Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
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By Blue Haze Mon Nov 22, 2004 8:13 pm
Just wondering if others use it. I turn off the rec metrodome and play in time of the kick snare hits. I find more of a feel to my play and its locks tight. But I have to chop samples into bits to line them up with my playing. Both work well for me how about others?

Pad control on drum programs is crazy with tweaking drums and sequencing too :D

Feels good to take off the training wheels and ride that puppy. :)

do you

damn pro tools crashed again :twisted:

By fasterbeats Mon Nov 22, 2004 9:28 pm
yeah, all the time I use drum pads and sticks to record rolls and fills and no TC makes it way more natural sounding.
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By Blue Haze Wed Nov 24, 2004 1:56 pm
The shit is hot. I understand why J Dee, and others turn that off. You can get higher resolution (closer placement of your notes) and it frees the stiffness out of your tracks. I think that the 4k is the only drum machince with the 1/96 resolution as of now which is I believe to be within the quarter note timing. Learn the hard way that the 4k is a monster. :D

I was listening to a Method man track and the natural groove made more sense now.


I believe that the real groove of the mpc over a software sequencer is how tight you can groove your hits (with of course the metrodome turn off during recording) striking the pads.

We talked about this before on the thread but I couldn`t find it. At the time most people didn`t truely understand the function. That SP1200 manual explained alot terms and functions much clearer. Have at ti. :D






Groove with you (Isleys Brothers)
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By Dr. Lecter Wed Nov 24, 2004 2:20 pm
I'm using this quite a lot.It needs practice though and a little edit after the sequencing.

By Altopiano Wed Nov 24, 2004 10:51 pm
got a question to the 1/96 resolution - never had a mpc 2k or 2xl - they have 1/96 resolution - right?
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By Lampdog Thu Nov 25, 2004 12:16 am
Altopiano wrote:got a question to the 1/96 resolution - never had a mpc 2k or 2xl - they have 1/96 resolution - right?


That would be the same as turning the timing off.
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By Blue Haze Thu Nov 25, 2004 1:51 am
There two modes the off 1/96 which places your hits within 10 ticks range and the regular off which places your hits exact. Even if you are off a fraction the 1/96 mode brings you closer. The resolution of the 4k is 960 and 1/96 is a fraction of that. 10 ticks I believe from the quarter note. :D Key part was to turn off the metrodome to listen to your playing and groove. Timing will improve greatly. :D
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By Blue Haze Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:25 pm
Lord Toranaga wrote:I am not interested in having the machine place the notes any where. I just keep doing it until it is right. This really gives a nice ":live feel".

I think it is great that you have dicovered a tecnique that you really like


Thanks Toran for the reply. I am not interested in having the machine place the notes any where either which it why I`m saying to others to get away from the lower quanatization modes of 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and so on. In these modes the machine really is placing the notes for ya!!!!

By glide Thu Nov 25, 2004 10:09 pm
yhea turning it off & on all the time now, use to always leave it on but like mr.Haze pointed out there's a cretain stiffness to your tracks if you play everything in a grid resulution, but tc is still locked when doing the main 4/4 suff.. th4e swing will too add/bring alive stiff tracks and the pushing of notes frw/bkw is a nice way to create a feel aswell

& "the" feel is high on the priority list in any grovemakers book when it comes to sequencing.. thus having a button on the front panel is a godsend

By Altopiano Sat Nov 27, 2004 1:53 am
thanx for your answers ..... esp. lamp - he got my point ...

well imo 1/96 is ok and tight but that 1/960 grid on the 4k is just too fantastic and is one of the real good things on the 4k. together with that nearly realtime quantize its just next to perfect .... can't really comment on which tc to use best coz 1. it all depends and 2. imo they are all nice to have ....

