For discussion about setting up your studio and advice on the gear and equipment within it.
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By Ian Canefire Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:26 pm
Hi All,
I just purchased the MFC42 and I am waiting to be amazed. In the past I have purchased things with disappointment only to have it grow on me later. I hope that is the case now. I was hoping that it would filter sounds for sampling. Which it can do but it really is for live play I gather. Let me know your results with it.

It is laid out well. Has great big knobs for live work. Appears to be well built. Rather intuitive. Let's see what happens.

I plan on bringing it to an "electronic musician jam session" that I run here in Washington DC. Let's see if some other bloke will help me appreciate it a bit more. Cost me US$350.

So far, the distortion button produces horrible results. The instruction say I let it warm up a bit. I thought that was only for things with tubes in it. (Learned something there)

Please chime in on this thread with info. I plan on making some videos to show what I have learned or tried.
Here is a great video I found on YouTube and I believe SNolan(the creator of said video) is in the forum somewhere...


cheers,
Ian
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By Coz Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:55 pm
It's a bit of a misfit of a filter in the sense that it doesn't have much of a sweet spot, and it's also not that amazing when it comes to sound design. It barks and distorts too easily and the resonance can get ear piercing at times. I don't know why I've kept hold of mine for the past 15 years because a lot of decent gear has come and gone in the meantime.

The best use I had out of mine was when I had it patched into a Rane DJ mixer with a wet/dry control. Filtering samples running into and out of the MPC was excellent, but the OTO Biscuit and Bim have taken over that role now. It's still decent at the right price though. :nod: :smoker:
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By SEMS Sat Dec 12, 2015 11:39 am
The MFC is an absolute beast, and dare I say one of the most underrated units from the Akai Pro camp. It's a secret weapon of mine... pretty much anyone who comes in the studio & uses it wants to buy one.

When used with my DAW production flow, it becomes like any filter plug-in but with a monster sound. The video Ian posted pretty much sums everything up, but whether it's acting as a multi-mode filter or a distortion unit or a phaser or all 3, it brings instant life to VSTs & recorded sounds. I can make pretty much any VST instrument sound fresh with this thing, especially with the MIDI control to it, adding envelopes or syncing LFOs.

When using it in tandem with my 2K, it makes a great front-end to sample into because of its phono preamp & multi-mode filter (the 2k only has a low pass obviously). So if I plan on layering drums for example, it allows me to HP things so the low end doesn't get muddy. If you have the 8-out board, send a bunch of samples into it for an old-school House jam like the dude in the video did.

Its versatility & MIDI control capabilities make it like a Swiss Army Knife. I think it's great, and it's one of the last things I'd sell in my studio, especially since I got one of the last new production units. I was broke as hell when they announced they were discontinuing it, but I spent my last scratch when they blew them out on the online stores.

BTW Ian, the distortion is a bit fussy and can get real hot real quick, you gotta watch the gain staging. Turn the Level knob on the left all the way down and start turning it back slowly, that's the only way you'll get the proper input level into the thing. If it still sounds like mush on the lowest settings, try turning down whatever you're sending into it on the other unit itself.
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By richie Sun Dec 13, 2015 5:34 am
Have any of you folks had a chance to use the Electrix Filter Factory or the Filter Queen and see how it fares against the MFC42?

I'm still kicking myself for not picking one off off eBay when they are regularly under $100.
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By *Pilchard* Sun Dec 13, 2015 12:47 pm
richie wrote:Have any of you folks had a chance to use the Electrix Filter Factory or the Filter Queen and see how it fares against the MFC42?

I'm still kicking myself for not picking one off off eBay when they are regularly under $100.


I have all three and like them all but I think I can get more out of the akai.
You can get a full 8 pole filter out of the MFC but I don't often need it that steep.
The distortion needs to be used sparingly to just emphasise a sound. it's tempting to turn it up, it's good that they give you the option of a full rasp but it's not pleasing to the ears.

