What setup sounds most attractive to you guys? S950,S1000,S3

I posted this on future producers and I want to see what everyone here thinks

Ok...so i am really into intelligent hip hop like DJ krush, El-p, DJ Shadow, Bonobo, Boards Of Canada, Blockhead etc. I want to produce music where the character of the drum beat is the focus. I am finding either my 2000xl alone or my sampling skills are not producing the results i want as far as drum dynamics and I was considering the following...

A) Buy an S3000XL and midi the 2Kxl to it...possibly put the 8out board into the 2K and use the S3k as a treatment machine...running the 2k then into a mixer with each out channel on its own recording track to be mixed down
B) sell the 2KXL and buy an S950 or S1000 with the cash and send midi from ableton to sequence the drums.
C) Hook my MPD32 to one of the above rack samplers and run it into ableton or vice versa.
D) say F*ck it save for a year and buy sp1200...or 60II

Again im looking for a hard hitting drum sound...but I don't wanna pigeonhole my self into buying an old piece of gear and realizing I didn't need it to get the sound I want, I just needed a better needle and better drums...since I have access to alot of software. I almost want to sell the 2XL because i am paranoid about the screen going out someday.

any comments are helpful, I know this is a repetitive subject for most of you on this board. But I have limited cash and would like good feedback. THX

Also there is the option of selling all the hardware and just using the mpd and logic.....good results can be had in that way too.

if you want your beats to sound like dilla i think you need the casio sk1

get the 950 trigger with the XL or get a 60 for cheap, you can find for about 300 if you look hard enough

I know the above artists use alot of different techniques and gear to get results...the main samplers they use are the sp1200, ASR10, Mpc60, S1000, S950, I'm not neccesarily trying to sound like anyone in particular...I just want hard hitting drums to be an element to my compositions. I'm not a strictly hip-hop type person but i love making beat music and hiphop drums are my biggest inspiration. I guess if I was to choose songs id want to sound most like it would be

Reccuring by Bonobo
Duality by DJ Krush
Remix of Radiohead's Climbing Up The Walls by Fila Brazillia
Or all the shit Shadow did..I want things to be really lush yet modern
Harmonic 33's whole album

I am real interested in merging music styles and combining old and new gear to do it.

thanks for the quick feedback...rack sampler prices are dropping like flies and i wanna cop one for my sounds sake..but i am prepared dor the long haul of saving for the best gear if need be.

I practice...In fact I mostly treat my XL like a drum set like Jel or Odd Nosdam, like a live instrument. That's one thing that's attractive about the sp1200. But I don't have 8 outs board and was thinking I'd remedy this by buying a 3000xl and putting the board in the 2K. But then I have a rack sampler i might not neccesarily like or need and still have a 2k that i wont be using to its full potential in that scenario, and the screen life is on a countdown.


I don't own a laptop and could sell the xl and use it towards a hackintosh for 250 that works full...then get an s1000/950/3000xl and use the mpd and have the sampler midi to the laptop.

but the rawness is important and I've tried down sampling to 12bit on the XL. its just not ridin' like an old kit
I do love how she responds though and her live functioning in the OS

I'm looking for gear ideas based on what I've specified and am open to suggestions. I appreciate your feedback Lampdog.

maybe i should sell everything i have and get a mpc 3k with the manswell labs OS

and wow i've never see a 60 go for under like 600$ thats a rare find indeed.

I guess a question that would be helpful to my dilemma is that if you could pick only one piece of straight hardware mainly for drums and sparse sample manipulation...what would it be?

I don't really make strictly in the box sample based beats most of the time and prefer to add live instrumentation to sampled drum beats and backround accents. like create the backbone of the song in the 2Kxl the drop it in ableton and add bass guitar and soft synth.

I know that gear doesn't make a good producer. But I feel that when a good sound is achieved in the drums it inspires me to keep going and finish the composition.

just look at dubstep guys like rusko's studio lol..even though im not a brostep fanatic he makes hard hitting drums with little to nothing but sony acid and a casio keyboard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j71qvxns7C4

You have to realize that all the sound is processed by professional engineer before they release songs. So, it's quite possible that the original recording (before mastering) of those songs you mentioned above may not sound like the way you want anyway.
Although MPC-2000XL won't sound like SP-1200 (probably nothing sound like it, especially when a sample is stretched on SP-1200), it can sound pretty dope. If you think switching your gear can get you the sound tonality that you want, I'm sure you'll be disappointed.
I heard that DJ Krush samples on SP-1200, then sample that to computer (he switched to DAW earlier than other hip hop producer), although I don't know whether he still do that.
I do get gear lush too, time to time, but I'd like to say that you should give your MPC-2000XL more chance.

