Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
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By richie Wed Feb 22, 2023 6:30 am
WesWook wrote:• With a little practice you should be able to put together a simple drum program in minutes. Time it usually takes to build is based around sample selection, which is universal.


Stop trying to be helpful, I need everyone to see that the 4000 is a terrible machine so they can sell them off to me for $150 each.
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By Telefunky Wed Feb 22, 2023 3:21 pm
The 4k is a high risk purchase for anyone unexperienced with the machine :shock:
It‘s too complex for a quick check at the location, let alone bought online.
I picked up mine at the seller, it looked good and „worked“.

At home all digital connections were dead, not just the Adat but also CD and s/pdif.
Needed a complete disassembly, memory sockets were loose, too.
Then I detected pad sensitivity was way too low, needed new pad sensors, another disassembly, shipping parts from the US. Fiddling with the display ribbon broke an opamp on the display board and killed the background light inverter.

I enjoyed my lesson (kind of techno maso ?) :Sigh: but if you have to pay for all that sh*t you‘re screwed. And still sit on a >20 year time bomb.
Btw it‘s fan is loud as a hoover and a full strategic misplace :WTF:
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By richie Fri Feb 24, 2023 3:31 am
Telefunky wrote:The 4k is a high risk purchase for anyone unexperienced with the machine :shock:
It‘s too complex for a quick check at the location, let alone bought online.


Finally someone with common sense shares valuable information !
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By Juxx Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:55 pm
When I had a MPC X I had friends and ladies loved to be around me....

When I got a 4k my cat ran away. The fan set off the fire alarm... And now I got an eviction notice....stay away from the MPC 4000!!!

:cry: :cry: :cry:
By glide Sat Apr 15, 2023 2:23 pm
:hmmm: :smoker:

Still waiting for Lamp or anyone who has both the NuAkais and a 4k to do a sample comparison .. to confirm the fidelity ..


*First just load 4 breaks/beats into both units
*Chop them up and layer (one pad: 4x layer) in identical drum program (Bd Sd Tom Hihat
*Record identical sequences
*Identical leveling
* Compare them side by side A/B ...

*Repeat the process but now RECORD of vinyl 4 beats in 96/24 to test the input preams and overall 4k quality vs the nuAkais convertion ...( the preamps play one of the biggest role in the record chain, and vinyl at 24bit 96k does sound super nice on the 4k

(program the sounds and beats well (one layer for sub/bottom, one for mid, transient and then the top/air).. and make a nice beat ... don't just clash together something midless .. this needs to display truth in fidelity /frequency response


add swing for good messure (one bouncing/nice ... another at extreme for observation

if the difference is clear ... redo the beat on the NuAkais but instead of doing per layer do it per simultaneous pad play ... so instead of layers 1-4 on one pad use 4 pads with one sound each ..

Why?... to see if the difference is due to code /allocation prioritization ..
By glide Sat Apr 15, 2023 2:36 pm
Btw .... for the thread ... I heard that if you place smart phone devices next to newly purchased 4ks the nurse icon from the 4k will like a ghost start appearing in that device and preform euthanasia on all apps it encounters ..
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By NearTao Sat Apr 15, 2023 9:08 pm
glide wrote:Still waiting for Lamp or anyone who has both the NuAkais and a 4k to do a sample comparison .. to confirm the fidelity ..


As cheeky as your post is... you're not going to get any of us to do a sample comparison that way. We've either done these sample comparisons for ourselves and formed our own opinions... or we know what sounds we like and don't particularly care what other folks have for feedback.

Just one person's take but... I'd give any particular piece of gear I own no more than 25% of getting me towards a particular sound. Sure some things I like more than others, but I'll be honest... I don't boot up most of my older samplers these days because... once you factor in time to setup and use the device, then whatever off board effects chain your using, and then layer sounds into a mix... where you started with these older samplers is often changed enough that yeah, it imparts *some* tone and character... but I think most people would be very hard pressed to know one sampler from another in most circumstances. There's a few queues or characteristics you *might* be able to get right... but unless you're trying to show off a particular piece of gear and have it stand out front and center... then every filter, eq, and whatever else you need to apply to get it settled into the mix is going to change the sound.

At the end of the day, I'd argue it's more the processes that you have to take when working with specific gear that lands you on a certain sound anyways. If I'm using an MPC 60/S950 the limited amount of sample memory is going to impart certain characteristics that force me to limit sample length and be conservative with memory. If I'm going for the MPC 4k/Z8 or whatever... I've got plenty of memory to work with, have the luxury of one sample per note if I want, and a fair selection of filters to work with, but you're pretty limited on how many effects you can have at a time.

