The great thing about this channel is not only are you teaching us how to maximize the performance of our MPC, you’re teaching us overall mix engineer techniques and principles that we can use no matter what gear we’re using. I’ve learned quite a lot from you since I became a subscriber.
That’s awesome dude, that’s my goal. And yes, the principles are applicable on multiple platforms. I’m just paying forward all that I’ve learned. Thanks for watching and thank you for subscribing.
So glad to have a mix/master specialist sharing his knowledge exclusive to the new gen MPC’s thanks for all the valuable information you’ve shared so far👍🏾👍🏾
@@TheCratesMotel some parts in since places, I'm using drums from a similar 30yr old pack that's done right already, some FX are in common and some I can get, but I'm using them on poly and arp seqs, not resampling yet, Il patron got it for me to control 8 other boxes and I'm not there yet either, the plugin's and FX are so good
@@TheCratesMotelinstead of options in a Vintage Flavor, the Mpc60,&6000, and Sp1200,&1200ring are separate empty slots, but those bit and sample rates are in the right places, I'll look for those MPC and SP FX, I had been planning to get a 404, and a 202, and a Zoom ST224 bc it was adjustable, to bounce between😂
Besides technique, the biggest takeaway for me is the reminder to create presets. I often tinker at the expense of inspiration. I guess I enjoy engineering and sound design more than production.
Awesome. Great idea. I do something similar with the SP404 (not 8 bit obviously). I haven’t tried those little pocket operators. They look ace. Thanks for watching and sharing the tip.
Also, it's important to learn about mid/side techniques used for the mastering destined to a vinyl, as the support itself imposes some rules related to the difficulty to reproduce low frequencies (there is a space constraint with the oscillations of the playhead regarding the low frequencies). Another funny thing to know about the mono trick you mention: old albums from the original soul music era (let's say before Jackson 5 era) were recorded using consoles and gear that had no pan and only 3 mono tracks you could position full left, full right or center. For example I remember in my early producers days I used to wonder how the sample used on Ghostface Killah's "All that I got is you" could only feature the strings and not the flutes. At the time stem separation technology didn't even exist so, how? That's because they only sampled the left channel, so everything on the right channel disappeared. With these records, it was also very easy to sample a phrase and totally get rid of everything at the center (usually the lead vocal and the bass) and have a mono sample of only the side elements (left & right with nothing in the center) by using a phase opposition (you invert the left channel and then sum the left and right channels into a mono sample, you'll see the center signal being completely removed because there is nothing panned between the center and the sides on the original record). That's a little trick you can use to get that 90's sound because that was the only way you could get rid of a lead vocal in these days: phase opposition to kill the center of the sample. Only works with 3 channels mixing desks records of that era. Try early Motown.
Yeh dude I have covered this in another video. In the mid 80s when I started sampling we used to use the left, right, centre trick alot. Sometimes by using a stereo jack cable but not pushing it all the way in. I would say it pre-dates the 90s sound. I would say it was more an 80s thing.
Newly subbed and happy I found you! Thank you for the guidance in putting together this FX chain. I'm diving a bit deeper into sound craft these days and you just gave me that quantum push. Looking forward to watching more of your teaching.
Dope video. Thanks for the info. I pretty much did most of efx stuff already. But putting everything into mono before, was what I had never thought to do.👊🏿🎧
I suspect what they will do with the bit reduction algorithm is really scale the -1 to +1 floating point (32bit) value to say if they are going 12bit effectively multiple the value by 0.375 , then multiple it back up to the original value, effectively quantising the steps between the range of floating point numbers , hope that makes sense.
another nice thing to play with when making samples mono is phase inverting one side, not sure you can do this in the MPC though. used to use sound forge for that when I still ran a windows box. use my own software now. any decent sample editor should do it though
Yes that’s a great point. I have used SF to do that and also Adobe Audition. The MPC doesn’t appear to offer any phase inversion or polarity options. None that I’m aware of anyway. Thanks for watching.
As a reference, the SP1200 was 12bit 26kHz. The ASR10 was 16bit 22 or 44.1 kHz. MPC60 12bit 40kHz. It's difficult to recreate these machine's sound with just sample rate and bit depth but it's a start. Did you try the Flavor pro plugin, and do you think it's worth it?
