MPC X, MPC Live, MPC One & MPC Key 61 Forum: Support and discussion for the MPC X, MPC Live, MPC Live II, MPC One & MPC Key 61; Akai's current generation of standalone MPCs.
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By Telefunky Sun May 28, 2023 10:54 pm
B-Wise wrote:
B-Wise wrote:... It's like some of us suffer from the "curse of knowledge" which is knowing a subject so well that you forgot what it's like for someone that doesn't know much in that subject. In this case many suffer from the "curse of sound-design knowledge" most won't admit :smh: but it's valid :nod:

Even without sound design, just the plain listening experience can be a curse.
I use impedance converters from former broadcast gear as bass/guitar DI.
The studio standard back then was balanced lines with an output impedance in the 20 Ohm range. With enough gain these units deliver a perfect headphone signal. 8)

I‘ve not been able to capture and reproduce this digitally in identical sound quality yet.
(neither by Audient ID22 nor by an externally clocked 888/24 Digidesign box)
Might be possible with a converter $1k (and up) per channel... but of course it‘s not worse the expense, as nobody would care anyway.

Yet the experience is stunning time and again, but the result can‘t be communicated... it‘s the analog headphone signal. :popcorn:
I guess the „live experience“ with one of the vintage Akais may be similar. One has to consider the whole unit (incl software), not just isolated parts.
By Sir Snaxalot Mon May 29, 2023 11:44 am
B-Wise wrote:
B-Wise wrote:Just to be clear, I didn't ask how many producers still want that sound, but how many customers are still buying record because of the that sound today?

If it's a lot then why isn't Akai catering to those producers & hasn't been since 1994 with the release of the 3k? - & Don't tell me that it was because that was the last MPC Linn made like if he was making the MPC's alone & never told Akai how he did it & a parts he used.

Do you have current sell records of all the music being sold >because< it has the old MPC sound not just any lofi sound in general?

How many fans/customs are arguing over if a sound in a song was sample on a 60 vs. 3k? - Also, remember that a lot of ppl was speeding up records to save space & that added to the "Old MPC-Sound" & as sample time increased the need to do that was less, not saying nobody still use that method.

I think after the success of 2k/2xl Akai released that they didn't have to make that sound for artist to still make dope grimy beats.


Sir Snaxalot wrote:I don't think end listeners care much about any of that. End listeners just care about how the music makes them feel when listening to it. Its those producers that chose those sounds primarily because they like the sound themselves, and because it adds to the vibe and texture that they're trying to create. Lots of things add to the seemingly infinite depth of emotional responses from humans. Most users don't know why something sounds good, only that it just does to them.

Musicians/producers are like designers, their primary job is draw delightful (or dreadful) emotional responses out of their listeners. It's the job of the musician or the producer to choose how they do that. End listeners don't have to be that discerning, thats our job. I think all of this arguing about which sounds better or real is stupid and a fools errand with no resolution.

Use whatever that you feel you need to use to convey the emotions or vibe you're trying to deliver. If you feel that you need the real thing then get the real thing, it'll cost but if you're that particular about it, then there is value in that and thats a perfectly valid approach. If you don't and feel like you can get the sound with modern tools then thats perfectly valid too.


This didn't answer most of my questions. To be specific, the "sound" that I'm talking about is the old MPC sound, not just the low quality boombap lofi sound that can be produced by other gear like a sp12 or whatever.

You said most can't tell & that my point, & it was proven in 1997 with the poor man's 3k via the 2k which was the MPC that Akai didn't even want to make based on what Marco Albert said, but Akai was glad that they did make it because at time it became the best selling MPC. Fan's wasn't complaining that the dope beats being made on the 2k wasn't banging as hard or w/e like on the 3k.

There are so many other way to add dirt to your beats & still have them sonically pleasing without the aid of the s900/60/3k/sp12 or any of that. We, as the sound designers, may notice differences & desire certain machines over another. At the end of the day, the listeners may prefer a beat made on a SP-505 over 1 made on the SP1200. I commend Dave for remaking the SP in this modern day, but look how expensive it is & most fans don't care how authentic it sounds to the og.

It's like some of us suffer from the "curse of knowledge" which is knowing a subject so well that you forgot what it's like for someone that doesn't know much in that subject. In this case many suffer from the "curse of sound-design knowledge" most won't admit :smh: but it's valid :nod:


Because you're asking a question that isn't reasonably answerable, its seems more rhetorical than actual. I don't have access to sales data of people buying records in accordance to a particular sound, I don't even think such data exists. I'm not in Akai's boardroom, I cannot know what their market research looks like. The best I'm able to respond to your "question" is by way of speculation on the perception of the musician/producer and the listener.
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By Ultros Mon May 29, 2023 2:57 pm
There are mpc 60, and 3000 filters as well as sp1200 filters in the fx section. You can also set them as the default program filter in the settings menu. They work. I've seen so many people ask about that traditional mpc 60 sound. all it is is decimation... you can run a decimator and fiddle with the knob until it sounds shitty the way you want.
By B-Wise Mon May 29, 2023 3:21 pm
Ultros wrote:There are mpc 60, and 3000 filters as well as sp1200 filters in the fx section. You can also set them as the default program filter in the settings menu. They work. I've seen so many people ask about that traditional mpc 60 sound. all it is is decimation... you can run a decimator and fiddle with the knob until it sounds shitty the way you want.

