Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By kid christou Fri Jul 30, 2004 2:17 pm
peoples.

have owned a 2k for 6 years now. looking into advancing onto the mpc4k. features look amazing but need to know some fundamental points before i make the leap.

could someone who has used an mpc3000, mpc2k or mpc2kxl for production and now uses an mpc4k please answer the following questions:

1. does the mpc4k still possess that mpc type of groove, tightness and timing even though it has 960 divisions per quarter rather than 96 divisions per quarter like the previous models had.

2. i know that with a sampler what you put in you get out, but i feel the mpc 2k (and other models) added a certain sonic akai characteristic to my sounds when they were outputed through the D/A convertors. does the mpc4k add any of this sonic characteristic and is it the same, similar or different to the previous mpc's sonic characteristics

your words of wisdom are much appreciated
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By AWW_NAWW Fri Jul 30, 2004 4:03 pm
1. yes

2 yes

plus you have allot of LFO rates, Filters, better FX, and a whole host of other Shit to FUKC with

but warning if you are coming from a 2k classic you are going to have to recreate all of you programs and Sh!t but thats the only set back

Good luck
Last edited by AWW_NAWW on Fri Jul 30, 2004 4:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

By Earnest Magilakutti Fri Jul 30, 2004 4:13 pm
1. The timing is as tight or better than any other MPC or sequencer out there.
2. The sound is the same in my opinion but there are tons of effects and filters on the 4000 that will allow you to pretty much make any sound you want.The 4000 is a nice piece but make sure and learn what all it does because at first glance it will appear that you got ripped off if you don't really use it to it's full potential.The MPC 4000 aside from the 512mb of memory that can be installed and Large hardrive capabilites would be the equivalent of using an MPC 2k with a rack sampler like an s5000.You get tons of tweakabilty,it's multi-timbral,has a big display and it reads lots of diffrent sound formats.If you are really curious go spend $300-$400 on a S5000 or s6000(same thing) and hook it up to your MPC 2k and see what you can come up with.Once you start doing that you may not even want to use the MPC as a sampler anymore just to sequence the rack mount sampler.
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By Blue Haze Sat Jul 31, 2004 2:18 am
I came from a 2000XL the main difference was downtime to time alot of new functions if you hadn`t used a full sampler before and where the pages were for familiar function like mono which is now under polphony in the program page.. If you are familiar with a S5000 or old school 950 you will have less difficulty learning. But like AWW and Earnest said it will definitely give you a vast array of options to tweak and create your own sounds thru synsethis. Another thing the processor is way faster than 2000XL series so you can change the bits of the samples to 12bit easily for that mpc 60 sounds or do it in your computer by aksys. Good luck :D
Last edited by Blue Haze on Sun Aug 01, 2004 1:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

By F.O.B Sat Jul 31, 2004 5:12 pm
1. The sequencer still sounds great.


2. No the 4000 does not have as much character as the 60 or 3000. The

2000 sounded the worst out of all the mpc's. The 4000 is very

transparent and clean. Too clean...

By ONE Sat Jul 31, 2004 5:38 pm
I found the 4k really clean sounding too! I don't mind that at all. The thing is it's easy to dirty up clean sounds than it is to clean up dirty sounds, so it's cool with me. I used a 1k before switching to a 4k, and the 4k is much better. The 4k has a lot more punch to it, and the sequencer timing seems better.

By kid christou Sun Aug 01, 2004 8:25 am
thanks for all your replies. that clears up the timing/tightness issue. i am a touch concerned about the clean sound that comes out of the 4k but as you say you can dirty up a clean sound. out of curiousity has anyone got any tips or tehcniques on dirtying up a clean sound.

thanks again
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By AWW_NAWW Mon Aug 02, 2004 4:41 pm
in the sample section you can add effects directly yo the sample that allow you endless possiblities.

By glide Mon Aug 02, 2004 6:13 pm
mpc's tight akai sound .. no doupt, the only thing is the2k is so much more simple so its well faster in use, but the 4k is getting there via updates and if I look at the 200+ samples that are loaded in right now I have to give it props for keeping it together, and it just gets better and better..