Yes correct, I have presets and FX chains for all the early samplers in numerous plugins I use. I actually give them away free with another video. I think it is possible to recreate them close enough for 99.9% of people's ears if you know what you are doing, and to be fair, most people don't care lol. It is not just about replicating sample rates and bit depth, there is more to it than that. Regarding Flavor Pro, it is possible to do pretty much everything in Flavor Pro without using Flavor Pro IMO, so personally, no, I don't think it is worth it. Thanks for watching.
Not to be a hater but this 12bit reduce function doesn't really convince me. It just doesn't sound as punchy and warm as vintage machines. Loved your video regardless.
Oh of course dude, I would never say it is a total replication. That's why I said "get the vibe" rather than copy the sound. But it gets you in the ball park and it's only people like us who actually notice these kind of things haha. Also, I would generally do a lot more tweaking in the highs etc Thanks for watching dude and taking the time to comment.
@@TheCratesMotel pray for me hahahaa .. I really like the Air Lofi but what would you recommend for MPC Legacy type saturation ? If you have done a vid on that please send a link. I have been messing with RX950 mixed with SP950 and Air Lofi. Let me know what you think, thanks and great channel !
@@jermaineinoue4919 Ah man, I miss my S950. There are so many great plugins for saturation and lofi to be honest. I use WaveTracer SP950 a lot and of course XLN RC20. For a very natural saturation Soundtoys Decapitator is amazing.
@@TheCratesMotel yeah, WaveTracer SP950 is in the chain too. But I guess the MPC60/3000 chain would be AD/DA, saturation . bit depth and other stuff on the Air Lofi lol I guess I will leave it at that and try not to go insane hahahah unless you have any other input or videos on the topic
@@TheCratesMotel Ah, got it, thanks! BTW... if no one else has said so... that tune was pretty dope for something you seem to have just whipped up in the morning!
@@marcwinnig Haha thank you. You know, I often find my best tracks are the ones I just make quickly without thinking too much. It is definitely possible to overthink and be too analytical and then you lose the vibe and question everything.
In sample edit I pitch up +12 then -12 to introduce artifacts, tutorials give a more elaborate way but I can definitely hear a difference - Is that a good idea? 😢 also what are some classic albums you recommend for this sound?
Yeh man, any way that you can record it in faster and then slow it down will introduce artifacts. As for samples and albums, there are just too many to name brother. You just need to get digging and experimenting.
Nyquist rate (noun) the minimum rate at which a signal can be sampled without introducing errors, which is twice the highest frequency present in the signal. If the SP-1200 has a sample rate of 26khz it really 13khz ,which is why bringing the sample rate down to that level sounded closer to it than 26khz. I could be dead wrong but, It make sense to me. Please correct me tho if I'm wrong.
You are spot on dude. I didn’t mention it because getting into Nyquist would be another video entirely. It’s the reason an SP1200 anti aliasing filter is at 13khz.
What are your thoughts on this process for individual drum samples aiming for lofi house? 1. Pad lowpass 2. Air Lofi 3. EQ 4. Compressor I'm especiaically interested in your thoughts on lowpassing each sample to taste in program edit first (Low 4 from 85-95). I'm adding Air Lofi on each pad which adds some grit and a lot of harmonics, so I'm following that with a shelf EQ, rolling back off those harmonics above 6k. Then I'm applying comp and it's sounding pretty decent. Finally, I'm thinking of adding bus compression and a light tube amp. I want to develop a kind of open template and any insight would be much appreciated.
Hey mate. Firstly thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. There are no rules, no right or wrong, and your chain is all good. If I was to do it, I would finish with the Air Lofi. The reason I would do this is that I find it better to add any saturation etc towards the end of the chain. As you said you are having to EQ the sample after the Lofi fx. If you got complete control of the sample with EQ and compression first and then added your saturation, you might find you have more control over frequencies, punch/transients and level. Think of the Lofi as the cherry on top.
@TheCratesMotel 12b @ 18k is money on my drums but the kick- will need to break that out. I'm needing to roll off after lofi to get the lofi house sound I picture. Your videos are like a master class. I have producing experience but mainly relied on really good engineers in the past. Do you remote tutor? I would love to pick your brain.
@@JiandiP Hey man, I don't remote tutor at the moment. It is something I want to do in the future, but at the moment I am very busy with mastering work, not that I am complaining.
Hey brother, I literally just shared these on the Akai MPC Tutorials page on Facebook. Here you go drive.google.com/file/d/1BwM-lRWOMbFHpvKYQwOIjDS9qlLM6EXM/view?usp=sharing
This was absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. ❤🙏🏽
Hey dude. Your channel is great. I'm glad you commented. I forgot to sub and haven't been able to find your channel for a bit. Headed that way. Peace
Hey brother thank you for stopping by. I’ve been following your channel for ages. Thank you for your kind words and thank you for watching.
