"Warm" snares on MPC2kxl??

If anyone has any tips to make snares sound "less digital" and warmer¨on the MPC 2000XL
do share... what are your tricks and tips?
I noticed it may sound just dope on vinyl, but in your mpc2000xl it´s like a 16 bit digital clip of what you sample... Mid range heavy even? That´s just how I feel...

To get it really warm it must be a squashy warm tape type of 70´s dope drum to begin with but these help out:

-analog Tube compressors & Eq´s
-E-mu SP 12 (00)

Good example of what I´m trying to achieve mix wise:
Hi-tek ("Sun god" and the Reflection Eternal LP)
Jay Dee´s drum mixing on Fantastic vol.1 and vol.2
No I.D.s drums on Common´s "One day It´ll all make sense" LP.
old soul & funk records... There they are, but can you get other snares to bang like that?????
I´ve found computer based analog tape saturation plug ins not to be what I´m looking for..


Like Hi-Tek said in an interview: "It must be some kind of an tape sound. Computers sound too flat for me. It has to sound like a record."

What about a 2" machine?
Share any tips and experiences on this subject....
Thanks,
The Recluse

why don'tyou get another sampler, i had that same problem so i copped me a 13bit EPS sampler and i sample all my drums with the eps and sequence with my mpc.

You can get a second "older" sampler like EMax (really cheap)/S950...

So you can get that gritty sound you look for your drumz...

It could be hard (heavy cash when buying, heavy cash of maintenance too) to afford good tape machines... As far as Hi-Tek WAS used dem; if you're tracking digital and seeking analog sounding, I'll suggest to look for an Apogge AN converter... MiniMe/MiniPre like.... www.apogeedigital.com

It takes a little more tips and amount of work, but that way you'll never sound "flat" no more!!!

try filtering out a tiny bit of the high freq.
you will hear more of the crunch

erkl wrote:try filtering out a tiny bit of the high freq.
you will hear more of the crunch

Yeah, if you just dial down the filter a tiny amount, to like 97 or 98, it's usually enough to take off that digital-y edge.

SPL has a tube processor called 'Charisma 2', that can really make sounds thicker.

http://www.soundperformancelab.com/Char ... short.html

It sounds like you're after that character, it's not too expensive either. I also balance or 'master' samples slightly with eq and compressor plugs if I get the hunch that something's in the way or I could get more out of it.

wow they make a lot of fun lookin toys

I'm not too sure using a 12-bit sampler will give you "warmer" samples.
I use a 12-bit for all my snares, but it's not warmer than the mpc, it's different......
I think a lot of people just clip their samples when they're recording digital, and mistake this for sounding "digital". slightly clipping a sample on tape may sound ok, even good, but when sampling to the mpc or recording to a computer setting your levels right is crucial.
The main reason why tape sounds different, especially higher end 2-inch tape, is because of tape saturation. It's nothing more that a type of distortion that sounds good to our ears.
Tape saturation is a pretty easy thing to emulate with software, so i doubt that bouncing to tape will solve all your problems. Tape machines are hard to set up and maintain too.
That SPL thing will no doubt do a slendid job, but $2500,- ? C'mon now, the thing is 8 years old, and by now computers are fast enough to produce the same results.

If you have decent eq and compression tools, and you have something like PSP MixSaturator on your computer, there's nothing stopping you from sounding as warm as true analogue.

All of the above. All of the below:

- Clever use of EQ. I'd stick to analog stuff for this, especially if the goal is to remove 'that digital edge'. You can use the desk EQ, but I've been thinking of getting a 2 channel tube EQ, so that I can give the all-important kick and snare channels that extra sweet treatment.

- Clever use of filtering. You could use the built in digital filter in the MPC, but if you can use an analog filter it will sound SO much better. I have a Sherman FB2 here, which allows me to dial in just the right filter slope/resonance and overdrive - you can make it sound like tape or tube, even though it's a solid-state machine.

- Tube saturation. Run it through anything that has a tube in it.

- Tape saturation. Half inch R2R if you have it, but a standard cassette deck will also work. Experiment with the level you send to tape. Don't mind the red lights, just listen. Some of the hottest kick/sn/hh sounds I have are some things I overloaded a regular cassette with.

- Re-sampling within the MPC, or to another unit. 12bit/22050khz or similar. Does something different to your sound than just take out the HF, which may or may not be what you want.

Thanks for the tips. I´ll go get my tape deck and mess with that... Haven´t tried that in years....

the real rate to emulate SPs is 26040kHz/12bit...
it will sound very close to the SP... but it's just not the same dynamic... Keep in mind that you could resample to 12bit via your MPC, but it's still 16bit AN/NA converters... meaning that you're not playing 12bit at all!!!

i have noticed tht akai samplers in general do have an edge to it, and sounds a bit more digital than for eg emu's. but taking in to consiideration with what was fore mentioned, you should get by,. as for using eq, you really dont have to go out all out , with the tube thing if you cant afford it.
digiital sounds are more prominent in the higher frequency spectrum, this is where it takes it toll.t, i.e dithering, this is the process where some small amount of noise is added to a digital signal.

so combine the two togetherr.
take a bit off the high of the snare , anything above like say 900hz and then try layering with a deper snare, adjust to taste. this will give you some noise also as to soud thicker.

skalawa wrote:
take a bit off the high of the snare , anything above like say 900hz and then try layering with a deper snare, adjust to taste. this will give you some noise also as to soud thicker.

Oh yeah, layering. I didn't mention layering? Layer them sh*ts.

Kilowax wrote:the real rate to emulate SPs is 26040kHz/12bit...
it will sound very close to the SP... but it's just not the same dynamic... Keep in mind that you could resample to 12bit via your MPC, but it's still 16bit AN/NA converters... meaning that you're not playing 12bit at all!!!

That's the right rate to try, but in my opinion, it still doesn't sound like my SP. Yes, by reducing the sample rate the 'Nyquist Theorem' will knock the top edge off of your sound.....but the SP actually adds some high end artifacts (sample aliasing) that give it that unique crunchy SP sound.

itchyvinyl wrote:

Kilowax wrote:the real rate to emulate SPs is 26040kHz/12bit...
it will sound very close to the SP... but it's just not the same dynamic... Keep in mind that you could resample to 12bit via your MPC, but it's still 16bit AN/NA converters... meaning that you're not playing 12bit at all!!!

That's the right rate to try, but in my opinion, it still doesn't sound like my SP. Yes, by reducing the sample rate the 'Nyquist Theorem' will knock the top edge off of your sound.....but the SP actually adds some high end artifacts (sample aliasing) that give it that unique crunchy SP sound.

I co-signing that...
Plus SP will def knock harder, also amount of air is way more important when playing,... in other words it knocks "harder"...