Mixer Advice

I just got an MPC 1000 and am anxious to start sampling w/it, but am unsure as to which mixer I should get. As of right now my only gear that I have are a Stanton turntable and the MPC. I mainly want to sample from the turntable, but would like to have the option to sample from a cd player, tape deck, and/or tv (if that's even possible). Anyway, I don't know anything about mixers other than that I need it as a means for sampling. Any recommendations for a mixer in the $100-$300 range that would work well for what I want to do would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!!!!

a dj mixer would do the job.

if you want to save money (and get a good pre-amp, better than any dj mixer you'll get on your budget) you can use an older hi-fi amps to pre-amp/amp and route your inputs. just make sure it has a phono input.
look for harman kardon, maraantz and nakamichi. i find these old amps on the street all the time. they sell for nothing in hock shops.

beach_break wrote:a dj mixer would do the job.

if you want to save money (and get a good pre-amp, better than any dj mixer you'll get on your budget) you can use an older hi-fi amps to pre-amp/amp and route your inputs. just make sure it has a phono input.
look for harman kardon, maraantz and nakamichi. i find these old amps on the street all the time. they sell for nothing in hock shops.

Yeah I was thinking a dj mixer, but was hoping to get some specific recommendations about which mixer would be a good choice w/out having to spend a ton of $. Also, if I get a dj mixer I wouldn't need a pre-amp as well right?

In the $100-$300 range u can find some very nice dj mixers. Just shop around. Vestax, numark for example have some good mid-range dj mixers.

you can sample from the tv directly in the mpc via the tv headphone jack

beach_break wrote:a dj mixer would do the job.

if you want to save money (and get a good pre-amp, better than any dj mixer you'll get on your budget) you can use an older hi-fi amps to pre-amp/amp and route your inputs. just make sure it has a phono input.
look for harman kardon, maraantz and nakamichi. i find these old amps on the street all the time. they sell for nothing in hock shops.

yes, right...
vestax mixers are good and not too much expensives
i got a vestax samurai from 2004, it kicks asses!

Thanks for the advice

I was checking this one out:
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=632024

Any opinions?

I was also wondering if you guys think that it would come w/the cables/plugs that I'll need for connecting it to the turntable and MPC or if I'll need to buy those seperately

^^^i have that mixer. the VMC line are suitable for home djing. but i find the sound quality for sampling to be less than satisfactory.
have a look at vestax's PMC line.

Mondeus wrote:I was also wondering if you guys think that it would come w/the cables/plugs that I'll need for connecting it to the turntable and MPC or if I'll need to buy those seperately

you don't usually get leads with a mixer, but they're cheap and easy to buy

beach_break wrote:^^^i have that mixer. the VMC line are suitable for home djing. but i find the sound quality for sampling to be less than satisfactory.
have a look at vestax's PMC line.

I could definitely afford the Vestax PMC06Pro 2 Channel for $350:
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=632023

But do you think that it would be worth an extra $50 to go for the PMC05III:

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=633207

...that connection for an external effect system is intriguing me.

the effect send/return is no deal breaker -- it's probably best to sample in without effects. once in the mpc resample (by using individual outs going to an effects unit and then into the record in on the mpc).

however, the pmc-05 looks to have two stereo outs while the pmc-06 looks to have only one. i might be wrong on this, just from looking at pics online. that might be worth the extra $50 if you're using the mixer to hook up your tv, cd and decks to your stereo as well as for sampling.

it looks like neither mixer has balanced outputs. once again check this out, i'm just going on a quick look. yet the record-in on my mpc is balanced.

what do people think? good idea to get a mixer with balanced outs?

I would get this:.
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or http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT


you usually have to pay a bit more for balanced outs on a DJ mixer, it's probably not worth it because the sound sources going into the mixer won't be balanced. You will always get some noise from vinyl sources anyway, and if you want perfect quality sampling from CD then you could get a cd player with digital out and connect that straight to the mpc, not through a mixer.

