Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By Altopiano Mon Nov 29, 2004 8:05 pm
anyone knows which algorthms to use best to stretch some heavyly distorted guitars .... i m currently misusing my 4k as a multitracker - recordin a friends band ... and i have little experience with stretching guitars .... tried a few different algoithms yesterday but none of them gave really good results ....

the amount of stretching shouldn't be a problem since i m only stretching half a bpm up .... but haven't found a good algorithm yet .... the distortion always sounds somehow more plastic after stretchin ....

despite that it would be nice to discuss with some of you .... which algorithms are good to use for what .... the manual lacks in giving good information on that imo .... so any help and contribution is greatly appreciated ...

peace and bangin beaz

By glide Thu Dec 02, 2004 4:04 pm
I'd have to vote for the Rock algorythm, (I usually just go with what suits what if the empashis is more on highs and low I'd think dance would be a good call aswell, +/- addjustment is for emphasis on frequenzy imo this would be more usefull in Hz but the manual really doesn't go into much detail on this though, I've never had a problem with the quiality personally, and usually just go with firs or 2nd take haven't done much A/B ing sorry I can't be more of more help..

By Altopiano Thu Dec 02, 2004 9:37 pm
hy glide - thanx alot for your input ... gonna check out that dancestretcher and mess further with that adjust parameter .... well i agree - stetching usually worx fine .... but i dont have any experience with stretching guitar samples ... i play guitar myself - but i never stretch coz if it doesnt fit i just replay it ... and i don't wanna play the guitar for the guys coz its their sound and their music ...

however - the guitar sample is heavily marshall distorted .... so since there ain't no trash stretcher at the 4k - rock is what i been messin with too .... always quality c and slightly over and unther 0 coz it has lotsa mids ... the sample now is on time it but used to sound much more powerful before ... i agree on the frequency naming - would be much clearer ... any guess what an adjust of 0 stands for in hz? ... i mean - more or less ... my guess is around 400 ... what ya think?

a shidy sideproblem i got is that i got lotsa long samples in memory - most of them are five min. one shots of voices, drums, guitars,basses ... i never really worked with so many long samples at the 4k before ... imo atm it ain't really made for that sort of thing - give it auditioning or some more gigas and its another story ... but somehow one can always workaround ... problem is that my memory is at its limits - ... i mean i could free up some space shortening some of the 5 min samples ... but than i m just carrying my problem to the next ... the samples are all recorded via midi trigger and fit perfectly - except the guitar one - so i dont really want to.... and so - in order to be able to stretch the shit .... i gotta clear my memory first ... take a few stretches .... chosse what i think is best and than reload the entire folder to hear how it sounds with the rest ... well - its not even that bad ... gives me right the time to roll another spliff ...

yo - but no problem not to be solved ... once i got somethin i m happy with i ll post it ... and if anyone is producing hardcore, trash or anything the like on his 4k and knows how to stretch that sort of thing - just let it go ...

... btw: my 4k now even rocks literally .... :lol:

By glide Thu Dec 02, 2004 11:10 pm
Hey Alto! seams like your doing dreadfully long and very hit and miss work prossess there mate, unless I missed something why not just cut a little 8 bar loop from the guitar sample and try multiple versions of time-streatching and play it over your tune, then when you've got the one that sounds right apply thouse adjustmets to the longer sample.., sorry if I just cut down on spliff twisting, guess its a win some/lose some senario 8) I'll have to get back to you on the ratio between adjust and hertz though as I've not paied to much attention to this untill now,,

By Altopiano Fri Dec 03, 2004 3:09 am
yo glide - thanx again ... sorry must ve explained badly ... i ain't stretchin the entire one shot for the second guitarist ... only fractions of what he played (4 bars and 8 bars riffs). thing is if i upload everythin i m already over the memory limit ... and thats just one more reason to loop that last guitar - given the sample i would have done it anyway ... and thats not a real problem coz i ain't gettin bored whilst the 4k is uploading 100s of mbytes ... only problem is how to stretch those 4 and 8 bar loops of that agressive marshall sound nicely ...

as it is now 90 % of the song (voices, drums, other guitar, ...) - is fine, they are all recorded via midi trigger (not all from beginning ... some 2nd, 3rd verse, ...) ... but as they are now they all fit nicely over the entire 5 mins - if i wanted to work with more ease i could shrink the amount of data down by triming the samples and insert them manually (on the voice samples for example would be much to be saved) ... but i think its much more natural sounding this way ... sometimes they were not even that precise but its minimal and imo it even suits the music they do ... sure some things needed to be silenced out - others inserted on a new track but thats all been done aready ... and i have to say big up to the 4k coz i have never done anything the like on it and i been a bit concerned before ... but we have been workin much faster as i thought and i with all those long samples i encountered much less problems as i thought ... so - besides that bloody guitar its all fine now ...

i recorded the problem guitarist 3 times but you don't want to see the samples ... there are basically just those 3-4 riffs that he plays again and again but never really on time - so 1 loop is quite ok somewhere within sample 1 - the other in sample 2 and so on ... i know - easiest would be just to record that entire guitar again and free up some space somewhere else ... i even suggested them that i bring that guitar in order playing it myself ... but hey - they are rockers and they wanna keep their marshall sound the way they set and play it ... and i ll try to respect that the best i can ...

yo .... but now comes the real problem: the guys won't notice that the sample is stretched badly, they also won't notice that i just spent an entire afternoon to make it better and they won't even notice that it is just one loop repeating itself ... let them think they rock ... the real problem is the idiot in myself :!: coz i wanna know how to stretch that guitar sample in a decent way and until i ain't happy with it i won't finish that track anyway - so i ll just go back and mess in that timestretch window and have a look around here to see whether someone can share some light ...

yo but thanx anyway and bangin beaz :lol: