Bottom end of the newer MPCs.... really sucks....

dmarz45 wrote:

Coz wrote:Anyone who relies on the older MPC 'sound' needs to step their production game up and learn how to process sounds. There's countless bit reducers, saturation and vintage EQ and compression plugins available that will all give a better sound than the default a/d converter in an old MPC.

I have the 5000 and the 3000 I love em both but if you do all that processing and put it in a 3000 itll still sound better than the 5000.... Im not trying to run my **** throught 100 eqs to make it sound right... I just load up dry kicks in the 3000 and make that **** rip harder than anybody elses ****....

Precisely,
It's the same reason people still use SSL & Neve boards. Getting something with good sound from the get go is always better than trying to processing something to "make it" good. And if your doing the processing first before loading the samples up, They will always hit harder in the older MPC's.

I have not had any problems with the 5000's Digital to Analog converter's sound quality. I use it into some Alesis MK2's. It sounds great. Its not noisy, seems to be a flat response. Its not any different from my MPC 2000 XL. I suspect the D/A's in some of the older units were not as balanced... thus adding some LO-FI punch on the low end. This is not something you want to count on though, because its not on purpose. If you do some analog EQing, you can make the 5000 sound like that.

I owned a 500 shortly, and was really disappointed with its noise floor. I could hear hi pitched sounds when it was thinking, or if I was holding a button down... kind of like on a cheap laptop sound card. I may have just had a bad unit though?

There's so little dynamic control in those old MPC's that I can't see how they can "hit harder".

Coz wrote:There's so little dynamic control in those old MPC's...

Your Trippin.

There's no built in EQ or compression on those units, so what you're left with is an a/d converter that leaves traces of harmonic distortion on the sound. That to me doesn't equate to a harder hitting sound. We're not talking about the SP1200 now are we??

Envelopes can be used to control dynamics. Filters are in allot of way similar to EQ. The 3k allows for modulation of both Envelopes and Filters... Trust me there is plenty of dynamics control.

A LPF and basic envelopes might be enough for some, but I think most people value the extra control of the newer MPC's over the 'sound' of the older ones.

Hey, I'm not hatin. 2 each his own...
And BTW, I could care less what "most people value".
I bought my MPC for me...

once you work on the 3000 series I think there's no way back...

Coz wrote:There's countless bit reducers, saturation and vintage EQ and compression plugins available that will all give a better sound than the default a/d converter in an old MPC.

Agree, even those built into the 5000 (like old school master compressor setting) are not that bad. The thing all the newer machines have in common imho is that you can get better results but u generally need to do a lot more tweaking overall with effects, compression etc. Have to say, I always thought my 2500 sounded thin out the box but think the 5000 wipes the floor with it sound quality wise.

A LPF and basic envelopes might be enough for some, but I think most people value the extra control of the newer MPC's over the 'sound' of the older ones.

Speak for yourself. Sounds like you are talking from theory and never really compared a 3k next to one of these new cheap models through a decent set of monitors. If you did you would sing a different tune, trust me.

There's countless bit reducers, saturation and vintage EQ and compression plugins available that will all give a better sound than the default a/d converter in an old MPC.

False! Most of the low fi processors out make it sound more digital instead of warm. It's always easier to get it right at the source then to try and dress it up by putting cheap lipstick on a pig.

All that being said, there is a noticeable improvement in sound quality of the 5k over the 2500/1000. It does not sound the same as the 3k but I was satisfied with what it gave me. Pair a 5k with some nice analog pres and compression and it sounds good.

playalong wrote:I owned a 500 shortly, and was really disappointed with its noise floor. I could hear hi pitched sounds when it was thinking, or if I was holding a button down... kind of like on a cheap laptop sound card. I may have just had a bad unit though?

Were you running off of batteries or a power cord?

I was mostly using a power cord, but I tried it with the batteries. It still had the same problem. It was a demo model I purchased from guitar center... so it might have been a bad egg. I also used differant headphones, and monitors, and cables. Still had the problem. Although it was most noticeable with my Sony MDR 7509HD headphones. They don't filter the hi frequencies at all, so if its there... you here it. I have the same problem with laptop headphone and line outs (even on my macbookpro).

' I was just saying that Akai should really try to make their future MPCs '


...Er, could be bad news for you all around if you are thinking this way. Nukai are definately focusing the biggest part of their future development budget on software controlling. we can but only speculate what this means in terms of any future MPC style hardware units being churned out ?

Hi there,
I'm now running my mpc5k thru optical out to my Motu 828mk3. What a difference! I get thunder deep bass from the Va synth preset Sinebass. It must be the D/A converters or the output amps in mpc5k that suck! Use any of the digital outputs. You will hear a BIG difference i clarity and punch, if your gear have better analog outputs than mpc5k.
/jocks