John Mayer Joining In...

AYO JOHN !?! How did u like working wit Kanye West on bittersweet and workin wit Just Blaze on ALife ?

Some answers... after a long day in the studio...

* True, there isn't really any evidence of MPC on the albums, mostly because I didn't really dig deep into the unit(s) until this past tour. I threw the gauntlet down and decided that I wanted to really know what I was doing on it. I was a Reason guy until recently. You didn't hear much of that on albums (except for the song 'Home Life') because the drums were replaced by a live kit when it came time to track. Great for demos, though. Until now...

* ... that I'm looking for a new sound. I've been sampling guitar chords and layering them on pads. I must say, that's one of the best things about the 5000. Record, strum a chord, stop, hit a pad, hit 'keep', repeat. I can play different inversions of the chord and keep layering it. As soon as I tried it I realized how Thom Yorke's "Eraser" came about.

* About the 5000... I'd probably be on the 1000 full-time if it weren't for the pad sensitivity of the 5000. 1000 has most everything I need except the pads don't respond nearly as well. I actually used a 1000 tonight just to chop samples and then loaded them onto the 5000 to play them. Still having file naming nightmares, now that I've saved about 12 different "Sample0xx"s since I started on it.

Hey, here's a 5000 gripe. New Sequence? Start me out on track 1!!!! Not the track number I was working on in the last sequence.

Of course, the next stop is to check out the 2500 with the JJ... One day I'll have the rig all figured out, the perfect MPC nestled in a Pelican case and ready to roll to the studio with.

*Oh, and I am a crate digger. I just fill my own crates. (And I love them .rar files that I find links to on certain blog comments...)

J_Mayer wrote:Hey, here's a 5000 gripe. New Sequence? Start me out on track 1!!!! Not the track number I was working on in the last sequence.

Please visit the MPC 5000 forum to add this to the feature request and/or bug threads.

J_Mayer wrote:Some answers... after a long day in the studio...

* True, there isn't really any evidence of MPC on the albums, mostly because I didn't really dig deep into the unit(s) until this past tour. I threw the gauntlet down and decided that I wanted to really know what I was doing on it. I was a Reason guy until recently. You didn't hear much of that on albums (except for the song 'Home Life') because the drums were replaced by a live kit when it came time to track. Great for demos, though. Until now...

* ... that I'm looking for a new sound. I've been sampling guitar chords and layering them on pads. I must say, that's one of the best things about the 5000. Record, strum a chord, stop, hit a pad, hit 'keep', repeat. I can play different inversions of the chord and keep layering it. As soon as I tried it I realized how Thom Yorke's "Eraser" came about.

* About the 5000... I'd probably be on the 1000 full-time if it weren't for the pad sensitivity of the 5000. 1000 has most everything I need except the pads don't respond nearly as well. I actually used a 1000 tonight just to chop samples and then loaded them onto the 5000 to play them. Still having file naming nightmares, now that I've saved about 12 different "Sample0xx"s since I started on it.

Hey, here's a 5000 gripe. New Sequence? Start me out on track 1!!!! Not the track number I was working on in the last sequence.

Of course, the next stop is to check out the 2500 with the JJ... One day I'll have the rig all figured out, the perfect MPC nestled in a Pelican case and ready to roll to the studio with.

*Oh, and I am a crate digger. I just fill my own crates. (And I love them .rar files that I find links to on certain blog comments...)

Thanks for that John I agree about the pad sensitivity on the 1000. But using a 5000 to just chop samples and assign them to pads seems way overkill. I mean, that thing is built to sequence a whole rig of midi'd up synths, plus it has a synth of it's own in there. The 2500 has far more responsive pads than the 1000, I imagine they're identical to the 5000 but don't know for sure.

An MPC and a pelican case and you sir, would be ready to go! I'm looking forward to hearing this change in direction, perhaps making it more 'of the time' ? That's always a positive thing in my books!

@ Mayer

Which "version" of the 1k are you using. If you have JJOS2 with the new pads then i would think that sensitivity wouldnt be an issue. Of couse you could have a few other setups regarding your mpc which then i could understand if you are having issues still.

check the 1k with new pads and jjos2 if you havent already that will probably solve all of your problems.


Oh and as for the 2500 w/ jjos2 thats all i will ever use as a main sampler workhorse.

yeah, the pad sensor type is identical on all new MPCs (older model MPC1000s used a different style pads, this is one of akai's many gaffs as a company)

the issue is merely out-of-the-box sensor calibration. jjos2 offers both SENSITIVITY settings and THRESHOLD settings. these must be calibrated to your preferences.

there's also a mod you can do to improve it to korg padkontrol levels

dang yo...i had a dream i was sitting in a car in los angeles with mr. john mayer and out of nowhere i ask him if he's down with the mpc/mpc forums and what exactly was his purpose in life and dude said "I'm one of those cats who you would of never expected to be in ur dreams"..

wtf!!


WEIRD

JM-

Once you get comfy on the MPC, being that you're established as an artist, would you ever produce a sample-based track (or remix) for another artist... or would you keep the MPC stuff just for your own songs/ideas?

Also (stating the obvious), get into the habit of naming those samples right away, man! Years ago I used to just try to fly through projects and inevitably write over samples that I really, really needed...

nicebeats1 wrote:dang yo...i had a dream i was sitting in a car in los angeles with mr. john mayer and out of nowhere i ask him if he's down with the mpc/mpc forums and what exactly was his purpose in life and dude said "I'm one of those cats who you would of never expected to be in ur dreams"..

wtf!!


WEIRD

fantasizing bout JM much

it was just one of those dreams where u dnt know wat the fuks goin on!!

welcome to the forums mr. mayer looking forward to hearing some trks on the forum.....PEACE

Hey John!!
I had know idea u were a MPC head!!! Anyway, Im having the same problem with file management, programs, flow.etc
Ive gone back to my 3000 triggering my 2000 as a module.lol!! But after reading your post about the 1000 with JJos
That sounds closer to my dream senario!!
I would love to shoot the shit about MPCs .U know how to reach me........(Im frustrated with this new shit!).
i just got my 808 midied up with tuning knobs on each oscillator!
u gotta hear it!! crazy!!!....(yes, u can borrow it when ur there) This is the 808 in `85 with me and my sister
Check out how skinny i was!!!!!! ( dig the Valentino( Prince) 80`s makeup!!!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsTPxnuLc5E


hahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!
Jerry

Welcome to the forums, John.
Always good to see known producers take an interest in the MPC1000 JJ OS2.


@ Jerry - That "Sugar Free" joint took me back a long way. I love how the 808 programming and mixdown was done so smoothly.

O snap Jerry Barnes posts here too?

Thanx distortedtekno!
That was mixed by Mallory Earl (RIP) on 2 inch to 1/4 inch 2track........
Its funny, we played the instruments live (fast).....but even then ,it took forever to do the beat.......
i had to program all the different patterns( step mode), then trigger them in real time to tape...Katreese would sing and play with me on the drum pass as i triggered the next patterns....then we overdubbed the rest........
Fun times!!!!!
Jerry