Hey! new to the forum, had made an account about four or five years ago when i was about to purchase a 2000xl for my 16th birthday (absolute best decision ive made in my twenty years lol) and ended up learning some tidbits from mpcstuff.com's tutorial ebook, and just good ole trial and error (luckily i was a quick learner, and once an understanding of the hardware was in place, my sampling intuition went wild).....(id like to think
lol)
so i hope to not ramble to much here, but i just wanted to introduce myself and ask some questions (which do pertain to this thread!) i have seen such a vastness of knowledge and compassion from this forums members and think its time i finally take my part in it.
so on to the question!
I have always sampled either from vinyl (from my technics sl-d2, through my rane ttm-54i master output, to my focusrite usb interface, recorded into cakewalk sonar program) OR if i feel my vinyl copy of a potential sample is too damaged / the sample was never pressed to vinyl i will simply load a WAV. file into propellerhead "Recycle". Either way i have ALWAYS used the recycle program to chop samples. I have always felt odd about not utilizing the chopping abilities within the 2000xl but felt it was confusing and touchy, and feel that recycle does the same thing (and more!!) with a hugely larger view for accuracy, quickness of workflow, etc.. Any comments on this are welcome!
So my actual beat making setup consists of an MPC2000xl, focusrite USB interface, Propellerhead REcycle, cakewalk sonar producer x3, KRK Rokit 6s (felt that the 8's had too much low end), and a KRK 12s sub.
OKAY now i promise the question is coming (just wanted to give background to give a better idea of my situation)
Ive always considered my lack of pre-amps/standalone mixers etc. etc., i feel as though many producers are able to color the sound of samples (namely vocal samples and those warm kicks and snares!) beyond just messing with high and low end. I know some producers tricks (namely 9th wonder, my biggest influence, cant deny it lol) are based largely in a master knowledge of compression (another thing that plagues my brain, i have close to zero understanding of this and its application.) LET ME KNOW IF YOU DO! (=
Basically, i am pretty darn happy with my sample choices, chops, sequencing, etc. BUT im getting to a point where im strongly considering trying to color up my samples.
Is the MG614 the answer ive been looking for? Ill admit the seemingly endless functions and numerous potential issues from age are a bit daunting, but i think i have drive to figure it out. Im just wondering if the pre-amps/parametric eqs on this unit will really provide a noticeable difference in the tone of my productions. I really want my drums, samples, bass, scratches to all mesh in a warm way (seemingly impossible through simple volume and eq adjustment both on the mpc and in software.) Im extremely curious if the warm sound is a result of the mixer or the recording onto tape. IF I USE THIS AS A STANDALONE MIXER FOR MY MPC INTO USB INTERFACE, WILL I GET THE WARMTH, OR WILL I HAVE TO UTILIZE THE TAPE RECORDING?
Im intrigued by the claims of being able to find a sweet spot in which the signal is overdriven and results in an unsurpassed warmth.
All comments, info, discussion of any kind extremely appreciated.