In fact, re-reading the original question - you don't need a mixer at all to sample most sources (cd player, tv etc.) you only need it (or a phono pre-amp) to sample from vinyl, and only then if the turntable doesn't have a pre-amp built in.

beach_break, how does having extra outputs help hook up more inputs?
Edit: oh I see what you mean having the mixer output going to both the stereo and the mpc at the same time. That could be useful, so you can sample while listening to it through the stereo

Pastor-of-Muppets wrote:or http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT


you usually have to pay a bit more for balanced outs on a DJ mixer, it's probably not worth it because the sound sources going into the mixer won't be balanced. You will always get some noise from vinyl sources anyway, and if you want perfect quality sampling from CD then you could get a cd player with digital out and connect that straight to the mpc, not through a mixer.

In fact, re-reading the original question - you don't need a mixer at all to sample most sources (cd player, tv etc.) you only need it (or a phono pre-amp) to sample from vinyl, and only then if the turntable doesn't have a pre-amp built in.

beach_break, how does having extra outputs help hook up more inputs?
Edit: oh I see what you mean having the mixer output going to both the stereo and the mpc at the same time. That could be useful, so you can sample while listening to it through the stereo

Yeah I see what you're saying; I really wouldn't need a mixer to sample...although like you said I'd need at least a pre-amp to sample from my turntable (I'm assuming that my turntable doesn't have a built in preamp because I run it through my stereo right now and have to crank the volume to full blast for it to play at a decent volume). I was just thinking that a mixer would be more useful than a pre-amp in the longterm as I begin to grow into my MPC and add to my gear. However, I'm pretty ignorant as to what benefits a mixer would provide me over a pre-amp...so maybe a pre-amp would be the place to start for me to save some $.

Now that I think about it, maybe I should just get a cable first and try to start messing around w/recording into the MPC. As far as I can tell this looks like what I would need:

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=330489

What do you all think?

Thank you everyone for your responses! As you can tell I don't know anyone else w/an MPC and am quite ignorant when it comes to sampling making beats

Mondeus wrote: (I'm assuming that my turntable doesn't have a built in preamp because I run it through my stereo right now and have to crank the volume to full blast for it to play at a decent volume).

hmm, it's not just the volume that a RIAA pre-amp adjusts - it does some pretty serious equalisation as well, because bass is very low in vinyl recording (to stop the needle jumping out of the groove when it hits a loud bass note.) So I'd expect it to sound shit even when you turn the volume right up. But check the manuals for your turntable, some Stanton tables can be switched to line-level input and so don't need a pre-amp.

Mondeus wrote: I was just thinking that a mixer would be more useful than a pre-amp in the longterm as I begin to grow into my MPC and add to my gear.

yes, that's certainly true - but unless you plan on DJing you might be better with a preamp plus a studio-style mixer, not a DJ mixer which only has two channels. it depends what you plan to do long-term.

Mondeus wrote:However, I'm pretty ignorant as to what benefits a mixer would provide me over a pre-amp...so maybe a pre-amp would be the place to start for me to save some $.

well, as well as providing a phono preamp, it lets you mix two inputs into one output, obviously!
whether that's useful depends what you want to do.

Mondeus wrote:Now that I think about it, maybe I should just get a cable first and try to start messing around w/recording into the MPC. As far as I can tell this looks like what I would need:

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=330489

What do you all think?

that's the right cable to connect something with RCA outputs to your MPC.
that would be fine for sampling from a CD player or tape deck, but like I said above, a turntable with phono output (not line-level output) isn't just quiet without a phono stage, it's distorted so there's hardly any bass. so that cable might let you sample from a turntable, but it will sound bad.

Mondeus wrote:Thank you everyone for your responses! As you can tell I don't know anyone else w/an MPC and am quite ignorant when it comes to sampling making beats

practice and read.