@Antonym: I managed to re-create phasing effects as detailed in an earlier post in this thread. It's pretty simple to do. Just set up two tracks that play back the same sample on the same ticks and set it looping. Sooner or later (probably sooner in my experience) you'll hear something funny. I just used a snare from the factory Nuskool_kit on the quarter notes in tracks 1 and 2 of a sequence, and off it went. For the most part it sounded fine, but every now and again the snares will trigger slightly out of time and sound phased, which shows that the sample playback is a few samples out between the two tracks.
THAT makes sense, i never duplicate stuff like that or layer 1 sample with itself, never use lowend theory within the mpc, etc. i can see how that would become a problem.
i often have upwards of track bank A and B completely filled, and while they odn't always play at the same time, i'd say on average a good 16 are playing while my heaviest seqs go up to the mid twenties. since i use mostly monophonic drums and everything is sampled in mono, i dont' have a polyphony issue. there's a lot of layering going on, but again - it's almost all oneshot...listen to "made flesh" toward the middle/end. that's one of my more excessively layered beats. granted, some of that stuff was housed/sequenced in reason and triggered by midi sync so it wasn't necessarily weighing down the mpc...
medway, do you have a lot of qlink or midi cc stuff going on? that's something else to consider, cuz i rarely have that. i usually just resample into my sp404 rather than use the mpc qlinks. i might not run into issues of timing because i'm really only using the sequencer and filters - no sweeping, no effects. just lining up waves.
i can see how this would be MUCH more of an issue with house music than with hip hop, seeing as how house has a very different type of layering going on and timing is of utmost importance.
also, medway - when you track out, you're soloing a couple tracks at a time, correct? it's not an issue when you have all the respective wavs on protools/acid/ whatever, right?
also, are you triggering long wav samples or is everythign oneshot? that's also important, because the more small samples you use in the 1k i've found that the better the 1k does, both with timing and with dropping out notes. it may be a LOT more work than you'd be willing to put in, but if you're dealing with 8 bar wavs, etc, you might want to chop em up in recycle and load the midi file in order to preserve the transients/exact timing of the original material, particularly if it's strings/pads or something without a heavy attack.
i'm really curious about this issue. it doesn't worry me a lot, but i'm interested in the guts of the mpc, specifically the processor and how it differs from earlier models/the 2500. i know that was a lot of points/questions but i'd like to see what i should be looking out for in the future.
peace man
nym