Today with DAWs, there is practically no limit to how many samples, effects, and synths you can have. There are tons of sample libraries people have made of all this older gear... and I'd say a fair amount of the libraries are pretty dang good recreations... even if they don't capture the sound exactly. But capturing the sound 'exactly' isn't some magical quest either... it's just another option for having more sounds. I feel like the catch 22 is that the more you've got... the less likely you are to focus on the specific constraints any specific device or software or whatever is going to impose on your workflow... and similarly I think a lot of the older gear requires a level of deep diving and concentration that most people are unwilling to invest.

At any rate... if you come up with something more interesting than a "sampler shootout"... I bet you'd get some of us to pitch in. To just record off drum, loops, and other stuff though... and then post examples... to just have people ask questions to then tell us what they think we did 'wrong' to capture whatever device it is that they prefer over the other devices... and we somehow don't show their favorite device in the 'light it deserves'... doesn't sound like a terribly fun exercise.
By glide Mon Apr 17, 2023 6:34 pm
Heyja NearTao... Thanks for the reply!

I agree with everything you said! .. and at the end of the day its all about talent, a star with a dope track on a beatthang (is it blashpehy to utter that name around here ;) or a mpc500 or a sp202 in a a room with a solid mastering engineer is going to bang more than an mediocre with a mpc X with a OK engineer in a million dollar crib of shiny expensive outboard ..But this is not what it is about ... anyone in pro production be it sound, light, photography or film will know that the value of quality is the core footage /sound source .. the difference between processing a real 909 or samples on the same outboard is huge .. Try analog saturation on a real 808 vs a VA version and the volume of overtones will be clearly in favor of the 808 even though they might be fairly close dry..


See in the posted example on page 1, the guy already did an accurate test between NuAkai Machine and the 4k ... and the difference was not ...yhea its slightly better .. or I think I can hear a difference ... the 4k was clearly a level above the others .. more banging, punchier the bass was more clear and bigger..
Now Ive listen to quite a few comparisons and I was on the side that they sound the same, I listened to someone just do a one layer beat (I think just loaded samples in 16bit/44k) he compared the 60, ocktatrak 4k and some others .. the 60 had the best bass respone but nothing that couln't be added with processing, but still the tail of the core sound is had much better bass, the others sounded very similar 4k included,.. I also heard someone playback in trim mode samples side by side from the MPC live and a a 4k and they sounded identical (again just loaded 16/bit ..


Now ever since akai dropped that os with tail loop (loop in release on the 4k) and exponential curves on the envelopes I was prepared to jump ship..
There are some outstanding features in the new MPCs, everyone I know says they are superb, the trim mode is the best in the biz (hardwhere or softwhere) pad performance features (simultaneous pad play with round robins will go a long way) and visual lights, shortcuts to menu's, better file system, bounce to pad, the sequencer members/captures what you played outside of being in seq record (a million dollar feature.. never gone miss that hit pad combo I came up with again), scales even in 16 levels, arp and plugins (excellent drum and FM synth tbh).. and I am sure the list goes on and on .. and if I was forced to have only one mpc for production and nothing else there is no contest .. I'd go for the new MPC no question about it ... The workflow speed just in trim mode alone is worth it, not to mention the full range of production tools.. even the convenience of just automation anything on screen with in a second its just a wonderfull upgrade of workflow .. continuous synergy .. very fast and productive ..


But the core sound is what matters most to me,.. I have drumamchines I have sampled with EQ possessing and FX chopped up and multi layered usually 4 with mod matrix slight to extreme modulation on envelopes, volume, layer startpoints, and pitch for movement, aftertouch and velocity routed aswell for dynamic changes and every layer has pitch, pan, filter offsets (don't think the Nuakais have this, but they can do simuntainius pad play which gives more control) always recorded in 24/96 and they sound stellar ....& some of these Nuakai feature I can handcraft I can program phazers and delays fx, round robins, and my own scales (just do multiple compies of a pad in a empty pad bank and tune away, even set the qlinks to different pad parameters and have each copy in the cale have different/custom turnings and 5 other parameters on the fly) and I can resample through a quality outboard chain, even pitched up a few octaves and pitched down again in 96k ..the 4k is just massive as sampler/sequencer if a studio environment.


I would absolutely hate to have all these star sounding kits that I put so much effort into degrade so much in quality as the posted comparison demo inclined .. that is the main reason for conformation ..
this is after all MPC forums and you would be contributing valumble information, writing MPC history (cheeky enough ;) I also plan on making bunch of kits via auto sampling and I am curious how the conversion holds up .
And to futher favor the new MPCs I will say I tested the MPC softwhere vs others to A/B/C compare the fidelity and the Akai came out to be one of the best sounding one better sounding that the bigger names (did not test/compare it to logic pro though) .. the only one that I slightly preferred to the Akai was Re noise tracker it was justa tad more airy and raw .. I don't know if this is all lined with code or audio processing but it seamed that DAWs with realtime timestreach sounded a bit flatter .. Know I know; we are in does it matter land as the difference is so minimal ..

yet to bring this around to the 4k again ..
If I bounce 50 takes... 5 takes of 10outputs each into a recording facility from the 4k sound vs the same beat coming from the machine and/or NuAkais and the difference is as clear as in the posted demo .. then the whole impact is going to be massive .. how about 9 or 10 takes .. 100 tracks .. in the end the fidelity is going to stack up ..
So I am not jumping ship if some cats can confirm the difference in fidelity from first hand here on these forums ..

