A week has passed and I'm ready for a drop test...

Alright... Like everything else involving the mpc - where do I begin?

Basically, I bought a used MPC2500 for 700$ on eBay last week. I remember using one in college (Full Sail) and considering I'm looking for a new avenue creatively - I bought one.

At first I wasn't sure, but a weekend of constant MPC YouTube videos and enjoying that funk did it.

The unit arrives, and of course I'm dying to start.
I find some 808 samples online somewhere, load them on the mpc, and manage to get things going.
Found some cool song on YouTube and sampled it like I've seen a million times over on YouTube the weekend prior. Cool, I can do it.

Even wired the thing up to my interface and it's all running pretty smooth.

Now what??

The reason I got the unit was to incorporate samples onto live instrument. Like a guitar/drum/bass trio with samples and added groove/flavor.

I haven't exactly figured out the sequencing - I either hit record and smack away or write it in the grid window. Either way, everything is stale.

I'm missing something. I know I am.

I need some guidance from any musicians on here that have ventured into the mpc realm, because seriously

It currently has bare minimum everything, as far as RAM and CP Card. It's running JJOS the free one I believe. I was thinking I need to upgrade? To what extent do I need to upgrade to accomplish what I need?

I want to make this thing be able to do whatever it does best all the time without question. Tell me
What needs to be upgraded. Basically a shopping list - seriously.

Thank you so much in advanced!

J_Gil

are you looking for inspiration?

I think you should spend a while making simple stuff... and working on the sounds in the machine to get everything to fit nice and sound thick... get used to the workflow and the internal capabilities of the machine.... then you know the tool you have in front of you and when you are working on new stuff... you hear it and already know what can be done.

try things out.. it takes time. there isn't an "instant banger" button these machines... you gotta get there on your own.

sounds like you just need to keep experimenting to get the right sounds for your instrumentation. going to take a while and this stage can be pretty discouraging. but keep at it. as stated just work on the basics - laying down drums , melodies and tuning/programing sounds. eventually it comes together.
if you can learn instruments you can learn drum machines. id love to include my guitar work to my beats but i dont have an amplifier or recording equipment to do so. the bills keep taking my $$$.
just keep working on it and it should come together.

Don't give up. There is so much that the MPC can do and it is not intuitive. It will take time to get used to things if you are used to DAW editing. If you are just into live sampling, there are easier ways, but where this box really shines is the midi sampling integration. The midi is super tight and you have 64 channels! You can program your synths and then resample the audio and build tracks. JJOS is deep and after six months I am only scratching the surface.

DrStrangenoise wrote:Don't give up. There is so much that the MPC can do and it is not intuitive. It will take time to get used to things if you are used to DAW editing.

+1 MPC has a relatively steep learning curve if you're used to a DAW.

My advice would be to make sure you have quantise set correctly or switched off. Things can sound stale and boring if it's all overly quantised.

Shopping list wise the essentials for me are:
Internal HD or large CF card
JJOS (whichever version you prefer, I like the big screen and 128XL)

Then build up a library of drum samples you like, from wherever you find them (good stuff available from MPC-samples.com of course) and store them on the HD. Makes it a lot more fun for me having all my favourite drums set up and ready to go.

Personally I find getting a stack of records and going through them sampling whatever sounds cool to be the most fun/inspiring way of using an MPC.

Plus you can of course record your live instrumentation into the MPC and sequence it like that.

Good luck!

Learn 16 levels.. Take two different records/songs and try to match up the pitch. For example take the bassline from one record and a string section from another and make them work together. Sample yourself playing instruments, chop it up and rearrange. Endless possibilities.