jjos2 onboard synthesizer tips: a sampler IS a synth

maaaaan i had no idea THAT existed
the saying's been around long before SNL used it

Nym wrote:
first tip - have a folder full of reference tones on your mpc. 60 hertz, middle C refernece tones of the SINE, SAW, SQUARE, and TRIANGLE waves. also keep white noise and pink noise, too.

hey Nym, i got a question about that -

i used audacity to make sine, square and sawtooth tones at middle c (as 256hz) but ive been googling and found people saying middle c is 261hz - any ideas whats the right frequency or where i can get the official line on this business?

A4 is 440 everyone says that

hm i am probably wrong, i was going on ancient memory. i don't remember what the middle c is, and now i'm real confused

i mean, you could always just ssample whatever and then play a C from a VST or previous multisampled inst pgm and then tune the reftone to that by ear. that'd work

or use a guitar tuner. that also would work.

Thanks a lot Nym. I'm deffinately going to take some time to try to implement some of this knowledge. Also Beach_Break, thanks for posting the link to those SOS articles. Just checking out the first one shows me that this is exactly the kind of thing I've been looking for.

yeah man , 261.63Hz = C4 , 'middle c'. imo, if your gonna make a wave to use as an instrument, i'd go with an "A" , like was previously commented, 'A' is an even number, and therfor not subject to 'rounding off' error ..

here's a good explanation:

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/notes.html

[http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/graphics/notes.GIF]

great effort nym.

but seriously. the essence of subtractive synthesis (as the name sugests) is filtering. . The Problem with the mpc 1k is that the filter does not sound very musical (to say the least). I am not saying that there are no ways to to creativ stuff using nyms method, but the soundquality compared to other subtractive synths will just not match. The Korg DW 6000/8000 operated basicly in the same way as nym described. But they had analog filters and more modulating possibilities. Also early samplers like the emu I - II and Emax had great sounding filters and people used them with the same idea in mind as nym. I am convinced that the results on those old samplers will sound much better than on the mpc. I would even go as far as to say that my ensoniq mirage (a stoneage samler) would produce better sounding results for "sample-synthesis" then my mpc 1000....

i typically use the filter w/ qlink afterwards to control the expression of the sound, not necessarily to create a new sound. that said i have no real issue with how the filters sound in the mpc - listen to the opening of my track "the sickness" to hear how ground tremblingly hot they can be (headphones or subwoofer are a prerequisite for this one)

ALSO, i only ever use the lowpass filter, reallly...occasionally others (like in Divining Rod, one of the songs i posted in this thread earlier)

http://nymantics.com/thesickness.mp3 <= heavy use of the mpc1000 low pass filter throughout. lends a somewhat eerie movement to the lead sample.

these days, if i'm after a different filter sound, i use Ohmforce's Frohmage freeware filter plugin - by far my favorite filter plugin i've ever used, and it's free. an incredibly enticing warm sound - i'm not one to use the "low end theory" when sampling from records, but if i were, i'd use this one because it's just lovely.

the mpc filters to me are more just raw dogs. they are what they are - i don't use em on my record samples (rarely, anyway) and when i do i often replace it in my final mixdown with frohmage just on principle.

i mostly use the filter only for hi pass filter on stuff like hi hats ...every track is hipassed hihats n percussion...i gotta agree the filter is kinda limited , but not as bad as the "lfos"..

@ NYM : " i typically use the filter w/ qlink afterwards to control the expression of the sound, not necessarily to create a new sound."

exactly my point. you are not using the mpc as a synth but as a sample playback machine.

i fuked wit the lfo's for the first time on my 1g last night. i though that was dope. another reason im happy to switch from 2kxl to 1g

primebeatz wrote:

Nym wrote:don't be a debbie downer, tony

What in the world?? Is that some old saying from the 50's or something?

haha, i thought me and my wife where the only ones who said that.

nice thread revival

I cant believe this thread has had 1200+ views and only 20+ comments, lots of lurkers here?

More lurkers than you shall ever know

NYM dropping the knowledge...