads, each pad will just play the sample until the beginning of the next chop. The closest I can get to the behavior I'm looking for is to set the end of each chop sample at the very end of the whole break but that's kind of stupid because the break doesn't plays in loop so every chop stops playing when it reach the end of the break (so each next chop is 1/8 of the whole break-length shorter than the previous one).

Do you music makers know what I mean? is there a secret way to do that or should I simply accept the fact MPC1000 is MPC1000 and Renoise is Renoise?

thanks!

You can modulate sample start points if I remember it well. I don't know if the modulation happens only on note-on trigger but in case it does, you can then fill the grid with a continuous row of notes without spaces so that the modulation can have a usable time-resolution.

I don't know if that is helpful to your case.

saw Mr Atom TM doing a set on his MPC last night and now I kind of want one.. He went kinda over-indulging on retrig/stutter kind of things but it was still excellent