:mrgreen:
By vout Mon Aug 22, 2016 2:21 pm
I had an MFC42 and it did sound very good - the combination of a sweet stereo filter and stereo phaser in one box is great - instant French Touch. However it had some limitations that I did not like, the main one being that all modulation is uni-polar - ie all envelope AND LFO modulation is only positive or negative from the cutoff frequency setting. This is normal for envelopes but definitely not for LFO's, so it is impossible to get a full range LFO frequency sweep from these units, or any kind of modulation around the cutoff point. For me, this was a real limitation that I have never seen mentioned in any review. I do miss it's sound though, I've owned other filters (both Electrix boxes and a Peavey filter and a few others) but I preferred the Akai sound. Thought about getting another but they are getting pretty expensive now.
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By The Jackal Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:13 pm
Is this a stand-alone filter or does it have the same components of one of their filters found in their other gear? I have an Akai AX-60 and I'm just wondering how it compares. Doesn't the resonance get real crazy on the MFC? I know it does on the AX-60, so I'm wondering if they used any of the same components & circuits between the two.
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By The Jackal Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:28 pm
richie wrote:Have any of you folks had a chance to use the Electrix Filter Factory or the Filter Queen and see how it fares against the MFC42?

I'm still kicking myself for not picking one off off eBay when they are regularly under $100.


Oh, I replied before I saw this post.

I have the Filter Factory.

I really like it.

There's a Filter Queen that shows up from time to time on Craigslist for real cheap that I've been trying to bag.

I can't compare it to an MFC as I've never had one, nor have I had any other external filter gear before. It obviously sounds miles above my Korg KP3. I've got my FF hooked up through MIDI, so I record all my knob twists and button pushes on an extra channel on my MPC as automations. It's got a "Drive" function that adds a little oomph without getting too distorted. The low pass seems to be pretty great at picking up some deep shit. Sounds more warm than clean; definitely different characteristics than something in the Akais. I would say that it's definitely a filter with it's own sound...unique enough to recognize on it's own or stand out in a mix? I don't know, and I can be pretty good at identify filters for their specific sound.
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By v00d00ppl Mon Aug 22, 2016 11:08 pm
If you have 600-800 to burn get a Rodec restyler. Really slept on filterbox. It's a more tame version of the filterbank. You get a master and slave filter, you have time frequency settings to beat juggle a loop, you can make it subtle and you can make it scream.

I use it in two ways. The first way is turntable to tube preamp to restyler to filter my loops into the soundcard. Then I slice the loop in live, battery4, or maschine.

The second way is I will play stuff on a hardware box like a machinedrum live and do different takes with different filters. There are a range of sweet spots for the LPF, BPF, and HPF.
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By Ian Canefire Tue Aug 23, 2016 2:34 pm
The second way is I will play stuff on a hardware box like a machinedrum live and do different takes with different filters. There are a range of sweet spots for the LPF, BPF, and HPF.


This is how I use the MFC. I just sold my TR-8 and MFC makes it sound wonderful. Sounds coming out of anything can be effected so wonderfully by the MFC42. If doing a live gig, especially house music, you can get some wonderful shaping of parts of the mix. I am not into phasing the entire track.

Usually I shape ever the drum track, the synth part or the looped sample, but never the entire mix.

I would make a video but some many others have done so already on youtube.

I literally had it for sale on craigslist and then when I got five calls really quickly I thought let me give it another chance. Then I realized that I doubt this will ever be made again by akai. It will likely go up in value. So I am going to work and play with it until 2026.

peace
Ian
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By Lampdog Tue Aug 23, 2016 5:14 pm
I've been wanting one forever. I passed up a chance for the orange one decades ago and I kick myself for not buying it when I could.
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By mr_debauch Tue Aug 23, 2016 6:25 pm
Lampdog wrote:I've been wanting one forever. I passed up a chance for the orange one decades ago and I kick myself for not buying it when I could.


yeah no kidding... even the blue one seems rare.
By Backpacker84 Sun Dec 30, 2018 10:12 pm
[quote][/quote]

Hi,

I just became an owner of the MFC42. I'm looking at selecting filter parameters such as 2 pole, 8 pole etc via midi however, I noticed that I'm only able to record and play back control changes as well as the buttons pressed. Am I doing something wrong ? I've read the manual several times

The setup is

Mpc2000 midi out to mfc42 midi in
Mfc42 midi out to mpc2000 midi in
The track in the mpc is set to midi 1A

The MFC is set to Midi 1.

Thanks for your help
By rtmgsn Wed Jul 10, 2019 3:51 pm
My MFC42 works perfectly in stereo but when I use the mono input the signal is SUPER low and at times no signal at all. When I crank it you just get the noise from the device..

The mono input of the stereo input works but then I am still only using the bottom half of the filter.
Any ideas people?