The decimator at 4.1 & some other settings is what I used to emulate the SP-505 lofi sample rate sound. I got notes of the other setting but, it was the decimator that got me most of the way there. I also used the bit crusher & I think a low pass filter in the drum program.

Don't sleep on them Drum FX. 8)
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By BKLYN Mon May 29, 2023 4:31 pm
Ultros wrote:There are mpc 60, and 3000 filters as well as sp1200 filters in the fx section. You can also set them as the default program filter in the settings menu. They work. I've seen so many people ask about that traditional mpc 60 sound. all it is is decimation... you can run a decimator and fiddle with the knob until it sounds shitty the way you want.


No, thank you. I prefer a more immediate and spot-on accurate $30 plugin like the Iphonik's RX1200 or a close-to-accurate $22 plugin like Wavetracing's SP950 that will get me to that classic sound produced by aliasing than cheapening out and wasting time with several on-board filters and plugins that don't do a good job.


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By EnochLight Mon May 29, 2023 7:46 pm
Certified Beatz wrote:
EnochLight wrote:One must ask - what does it all matter? Literally most commercially released music is finished in a DAW/ProTools before printing so literally - what does it matter? This “sound” that us geezers seem to obsess over can be replicated during that stage.

Akai knows this - the industry has changed.


I see all points really it's anyone preference us old folks love to talk about.. :o


Pretty much! :lol:
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By inflict3 Tue May 30, 2023 6:34 am
I just got the RE of this and messed with it for a few hours today, it sounds very good, I like it so far.
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By hyena Tue May 30, 2023 9:58 am
Ultros wrote:There are mpc 60, and 3000 filters as well as sp1200 filters in the fx section. You can also set them as the default program filter in the settings menu. They work. I've seen so many people ask about that traditional mpc 60 sound. all it is is decimation... you can run a decimator and fiddle with the knob until it sounds shitty the way you want.

as i tried to say multiple times, it's not the converters only. i repeat myself: try your gear on big fat p.a.'s and then you tell me. some gear spits out sounds that are more dynamic and punchy , its nonsense to only read tech-specs and think they are the only relevant thing. you have pretty cheap soundcards with stellar specs, yet they don't sound as good as other soundcards with almost the same tech specs. its the whole thing, the whole engineering, the whole relationship of all components. i speak from personal experience, i might be wrong because i'm speaking from a subjective point of view, but 22 years of messing with gear have informed my actual opinions on the matter.
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By Telefunky Tue May 30, 2023 12:11 pm
hyena wrote:... it‘s the whole thing, the whole engineering, the whole relationship of all components. ...

That‘s about it :smoker:
The „difference“ may not matter in some context, yet it‘s there.
In some (classic) gear there‘s a tremendous amount of technical effort, which simply was cut down for production efficiency in later years.

Consider the Ensoniq ASR/EPS samplers and the DP2/4 fx units, all featuring TDA1541 output converters. That chip not only was expensive, but also required a huge amount of space on the circuit board.
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By BKLYN Tue May 30, 2023 12:34 pm
I think it’s lost on some of you guys how much analog modeling has advanced in the past two decades and the fact that Inphonik spent several years developing the RX1200 plugin by modeling each separate component and circuit one by one in order to recreate that classic SP-1200 sound us Boom Bap producers love so much.

The dynamic filter sounds amazingly good, the aliasing sounds incredible, they nailed the sound we want, so why are some of you being miserable and nitpicking about something you seem to haven’t tried for yourself?

It like you’re fixated on looking for the wackness of life instead of seeing the dopeness.

I mean do you even enjoy having fun, or you don’t even know what fun is?
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By Telefunky Tue May 30, 2023 12:59 pm
I have their RX950 on iPad... and find it ok, but nothing to write home about :popcorn:
(but I never had the original, so what do I know... from plain listening I can tell there‘s an artifact in the signal which may be a side effect of 950‘s switched capacitor filter (and exist on the real hardware, too), but I never found it mentioned anywhere.

Don‘t worry, I really have a lot of fun with gear (and software, too) :mrgreen:
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By hyena Wed May 31, 2023 6:56 pm
BKLYN wrote:I think it’s lost on some of you guys how much analog modeling has advanced in the past two decades and the fact that Inphonik spent several years developing the RX1200 plugin by modeling each separate component and circuit one by one in order to recreate that classic SP-1200 sound us Boom Bap producers love so much.

The dynamic filter sounds amazingly good, the aliasing sounds incredible, they nailed the sound we want, so why are some of you being miserable and nitpicking about something you seem to haven’t tried for yourself?



hey, do you have a short memory span? i repeated multiple times that i LOVE rx950 and that's the closest thing to the original i've ever heard. but we are pointing out something else: that it doesn't make for the whole thing. it's not being miserable, it's being true to one's own experience. (by the way, what i have to be miserable about, i have and still use an actual 950 here...) if you are talking about the sp1200 plugin, i haven't said a word about that because i still haven't tried it, and also i have absolutely zero experience with the real sp1200 and tend to speak only about things i have direct experience with.

BKLYN wrote:It like you’re fixated on looking for the wackness of life instead of seeing the dopeness.

I mean do you even enjoy having fun, or you don’t even know what fun is?

why all these conversations must always end up being emotionally charged\drama?