The "Tips and Tricks" thread

astral_Signal wrote:MPC or DAW



2. EQ Reverb returns: Out of habit I apply simple (not drastic) EQ to my reverb returns. The advantage is I can scoop out unwanted low end, apply a low-cut shelf, or even boost contrasting frequencies to the dry signal.

Correction; boost contrasting frequencies to compliment the dry signal.

Not so much a technical tip but more useful for mixing.
I like to hear my beat in as many environments as possible, turn up the volume and head downstairs (or upstairs), listen to the low frequencies.
Open the window from your studio and head outside.
Plug the headphones in, turn them right up but don't put them on, use them as a speaker and listen to the highs.
It's amazing what you can hear when you distance yourself from your studio environment and the same sound that's coming from the monitors.

As far as a technical tip, I've not seen it mentioned but I'm sure it's so basic that everyone knows it.
Bass lines and kick drums: to achieve super low bass frequencies, cut the frequency to say 10/15 then add 10/15 resonance. Result is a very low boom to the bass sound. Then get messing with the pitch and go even lower if your monitors can handle it! simple but can be used very effectively.

Jacpot wrote:in the 2kxl you can have the pads velocity change the pitch of a

A tip I will say for the XL users is to Name each sound track and sequence so you know what your looking at down the line. Their is nothing worse than a sloppy beat. Not sloppy sounding but sloppy looking in the mpc. I like all my shyt to be named and numbered. Helps when your in the track mute screen and you want to mute certain tracks. You can just look at the name of the tracks and hit a pad to mute whatever. Very handy!

Right on the money. I make a sequence with named tracks like 1.Kick 2.Snare Etc.. and any other settings i that tend to work for me and save it as a template so when i open up the mpc just load it up and no need to rename everything and also mutes will always be on same pads.

Here's a really simple tip for layering claps and adding variation so they sound realistic.


Fill up a whole pad bank with 16 single hit clap samples. If you want them to be realistic it's probably best to skip 808 and other drum machine style clapz.

When triggering the samples use both hands and aim to hit 3 pads with each hand. Completely random pad selection on every hit is the most important factor!

Now record the pads on the 2 and 4 over 8 bars with quantize and full level turned off, aiming to create micro timing differences between pad triggers so they sound natural. Some hitting fractionally early and some late.

Pick and choose your favourite parts and repeat the process until you have enough unique variations with each hit.

By panning the samples around the stereo field they start to come alive. Once your clap composite hits the DAW, play around with reverb, EQ and compression and you can get everything to sound like it was always played together.


To add even more variation you can create velocity switched layers, or use simult to trigger other samples.

This might just be an idiosyncrasy of mine, but I like to have all my drums on point before I start sampling. Before I go out digging even, I'll fill up a bank with some kicks, snares, and hi hats. I'll organize them into smaller groupings, so in one bank I'll have 3 different kits of drums that go together with each other. I'll usually tap out a few different patterns using each of the kits.

This has sped up my workflow so much because once I find a sample, I'm good to go with drums immediately. Before I started doing this, I would find a dope sample, but then spend 45 minutes EQing drums until I had a kick, snare, and hi hat that go together with each other. Then I would completely forget what I wanted to do with the sample in the first place. I find that if I take 45 (or so) minutes BEFORE i start searching for samples, it makes the process go much smoother.

This might kind of be a "gtfoh" tip for this forum, but...

I rock an mpd but i also have a 61 key keyboard i use for midi as well. Its nice to lay out a ton of samples across the whole keyboard instead of being handcuffed to 16 at a time. My tip is that i like to use dry erase markers to flag certain keys when i need to remember where they are. Like where the down 1 beat is throughout the keyboard.

GTFOH Son!!!

























































































jfwy

Great way to have your mpc running through your FX and plugins while still making the beat using your interface with multiple inputs. Don't know if this work with any other DAW, at least it works with Logic.

Assign all the sounds to the assignable outputs, similar to how you would set it up as if you would record the outs into DAW. Adjust the volumes on your interface at the exact same level as how you want to record them.

Set up your DAW as if you would record the beat into your DAW. Arm the tracks. Mute the inputs on your interface if necessary, so you hear only the monitor mix over your speakers.

Adjust the volumes in your DAW. Add FX. From here you can easily create and mix at the same time. If I'm correct the adjustments you made on the mixer in your DAW (levels and FX) won't be recorded together with the audio signal. Once your beat is done and you have tracked out your beat you're already halfway the mixing stage, plus you can play with your FX and Plugins while still creating on the MP.

Hey ! first of all thanks for the account-activation !
read a lot here over the years and this forum helped me a lot so i wanted to be part of this.

my tipp for organic hiha-patterns:
copy the same hat-sample on different pads, play a little bit with tune, velocity and the after-pitch and use the adsr-curve for velocity (maybe 0 sustain/release and then cut it short with the decay-knob)
so u have the same foundation but it will sound more organic !
a drummer wouldn't hit a hihat exactly the same twice as well,..

nothing special for you but one post has to be the first

Nice stuff

I don't know… Lot of guys don't even now how to turn on their MPC's when posting in the getting started thread.

That music radar is a great site, I also have that one listed as one of my favourites in my browser.

OG thread.... Just checking in. 1,2.

also Pensado´s Place is a great source to learn some things, this was mentioned before of course