Need Help!!! Looping on the MPC 1000

I just got my MPC 1000 today. This is my first MPC, and my first piece of hardware. I am a complete beginner to this. I am finding this equipment difficult to use.

One of the main reasons why I bought it was so that I can take a sample, have it loop endlessly for me while I lay drum beats with the pads over top the sample, and to be able to sequence this with variations and make a whole and dynamic track on one machine.

Don't get me wrong I do want to be able to chop up sounds not just loop a whole section but I need something that will let me loop a whole bar, or a few, and use that as a basis for a track. Don't hate! I do like Puffy, Dre, and Premier equally and would like to do stuff like all of them. So far it looks like Primo's style is best suited to this machine!

From what I can understand from using it today is that all I can do is chop up the sample, load the pieces into the pads, and play the pads to a set tempo and/or bars. If this is the case, then I just bought an expensive drum machine that can sample and play the sounds back only in a percussive way. Is this all that this machine is supposed to do?

Can the other MPC's do what I want to do, and not this one? Can anyone explain to me how to do this on the 1000 if it can be done! Holla at me! I may just have to take this thing back and try something different. I dunno maybe a Triton, or maybe I'm just jumping the gun and need to spend more time with it!

P.S.
To be a little clearer: I'd like to be able to play TO THE sample or samples I've chosen not the machines tempo, metronome, or set bars. I want to be able to do things intuitively and based on sound, and not so much on programs and parameters.

Ok hopefully I can give you some help:

1. Read the manual, it may be boring but it really helps

2. Take the sample you like and find out the bpm. Chop it up so that it loops perfectly for 1 or 2 bars...or whatever you want.

3. Put it into the mpc and assign to a pad. Set your sequence length to the number of bars the sample is (sample length 2 -> seq length 2).

4. Record yourself hitting the pad at the 1st beat of the 1st bar.

5. If you chopped up the sample it should loop perfectly.

6. If the loop isn't perfect, read pg19 of manual and set the sequence to play TO SEQUENCE END

7. Now start overlaying your own drums/sounds

Don't give up on it yet, you are limited only by your imagination with this machine.

Nice post!

It can be done on the 1000 thru trial & error. Looping on the 2000xl was easier because you could specify the length of your loop in beats/bars and the 2000XL would compute the BPM for you & you could set the tempo accordingly. Since you have a computer, the easier way would be to use a wav. editor (cool edit, soundforge, wavelab,etc.) and put in the length of the loop in beats/bars & let the wav. editor compute it for you, then set the tempo on the 1000 accordingly. I also own a 2000XL, & I must say the 1000 is the bomb. Having a wav. editor, Recycle & MPCEditor make working with the 1000 a lot easier. Hope this helps.

Assuming that you are working in 4/4 time, you can calculate the BPM of a sample by...

1. Making sure that it loops cleanly...

2. Noting the length of sample in seconds (to three or four decimal places should be sufficient)...

3. Counting the number of beats in the sample...

4. Putting the info you have into the following formula...

(60 / BPM) * Number of beats = Length of sample in seconds

...and doing the math.


Once you have the BPM of the loop you can set the BPM of your sequence accordingly.

Thank you all very much! I will try those suggestions. About an hour after writing the post I started mucking around with BPM's and bars and started to get it working how I want to, except getting the looping to sound clean, but I can work on that. I started setting my bars at 2, however to get it to loop OK my BPM's were all out of wack. I'm not a DJ and don't know how to figure that out (BPM and yeah....mixing too!)

My next question is how do I take that 2 bar sequence make it play for a few bars, join it to another sequence with one or a few tracks muted for a bar or two, then go back to the original 2 bar sequence for a few, then maybe use a sequence with same beat and different sampled melody for chorus or something.

I do apologize this is probably a no brainer to a lot of you, but I don't have previous experience with other machines like this and I am a complete newbie. I've been record collecting for a few years now in hopes of finally landing something that I can make tracks with the sounds I've been digging up since the last 5yrs.

I have in my head what I would like to do and when I first started playing with the 1000 it didn't seem like it was going to work for me. It's been about 9-10 hours that I have had it, but I'm starting to understand how I can get it to work in my way, it is quite an adaptable machine, or am I adapting?!

Anyways, because of my lack of background with these technical things I read the manual and to tell you the truth it didn't make much sense to me. I'm a hands on practical learner. I learn through trial and error, asking those who know, or researching.

Thanks for you suggestions! I figured out slightly how to do some of those things before I read your posts. It makes me feel that I'm on the right track, and with your help (Thanks Again!) I can fine tune my approach. I think I'm sticking with this.

Stay up!

Oh! by the way, I have put this similar comment in another post, but I am writing this because I know there are those that are scrounging all these post to decide whether they want the machine or not!

In response to people who say the 1000 doesn't sound good or not Phat enough...THE 1000 SOUND IS PHAT AS HELLLL!!! Of course I'm comparing it to Hip Hop I play on my home stereo since I do not own and have not even played with another piece of equipment before. I play my MPC on my home stereo as well, and believe me the 1000 sounds PHATTER than 80% of the albums that are out there. Now judging from this point of view I don't see how any producer could go wrong with the 1000, as far as the sound goes.

This thing is also really built like a tank. If your the next 50 cent and own this piece right here, you don't need a "piece"! If your about to get shot for the 10th time...you can throw this at em and kill the mutha#^&#* and it will work just fine (for killing, maiming, and producing a song about the altercation after the fact as well)! ...and believe me that sucka will be dead...HA HA....Heh!

My next question is how do I take that 2 bar sequence make it play for a few bars, join it to another sequence with one or a few tracks muted for a bar or two, then go back to the original 2 bar sequence for a few, then maybe use a sequence with same beat and different sampled melody for chorus or something.

These topics are covered directly in the manual, and can be accomplished in a number of different ways. An explanation here would just involve quoting the manual verbatim. You can learn how to arrange multiple sequences by reading the section on the MPCs Song mode.

Getting a sample to loop cleanly can be pretty tricky. Zoom in as close as possible to the wave form when clipping the beginning and end of a sample. If you hear clicks when you loop it, or it just doesn't sound right, start again. Practice and patience will get you there in the end, and there are a lot of software programs that can make this process easier if you don't feel like waiting.