What is it that really gives a mpc its sound?

i just finished comparing how certain sounds would sound in my mpc 4000 monitoring threw my daw and how battery 3 sound with the same sounds. On certain sounds like a reverb clap on the mpc there was a very distinguished high end and clean sound compared to batteries with was duller and did not have that spark on the top end. On a kick drum the 4k added just a bit of low end to it maybe in the 200 -3000 khi range and the battery kick did not have the low end. I put a analyzer on both tracks and match the volume of each instrument and both seemed to match on the analyzer. Even tho they both matched in spectrum the 4ks did change the sound,now i can't really say it was for the better but the sounds were more distinguished enough to my ears. Is it a certain eq that the converters give the mpc or what cause i never did actually do a comparison until now. Now I'm thinking that does it even matter what kinda sound the mpc gives you cause were most likely gonna alter it anyways using our own processors in our DAW. Wish i would have not traded my mpc 3000 cause i sure would like to here the sound compared to Saoftware.

dmajor100 wrote:Is it a certain eq that the converters give the mpc or what

yes. amongst other things.
filters, effects, envelopes, file format, volume, resampling algorithms, common gear it was paired with - very many things that all come together.

dmajor100 wrote:Now I'm thinking that does it even matter what kinda sound the mpc gives you cause were most likely gonna alter it anyways using our own processors in our DAW

very valid point.

to me what gives an mpc it's 'sound' is the sequencer.
:zen:

love the sequencer with its quick workflow of laying patterns down fast and not stopping. But back to my topic, yeah i guess that with all the saturators and distortion effects now are making things sound just to nice these days.

Actually I don't think converters affect the sound in a positive way, almost in any case.

What you are hearing is the analog part before and post the converter.. the part that actually puts out the sound or acquire it.

That's the part that inject harmonics to the sound and give a certain thickness to the sound (also to the highs) that makes sounds more tangible and so realer

If you import sounds in the MPC tend to sound a bit harder...

The thing you say about Battery sounding duller I doubt it, I think is because Battery has all the transient kept on and that transient makes your ears work hard.. so the rest of the sound stays behind and you perceive it less.. I'm sure Battery has much more hf content than any HW sampler

Oh well, I've done the same test you've done, these are just my conclusions

edit: I give you an example from the studio converters... I worked, listened, with a Digi M-box first edition and while it is not bad at all compared to other in that price range, it is not that great right?... The Metric Halo 2882 which, even though is old, sounds quite good and better comparing many other today interface that costs even more, well.. it has the same identical converters chip of the M-Box.

So.. what's the difference? The analog part. The part that actually makes things sound good on the input and on the output.

The chip does just calculation to approximate what it is acquiring

Yes, i'm thinking about getting the MV too, it seems real nice but i'm afraid it's not really easy to use.

bella9091 wrote:Yes, i'm thinking about getting the MV too, it seems real nice but i'm afraid it's not really easy to use.

well aint that a tragedy... a piece of gear that takes learning to use it.

^^^

I think MPCs really get their sound because the engineers really took the initiative to not make the sound so digital when it comes out the outputs. MPCs like the 60, 3000 and the 2000 were digital instruments in an analog world at the time, so the engineers spent night and day trying to perfect a warm sound to blend in with that world. They knew their craft with electronics. Or maybe it was all an accident. Today its all an emulated imitation with software.

Comparing the 4k to some average or below average converters (which is what's happening when soft samplers are played from a daw in a majority of these cases) isn't a fair comparison.

Most bedroom producers aren't going to have the kind of highend ad/da converters that can be found in the more upper class studios that make soft samplers sound many times greater than any mpc out here.

Ill-Green wrote:^^^

I think MPCs really get their sound because the engineers really took the initiative to not make the sound so digital when it comes out the outputs. MPCs like the 60, 3000 and the 2000 were digital instruments in an analog world at the time, so the engineers spent night and day trying to perfect a warm sound to blend in with that world. They knew their craft with electronics. Or maybe it was all an accident. Today its all an emulated imitation with software.

The biggest difference is that in the past they consider "digital" just a part of an instrument, needed to achieve a certain result. But that's not all.. they were still considered instruments that emit sound.... and that's the analog part thing I was talking about

Now digital stuff are all about specs.. the analog part, the one that takes the signal generated by the DA and goes to your mixer/speaker... well, practically doesn't exist.. that's the part where the sound happen (same thing for the AD) so where you decide the character of the instrument you are building

Now that part is totally ignored... take a Nord Rack 2X.. sounds GREAT but has a totally transparent analog part.. put it in another synth or in certain preamp, or in an AMP... it sounds astonishing.. because totally lacks that in the analog part of the synth... a JV/JD from Roland probably had a much poorer digital engine and sound, but then it had that analog part that really made it sing

sample selection and what you do with your instruments probably has the most effect on anythings sound; but i agree, its cool to add things/use things that have a certain sound.