By the way, if you are importing drum samples to your XL from PC, try sample that sound with MPC, instead of importing them as WAV files.
I almost always sample from vinyl, and I sometimes intentionally sample drum samples with a bit too hot input (so it clips a bit), often I get good result.

I didn't read anything except the main post...

man, you need to just figure out how to get your drums and sounds to thump with the XL..

EQ your stuff on the way in from the sample source.. get a nice EQ unit...

record the sounds HOT, make sure that peak meter in the sample screen is all the way to the right, or one square from the edge of the screen...

if you got the eb16, use that overdrive distortion and the EQ... if there is power lacking.. (trick, open window on the mix section.. turn off the direct signal)

and when you got your samples in the machine.. turn them down a bit more than usual in the mixer and run the drums louder than usual... once it sits well in your ears.. two track that back to the computer running the signal from like -2,-3 or so up to 0.. hopefully you wont have anything peaking above 0.. it should sound thumping and good.

also, layer drums, add those 808 bass drops over your kick.. assign your kick drum to a second pad and turn the filter down to like 10 in the params window and turn the resonance up.

godxbOmb wrote:I guess a question that would be helpful to my dilemma is that if you could pick only one piece of straight hardware mainly for drums and sparse sample manipulation...what would it be?

mpc 2000 xl


try harder homey

or if you really need another piece to feel complete, just keep yer eyes peeled locally for something old and cheap and midi, and forget about what exactly it is and just use it and learn it.

I think i may go ahead and buy the s3000xl because I need the board out of it for the 8outs anyway. I can cop one cheaper($75) than buying the board by itself and that will give me a good piece to pair up with the XL. I dont know much about the s3000xl but i know it has been used on alot of house and lounge stuff.

There is still the issue of the screen going out randomly...I dont see the envision screen being around when i need it a few years from now(or months) and it costs as much as a rack sampler off ebay alone.

maybe one day ill buy a 60 or SP1200 or 950, ASR10 etc too see what its like..or meet sum1 who has one

I need the 8out board also because i plan too hook up guitar pedals to the xl and would like to record sessions of me playing live in multi track so i can eq it after.

and i probably will never get the eb16 just because i hear its not worth the price.
I also hear of some cats buying expensive phono carts to sample vinyl with and that, that makes a big difference.

You have to keep in mind that the big producers don't get their sound with only the hardware they have. They take their tracks to big expensive recording studios where they run the audio through real expensive hardware (pre-amps, EQ, comp, etc). This is what makes their beats sound warm and nice and fat... not their MPC.

The best investment you could possibly make for better sound is a good mixer or a good audio interface with quality preamps. EQ your samples before you sample them into the MPC, etc.

I went from an MPC500 to a 2500, then got a 2000XL, then an MPC60 and an S950...
The biggest sound improvement wasn't achieved with any of those machines... it was achieved when i bought a good audio interface, and drastically improved when i bought a proper mixer (Mackie Onyx series has amazing preamps for the price ).

Keep the 2000XL and get a good mixer/interface (my opinion).

an mpc and rack sampler is a great combo, regardless of whether or not it gives you the 'drum dynamics' you're after. and for $75 you can't go wrong.

godxbOmb wrote:I think i may go ahead and buy the s3000xl because I need the board out of it for the 8outs anyway. I can cop one cheaper($75) than buying the board by itself and that will give me a good piece to pair up with the XL. I dont know much about the s3000xl but i know it has been used on alot of house and lounge stuff.

....

amazing advice everyone. primarily i like to jam out for fun in my house...maybe play on the mpc while a friend scratches or plays bass so i guess i need to just try ways to treat samples b4 playing them.
might be a good idea to try manipulating sounds with a reel to reel

I know that tracks are mastered in studios with expensive compressors and what not...one of the biggest studios in the country is at a university where I live that has massively expensive outboard gear.

but i see people with sp's and mpc60's the sound coming out is already brittle and tape like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWNic0IbTk0
Also what is the chance of the screen frying out...I've heard most all of them do.

thanks for all the great tips