but i m always interested at precision or how to say quantization options of gear ..... the things i have here ... the 4k does 1/960 which should be on a decent tempo - say 120 about 0,5 ms (millisex) each tick - which is imo great - 1/96 on a same tempo would be than about 5 ms each tick - is ok too. all nice and good but my synth the virus swings definately better - it swings in percent - it does ie. 54,7 % whilst the 4k only does 54 or 55 . btw swing is one of the features akai should further improve on the 4k ... would be easy with that resolution to swing in say 56,6 or 56,66 .... can ya imagine! and - another thing - sometimes i use my guitar with a midiadaptor to trigger things ... and then its gettin worse .... the adaptor produces a constant delay of 2ms (manual says) which i often heard one doesn't notice ... well, if you play it you notice those 2ms - but stil 2ms is ok .... if i record things on the 4k which i play on the guitar via midi i mostly quantize - tryin to get those ms back .... and worx imo much better than unquantized .... yo and last week i tried to play my guitar over some plugins at my pc whihc had a delay of about 10ms and that is not really playable - good to sample things outthere but muscally not really usable imo .... gettin slighly out of topic here coz one thing is to play things such as on a guitar and another the difference in the grid resolutions ... however recording things on my guitar gave an idea at how you play things and how the sequencer plays em back quantized and unquantized ... so i think 1/96 is tight .... but dunno ... 1/960 is just tighter, ... may there be any other reason why 1/96 is tighter please let me know why .... currently i seem no to get it .... i mean if i play wiht those pads ... or my keyboard, or mya guitar, quantized off .... either i m on time or off time ....but if ya on time its just on time and placed there where it should be .... whilst i guess with 1/96 sometimes it may not be .... and in those few cases you still got a sampler and some envelopes or whateva else to make it tight ... dunno ... but regarding the sequencer and recording of midievents from whateva i d bet that in most cases 1/960 is just tighter ... and then if ya didn't play tight in the first place there might be some casés where the 1/96 reso brings it back tighter ....

dunno .... or maybe i just dont get it .... lol

bangin beaz
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By Blue Haze Mon Nov 29, 2004 2:45 pm
Altopiano wrote:thanx for your answers ..... esp. lamp - he got my point ...

well imo 1/96 is ok and tight but that 1/960 grid on the 4k is just too fantastic and is one of the real good things on the 4k. together with that nearly realtime quantize its just next to perfect .... can't really comment on which tc to use best coz 1. it all depends and 2. imo they are all nice to have ....

but i m always interested at precision or how to say quantization options of gear ..... the things i have here ... the 4k does 1/960 which should be on a decent tempo - say 120 about 0,5 ms (millisex) each tick - which is imo great - 1/96 on a same tempo would be than about 5 ms each tick - is ok too. all nice and good but my synth the virus swings definately better - it swings in percent - it does ie. 54,7 % whilst the 4k only does 54 or 55 . btw swing is one of the features akai should further improve on the 4k ... would be easy with that resolution to swing in say 56,6 or 56,66 .... can ya imagine! and - another thing - sometimes i use my guitar with a midiadaptor to trigger things ... and then its gettin worse .... the adaptor produces a constant delay of 2ms (manual says) which i often heard one doesn't notice ... well, if you play it you notice those 2ms - but stil 2ms is ok .... if i record things on the 4k which i play on the guitar via midi i mostly quantize - tryin to get those ms back .... and worx imo much better than unquantized .... yo and last week i tried to play my guitar over some plugins at my pc whihc had a delay of about 10ms and that is not really playable - good to sample things outthere but muscally not really usable imo .... gettin slighly out of topic here coz one thing is to play things such as on a guitar and another the difference in the grid resolutions ... however recording things on my guitar gave an idea at how you play things and how the sequencer plays em back quantized and unquantized ... so i think 1/96 is tight .... but dunno ... 1/960 is just tighter, ... may there be any other reason why 1/96 is tighter please let me know why .... currently i seem no to get it .... i mean if i play wiht those pads ... or my keyboard, or mya guitar, quantized off .... either i m on time or off time ....but if ya on time its just on time and placed there where it should be .... whilst i guess with 1/96 sometimes it may not be .... and in those few cases you still got a sampler and some envelopes or whateva else to make it tight ... dunno ... but regarding the sequencer and recording of midievents from whateva i d bet that in most cases 1/960 is just tighter ... and then if ya didn't play tight in the first place there might be some casés where the 1/96 reso brings it back tighter ....

dunno .... or maybe i just dont get it .... lol

bangin beaz


My bad yes the 960 is the way to go. I was thinking of the MPC 3k,and 2k with a standard 96ppq on off mode which is still on the 4k for the 2XL heads like me, but the 960 is definitively the tighter of the two and the way to go Alto. : :oops:

By Altopiano Tue Nov 30, 2004 12:13 am
yo haze - didnt want to stop this thread .... to each its own ... maybe there is somethin behind this 1/96 tc .... despite that, i dont have a problem if anyone else got a different opinion .... in fact - i find it interesting that people use 1/96 even though the 4k does 1/960 .... so dunno - maybe there is some mystic behind it ... i always just thought its there for compatability reasons with older models ...

i just experimented a bit with it since this week coz this thread got me interested ... and i think that for recording my midiguitar its really good ... usually i quantized it to 1/16 or triplets depending what i been playin coz with that delay - be it minimal -its real hard to play tight unquantized for a longer time - so yesterday i picked out my guitar and compared things i played on different tcs .... and i got some real good results with 1/96 .... but for recording things from the 4k pads and the keyboard i ll stay at 1/960 ...

peace