Creating A Baseline

Ok so iv'e made a few tracks using my mpc and i'm ready to take it to the next level....I need some funky baselines in my beats...Kinda similar to the style of stuff like Pete Rock, PUTS, and pharcyde..As much as I'd love to buy up a ton of vinyl to sample in search of a dope baseline, good baselines are hard to come by and usually you cant get them without a bunch of drums and stuff already on them..I was watching the movie freestyle and if youve seen it theres a part where supernatural is freestyling in his studio and starts talking about his "beat modulator" saying it can create baselines and iv'e looked around for a beat modulator and havnt found anything with that name..does anyone have any suggestions for me like where and how I can create or sample some baselines...I'm up for anything, new equipment or just some vinyl suggestions that I can easily pick up

the mpc is a synthesis beast! Take a sound... like a kick drum let's say. Go to your trim screen and trim the ends until you have one or two oscillations. then loop that **** up. go to your program screen and filter out the high and hi mid frequencies from that sound. i think on the 1k you need to set it to note on. enable 16 levels for that sound. tune that sound until its in the right pitch with your song. play around til you find the right groove for your beat.

done and done bro.

doesn't always fit what you are workin on... depends alot on the samples and/or the sound you are going for. but trust me this works alot of the time. get a VSTi like trilogy (google for a torrent), and you can sample from that... basically once you have a bass sound in your machine looped up you don't need to go fussing through vinyl to find bass samples. I mean you will of course sample bass licks from time to time but you won't worry about it.

now after using a 2500 for about three to four months i found that the newer mpcs aren't as great at this basic type of synthesis... im not sure if its because the resolution is more precise (not sure if that makes sense) but i find it much harder to accomplish this technique in the new machines than the any of the classic ones.

hope that helps you bro. peace.

Hey thanks for the help but Im not sure I quite exactly understand what you mean...Im sort of new to this...Ok so I know how to trim notes and stuff and put them over 16 levels...and when you say one or two oscilations that means a real short sample right? anyway so I have these chopped kicks over 16 levels and I start looping them right? wouldn't that sound chopped up and not smooth as opposed to a baseline sampled from some funk artist because thats the kind of stuff im going for, funky baselines not just sharp kicks...and also if you can could you give me a little more info on what a VSTi trilogy or torrent is? Thanks bro

I understand what your saying up until you say "go to your program screen and filter out the high and hi mid frequencies from that sound" how do I do that..I bought my MP on ebay and I dont have a manual so if you could help me out that would be cool...also wuts note on and how do I tune a sound to the correct pitch...sorry I know its asking alot for you to explain all this but I gota figure it out somehow...thanks

Go to program screen and select the pad you have your sound on. Hit f2 and you can choose a low pass filter, hi pass filter, some other one that I forgot and a low pass filter 2. Choose the first one and then you can choose the second one on the right. I could have made this shorter but I hope it helped.

ya all this has really helped alot...I got it now

Cool post but please it's BASS line.

for proper bass mate i recmend getting a rack synth like a novation a station or similar, u can`t beat it. i run it from my mpc via midi and it really is amazin for bass lines, only cost £90 on e-bay nearly new & boxed.
do it mate, synths rule!

The manual is on their website, www.akai-pro.com

lazyE wrote:for proper bass mate i recmend getting a rack synth like a novation a station or similar, u can`t beat it. i run it from my mpc via midi and it really is amazin for bass lines, only cost £90 on e-bay nearly new & boxed.
do it mate, synths rule!

I found a Novation BassStationRack for about $250 usd. Anyone used this? I have a micron but no room for it and have been thinking about a rack for awhile.

this guy just got an mpc... now he gotta run out and get a novation

he should learn his mpc first dont ya think. im not at all dissing keyboards, synths or outboard rack modules.... just sayin lots can be done with that one machine wthout having to drop more cash right from the jump.

agreed
i wish i hadn't bought a bunch of stuff (which i luckily was able to sell for nearly the same price, so it was like i rented it) when i got my mpc

if anything, just get all the xtras for the mpc - cheap midi controller, ram, hard drive, midi=>usb cable, the jj os.

i create all my basslines on the mpc using basic waveform synthesis and recorded qlink filter sweeps for character - as of now, this is the only module i need/can afford, etc

i just sample from a bass guitar or the microkorg. the mpc does the rest.

i agree with you guys totally, i use my mpc mainly as my mothership for sequencing and adding sampes to my music, i`m not as advanced as most on the mpc. its well possible to make stunning bass lines using the mpc alone, i just grew up with keyboards and anolouge sound and was just suggesting one route but yeah antoyyn your well right it can all be done on the mpc if u just sit down and learn how to use it gettin the best out of the gear you`ve got should stand priority over aquiring new gear respect.

cant beat analouge synths though!

in the end, its whatever works for you, there are no rules so don`t be scared of breaking any, sometimes when u see theese pics of massive over equiped studios the sound engineer can`t even list what gear he`s got let alone use it! and the funny thing is a lot of musicians and producers especially hip hop genre often get sent to the best studios, with the best engineers and then end up doing practically everything on the mpc! i know, i`ve seen it, much to the frustration of the manager and record company who pay up to and above of £100 per hour for their artist to record at the best studios. can`t best the simplicity of the mpc , it really is the holy grail of music production.

respect all

E

having re read your origional post, yeah don`t go out and buy a rack learn all u can about your mpc, decide what music area you want to appeal to and then in a while maybee get some more gear if u need it, but lets face it, us musicians love shiney new things that make sounds!

best o luck with ya tunes mate.
E