Software vs. MPC?

This isn't a thread to start a debate. I just wanted to share something. Up until about 9 months ago, to make beats, I used Ableton. Nothing more, nothing less. Then I picked up an MPD24. This doesn't usually get much use until I hit the stage. This is good because otherwise, I'd be crying about how little I use it and how much it cost me.

Anyway, my 2000xl is on the way and I was wondering if anyone uses both software and MPC for production and how. For example: do you use software for live instrument and MPC for samples, etc.

Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't have bothered getting an MPC because I can make the same thing on the PC...what do you guys think and how can I expand and discover my horizons on both machines?

Thanks!

personally, I use the MP for everything except FX. But, if you want to use both, I would say that many people have had success with using the MP as an easy place to sketch things out and flesh them out with the pc. MP's are easy and reliable for live use, but if you already do that with the PC, why switch?

If you are fully use to using ableton already and an mpd, a 2000xl is prob gonna frustrate you after the novelty of having it wears off yet it is nice to load up sounds and come up with ideas and skeleton tracks or midi it up to ableton to trigger and sequence drumracks

Sounds like buyers remorse to me.

At least wait till you get it before you jump to negative conclusions.

Coz wrote:Sounds like buyers remorse to me.

At least wait till you get it before you jump to negative conclusions.

Well...no, I'm not remorseful about anything (yet). I'm asking how I can get better and more creative using the MPC in combination with software and what new avenues the 2000xl opens up.

Only you can answer the questions you're asking.

I used the XL for a long time then moved to PC only producing, but now I use a 2500 in tandem with the computer. The best of both worlds in my opinion.

I know my way around various software sequencers but I just want my music making to be more hands-on and organic now. That's where the MP and a bunch of vinyl comes into its own. Searching through endless menus and sounds with a mouse is boring to me these days, but I know I have the tools to polish up the raw sounding ideas I track out from the MP.

Treat the XL as a quality scratch pad and you can't go far wrong.

Make a beat on the xl, track it out to ableton, rearrange it into something new, sample new beat into the xl, chop it up add some things, track new beat out to abelton, rearrange, sample into xl, chop and add, etc...

I've done this with my 404 and FL, and it's absolutely bananas how many times you can flip your own samples over and over and over again.

I use my 1000 with Live, and it's changed my workflow completely. I find using the laptop a bit soul-destroying at times, there's no magic there. So to be able to get away from the screen is refreshing. I think with any hardware you get a certain buzz that you simply can't get with software. I've found little things on the MPC that add it's unique character to the sound/samples i'm using. Ableton simply doesn't do that.

I'm a cubase/nuendo kat. So I find that by combining both, gives you a better aray of tools to work with. Ak.sys which is the host s/w for the mpc 4k/Z series samplers, allows me to use it to work in conjunction with my daw for midi tracking/triggering samples.

It eliminates accessing functions directly from the mpc itself thus helping me keep my workflow going.

I started off with an MPC before anything. When I got the hang of it, I loved it and I still do. I got no intention of ever trading it in. However, up until recently I was recording everything analogue rather than software. Now though I recently bought a macbook pro, apogee duet and logic. I'm glad I learnt production the way I did first off through analogue methods but I think in hindsight it would have worked out cheaper and easier if I just went the software route

I use both and this is only my opinion but MPC's are just an added extra. No one needs an MPC you can do it all on software. Only my opinion of course

kwazi wrote:This isn't a thread to start a debate. I just wanted to share something. Up until about 9 months ago, to make beats, I used Ableton. Nothing more, nothing less. Then I picked up an MPD24. This doesn't usually get much use until I hit the stage. This is good because otherwise, I'd be crying about how little I use it and how much it cost me.

Anyway, my 2000xl is on the way and I was wondering if anyone uses both software and MPC for production and how. For example: do you use software for live instrument and MPC for samples, etc.

Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't have bothered getting an MPC because I can make the same thing on the PC...what do you guys think and how can I expand and discover my horizons on both machines?

Thanks!

i've been trying to get into the software thing, but as i am noticing or feeling is that its to easy to make music on the comp, i need a challenge, my hardware does that for me. you have to think more about how your going to place your notes and what not,you have to visualize the music in your head.ive been a hardware guy since birth,just me tho comps work great for quick music,but something with meaning and feeling i have to use hardware.

havent yet tried using my mpc with software,i'm just not set up for it, but i can transfer sounds from my pc to my mpc that seems to work pretty well for me,i'm sure theres guys on here that live by mpc and software i'm just not at tha point in my music yet, i'm a hands on type of creator.



just my 2cents

BGBEATS wrote:If you are fully use to using ableton already and an mpd, a 2000xl is prob gonna frustrate you after the novelty of having it wears off yet it is nice to load up sounds and come up with ideas and skeleton tracks or midi it up to ableton to trigger and sequence drumracks

For me ableton is great for building loop based sequences but when it comes to fine editing any part of the song it becomes much more difficult in ableton.

I think it's easier and more precise doing things on the comp but I don't think precision is necessarily always good thing. Having imperections in you're recording can really give it rawness and realness like unquantizing the drums for example.

I think you can get into the habit of focussing too much on what a song looks like on the screen rather than how it sounds. Doing beats on the mpc and a multi track recorder like I used to, you don't have that luxury which is a good thing because you're basing recording on what you hear not what you see.

The one thing that has swayed me into software though, was the fact that you can put stuff together quicker than on an multi track and time saving is definitely a big thing with me

I try to keep it simple.

Like Erick Sermon said: "It's all in the mind". I know cats that use hardware and get wonderful results. I also know cats that have never even tried hardware and they get wonderful results too. Remember that 9th's career got started with FL - even Threat on Black Album is an FL beat.

For me, mpc's limitations makes me work harder and push the limits further. First mpc I ever owned was XL, then 2,5K, then XL again and now 3K and 2,5K.
I use mpc for the framework of the beat. I used to arrange sequences into songs on the mp before I had a DAW. I've rocked Logic now for about one and a half years and I couldn't live without it anymore. What I do in Logic is just mixing and arranging the song. Effects and the visual interface makes the song arrangement so easy and comfortable that if I hadn't got Logic, the outcome of my music would be probably much poorer.

U can of course make it without a DAW. In that case, u gotta have some good rackgear and a decent recorder. I mean, mpc is a great tool to make music but in this kind of music where u are making records, the sound is a huge factor. I use a dbx 166xl compressor and 215eq to pre-process the kick and the snare(main elements of the beat in most cases) before they go DAW via my soundcard. IMHO mpc(sp, eps etc.) is the most vital part of hiphop production: hardware sampler/sequencer/drum machine is the place where the most crucial thing is made. I'm talking about the structure of the beat, like you probably already guessed. If the structure of the beat is wack, u ain't gon do shit with all the hi-fi über mixing tools nor a "produced" sound that u get with mixing. A fat result is in the first place due to the arrangement of the beat. Samples, drums, layering, basslines, additional sounds - and how u cook up those things to work together as a whole song.

Software is a great thing to open many many more doors for a great sound for almost anyone on this planet. It can be the only place where u make music. In my mind, hardware + software makes the most powerful combo to make complete songs(including vocals, mixing, mastering, the framework of the beat).

Yep, that's what I gotta say about this And yeah, I actually tried to keep it short but I couldn't have said it in a shorter way