Distortion on 808 and deep bass samples

I just started transferring my library of samples over to the MPC via ak.sys. Problem I've having as I'm trying to rebuild drum kits in akai programs is all of my 808 kiks and low basses are all distorting even at lower volumes when I play them on the MPC. The samples are from various 3rd party commercial libraries and sound fine coming out of my PC or the converters on my sound card, but as soon as I load them in the MPC, I hear cracks and pops. I don't hear this on snares, hi hats or other sounds, only on deep 808 kiks and some basses. Any ideas on this? I should not hear a difference in playback on the MPC as these are all wav samples and sound fine on any other unit except the MPC. Looking at all the wave forms in Soundforge, they alll appear to be fine and shouldn't have any digital clipping. Again, I don't hear the clipping/pops/cracks on any other device I load the samples on.

Any ideas?

What is your master output level in the global settings page?

try lowering this to -6 or -12db to give you more headroom.

1881 wrote:What is your master output level in the global settings page?

try lowering this to -6 or -12db to give you more headroom.

Tried that and still get the same distortion on 808 kiks. Did some more hunting around and found this thread about a similar issue :http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26344

Thread is initially about a pad triggering issue, but then morphs into an issue about distortion on 808's after doing an OS upgrade. The culprit ended up being a bad memory stick. Sound like the later OS versions were a little me sensitive in the memory area. I just purchased this machine with 1.7.1 so I don't know if the issue existed before or not.

Could bad memory stick be the problem? Can someone who might have had similar issues please confirm before I go out and buy some memory. If I do have to go that route, will mosdef get Kingston sticks. Any issues buying used memory or should I go straight new?

I advise going new.

going new might be bit of a hasty decision.. especially when not really knowing what is up and it could be something easily fixed..

about OS, i can add that i am on OS 1.60, and have no problems like this.

one thing i would suggest, going from the fact that this only happens on some samples.. is to take one of these samples that you know sounds fine on the computer, but that distorts on the mpc, and then open it up in a program where you have converted or saved other samples other times before taking them to the mpc, and then re-save and try them again on the mpc

i see a possibility that the files might contain data that the mpc cant handle properly.. i have had errors before, where the sample has worked perfectly on the computer, but not worked at all on on the mpc, and then i re-saved it using wavelab and it worked fine after that.

Ibunshi wrote:going new might be bit of a hasty decision.. especially when not really knowing what is up and it could be something easily fixed..

about OS, i can add that i am on OS 1.60, and have no problems like this.

one thing i would suggest, going from the fact that this only happens on some samples.. is to take one of these samples that you know sounds fine on the computer, but that distorts on the mpc, and then open it up in a program where you have converted or saved other samples other times before taking them to the mpc, and then re-save and try them again on the mpc

i see a possibility that the files might contain data that the mpc cant handle properly.. i have had errors before, where the sample has worked perfectly on the computer, but not worked at all on on the mpc, and then i re-saved it using wavelab and it worked fine after that.

I was thinking that to... or my other idea may be, adjust the attack and decay of the sample. sometimes those low bass sounds make a click when they start and stop.

also, I suggest playing the sample file on the computer and sample the output into the mpc to see if the mpc's sampled version does the problem. if it does, then look into changing the ram as suggested.

Figured it out...problem was with ak.sys and trying to run this in XP mode under Win7 64 bit. After re-copying the same samples using ak.sys under a Win7 32 bit, the problem is now gone. Whew! thought I might have an issue with the unit itself.