The Learning Curve on an MPC-60

Long story short: I've been rapping for years. Owned a few drum machines here and there. Briefly had an EPS. Around two years ago I purchased an MPC 2000XL Studio Plus. A week later I was laid off and had to sell it to pay the rent. So I am always starting over and feeling like a goober.

Anyway, I was at a friend of a friend's house over the weekend and this friend of a friend happened to have an MPC-60. DAMN!! I was amazed at the sound!! "Dusty but digital." After watching him make beats on it, I decided that I MUST own one.

I'm 25 now and can FINALLY afford to buy some decent equipment.

Bottom line: Is the MPC-60 a smart choice for, basically, a total noob?

PS - This is my first thread and my head is spinning from all the info I've already read. Any feedback/advice is appreciated.

Thank you.

Hi... I'm a real beginner too and I have tried using drum machines that were supposed to be easy, I tried sequencing with a computer (yech!) and I always just got discouraged, then I played around with an old mpc-60 and it just clicked. It was big an friendly and solid and the pads didn't hurt my hands and I could use it physically somewhat, like a musician does. I'm not very good at technical things, it all kinda intimidates me but the mpc-60 keeps surprising me - I keep expecting it to be harder than it is. It's all so intuitive and logical that after you use it even a short time your hands just know what to do. It's gotta be one of the best studio music making machines ever made. I think it encourages creativity because it doesn't get in the way of the flow, what little flow I've gotten going so far. lol. Anyway, as abeginner I can't find much fault with it... the manual is very good and the guys here are great about helpin out.

the mpc60, for me, was the easiest sequencer to learn ,ever..

plus, they are pretty cheap now. I would suggest using an additional sampler, and sound module with it.

I would do what Lord T says, he's a blade man

Alejandra put it very well, it's learning curve is pretty easy, you'll be able to get ideas down and make beats in no time, but even after years of using it you can discover new little things it can do to make the process easier or the product better.

"a blade so fine, that if you were to come acrosss god an your journeys. even god would be cut"

Hatori Hanzu

Lord Toranaga wrote:I would suggest using an additional sampler, and sound module with it.

Would you mind expouding on this at your convenience...?

And THANK YOU to everyone for your feedback.

Get the 60 first, learn it, then worry about the rest of it like rack samplers and such. If you get too much too quick it will slow you down more at the beginning.

And if you used the MPC you already had a little bit and remember it, it will be a little similar. I haven't got my 60 yet (it's coming in the mail) but from what I can see on the buttons and everything it has a lot of similarities.

Looks very easy

easy to get working but mastery takes time, don't make itchy's mistake of getting some superficial experience with it and writing it off before you really give it a chance.

I don't own a 60, but a friend of mine owns one and I had the chance to make few beats on it. It took me about an hour to get used and comfortable with it, cause it is different than the other mpc's.

One thing I remember was something about saving that threw me I think....I believe that if you were trying to save a beat to disk you had to save the samples and sequences, etc. separately. Just remember you got to save shit two different ways so you don't lose your work. (It's been awhile since I even looked at one, but if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will gladly correct me.)

Yeah and defintely get a rack or something else with it, cause it would be a pisser to use the 60 alone as it doesn't have filters or anything. The 60 in a nutshell is basically sample something, trim, assign to a pad, make a sequence, sequence other gear if you got it (via midi).

The 60 is fun tho ain't it? for real! I just wish the mufucca had filters and shit.

Does he have the 3.10 OS or the old joint? HUGE Difference.

There is a lot more that you can do to a sample in the 60 besides just triming it, the envelopes alone are really punchy. Hey if someone could add filters to it I'd take it, as long as they didn't take anything else away. I have external analog filters so I realy could care less about filters, I rarely use filters with the 60, just EQ.

it's the experience of using the machine that gets me hooked everytime.

yeah, you gotta save your programs and your ALL file for all sequences, you can save sequences separate, but the old OS had SET and SEQ files, and they really suck IMO.

The way I save on my XL is I save programs and sequences seperate anyway so nothign will change for me there I see.

El - What kind of hard drives/disks are compatible with the 60 for saving? Is there a limit in terms of amount of space it can read?

I only use zips, you'll need to partition as there is a file limit like 256 files per partition. I use 20 partitions and run out of space before I hit a ile limit. That gives 5 Mb's per partition. I save PGM and samples as one file, then a All for sequences with that pgm, and when I develop a track into song mode I load it from the All file alone and make copies, then save that as its own all file. Keeps me mad organized and I never have a saving or loading issue.

I'm scared to use zips because of the **** click of death shit.

elmacaco wrote:Does he have the 3.10 OS or the old joint? HUGE Difference.

There is a lot more that you can do to a sample in the 60 besides just triming it, the envelopes alone are really punchy. Hey if someone could add filters to it I'd take it, as long as they didn't take anything else away. I have external analog filters so I realy could care less about filters, I rarely use filters with the 60, just EQ.

it's the experience of using the machine that gets me hooked everytime.

yeah, you gotta save your programs and your ALL file for all sequences, you can save sequences separate, but the old OS had SET and SEQ files, and they really suck IMO.

hmmm...I didn't get a chance to mess with the envelopes...don't remember seeing them. Homes has a MK I I'm not sure which OS, but i'm pretty much thinking he got the bare bones, 1st OS, non-expanded RAM joint, non scsi + non zip mofo, fresh out the factory, first production line MP to the **** C 60.

Working with 750k, or whatever the unexpanded memory is, wasnt that bad, you just gotta be really selective on what you sample and what you keep, and speed up that damn vinyl and pitch down (if necessary) to get more time. It's workable.

BTW I made a few decent beats with that specific 60 with just a turntable and mixer for other gear. That ish was fun. There's a lot to be said about a simple setup.