By
trupro
Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:27 pm
1) Make sure you cut your drum sounds tight to the start, so you don't have latency when you try to trigger it. Zoom into the waveform so you can see where to cut properly.
2) If I remember correctly, both the 2K and the 2KXL have a default attack offset in the evelope parameter. The decay defaults are at like 5 I think, so that would give you some unwanted attack, or 'fade in' time, thus making the attack less intense. To correct this: Hold shift + hit PGM to open program section, then hit the pad you placed a sound on, and press the parameters soft button below the screen (F- whatever-it-is). Here you can set attack and decay time. The more decay time, the more 'fade in' you will have on whatever sound is on that pad, so make sure it's at like 0 or maybe 1. Any more, especially on a short sound like a single drum sample, your going to reduce the amount of attack by increasing the time. zero, for example, will let you hear all of the attack.
3) If the sound itself is 'dull' from the record, that's what you will get. The only thing that comes to mind as why the sound is very different after you sample is: if you have a mixer, perhaps you have the mixer outputs to send sound from the turntable, etc. into the sample inputs of the MPC. But if your MPC is also plugged into the same mixer, then monotiring during sampling will cause it to phase out, meaning you've got two of the same thing going into the MPC: the record, and the outputs of your MPC during sampling. Turn the MPCs volume down (not 'record', your actual listening volume) during sampling to avoid this.
5) Perhaps your mixer channels are panned improperly. Make sure that the channels that carry the turntable or sampling source are panned wide, Left channel all the way left, right channel all the way right (that is, if it's two mono channels. If it's just a consumer amplifier/stereo or a dj mixer, you probably just have a normal stereo channel for the turntable). Also, equally important is the MPC. Make sure that the channels on your mixer, are also panned hard left and right, respectively, as above. Also, make sure you have your cables right. I can't tell you how many times I accidently had left and right switched at either side, and so panning one to the left, made it go right, etc. This is important at every stage, from your MPC, into the mixer, and from the mixer into the amp, then into speakers, well you get the idea. If this is not executed properly, then you will have phasing problems that can severely deaden alot of freqencies. Check the stereo setup and the input gain in your whole chain of gear. If you just come out of a dj mixer, into your MPC, and you are monitoring on Headphones, then I don't know what the problem would be in this department. Maybe your mixer is set wrong, or maybe there is a burnt out eq or something. Also, check all your cables. Perhaps the ones going into the MPC for sampling are old and crappy. Corroded and/or damaged cables will reproduce only part of the signal, so check all of them.
4) If the sounds are just not that cracking to begin with, and you wanna make it sizzle a bit, maybe filter the sound down, and then boost the resonance. Play around with your sounds, because depending on the dominant frequencies, you can really make it pop. For example, filtering down to about 80 and then boosting the resonance will give you a bit more high mids on that snare, but again, it's dependant on what's in the sample, and therefore what freqencies there are to work with. These are also in the 'parameters' page of the Program section.
