Advice needed

Hi i've been playing around with the mpc 500, practicing and following tutorials but i'd like to get some advice on how to make the drums and the sample sound like one. When i lay out the drums and the sample it just sounds off to me, its not like they are one but instead two different sounding things. Srry if the explanation is poor but i cant explain it in any other way.

Its like doing graphics, when you cutout the person from a photo..place it over your created background but they arent blended in together so it looks like the person and the background dont blend.

Im also having troubles with the speed of the sample for example. Lets say i layed down the drums and the sample over it..most of the time the sample sounds faster or slower and when i slow it down it doesnt fit with the beat anymore.

Those are 2 questions actually but the most important question is the bold part.

Im Dutch btw so that may be the cause of my poor explanation of things.

Read up on "TRIM" and/or "Timing Correction" aka Quantize. Those are possibilities.

Could be your samples not trimmed enough or too much., or that the TC is slapping the sample not exactly where you want it.

I had the same challenges when I started, and after I trimmed my samples and fixed up my TC I was all good.

I use a program (Pro Tools) on the side to deal with things like trimming/chopping samples. You can time stretch samples there too. Much better than usin the MPC (well... the 500 anyways). And then you just export the finished product as a .wav and put it in the MPC. All that's left to do is assign to a pad... which u can also do on the computer lol. Programs like MPCmaid and MPC Pad 187 let you make the mpc programs quickly & easily. One of them is MAC only tho, forgot which one...

I'm sure other mps are better with these things. I kinda want a 1000... eventually.

Blending the drums and samples together so they sound like they belong together.


Well you gotta find the right drums that fit.. simple as that. You can also tweak the drums so they blend with the sample


One thing I do is find drums that match the sample (all elements to be honest) then after i make the beat I process each track through a preamp so the signals are printed from the same source in the end before the mix

Much like what your getting in a bigger studio when they track through the SSL (same technique)


or i mean you can always use the drums that are i the sample. That's the easiest way imo

If you slow down the sample, you have to slow the drums too.

When you make a sequence focus on the BPM. You can adjust that during Overdub btw. So lay the sample over the drum sequence and adjust until both are harmonized. Don't worry, the sample will not be affected, just the timing of pad strikes.

As said before, Trim your samples perfectly. That helps for tighten loops and sequences.