2KXL A to D converters are legit

A major topic i never paid mind to in the past when i had an XL. but now on logic 8 and my interface is the Traktor 10 i/o device i must say i notice the difference. Basically to the point of where I don't even do sample based production any longer because that thick sound is gone. I am sampling through phono ins on my DJM 800 pioneer mixer, (im aware of the RIAA bass eq in the PHONO ins) I will probably invest in a 2000 classic at some point in the future just to have around to use for sampling before i dump it onto my daw. I've moved away from the mpc before, idk why but i always come back and when i do again, i'll probably ignore my thousands of $ worth of equipment and spend a few months back on the XL. just my thoughts.

hey man, what ever works and what ever gear sounds good to your ears!

Yeah i switched to strictly software and im regretting selling my 3000 because the sound is just amazing. It does take a little bit of extra time to sample your drums into the mpc and then back into your daw but it really does make your drums sound much thicker. I have the 4000 now and it sounds good but want to sell it and get another 3000 just to run my drums thru it. It really makes a world of difference

You wouldn't have to get a whole MPC to get that sound, just grab an old rack sampler. But it's definitely a charm I enjoy as well with my classic.

m56p87 wrote: just grab an old rack sampler.

Any recommendations on old rack samplers?

Most would say the s900/950 for that classic 12 bit sound. But If you want a similar sound to the mpc2k/xl I would recommend a s2000 (super cheap) or an s3000/s3200 I found that the s3200 matched the best with the 2k/xl but those are much more rare. You could grab an s2000 for less than 100$ us If you want, youll get that nice a/d conversion to 16 bit. You'll also get the classic filters and I believe timestretching, that combined with the a/d process gives you everything "sonically" specific to the MPC 2k series.

Purists might argue that since the s2000 predated the 2k series by a few years it's probably not the same circuitry etc.. But I don't think anyone will hear your samples and say "hey! That's some bullshit fakery! Thats the s2000 not the MPC 2k" lol.

Definitely worth it IMHO, I love the converters on my 2k classic. It's like having a "better" button on my samples.

Thanks! Im pretty familiar with the Akai rack samplers, I was just wondering if their is more out their, you know different brands. Im thinking of grabbing an S900 or 950 to experience that sound myself.

Im most familiar with the akai series as well, but i had a friend with a Yamaha tx16w which he liked a lot. It's 12 bit and had a ton of filter types, made in the late 80s so the a/d would definitely do some coloring.

m56p87 wrote:Im most familiar with the akai series as well, but i had a friend with a Yamaha tx16w which he liked a lot. It's 12 bit and had a ton of filter types, made in the late 80s so the a/d would definitely do some coloring.

Sadly the filtersection of the TX16w is the bad thing about this sampler its weird and doesn't really cut away in a way of any other filter. But the sound of the TX16W is great. The alternative typhoon OS made a new machine out of this sampler (compareable to what JJ did for the MPC1000)


you can hear some samples here

http://soundcloud.com/pp0815/borat-drums-tx16w

http://soundcloud.com/pp0815/tx16w-old-dirty

http://www.divshare.com/download/9896805-18a

I got some more samples but I need to upload it first.

peace

peterpiper wrote:you can hear some samples here

http://soundcloud.com/pp0815/borat-drums-tx16w

http://soundcloud.com/pp0815/tx16w-old-dirty

http://www.divshare.com/download/9896805-18a

I got some more samples but I need to upload it first.

Nice post! That shit sound ILL!

peterpiper wrote:Sadly the filtersection of the TX16w is the bad thing about this sampler its weird and doesn't really cut away in a way of any other filter. But the sound of the TX16W is great.

Damn I'm guessing it just had cheap weak digital filters? Thats to bad, seemed like a cool mix. Almost like having some of the s5000 features (a ton of filters) but with a s900 12 bit sound.

peterpiper wrote:

m56p87 wrote:Im most familiar with the akai series as well, but i had a friend with a Yamaha tx16w which he liked a lot. It's 12 bit and had a ton of filter types, made in the late 80s so the a/d would definitely do some coloring.

Sadly the filtersection of the TX16w is the bad thing about this sampler its weird and doesn't really cut away in a way of any other filter. But the sound of the TX16W is great. The alternative typhoon OS made a new machine out of this sampler (compareable to what JJ did for the MPC1000)


you can hear some samples here

http://soundcloud.com/pp0815/borat-drums-tx16w

http://soundcloud.com/pp0815/tx16w-old-dirty

http://www.divshare.com/download/9896805-18a

I got some more samples but I need to upload it first.

peace

did you use the typhoon os to do these? that is badass! also the last one when you pitched the old dirty beat, can you do that type of thing on the fly, like when its playing? or did you program it in and sequence it afterwards? what is the sample time like for these things?
it sounded like you pitched the sample to a key, that was super sick.

^looks like you can either use the initial 1.5mb (16 seconds at mono) or upgrade to 6mb for about a minute of mono sample time. Should be cheap to upgrade?

damien907 wrote:
did you use the typhoon os to do these? that is badass! also the last one when you pitched the old dirty beat, can you do that type of thing on the fly, like when its playing? or did you program it in and sequence it afterwards? what is the sample time like for these things?
it sounded like you pitched the sample to a key, that was super sick.

Yes Typhoon was used. The Yamaha OS is just awful to use. There is no logic in the workflow IMO.

The demo of the last link is a demonstration of the different samplerates of the TX. It can sample at 50 kHz, 33 kHz, 25 kHz and 16 kHz. BUT. If you still want to get more dirty you can sample at any samplerate and convert the rate to anything between 3 kHz and 50 kHz later. I used that function in the demo too.
The pitching was done with a MIDI keyboard live and not sequenced. The sample was spread over the complete keyboard and I just played it lower than the original pitch with a few variations.

AFAIK the standart memory of the TX is 1,5MB so you could sample around 31 seconds with it (at 33 kHz)

1.5MB * 1024 = 1536 kilobyte

1535 kilobyte * 1024 = 1572864 byte

1572864 byte * 8bit = 12582912 bit

12582912 bits / 33000 Hz (samplingrate) = 381,3

381,3 / 12 bit (bitdepth) = 31,7 seconds


It might be a few seconds less cause the OS need memory too

BUT. Samples can only have a specific max length depending on the samplerate.

50kHz -> 5,24 sec
33kHz -> 7,86 sec
25kHz -> 10,48 sec
16kHz -> 15,72 sec

The memory of my TX is expanded BTW and shows 4608 kilobytes on the startup (4,5MB). The RAM expansion is proprietary and rare AFAIK.


peace

if i were around during the typhoon days, i would have been a player for sure. it's a great story and more hardware manufacturers should take note of the wonders 3rd party developers can work. the number of talented programmers out there are equal or greater than the number of talented musicians who actually use these boxes to begin with.
mpc as passthrough converter box/fx unit FTL, there are better and more convenient options to achieve the same thing. electricity != magic