Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By BeatsbyA Thu May 04, 2017 8:51 pm
Hey all –

Been messing with the MPC 500 for almost a year now. For the most part, I know the ins and outs of the sampler. At the very least, I’m pretty good with my own workarounds etc., probably a bunch you cats use too…

My reason for coming to the forum is I’ve struggled to get an adequately “loud” final track done in the machine. Below is my process/insight into my setup (which is far from impressive)

I record in the 500 – do all of my mixing there. i.e. setting proper levels, panning, velocity adjusting, some EQ on samples where this is a lot of Low end to cut out, normalizing, etc.

When I’m ready to record a beat to Garage band, I turn the volume all the way on the 500, and run it through the behringer UCA202. If any of you guys aren’t familiar with this device, it’s a $30 POS, but the use of it is to transfer audio from a source (CD player, ipod, sampler, ANYTHING) to a recording platform (tape deck, recorder, DAW so on so forth)…there is no signal control or gain knob on the UCA…so now I realize I just don’t have enough control over the signal that’s being recorded. My final waveform is often very thin where the melody/sample plays. And no, it’s not simply raising the level of the sample because then the imbalance could distort other sounds.

Even when I add a peak limiter to my final track in GB, the final track loudness is just not high enough for my ears. It’s not horrible, but I hold my shit to very high standards. Also, to be clear, I’m not referring to “commercial loudness” – achieving that type of overall loudness is hard unless you’re Mike Dean I’m just talking about a respectable level – I’m sure plenty of you cats know what I mean.

I do NOT have a mixer that routes to the UCA audio interface, so I think that my issue is that I don’t have control of the signal gain when recording. I’m looking into getting a Mackie mixer that has a preamp and they’re highly regarding in the recording community.

Now I realize my lack of gear – mixer (w/ preamp) etc, is probably holding me back on the recording front. Like I said, you don’t need to be a mastering engineer to get a SOLIDLY loud song…if you know how to keep levels good and have a good ear for what instruments should be prevalent etc.

Can anyone help me with confirming this, or let me know if you experience similar roadblocks?

Thanks all!
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By SlowwFloww Fri May 05, 2017 10:40 am
If you want to record your song, just resample that song to a new pad. Save the new sample and import it via usb onto your computer. Use an audio editor to do the final editting (normalize, eq etc.).. Learn how to use Ozone or T-racks mastering software to even out and maximize your levels..