Mastering your music

I'm sure this has come up so I apologize if I'm covering old territory.Right now I have a mixer, a turntable and an MPC 1000 and a mac. Can I master this way? I mean, I don't have anything like Acid or cubase and I can't afford them right now, so I'll just have the MPC and some burning software.

first of all u would need some type of recording software so u can record ur beat.. as far as mastering they have software dedicated for it also but if u just wanna lay ur beats on cd the mpc and mixer should be enuff with a decent recording prog..

Sorry man. I'm new to this – thus the newbie forum – but I'll have to ask you to go a bit deeper. I need to have a mixer involved? Can't I just hook up the MPC to my PC and go from there? Where does the mixer fit in. Again, I apologize if this is an obvious question to most. Thanks for your response by the way.

Do u know what mastering is and how to do it?

Judgiing from your question, probably not. I just want to record my beats from my MPC1000 to a CD burner. Right now, I just have a burning program and the MPC. Is this possible or do I need something like Cubase?

you need to find a way to record the stereo outs to a wav file on your computer. its nice to have some decent wav editing software, but if you dont you should still be able to use like the built in sound recorder or whatnot. just dont expect much in the way of ease of use or editing/mastering capability.

once you got the wav file on your comp, then you can burn it to cd.

since you dont have editing software, you might want to take a look at nongs.com or downloads.com or other freeware sites for audio editors. many of them are free mainly because they suck, but if you spend the time and check out several freeware programs you might find one you like.

even if you don't do much to your wav file, like effects or wiernessess, you'd still want to at least normalize it, and its worth it in the long run to learn how to use dynamic processing and/or compression.

Thanks for your answers. I appreciate it. As of now, I realize that my MPC will show up on the mac when I plug it in with a USB cable. From there, I guess I drag and drop each sequence into toast – my burning program – and hope for the best. Is my home stereo a good indication of what the recording will sound like?

dustydigits wrote:Thanks for your answers. I appreciate it. As of now, I realize that my MPC will show up on the mac when I plug it in with a USB cable. From there, I guess I drag and drop each sequence into toast – my burning program – and hope for the best. Is my home stereo a good indication of what the recording will sound like?

thats not gonna work . . . the sequences are midi files not audio.however, i think on the 1000 you can resample as wav, so if you have enough memory you can make a whole arrangment and resave it as a wav file. THAT you could drop onto toast. otherwise you will want to record the audio outs of your mpc in real time to your computer.

your home stereo will be a start. it will sound different on better/worse systems. part of mastering is learning how your beats will sound on other systems. the best way to start learning that is to play your beats on as many systems as possible and try to get an overall idea of how things on your setup translate to others. then you can go back and change things (like turning bass up or down) for optimum results....

One last thing about recording. Can't I just convert my sequence to wav files in Toast?

That leads me to another question...as far as boosting the memory on my MPC, how do I go about getting the 128mb expansion? Who installs it? And finally, what is it? Do I drop by a computer store and ask if they know or will the music store be able to help me out.

dustydigits is planning to borrow my apple laptop that is running osx 10.3. i realize that the mpc shows up as a hard drive when plugged in. will the files be listed as they normally would on any other hard drive? once i find the files he wants to burn to cd, what applications will i need to do that. i have "soundedit 16" for working with sound files of all types as well as toast for burning cds. is there a web site that explains this in detail or do you think it'll be simple for me to figure out once i have the mpc in front of me.

thanks

if you play a midi file on your computer it wont have the sounds on the mpc. it will probably use general midi sounds. you need to record the AUDIO!

I realize that I have to record the audio. I guess what we're wondering is whether soundedit16 will do the trick.

Check out this tutorial... I think you might find it quite helpful!

http://www.futureproducers.com/tutorial ... 7ee05e1e94

somebody just tell him. Heres what you need.

Get a sound card such as the Digidesign Mbox

hook it up to your computer.

being that it comes with pro tools le, theres your editing software.

hook the mpc's s stereo outs to it.

hit record in pro tools. play on the mpc.

your set.

now you can burn to a cd after you hit save.


you HAVE to have a decent sound card if you want quality. Soundblaster just wont cut it(at least it doesnt for me). You have to record the audio into your computer. Seq, files are just the arrangement of notes. Not actual audio.