Heey😁😁 malobeats in the mother ucking build 🙌🏾🙌🏾
Custom dirt. Dial in the sound you want! So much better than spending thousands on a vintage sampler, and only getting ONE sound!
Custom Dirt. I like that. Thanks for watching.
The great thing about this channel is not only are you teaching us how to maximize the performance of our MPC, you’re teaching us overall mix engineer techniques and principles that we can use no matter what gear we’re using. I’ve learned quite a lot from you since I became a subscriber.
That’s awesome dude, that’s my goal. And yes, the principles are applicable on multiple platforms. I’m just paying forward all that I’ve learned. Thanks for watching and thank you for subscribing.
So glad to have a mix/master specialist sharing his knowledge exclusive to the new gen MPC’s thanks for all the valuable information you’ve shared so far👍🏾👍🏾
You’re welcome. Thanks for watching dude.
I always check these to see if I can apply to the Force
@@irradix213 I’m not at all familiar with the Force. Can it be set up in the same way?
@@TheCratesMotel some parts in since places, I'm using drums from a similar 30yr old pack that's done right already, some FX are in common and some I can get, but I'm using them on poly and arp seqs, not resampling yet, Il patron got it for me to control 8 other boxes and I'm not there yet either, the plugin's and FX are so good
@@TheCratesMotelinstead of options in a Vintage Flavor, the Mpc60,&6000, and Sp1200,&1200ring are separate empty slots, but those bit and sample rates are in the right places, I'll look for those MPC and SP FX, I had been planning to get a 404, and a 202, and a Zoom ST224 bc it was adjustable, to bounce between😂
Your like a music mixing coach for MPC/Force users! Keep helping us bring our A-game to the mix.
Thanks again dude 🙏🏼
This is the most sophisticated video about MPC one I ve seen until now. PLEASE keep on doing those videos.
Thanks man. I’m glad there’s something there for you. Thank you for watching.
Like the alchemist said " you make it sound how you want it to sound"
Exactly dude. Thanks for watching.
A MPC master. Thanks for putting out the knowledge.
You’re welcome my friend. Thank you for watching.
Besides technique, the biggest takeaway for me is the reminder to create presets. I often tinker at the expense of inspiration. I guess I enjoy engineering and sound design more than production.
That’s not unusual dude. It’s often the journey that’s more fun than the destination. Thank you for watching.
I just want to say you have the best mpc tutorials I have found yet on UA-cam. Great, knowledgeable info. And tips I will actually use! Well done.
Ah thanks man. I’m just paying it forward. Thanks for watching.
This is great… as I don’t fancy spending $1700 on an Isla or a vintage Emu. Thanks for the rundown.
You’re welcome dude. Thanks for watching.
Isla is great for more than just 12bit. Workflow is amazing
@@FrankieNuggetz definitely
amazing in depth video! 🔥 thanks Conan.
You’re welcome. Thank you for watching.
Really loved all your latest video's on the MPC. allot of little gems learned from ya allready
Thanks for these video's brother 🙏
You’re welcome man, thank you for watching and taking the time to comment.
so many gems in this one. great job.
You’re welcome dude. Thank you for watching.
Old habbits day hard 😂😂 How could i miss that video , THANK YOU
You're welcome dude. Thank you for watching.
Just a bit of info. If you own a pocket operator KO 33 you can run your samples through it back into the MPC and you'll get that 8-bit sound
Awesome. Great idea. I do something similar with the SP404 (not 8 bit obviously). I haven’t tried those little pocket operators. They look ace. Thanks for watching and sharing the tip.
Also, it's important to learn about mid/side techniques used for the mastering destined to a vinyl, as the support itself imposes some rules related to the difficulty to reproduce low frequencies (there is a space constraint with the oscillations of the playhead regarding the low frequencies). Another funny thing to know about the mono trick you mention: old albums from the original soul music era (let's say before Jackson 5 era) were recorded using consoles and gear that had no pan and only 3 mono tracks you could position full left, full right or center. For example I remember in my early producers days I used to wonder how the sample used on Ghostface Killah's "All that I got is you" could only feature the strings and not the flutes. At the time stem separation technology didn't even exist so, how? That's because they only sampled the left channel, so everything on the right channel disappeared. With these records, it was also very easy to sample a phrase and totally get rid of everything at the center (usually the lead vocal and the bass) and have a mono sample of only the side elements (left & right with nothing in the center) by using a phase opposition (you invert the left channel and then sum the left and right channels into a mono sample, you'll see the center signal being completely removed because there is nothing panned between the center and the sides on the original record). That's a little trick you can use to get that 90's sound because that was the only way you could get rid of a lead vocal in these days: phase opposition to kill the center of the sample. Only works with 3 channels mixing desks records of that era. Try early Motown.
