mpc 3000

Hello

i have a question for the mpc 3000

How to settle(adjust) you the earnings gain behind the mpc ( Gain: low,mid,high)?

The sound saturates when I sample mid and high.

I speak English badly I hope that you will understand me sorry

Thank you

Hey, welcome!

It all depends on the sound you want I think. As you allready said, mid and high saturates the sound. So if you want a more "clean" sound, switch it to low and turn up the Rec Gain just before it starts clipping in record mode. Most of the time I have to turn it up to 12 o' clock... But I think that also depends on the source device your sample comes from.
I think the mid switch is great for real gritty drums, especially for kicks. I never use the high switch, but you can try it yourself

I hope I could help you and you could understand it all. English isn't my native language either

Greetings

Hi this comes up often. You can use either level setting in the same way as you can use the MPC as a doorstop: ie - it can be used this way but was NOT designed that way.

Level settings requires an understanding of gain staging but to cut a long story short - it will depend on your input: consumer -10dBV or professional +4dBu. grade. For instance most pre-amps will require a hotter signal to operate efficiently. Conversely, or perversely around here, you can send a hot signal to your consumer grade input and get that digital harshness which is all the rage.

LMAO.

The important thing is to be able to accurately monitor your input level. That will dictate which level setting to use. Anything over 0dBFS is bad practice - no matter what "cool and dope" effects it produces.

Shostakovich wrote:The important thing is to be able to accurately monitor your input level. That will dictate which level setting to use. Anything over 0dBFS is bad practice - no matter what "cool and dope" effects it produces.

If you are looking for a cool and dope effect, then it is not bad practice at all.

If it sounds good, it is good.

If you are looking for an accurate/perfect recording, then going over 0dBFS would be bad practice, but that is not necessarily what an MPC user will want, they might want cool and dope, the sound of overdriven MPC inputs, and that is not bad practice in anyway.

Shostakovich wrote:Hi this comes up often.

Simon broke it down pretty well recently in this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=160749

Yo thanks you for the reply

I will analyze and translate it so I'll try to understand your reply.

Thank you

Peace

i love my mpc 3000

Some mixers have a nice overdrive sound when the inputs or internal buses are driven into the red, you might want this, so you would setup the mixer to output the sound you want, and as above then set the gain on the MPC appropriately using the gain switch and record level knob, to get a good strong level, without clipping, into the MPC.

Yes, I can agree with this. On an analogue mixer. Driving the audio past 0dBFS on A/D does not produce a nice effect, IMO, of course.

Shostakovich wrote:

Some mixers have a nice overdrive sound when the inputs or internal buses are driven into the red, you might want this,

Yes, I can agree with this. On an analogue mixer.

...and in the analogue front end circuits before the AD converters in the MPC3000?

The input signal goes through 4 op-amps before the AD converter.

The rear panel Record In Gain switch controls the gain of the first op-amp, the front panel Record Level knob controls the gain of the third op-amp.

You can easily get analogue overdrive in the first op-amp, and not be clipping the AD converters, in the MPC.

Some users like riding the on screen levels right into clipping, that sound is going to be analogue overdrive to some extent, not sure how much AD clipping there is, due to not knowing what the fourth op-amp is doing to the signal in that situation, before it gets to the AD converter.

Overdriving the MPC analogue front end is not as simple as good sound below the line, clipping AD and digital distortion above the line.

Need some audio samples of the same sounds going in at various gain settings and subsequent amounts of, or lack of, overdrive/distortion.

I was referring to the output signal of the MPC. Having re-read the OP's question, it seems he was talking about sample input so apologies for the confusion. That being said, metering on the sample input is shite and gives no indication as to actual level sampled in until you get the P! warning. Gain staging is even more important in a 16-Bit system than in modern DAWs at 24-Bit.

Regards.