MPC vs MPD ???

Hey guys, i've got a question about mpc/d's. I would really really love an MPC! but due to monetry issues i cant afford a decent setup. I've had Decks for 5 years and have always been interested making and sampling music which is why i looked into an mpc as an upgrade to creating my own music. Ive been looking at the Korg Padkontrol as an alternative to an mpc, and after sifting through the usual youtube crap have found a few videos that seem to interface the machine with a computer program to sample and produce beats. Obviously its still a midi controller and not designed to exclusively produce music but the Korg PadKontrol is designed to intergrate other instruments and data into 1 unit;

As an MPD lets you assign a MIDI message to each pad, much like an MPC, could i use a computer to assign samples and beats to the pads and then start producing music through a program?
So can this be used to mimic the pads of an MPC?

I understand that this may not be covered by your knowlage base but the MPD community is hardly thriving and any help will be much much appreciated.

Regards Dan

MPD or MPK 49 as Lamp suggested, Battery3, or Guru and Reaper to track your beats to, that's all you need to make tracks. Unless you got one of the newer macs with built in low latency sound cards, you will need an audio/midi interface. Either way you looking at 500-600.

Thanks guys, I'm more interested as using a pad machine to control my input, i was wondering if you knew if an mpd can be used to control samples and loops, not just create beat patterns. The padkontrol comes with 7 programs so i guess that would be more beneficial?

cheers

Ok, I have to weigh in here. The MPK, while a decent idea in theory, will likely be clumsy to use. I tried a similar setup in a store set up to Apple's Garageband(a supprisingly powerful DAW considering it is free with the computer, though for professional use you'd likely want to upgrade to Logic at some point) and found myself working with the drum pad controllers more often while experimenting. I prefer Macs to PCs for audio simply because Apple has their loop based programs down(Garageband, Logic), though ProTools is better for instruments and vocals. ProTools runs on both systems. Anyway, another thing you want to look at on the MPDs and MPCs versus the MPK is that they have more banks to store your samples in, which means more sounds, with the exception of the MPC500, which only has the advantage of a couple extra features, the card slot, and more inputs. If you are producing electronica(including hip-hop and r&b) then the MPC will become a centerpiece of your system, otherwise you can definitely get by with even the MPD24. It is critical to have a drum pad controller or beat production center for a home studio since you do not have enough room to set up a true drum kit and mic it properly normally, unless ya crib is huge. You definitely will want to remember that all of this takes alot of desk space and that you will need to find a way to neutralize the sound of your computer running.

padkontrol and mpd are in essence ..the same damn thing. give or take a few knobs or sliders.and the PK has a roll and flam square !

dont forget about Fruityloops or Reason.

Personally, to me, FruityLoops seems too counterintuitive, much like I feel Ableton is. Reason may be worthwhile as long as it is ProTools compatible. The reason you would want a DAW that would allow for output to ProTools is if you needed to take it to a studio to finish, most of those use either ProTools(most often) or Logic(which is compatible with ProTools output files).

fruity loops can do just fine with any pad controller. its easy as hell to link the pads, knobs and sliders with a right click on what you want to control and then hit/move the controller that you want to control. i started out on fl studio and picked it up in a couple of days. there is a ton of powerful features in fl studio, and automation is really simple.

and fl is as compatible with pro tools as reason or anything else, although there isnt an rtas version and it is pc only. but you can buy a vst wrapper for pro tools if you need to rewire it.

if you needed to take your project to a pro tools studio, or work with someone who prefers pro tools, all you have to do is render each individual track to 16/44.1 and import the audio files. i do it all the time because i used to use fl studio and now work inside pro tools. my guy uses fl studio and we import beats he made into pro tools for mixing and tracking vox. its a little bit of a pain in the ass, but it really only takes about 5 minutes extra or so. it really is a non issue.

the only reason im sticking up for fl studio is because it is inexpensive and is really powerful. plus it has a ton of good instruments and fx, plus it supports vsti/vst's. its win/win. i switched because i have basically moved to a hardware setup (fx and instruments) and a dedicated multitracking software suits my needs better.

you do not need pro tools to make good music.

wtf is a pro tools output file? your exporting standard .wav files or mp3's if you bought the upgrade out of pro tools. just like fl studio, logic, ableton, and im pretty sure every other daw out there, cheap or expensive.
good luck, future.

peace

yep... you gotta start somewhere. I think reason is a very worthwhile investment because you can use it standalone, or as a ReWire slave to a DAW. I think alot of people are really happy rewiring Reason to Live. Flexibility, and price isnt too bad (compared to ProTools with their proprietary hardware)

cozy wrote:wtf is a pro tools output file? your exporting standard .wav files or mp3's if you bought the upgrade out of pro tools. just like fl studio, logic, ableton, and im pretty sure every other daw out there, cheap or expensive

a Pro Tools Session (or a Cubase CPR file, or Logic equivalent) file is basically the PT version of a SMF, with the audio files saved too. Plus any effect settings and all that extra stuff. So yeah, in any DAW or soft synth rack you can bounce to multitrack, but you don't keep any of the automation and project settings, it all gets rendered destructively. plus it takes alot more room to bounce multitrack anyway.

