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By 3n9 Thu Aug 11, 2016 5:09 pm
I have the following gear:

1) Fantom X6
2) Akai 950
3) ASR-10 (operating without midi functionality)
4) MPC 2000xl
5) Alesis midi verb unit
5)Mackie 1642 mixer

I am have been making music for a while but I have usually used one sampler as my main machine. Over time I have accumulated other pieces (most recently the MPC 2000xl) and I am trying to determine the best way to wire everything so I can make the MPC the brain of my system. Since the MPC does not give you mucyh in the way of filters and effects I want to be able to run signals from my turnable into the mixer then out to my various samplers/synths above so they can wind up in my MPC so I can chop and arrange from there. That way I can have some of the sound that I love from the ASR, some of the instruments that I like from my x6, some of the crunch from the 950 but then ultimately have one place to actually make the song. Once configured this seems easier than midi-ing everything up and recalling everything later.

Unless I want to constantly re-patch the output from my turntable mixer into the input of whatever sampler I am working on, I am thinking I just run the outs of each piece into an instrument input then maybe run it out of the control room outs or maybe the sub outs to the MPC. Eh, here is where I get shaky and the hookup diagrams don't seem clear, at least for this specific situation.

If I can do this without getting a patch bay great but if any of your guys have a similar set up, I would appreciate any thoughts you have on this.
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By Wal Martian Thu Aug 11, 2016 6:22 pm
I would make the 2000xl the main sequencer and use MIDI A to trigger the ASR and S950 and MIDI B to the fantom. Everything goes into the Mackie for EQ/mixing/soloing etc. Alesis reverb unit could go on the FX send of the mixer. As for the turntable you could go in to the Mackie or get another DJ style mixer with more than 1 out, or split/mult the out to the 3 samplers.
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By tapedeck Thu Aug 11, 2016 9:14 pm
use the 3/4 alt out of the mackie. it is so badass for samplers. you hit the mute button on the mixer and whatever is muted now goes to the alt out, with the exact same settings as it has on the board. since it is muted from the main mix, you can now monitor what it sounds like through the sampler like normal.

love those mackies for that feature alone. so much better than a send or control room out.

yea you can only send it to one place using this method, so i'd pick one sampler to use and focus on that for sampling, unless you rig up some other sort of daisy-chain pass through method which i wouldn't recommend.

you can also get more sampler outputs by using the pre-fader sends, but i don't like this as much as you don't get to tweak it with the channel strip any more, and you still have to watch out for feedback loops. the alt 3/4 bus will not let a feedback loop happen.