Aslo I am not to found of the fx in the NuAkai, they seam very stream lined and overly precises.. vs say the Roland/Boss FX which clearly add character the sound... I mean I rather resample my 4k through a rack of fx or invest in a eurorack or a 500 lunch box system.. and have superior sound ..
I dunno Id love to upgrade but its hard not to look at just adding other kit versus replacing the fab sounding & rocksolid 4k modmatrix and all with inferior sounding NuAkai .. I have the out board I have the synth .. I don't need these plugins or FX .. Id rather add Harpax or a Polyend (superior) sequencers or a Iridum or a SP16 as add on samplers and just expand around the 4k as a sampler module (having the entire Z4 engine directly accessible on 3 pages with mod matrix instantly available, pads and power sequencer MIDI router all there to aid the environment ..

But please prove it... I played with the New Akais just a bit and I found that they sounded excellent .. but that side by side demo raises flags in my book..
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By NearTao Mon Apr 17, 2023 8:44 pm
There's nothing to prove though. You've already made up your mind that the 4k/Z engine is best for your workflow and you like the output quality, you rattled off a number of off board synths/samplers/effects that you want (or already have) in your setup. You've clearly got the taste of what you want, and good on you for not having GAS for new gear, and not needing to step into something you don't need.

There's no need for a popularity contest, use what you know, love what you've got, and all that. I know who I think is "the prettiest girl at the ball", but we've all got our own tastes...
By glide Tue Apr 18, 2023 10:01 am
Yhea .. well its not just for me personally nor is it a popularity contest its for the knowledge base, the novelty of mpc history, ...this is after all forum dedicated to the subject of MPCs.. it be rather interesting if the sound quality of samplers was best when they first came out and has been declining till this day ..

I think thouse who have modern samplers today, mpc's, electrons, etc are going to shake their heads when Behirininger drops the Linn Drum and Opbreheim sampling hybrids and we all are going to remember how good the old samplers sounded and how soulful they where in character and sound.. and go WTF happened to the audio quality..

All I am asking here is confirmation on the: VS sound quality in both recording through internal preamps and sampling resolution... and to see if the NuAkis preform better when using just simple one sample per pad in a 4x pad allocation versus 4 samples layered...

Id prefer a more modern MPC but I feel like Akai are just cramming a DAW into a drummachine format from the 80s... I mean if the New MPCOne coming out does not have 4 buttons for Qlink navigation (instead of endlessly pusshing one button to cycle through the menus) and dedicated buttons for most used functions .. my money will likely be in my pocket until a new Toriaz (which is going to be amazing if you look at what Pioneers is doing tech wise),or the long awaited yammy RS7000MK2 or a new Roland MC707, also Novation is going to introduce a bigger version of the sampling cicuits and Korg is also rumored to have a new sampler workstation comming out they ve got tube and sythesis tech like there is no tomoorow .. as much as I liked to upgrade, the comming competition is rather ruff, allot of innovation from the competition and the Nukais will have competition on a rather high grade both in UI and fidelity ..

but if the sound quality is on par with the 4k 24/96 with layered sound :?: (if some cat here is kind enough to take an rainy afternoon and do a test (video would be excellent as well) .. then I will be delighted to try out the new Akais and transfer all my projects/ sounds over to the new platfrom as an MPC is a part of my rig and will likely always be as I have so much work invested in it..
By Emilie Tue May 09, 2023 2:16 pm
I haven't jumped ship, but after i got a Dirtywave M8 i do all my sampling and cutting on that. It's great for doing weird and complex stuff, but when i'm done i resample it into the 4k and arrange from there. I also tried out the Native instruments Maschine, but it didn't really work for me for some reason. If you consider using something else than the 4K, don't sell it! You might regret it, as i did when i sold my Machinedrum
By dryad-66 Tue Jul 11, 2023 9:26 am
The 4000 adds weight to sterile samples from modern sample packs that are loaded into current machines.noticed this first when I bought a Maschine mk1 when it came out using it next to the 4K.It was night and day.people say just add the effects ectect and while that is true and effective you never from my experience gain that unique feel.i now don’t have a 4K I got a live 2.and I can really mould/shape my sound with the effects.but I miss the 4K s personality………mind you there is so many things that can go wrong in the 4K.Your lucky to get one that’s perfect from my experience.