mpc x and live sound and efx !

Does anyone notice a diference of sound between mpc x / live and mpc 1000/2500? I own one mpc 2500 SE and bought both mpc live and x , dont know what to expect because they didnt arrive yet in my country. about the efx nobody talk about it! are they ok on standalone modus?? gts jers

2000/2000xl/1000/2500 (and Studio Black) user previously, now have a Live.

I think that the effects in standalone mode are super-clean sounding. I've not played with distortion-style effects much - it's mostly been delays, reverbs and PEQ (Program EQ). The delays are very clean, and the reverbs are good (if not super-lush - there isn't anything here to match a Valhalla plug-in or anything). The EQ is OK - it sounds fine, but the layout of the settings is kind of inconvenient.

But compared to the built-ins on the 1000/2500, or the EB16 - the Live's are at least 2 generations better. None of the grit and (undesirable) sizzle you find in the old built-ins. Frankly, the only thing I really miss from the older systems' effects setup is the way that you could define program-level sends in the 2000xl. That was so damned easy...

If you are concerned about how the effects operate, you'll want to dig deep into the manual. If you are concerned about how they sound, you probably don't need to worry too much. If you need the Eventide BlackHole, you are going to have to get an Eventide. But otherwise, you are probably going to do OK.

Hope that helps!

[ddg]

I wish they implemented a decent saturator. That's one thing I can't live without.
The distortions are not subtle enough.

darwingrosse wrote:2000/2000xl/1000/2500 (and Studio Black) user previously, now have a Live.

I think that the effects in standalone mode are super-clean sounding. I've not played with distortion-style effects much - it's mostly been delays, reverbs and PEQ (Program EQ). The delays are very clean, and the reverbs are good (if not super-lush - there isn't anything here to match a Valhalla plug-in or anything). The EQ is OK - it sounds fine, but the layout of the settings is kind of inconvenient.

But compared to the built-ins on the 1000/2500, or the EB16 - the Live's are at least 2 generations better. None of the grit and (undesirable) sizzle you find in the old built-ins. Frankly, the only thing I really miss from the older systems' effects setup is the way that you could define program-level sends in the 2000xl. That was so damned easy...

If you are concerned about how the effects operate, you'll want to dig deep into the manual. If you are concerned about how they sound, you probably don't need to worry too much. If you need the Eventide BlackHole, you are going to have to get an Eventide. But otherwise, you are probably going to do OK.

Hope that helps!

[ddg]

Thaks my brother, realy help !

Fanu wrote:I wish they implemented a decent saturator. That's one thing I can't live without.
The distortions are not subtle enough.

I just did a quick tour-of-duty and would agree - all of 'em are pretty big sticks. I ended up finding that I wished there was a lot more range between 1 and 10 in the value scale...

[ddg]

Good saturation and distortion algorithsms normally involve oversampling and use a lot of CPU - I wouldn't expect too much from a box like the Live.

i dont think that on mpc 25000 with jj os xl is less than mpc live ! im gonna stick with my mpc 2500 SE with jj os xl and gonna try the live and x too, to see whats good about that .... later i will think about what to do ! grt

I posted a small sample I recorded to show a friend the effects in another thread. I used delay reverb and the sp1200 ring. I think they work well for subtle stuff, even use a few to record my synths in with. But for out of this world sound explorations, no it won't do that for you. They seem plenty useful and i like the interface for the effects work. It's a lot smoother of a process for me.

I would expect "out of this world" type of FX would only be a case of stacking a boatload of fx, no? This is how I've done this sort of things in the past anyway..

You can stack four that will change your sound drastically but it wouldn't be as in depth or as quality as say eventide or maybe some high end plugins. Maybe I haven't played with them enough but I light how they can be used in more of a subtle way. The bigger distortions and crazy delays I will leave those to things dedicated to just that.

handed wrote:Good saturation and distortion algorithsms normally involve oversampling and use a lot of CPU - I wouldn't expect too much from a box like the Live.

I'll have to disagree since an SP-404 is inferior to the Live but holds over 40+ effects that drastically alter the samples. Reason is, Roland has its own fx-chip relieving the motherboard from extra duties. If Akai did that then we'll be singing a new song about the effects department.

How bout SHARC DSP chips inside the next standalone MPC? Team up with UA to put a quad DSP in there next flagship model.. That'd be awesome, running all that UAD crack inside..

for sure you cant get close to high end effect plugs or devices... but i am super pleased with the quality (just use the thing standalone)
- transient efx IS AMAZING
- delays are cool
- EQ is good/is ok... they do the job
- Filter is ok/good (though i use my analog modular filters or , if i really want some charakter sound)
- Chorus is digital, but super cool in my ears... love it!
- distorting is... mmh... mostly not good
- compressors do their job good
- MPC style mode... seems like a EQ/Comp-Combo... nice to add character without thinking and dialing in stuff
- reverbs... mmmh... ok for very settle settings... if you hear them they sound bad )
- XY FX is fun, but i think i will not use it sooo often...

Could someone confirm that the effects in the live are the the same and sound the same as the mpc 5000?

wavemartian wrote:Could someone confirm that the effects in the live are the the same and sound the same as the mpc 5000?

No, they are a new suite of effects compared to the 5000. If you load up an MPC5000 project the effects are ignored and you'll have to recreate the effects from scratch using the MPC Software's effects.