How I produced an album on the MPC 500

Earlier this year, I composed, mixed and mastered an album in a single project on the MPC 500. I thought I'd share the MPC project on the off chance it might help somebody out. Maybe give some insight into one way to approach producing entirely in the box.

Here's the MPC project:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/598 ... MPC500.zip

According to the manual, this project should work on the 1000 and 2500 too so I posted out here instead of the 500 forum. I've been on here for a while now and I've gotten a lot from the knowledge you all have shared here. I hope this gives something back.

Lemme know if you have any questions about it...

I thought, because if the forum this was posted in, it as gonna be a post about the techniques/steps used to create in the box.

You should definitely put this in the YourMusic section for people to enjoy/critique.

Can't load on my phone so will check back later

mastasteez wrote:I thought, because if the forum this was posted in, it as gonna be a post about the techniques/steps used to create in the box.

You should definitely put this in the YourMusic section for people to enjoy/critique.

Can't load on my phone so will check back later

This isn't the music, it's the entire MPC project, programs, samples and all. Load it up on your MPC 500, 1000 or 2500.

so u did the whole album with the 500 in one project?? nice man, great job, i wanna hear this!!

Riggs wrote:

mastasteez wrote:I thought, because if the forum this was posted in, it as gonna be a post about the techniques/steps used to create in the box.

You should definitely put this in the YourMusic section for people to enjoy/critique.

Can't load on my phone so will check back later

This isn't the music, it's the entire MPC project, programs, samples and all. Load it up on your MPC 500, 1000 or 2500.

Shit my bad. That's dope.

Shit, I'm doing my album all within the 500 too

Thats why I can't and will not download it because it'll mess up the flow I already began with. No offense.

But upload it to bandcamp, aint nothing like the finished product

I'm diggin' this, great Idea. Some interesting stuff in this project. I'm down with doing a whole project in the 500. Yo I'll green, you gonna do vocals as well in the 500?, that would be dope!

ralphyartis' wrote:I'm diggin' this, great Idea. Some interesting stuff in this project. I'm down with doing a whole project in the 500. Yo I'll green, you gonna do vocals as well in the 500?, that would be dope!

Yup vocals and all. And its much easier for me to work with vocals on a pad than a track. I learned the idea from working on the MV. Even though that's part DAW, the recording process just felt like resampling and layering samples like on any other sampler. I thought the 20 minute sample time would be enough for one song but its enough for 3 songs Without vocals, I'll say you can fit 5 songs when using the 500 like a DAW.

Ill-Green wrote:Thats why I can't and will not download it because it'll mess up the flow I already began with. No offense. But upload it to bandcamp, aint nothing like the finished product

Yeah, I get that.... sometimes when I'm writing, I quit listening to music altogether till I'm done. But I'll tell ya, I'm curious about how you approach it. Will you share the details one day?
Oh, and here's the finished product: http://analogsoundtrack.bandcamp.com/album/decycler

inflict3 wrote:so u did the whole album with the 500 in one project?? nice man, great job, i wanna hear this!!

Yeah, I was really proud of how I was able to keep things really minimal. It forced me to get really creative with how I used the samples.

mastasteez wrote:my bad. That's dope.

No sweat. Lemme know what you think if you get a chance to check it out.

ralphyartis' wrote:Some interesting stuff in this project.

Thanks!

I'll explain it, its just that my brain can't word it now.

I'm down to share methods. Maybe later when I'm chillin.

@RIGGS

I peeped a couple of your joints.I can definitely see your music in video games/movies/commercial jingles.Your sound is really diverse and artistic.

Ok, I'm ready to share.

Pretty much, I'll make a beat on the 500 using one sequence because I like live beats. All my beats are play-while-record tracks btw. Anyway, when all is done, its time to lay vocals. I go into Record Mode as if to sample and hit Play on the MPC to play the sequence. Then I hook up the mic to the Left input, adjust gain and whatnot, and then hit Do It to record my vocals over the sequence. My vocals then become a lone acapella and I assign a verse to a pad. And you can Overdub the vocals into the sequence or play with it like any other sample and manipulate it. Usually I use Extract to make certain words echo or make a phrase into a chorus. And for cuts and special effects I do the same process of direct recording.

Mixing levels and panning I do in Program Mode as well as take advantage of the filters and 4band EQ.

If you look at the 500 as just a sampler, then its just a sampler. But look at it like a DAW and sampler, then it becomes a full fledged studio

S.I.C.K THE DRUMGOD wrote:@RIGGS

I peeped a couple of your joints.I can definitely see your music in video games/movies/commercial jingles.Your sound is really diverse and artistic.

Hey, thanks!!

Ill-Green wrote:Ok, I'm ready to share.

Pretty much, I'll make a beat on the 500 using one sequence because I like live beats. All my beats are play-while-record tracks btw. Anyway, when all is done, its time to lay vocals. I go into Record Mode as if to sample and hit Play on the MPC to play the sequence. Then I hook up the mic to the Left input, adjust gain and whatnot, and then hit Do It to record my vocals over the sequence. My vocals then become a lone acapella and I assign a verse to a pad. And you can Overdub the vocals into the sequence or play with it like any other sample and manipulate it. Usually I use Extract to make certain words echo or make a phrase into a chorus. And for cuts and special effects I do the same process of direct recording.

Mixing levels and panning I do in Program Mode as well as take advantage of the filters and 4band EQ.

If you look at the 500 as just a sampler, then its just a sampler. But look at it like a DAW and sampler, then it becomes a full fledged studio

Nice! How do you line up programs with sequences? Do you do one program per seq or one program for each instrument or something else?

edit: Now you make me want to set the sequence loop to off and turn off the metronome and time correct and just play whatever... like a multitrack... man, you know, I've never tried that on the mp... oh, it's gonna happen! Thnx!