Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
By takkin Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:25 am
Yet another question from me.

Just found a EB16 card for 70 british pounds, i'd mainly be using it for the filters as i'd like to have some in the MPC aswell as the Low pass filter. Is it worth it for that?

What are the filters like, do they have highpass and bandpass? A highpass would definetly come in handy for cleaning up hihats and other sampled percussion. I couldn't find any proper details on the filters apart from that theres a '4 band eq/filter' on the card.
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By JUKE 179r Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:55 am
Imho... I bought the 8 outs for cheap but never used it since I installed it. My money would have been better spent on the eb-16 even though some people don't like the effects. My drunken two cents .....
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By Lampdog Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:50 pm
takkin wrote:I couldn't find any proper details.......

2kxl manual.

Chapter 9: Effects (optional) ................................................................................... 137

Editing Effects .................................................................................................. 138
Turning Each Effect On or Off ......................................................................... 138
Multi-effects ..................................................................................................... 139
Setting the Effect Routing ................................................................................ 139
Reverb Effects ................................................................................................. 141
Editing Each Effect .......................................................................................... 143
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By peterpiper Wed Nov 11, 2009 2:07 am
Well. I got the EB16 too and use it from time to time (not that often I had thought when I bought it). I like it but I often EQ samples before sample them (cut off the low frequencies on a HiHat).
The filter/EQ section of the EB16 is one of the baddest things Akai did to the users (and bad doesn't mean good here :)).
Dont get me wrong, the sound is ok but it need some time to understand how this mofo work.

To make it easy for you:

Its not really what it looks like (I thought : Ok, a 4 band EQ).
Its a 4 band Filter. 1 HiPass, 2 BandPass and 1 LoPass

All filters are adjustable in frequency and volume. The bandpass filters are also got adjustable bandwidth (Q).

The frequencies of the filters are:

HiPass: 500Hz - 16000Hz

BandPass 1: 40Hz - 6300Hz

BandPass 2: 40Hz - 6300Hz

LoPass: 16Hz - 500Hz


The Volume of the filters are adjustable from -37dB (which means muted) to +12dB


The "zero" settings (I mean the settings when you dont have a difference to the unfiltered signal) are the following:

HiPass: 500Hz - 0dB

BandPass 1: frequency doesnt matter - -37dB (muted)

BandPass 2: frequency doesnt matter - -37dB (muted)

LoPass: 500Hz - 0dB


So if you want a pure HiPass Filter you'll have to mute the LoPass too (set to -37).
If you want a bandpass, set one of the bandpass filters to 0dB (or above) and mute the Hi and LoPass




As I tested a few things to write this post, I realized that some strange behaviour is goin on with the Bandpass filters.
To those who are interested in science :) The displayed frequencies are plain bulls...
I just did a test using white noise and the smallest Q setting (0) and recorded and analyzed it.
Although the 45 frequency values of both bandpassfilters are the same the real frequencies are not the same.
For example:
Bandpassfilter 1 (on Screen):

6300 Hz
5600 Hz
5000 Hz
4500 Hz
4000 Hz
.
.
.

Bandpassfilter 1 (analyzed real frequency):

6200 Hz
6200 Hz
6200 Hz
6200 Hz
6200 Hz
.
.
.

the filter really starts to cutoff more at the displayed value of 2200 Hz
The real frequency on this setting is 5500 Hz. Very strange is that the setting of 2800 Hz equals an analyzed frequency of 6900 Hz (higher than the highest available setting :D)


The Bandpassfilter 2 have totally different "real" frequencies for the displayed values mentioned above:

5790 Hz
5160 Hz
4640 Hz
4130 Hz
3680 Hz
3290 Hz
.
.
.

I analyzed all settings and I will post a list with all "displayed" and "real" frequencies soon.

moral of the story:

Dont count on the display of your gear. You better use ya f**** ear.

peace
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By Ben.H Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:14 am
I picked up an eb16 for $100 (i've since sold it) and I didn't really find it that good - i mostly just use the effects in ableton live.
Keep in mind the eb16 is a 10 year old digital effects card - the quality of every effect on that card isn't half of what you can get from a free vst
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By stryke Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:32 pm
I'm going to go out on a limb here and think that most people want it just to have it.Maybe because they want a "maxed out" MPC.(8outs,32megs.card reader,Eb16,what have you)But in all actuality you could probably do more,faster and easier with software.Most of us use a computer anyways(we are in the digital age)Soundforge and other programs are just as good if not better.


P.
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By Lampdog Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:21 am
I wanted mine all maxed out AND I actually used it quite a bit, not just to get a small clue on how something would sound w/ effects, but actual effects that I kept in the song(s) while tracking into Vegas, I left
the eb-16 effects in there cause it did what I wanted it to do.
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By Coz Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:37 am
The eb16 is the biggest piece of crap known to man! Reverbs - shit... Delays - shit... Absolutely nothing note worthy whatsoever! Save your money and forget the xl has any effects capability and your sound will benefit as a result.