Share your knowledge on these two classic MPCs
By CharlesRandolph Tue Jan 29, 2019 9:29 am
JAYCEE3K wrote:Would've never guessed they wen't for that low.

Though i will say even at 200-500 bucks an SP404 or SP555 is worth it even if just for the fx itself to use with mpc.


They were just giving them away. It was before eBay turned into Disneyland for modern retro collector and up sellers. :lol: The little SP's boxes can produce a cool result, if they are dialed in and not overloaded. He built a rig for them and I was thinking about doing it. However, the question is do I want to spend $6400 on 16 of them.
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By JBM Wed Mar 20, 2019 10:58 pm
brodel34 wrote:I'm sooo confused. The 3000 only has a lowpass filter? no hipass filter? is this real??
http://manuals.fdiskc.com/flat/Akai%20M ... Manual.pdf

If this is real, then my mind is blown how Dilla, Dre, Hi-tek and them all achieve their sound.


A way is to sample the sound with mids and highs into the MPC3000. For example a snare if you want a bright snare eq the snare using your DJ mixer or external EQ then sample into the MPC3000. Another option simply sample a bright snare into the MPC3000 to your liking for your drum library.

Like you said the MPC3000 Dynamic Filter has a cutoff frequency of the lowpass filter specified as an arbitrary value from 0 (about 70 Hz filter is fully active filtering all frequencies above 70Hz) to 100 (meaning the filter is not active allowing all frequencies to be heard without the filter applied)



brodel34 wrote:I believe i've read that Dre used the 3k for the drum programming for most if not all of chronic 2001. I believe they said they did instrumentation and mixing on the big SSL's.... which makes perfect sense because thats exactly how it sounds. The drums sound like they were done on the 3k but all of the other sounds on that album are way too pristine to be ran through the 3k. But then again... did dre bring in already designed and processed sounds into the 3k to do the drum programming? That seems against the grain. Did he bang out the drums on the 3k and the drums were mundane on the 3k before he brought them to the ssl? that also seems unlikely. Seems like he used the 3k for the drums because it was obvious... they were gonna smack. Doesnt feel like its a "lets make some fire drums and then maybe sprinkle some of the 3k sound on there".... that doesnt feel how the story was told in my eyes. He used the 3k because it was the 3k.




Hi-Tek has done in house production work for Aftermath. So it's possible that the video footage may give a snap shot into a piece of Dre's process.

In this video footage Hi-Tek takes you through some prerecording and sampling processes into DAW and the MPC3000

Lastly the more focused eqing is most likely done in post recording mixing stages.






mr_debauch wrote:Here is another mind blowing fact.... the 3000 has NO EFFECTS AT ALL except for that one low pass filter... At least the 60 had an effects send/return... on the 3000 you have to do that with a mixer on the assignable outputs.


Correction MPC 3000 does have one Effects Generator: Delay
The MPC3000 contains an internal effects generator capable of a number of delay effects. To access the settings of the effects generator, select option 5 from the MIXER/EFFECTS menu screen. The following screen will appear:
============ Effects (Delay) ===========
Vol: Pan: Time: Fdbk:
Delay 1= 100 50L 1486 100
Delay 2= 0 C 1486 100
Delay 3= 0 C 1486 100
========================================
(FX=ON )

There are three separate delays. Each has the following fields:

• The Vol (Volume) field:
This field sets the volume level to the stereo mix, simulating the effects return level on a hardware mixing console.

• The Pan field:
This field sets the pan position within the stereo mix.

• The Time field:
This field sets the delay time, from 1 to 1486 milliseconds.

• The Fdbk (feedback) field:
This sets the amount of delayed signal fed back into the delay input. The range is from 0 to 100%.
By benny-shabettah Tue Jul 26, 2022 6:00 am
sorry late and this is my first post ever and i’ve been here since 2016 , dilla is the most genius man ever in modern music and have had great first hand experiences with his friends and some people who own some vinyl he use to own , i have had 3 mpc’s so far in my life and i can say that the 2000xl did not have eq’ing and it only had
lowpass-filterng , with that being said i’m no where near dilla and as a turntablist who samples on a mpc 3000 (as an example) dilla would have used a dj mixer’s eq system to make great eq mixes and sample them into the mpc after the fact , i hate that no one has said how his programming and sequencing thoroughly worked
By John Doobie Sun Aug 28, 2022 2:56 pm
Just add treble with your dj mixer before sampling. I believe it is a 12db/octave LPF so add a little bit of mid gain too. You can’t really accurately surgeon samples after sampling, so anticipate. On the Akai S1100 there is a trick to add a tiny bit of high end, but not possible on the MPC3000.
Remember that if you record at a low samplerate, some high frequencies are removed. That is why the MPC60 sounds so boxy and dusty. I can’t remember if you can choose the samplerate on the MPC3000, though.