So yeah anyone who goes to a studio with a multitrack set of WAVs or AIFFs will be able to work, but if you have the PTS file even better. Same goes for any other DAW.

what up mesa. i know what a pro tools session file is, but he said pro tools output file, which there is no such thing. at the end of the day, you have your pro tools session files, and you audio files along with the fade files or whatever theyre called and the wave cache. you dont need any of them coming out of one daw and going to another, except for the wav files (audio files). so my question still stands. and i was really just being a smart azz because the person who wrote that seems to be throwing some bs out there.

Anyway, another thing you want to look at on the MPDs and MPCs versus the MPK is that they have more banks to store your samples in

can an mpd really hold samples? i thought it was just a midi controller. the original poster should know that a midi controller isnt going to hold any samples because it is designed to control virtual instruments, or hardware. the banks on a midi controller are so that you have more than one set of pads to assign to a project. thats it. on the mpc, you can have 4 banks of 16 samples per program which is actually storing the sounds in ram. a midi controller doesnt have sample memory. it may have bank memory, but that would be it as far as i can tell. and i dont think either pad controller that we are talking about has this feature.

got you, cozy...

but one thing is while the WAV files might be included with the session file, their location in the song is stored in the session file. That means that if someone were to send me a PTS file with the WAVs, I can reconstruct the song in Cubase if I want to, but I have to know where all the clips (or audio events, whatever they are called in PT) belong... As in, is this vocal take before this other one? how many times does the snare drum loop? At what point does the piano come in?

you know what i'm saying? that's just IF you dont bounce to multitrack.
and yeah neither MIDI controller can store anything but SysEx (like note numbers assigned to pads and whatnot) just like you said.


^^^
to whoever is looking to spend money on this stuff, look: the banks only are a transpose function, it only tells the controller to send a higher/lower set of note data. don't look at a machine and assume that pads=sounds. MIDI is not AUDIO! Just read the item description, and if you have a problem figuring out how you will fit it into your studio then you really do not need the item!

good luck

^^^
dodgedriver, yeah the X-Y pad is cool on the padkontrol.... I use it for rolls all the time, and you can EASILY (like 3 button presses, or using the "scene" editor software) change the CCs for the X-Y pad, for instance pitch/mod, filter params, whatever you want

FutureTopProducer wrote:Hey guys, i've got a question about mpc/d's. I would really really love an MPC! but due to monetry issues i cant afford a decent setup. I've had Decks for 5 years and have always been interested making and sampling music which is why i looked into an mpc as an upgrade to creating my own music. Ive been looking at the Korg Padkontrol as an alternative to an mpc, and after sifting through the usual youtube **** have found a few videos that seem to interface the machine with a computer program to sample and produce beats. Obviously its still a midi controller and not designed to exclusively produce music but the Korg PadKontrol is designed to intergrate other instruments and data into 1 unit;

As an MPD lets you assign a MIDI message to each pad, much like an MPC, could i use a computer to assign samples and beats to the pads and then start producing music through a program?
So can this be used to mimic the pads of an MPC?

I understand that this may not be covered by your knowlage base but the MPD community is hardly thriving and any help will be much much appreciated.

Regards Dan

Dj toomp uses a laptop, reason 4, and a korg nano key

so the answer would be (if you didn't get it yet): it doesn't matter what you get, it won't make a difference

toomp can get mainstream radio quality music out of just that equipment.

and nano key would be better cuz it has more buttons, and is essentially the same thing as the pad(but with more buttons, more samples, more things)

i think it would be worth it to just keep saving up for an mpc. if you can afford an mpd or mpk, you can definitely afford a used mpc. a great deal comes around every once in a while and you might regret spending money on an mpd or mpk when you see an mpc on ebay for a good price and your stuck with an mpd. that is, if you highly prefer an mpc over mpd. with an mpd you'd be making music on the computer, and you wouldnt be able to use samples (unless you had a good daw, like fruity loops or reason or something) but then you'd have to buy that program. i just think that if you can afford that, it would be worth saving up and waiting until you can afford a real mpc.

sounds like you may be interested in the Native Instruments Maschine... combination of both 16 pad midi controller interface and custom software for tracking beats...