mixing on mpc, is it an impossible aim?

I use the MP for what it is good at... mixing not being one of them.

Why don't you set yourself a little challenge where you produce a beat and mix it in the MP and also track it out to the pc to mix it there. The MP mix will probably sound more cohesive, but that's where the challenge starts. Get to grips with your plug-ins and automation and keep comparing the difference in sound and what you prefer.

The people who sample from vinyl are halfway to getting a good sound right from the off and can probably get by with just an MPC, but if you intend to create sounds from scratch you will probably need either a bunch of hardware OR decent plug-ins to get your sounds to sit right in the mix. It may be a little bit anal, but there's no substitute for having dynamic control over every sound in your tracks.

Yeah, I really dislike recording the q-link sliders. It always seems to turn out not the way I wanted it. Like If I'm adjusting the level there will be a quick point at the beginning of the seq where the volume jumps around. I think because you MUST move the q-link before it is recorded... Any advice for me Menco?

I used to hate on the q-link too. I'm running JJOS1 (1K) now, and that one made a big difference for me. It's easier to set ur presets and stuff.

For song arrangement I always record trackmutes together with the q-link events. I just apply them in realtime. It took some time and practice for me to get me the exact results I wanted. I used to forget to set the range too. The smaller the range, the more precise the q-link will react.

That's how I basically do it. Nothing special. Maybe it's a 'u feel it or u don't' thing.

Hmmm... I haven't tried since I made the switch to JJ. Might be time to re-examine that technique.

i always track my beats out if it is for a project or being ready to recorded over. what ive found to et the cohesiveness is that if your samples are stereo, you need to track them into a stereo track. i used to track everything into mono tracks because i read that is what you are supposed to do. i found that my tracks didnt sound the way they did in the mpc. when i recorded the samples in stereo, like i recorded them into the mpc, and only the drums and bass into mono tracks, it sounded a lot closer to how the mpc sounded.

i just recently been recording synth basslines into stereo tracks too. they dont seem to lose anything on the low end. plus i compress it on the way in directly into an input of my interface instead of through the mpc. i record at 24/88.2 and can get tracks to sound almost identical to the track in the mpc. the only difference is the levels obviously, which is an easy thing to fix.

the only time i 2 track is if somebody needs a beat to write to and i havent tracked it yet. other than that, they all get tracked out into pt.

another suggestion is if you dont have an interface that has more than 2 inputs, get one. i track all four outs of the mpc 1k and 2 outs of my synths at the same time. this allows me to record the synth at 24/88.2 vs converting it to 16/44.1 by sampling into the mpc and then recording at 24/88.2.

i do sample my synths into the mpc though if there are a lot of synth parts, but then i still record them into stereo tracks.

i actually didn't bother reading anything in this thread. but can you mix on the mpc? yes. it has a mixer feature. use it.

EducatedHands wrote:i actually didn't bother reading anything in this thread. but can you mix on the mpc? yes. it has a mixer feature. use it.

Not as 'educated' as you think you are then??

i use the usb a lot.
you could resample tracks and use usb to transfer them to your daw. that way, you can move everything to the computer and finish the mixing there.
another way (which i use) is to move tracks from the mpc to the pc, do some mixing and edits, then move it back to the mpc.

I dont know about the bigger mpcs but i got a 1000, And if you ONLY mix in your MPC im guessing you have a pritty Good STANDAlONE AUDIO Inteface inorder for that to be satisfactory. ?

But then again if you have a excelent = Needle, dj mixer, turntable, cables , Clean fresh Records and just the MPC.. that could work quite nicely actually

J-tawn wrote:But then again if you have a excelent = Needle, dj mixer, turntable, cables , Clean fresh Records and just the MPC.. that could work quite nicely actually

Sampling exclusively from vinyl takes you most of the way there as you're utilising previously mastered material for your tracks.

thank you for the replies!

i'm gonna meditate them.

I just started using a mixer and compressor between my mpc and daw. I don't like to mix in the computer or on the mpc, so I picked up a soundcraft 10 channel mixer. Has great eq's pre's and makes my mix sound better than mixing in the box. The Art PRO VLA is bomb also. Things never sound as good mixed inside the daw.