working around the limited sample time with mpc 3000

well on the mpc 2000, i save 95% of my beats on one floppy disk.

it's a frame of mind you gotta be in... first of all everything in mono.. everything. Second, you need to cut out and trim stuff you dont need.. long 4 samples can't happen. You find a good sample to start your bar.. and something for the middle.. and maybe a short little one with less attack to cut short and loop to fill gaps. That is a trick.. you can also pitch samples down to make them longer. Recording the samples at a higher pitch makes them shorter.. then you can pitch them back down to normal to make them longer.

Sometimes you listen to a sample and you have your idea set in stone.. but try popping on 16 levels tune to see if by chance anything sounds good at a lower pitch (maybe an octave down.. so for example pad 13 is the same note as pad 1) that way you can reuse the same sample you already have stored in ram to make another section of the song.. or to maybe add to the beat somehow. It doesn't work all the time but you never know until you check.

delete any unused samples so you aren't saving them.

you just have to be conservative... it will come naturally after you make a few beats that way.

mr_debauch wrote:well on the mpc 2000, i save 95% of my beats on one floppy disk.

it's a frame of mind you gotta be in... first of all everything in mono.. everything. Second, you need to cut out and trim stuff you dont need.. long 4 samples can't happen. You find a good sample to start your bar.. and something for the middle.. and maybe a short little one with less attack to cut short and loop to fill gaps. That is a trick.. you can also pitch samples down to make them longer. Recording the samples at a higher pitch makes them shorter.. then you can pitch them back down to normal to make them longer.

Sometimes you listen to a sample and you have your idea set in stone.. but try popping on 16 levels tune to see if by chance anything sounds good at a lower pitch (maybe an octave down.. so for example pad 13 is the same note as pad 1) that way you can reuse the same sample you already have stored in ram to make another section of the song.. or to maybe add to the beat somehow. It doesn't work all the time but you never know until you check.

delete any unused samples so you aren't saving them.

you just have to be conservative... it will come naturally after you make a few beats that way.

so now u have two opportunities;
1. do what he said!
2. buy the ram-upgrade!

i would say upgrade your ram, but nontheless, work after the formula given by mr debauch. some good advise here and there!

A stereo sample takes up about 140kb/sec, so you can get about 10-11 seconds of sample time per floppy disk.

Ways to bump up the sample time:
-Sample in mono
-Record your samples at a higher speed (eg: play the record at 45rpm) and then pitch back down
-Use the compression feature if your MPC has Vailixi

Using all of these tricks will help you get close to 30 seconds per floppy disk--quite a bit if you ask me