Thinking of adding some hardware to color up my sound

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.

And im really hoping this fires up some replies, ive always struggled with getting desirable bass in my beats (ive always resulted to the harmless bass in flstudio, exporting loops and loading them onto pads on the mpc, if i toggled all the parameters just right, its somewhat satisfactory under some samples). I've attempted to record a bass guitar direct through my usb interface, and chop that. not digging the results. Also have an oxygen 80 midi keyboard that i barely use because i simply don't care for any synth based sounds ive heard to date. How do i get nice warm sub bass like this. just the right amount of presence. Ive started to try to emphasize on the existing bass in certain samples with varying success, but i dont know how to isolate the bass and idk maybe copy and paste it over the sample for extra ummph (guess work)

As im typing all of this, im realizing again and again that its mostly down to post mix. Really knowing how to master everything, so all the elements fit in the right decibel range through compression? i think lol. I actually think 9ths always used FL studio, so i wouldn't be surprised if he used the harmless bass on a lot my favorite records (little brother's the listening, the minstrel show, jean grae's jeanius, murs murray's revenge etc.) so yeah. I guess no matter what i do, if i can't get this ish to an engineer, itll always sound "demo". Oh well, see where im at in 5 more years. lol

PEACE AND LOVE, SORRY IF YOU READ THAT WHOLE THING, I SWEAR IM NOT CRAZY, or atleast too crazy (= -

DREDDZ

oh and peep this 9th beat, like c'mon . DAMN FAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGReirx8RjQ

no replies? lets get the ball rolling fam!

a cheap mixer won t give you the warmth that you are looking for.invest in knowledge take a mixing class. you can do it nowadays everything in itb.

everr tried softubes saturation knob?it s free.

OP, don't go down this path. Just make your music, **** all the plug ins and miracle outboard boxes. It's all bullshit. Trust me, I went down there myself and wasted soo much time when I should have just been making music. I tried summing boxes, vintage all analog mixing desks, all manner of magic plugins. At the end of it all, I couldn't hear any difference. Just a lot of faffing around not actually making music.

Wallace wrote:OP, don't go down this path. Just make your music, f*** all the plug ins and miracle outboard boxes. It's all bullshit. Trust me, I went down there myself and wasted soo much time when I should have just been making music. I tried summing boxes, vintage all analog mixing desks, all manner of magic plugins. At the end of it all, I couldn't hear any difference. Just a lot of faffing around not actually making music.

Very well said. I cannot agree with you more. I was going to say basically the same thing.
Sure, you don't want to use crappy equipment (because it can be frustrating to use, but so is vintage equipment), but as far as I see, you seem to have more than decent equipment (I wish I had a Rane DJ mixer!) If I were you, I'd focus on how to maximize your gear's potential.

Hey! thanks for the replies, so im basically hearing that ive been smart to not dive into all sorts of outboard equipment? thats a pretty good thing to hear.

any more info on the softtubes knob? @pull-over

even just a quick google search is making this look like a very viable option. thanks a bunch man!

damnn! seems to be able to make the lower notes stand out more ( a huuuuge problem with the current sub bass im using ) and it even claims to work on making vocals stand over a mix. im pretty hype man. thanks again. do you think i can use this as a plug-in in cakewalk sonar?

Dreddz wrote:damnn! seems to be able to make the lower notes stand out more ( a huuuuge problem with the current sub bass im using ) and it even claims to work on making vocals stand over a mix. im pretty hype man. thanks again. do you think i can use this as a plug-in in cakewalk sonar?

seems to have sonar listed, just not sure if i need to run the 32, or 64 bit. Im running a PC with windows 7

i m nearly sure that cakewalk prochannel has the saturation knob implemented .

less is more don t use it on every track.

try also revival from slate digital it's also free. by the way the vmr rack is a high quality toolbox.

hey thanks for all the info! i looked into slate digital revival and it seems to be a free download but an ilok is needed =/. i think ill toy around with softube and the included FX within sonar, i must admit ive only used the parametric EQ within sonar. Let me know if you recommend any of sonars included modules! thanks!

My mate just picked up two of these for stereo.

http://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/co ... 1428200196

Got the transformer, 15ips, and something else. Doesn't sound bad for the price.

before you go the outboard way you should really know what you 've been looking for. learn first to mix before spending on outboard. for 500 modules you gonna need a 500 rack and a nice DA/AD converter would be important.