Warming sound -specific style (s950/mfc 42/tape saturation)

Hello,

I know it has been discussed before, but I need some advices on specific sound I try to achieve. Currently I'm using mpc 2kXL and Im interested in getting an extra tool for "warming" my sounds. I'm choosing from 3 different tools/techniques:

- s950 for its a/d converters, 12 bit sound
- mfc 42 for filtering/eq
- r2r for tape saturation

I have never used one of these but when I do search on youtube for s950 I find mostly typical old school hip-hop boom bap beats and I know its perfect for this but Im interested in different style/sound, here are examples:

I like the "dirty" or "warm" sound of sampled jazz drums and smooth, filtered instruments, basslines on these:














From 01:50


So my questions are: which addition to my mpc could help me to achieve this? Would s950 help me to get such dirtiness and are its filters suitable for such filtering of instruments & bass or is it more suitable for old school hip-hop drums and I should use mfc 42 for filtering instead? Or maybe MPC 2000XL built-in filters are good enought for this? (I have EB 16 as well) Whats about tape saturation? Maybe anybody has sampled full loops of jazz drums with s950 and can show/tell how does it sounds?

Any advice very welcome, thanks in advance.

ARTS THE BEATDOCTOR
Arts The Beatdoctor is a producer from the Netherlands who crushes electronic synths with organic field recordings. The result is a raw, knob-twisting commixture in the vein of his contemporaries Flying Lotus, Bonobo, and Dorian Concept. On the stage he is equal parts DJ and musician, building immersive mixes from his catalog while incorporating studio production techniques and live instrumentation.

Most of that stuff sounds quite clean to me. It's obvious most of the samples are from vinyl. That can already make a difference.

Arts uses mainly software for recording and mixing:




The s950 is nice sampler to dirty up your sounds a bit. Because of the changeable sample rate you can create different sounds. The filter on the s950 is nice too. It doesn't give everything a magical sound as some people make you think it does, but good results can be achieved.

But it's not just that one thing that makes a track sound that way. What you sample, how you sample, how you process, how you mix, and a little bit of gear flavouring all together is responsible of how a track sounds. If you also have a daw with a few nice fx and pluggins then it's not impossible to achieve a similar sound with that.

It's not what you use, but how you use it. But in this case I would go software or take the s950 and the mfc 42. Or if you want to go for only the s950 I would still use it in combination with some software.

A cassette tape deck is really cheap, and provides massive bang for the buck. The older the better. I find they often roll the highs off a bit too much for my liking, but the dirt and saturation is just so much nicer than plugins. you absolutely cant go wrong for a few bucks. I bounce loads of my sample to tape, and use the results after a bit of tweaking, or layer a tape version with the original, parallel compression/distortion style.

Use the tools at your disposal to create your own signature sound.

Thanks for the tips.
I don't try to exactly copy a specific sound, the thing is I have never owned such gear as mfc, s950 or r2r and don't have a chance to try it before ordering, so I'm wondering if it would give me the effect I'm looking for.

clint246clint wrote:Use the tools at your disposal to create your own signature sound.

+1, so many of these 12bit 90s posts.

waa wrote:Any advice very welcome, thanks in advance.

You're opening a can of worms mate, especially if you're trying to achieve a similar sound to some of those tracks you posted. The production on a few of them is absolutely top drawer, so adding an S950/MFC42/R2R will just be a drop in the ocean for what it actually takes to achieve that sound.

I know you're asking about hardware but what do you have in the way of software?

I have Ableton, tc electronics powercore with its plugins, waves plugins..

U got me wrong, I'm not trying to copy or achieve exactly the same sound, I'm not a 12 years old kid, who thinks that equipment will do everything for you. All I wanted to know is if these tools can provide such sounds and gave some examples because thought it would better way to explain what type of sound I mean. I think it's better to ask if you have no chance to try it before buying than buy first and realize that it's not what you are looking for and I thought this is a good place to ask. Now i see I was wrong probably.

waa wrote:I thought this is a good place to ask. Now i see I was wrong probably.

You're not doing a very good job of convincing me you're not a 12 year old kid.

If you're not getting the answers you want (which I suspect is what's happening here), then maybe you should look elsewhere. I can give specifics on gear and the results you can get by chaining one processor into another, but I suspect I would be wasting my time.

I was in your same situation, I got a 950. Never been disappointed, lovin it