Yeh dude I have covered this in another video. In the mid 80s when I started sampling we used to use the left, right, centre trick alot. Sometimes by using a stereo jack cable but not pushing it all the way in. I would say it pre-dates the 90s sound. I would say it was more an 80s thing.
Great tutorial keep em coming! 🔥🔥
Thank you brother
Spot on dude thank you. Well presented and a great method. Thank you for the preset.
You're always welcome brother, thank you for watching.
Newly subbed and happy I found you! Thank you for the guidance in putting together this FX chain. I'm diving a bit deeper into sound craft these days and you just gave me that quantum push. Looking forward to watching more of your teaching.
Thanks for watching dude. Happy to help. 🙏🏼
Appreciate you and all these MPC tutorials. Learning a lot! Thank you.
I’m happy to share the knowledge. Thanks for watching dude.
Super value Content - love the deep insights and juicy sound in it!😃👏🔊
Thanks for watching dude 🙏🏼
Thanks so much man! Gratitude
Thanks for watching brother.
Dope video. Thanks for the info. I pretty much did most of efx stuff already. But putting everything into mono before, was what I had never thought to do.👊🏿🎧
Yeh man it just adds that extra retro sampler sauce. Thanks for watching bro.
I suspect what they will do with the bit reduction algorithm is really scale the -1 to +1 floating point (32bit) value to say if they are going 12bit effectively multiple the value by 0.375 , then multiple it back up to the original value, effectively quantising the steps between the range of floating point numbers , hope that makes sense.
Yes it makes perfect sense dude, thank you for sharing.
Good stuff!
Thanks dude
Thanks for the knowledge! Would you ever consider doing a video on using the Mathieu DeMange S950 vst in the MPC beats software?
I actually use that plugin quite a lot in my DAW. Good shout. Thanks for watching.
Awesome man thank you again and again!!!
Thank you for watching sir!!
another nice thing to play with when making samples mono is phase inverting one side, not sure you can do this in the MPC though. used to use sound forge for that when I still ran a windows box. use my own software now. any decent sample editor should do it though
Yes that’s a great point. I have used SF to do that and also Adobe Audition. The MPC doesn’t appear to offer any phase inversion or polarity options. None that I’m aware of anyway. Thanks for watching.
Thanks mate, love your videos
You’re welcome mate. Thank you for watching.
Thanks for the info.
You’re more than welcome dude. Thanks for watching.
Thx❤
You’re welcome. Thank you for watching.
As a reference, the SP1200 was 12bit 26kHz. The ASR10 was 16bit 22 or 44.1 kHz. MPC60 12bit 40kHz. It's difficult to recreate these machine's sound with just sample rate and bit depth but it's a start. Did you try the Flavor pro plugin, and do you think it's worth it?
Yes correct, I have presets and FX chains for all the early samplers in numerous plugins I use. I actually give them away free with another video. I think it is possible to recreate them close enough for 99.9% of people's ears if you know what you are doing, and to be fair, most people don't care lol. It is not just about replicating sample rates and bit depth, there is more to it than that. Regarding Flavor Pro, it is possible to do pretty much everything in Flavor Pro without using Flavor Pro IMO, so personally, no, I don't think it is worth it. Thanks for watching.
Not to be a hater but this 12bit reduce function doesn't really convince me. It just doesn't sound as punchy and warm as vintage machines. Loved your video regardless.
Oh of course dude, I would never say it is a total replication. That's why I said "get the vibe" rather than copy the sound. But it gets you in the ball park and it's only people like us who actually notice these kind of things haha. Also, I would generally do a lot more tweaking in the highs etc Thanks for watching dude and taking the time to comment.
Oh I am mental and there is no turning back.
🙏🏼
@@TheCratesMotel pray for me hahahaa ..
I really like the Air Lofi but what would you recommend for MPC Legacy type saturation ? If you have done a vid on that please send a link. I have been messing with RX950 mixed with SP950 and Air Lofi.
Let me know what you think, thanks and great channel !
@@jermaineinoue4919 Ah man, I miss my S950. There are so many great plugins for saturation and lofi to be honest. I use WaveTracer SP950 a lot and of course XLN RC20. For a very natural saturation Soundtoys Decapitator is amazing.
@@TheCratesMotel yeah, WaveTracer SP950 is in the chain too. But I guess the MPC60/3000 chain would be AD/DA, saturation . bit depth and other stuff on the Air Lofi lol I guess I will leave it at that and try not to go insane hahahah unless you have any other input or videos on the topic
@@jermaineinoue4919 keep it simple tends to be my go to lol
Akai Should add resampling in sample editing mode like in 2000xl. an option to change the sample rate in addition to bit reduction would be useful
Yes exactly. That would be amazing and it would appeal to a lot of people.
Great stuff, Thanks SO much!
Missed the link to the template and how to load it.
Can you please post here?
Hey buddy, if you scroll down the description under the video, the template is still there with a description on how to install.
@@TheCratesMotel Ah, got it, thanks! BTW... if no one else has said so... that tune was pretty dope for something you seem to have just whipped up in the morning!
@@marcwinnig Haha thank you. You know, I often find my best tracks are the ones I just make quickly without thinking too much. It is definitely possible to overthink and be too analytical and then you lose the vibe and question everything.
In sample edit I pitch up +12 then -12 to introduce artifacts, tutorials give a more elaborate way but I can definitely hear a difference - Is that a good idea? 😢 also what are some classic albums you recommend for this sound?
Yeh man, any way that you can record it in faster and then slow it down will introduce artifacts. As for samples and albums, there are just too many to name brother. You just need to get digging and experimenting.
Nyquist rate (noun)
the minimum rate at which a signal can be sampled without introducing errors, which is twice the highest frequency present in the signal.
If the SP-1200 has a sample rate of 26khz it really 13khz ,which is why bringing the sample rate down to that level sounded closer to it than 26khz. I could be dead wrong but, It make sense to me. Please correct me tho if I'm wrong.
You are spot on dude. I didn’t mention it because getting into Nyquist would be another video entirely. It’s the reason an SP1200 anti aliasing filter is at 13khz.
What are your thoughts on this process for individual drum samples aiming for lofi house?
1. Pad lowpass
2. Air Lofi
3. EQ
4. Compressor
I'm especiaically interested in your thoughts on lowpassing each sample to taste in program edit first (Low 4 from 85-95). I'm adding Air Lofi on each pad which adds some grit and a lot of harmonics, so I'm following that with a shelf EQ, rolling back off those harmonics above 6k. Then I'm applying comp and it's sounding pretty decent.
Finally, I'm thinking of adding bus compression and a light tube amp.
I want to develop a kind of open template and any insight would be much appreciated.
Hey mate. Firstly thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. There are no rules, no right or wrong, and your chain is all good. If I was to do it, I would finish with the Air Lofi. The reason I would do this is that I find it better to add any saturation etc towards the end of the chain. As you said you are having to EQ the sample after the Lofi fx. If you got complete control of the sample with EQ and compression first and then added your saturation, you might find you have more control over frequencies, punch/transients and level. Think of the Lofi as the cherry on top.
@TheCratesMotel 12b @ 18k is money on my drums but the kick- will need to break that out. I'm needing to roll off after lofi to get the lofi house sound I picture. Your videos are like a master class. I have producing experience but mainly relied on really good engineers in the past. Do you remote tutor? I would love to pick your brain.
@@JiandiP Hey man, I don't remote tutor at the moment. It is something I want to do in the future, but at the moment I am very busy with mastering work, not that I am complaining.
@TheCratesMotel Understood. Well thanks for the channel. I would definately buy the book if you ever dropped one! Hardware ain't dead lol
@@JiandiP Trudat brother
Would you be willing to share the info for the presets you have for the different samplers that you mentioned? Maximum respect for this video ✊
Hey brother, I literally just shared these on the Akai MPC Tutorials page on Facebook. Here you go drive.google.com/file/d/1BwM-lRWOMbFHpvKYQwOIjDS9qlLM6EXM/view?usp=sharing
Thank you
Just downloaded the RX1200 and cut the chase.
Nice plugin for sure. Not very helpful if you’re using a standalone MPC though.
perfect in terms of content, just 1-2 too many repetitions
Great. Thanks for watching.
you look a bit, like si speks
Haha thanks for watching dude