hok-2 wrote:Onxy and Gravediggers? !
Yes my dude, I love those cats.
A Mpc2000xl is pretty much ideal in that case unless you've got access to a Sp-1200?
I use Cool Edit Pro to 'batch convert' folders of samples to 16bit but, there are various ways to do it.
Generaly I just rename them after I load them but, yeah Mpc2000's and Xls have a 8 digit limit on name size.
If its 90's grimey Hip Hop beats you want to make then Break Beats is where I'd start.
If you search in the 'Crate Diggers' section of this site there was a post of ''200 breaks" some one kindly uploaded.
Or find a 'ultimate Breaks' record... basically they're the drums most people used back then and they are still great now.
Have you got 8 outputs on your Mpc2000xl? And the Effects card?
If so, you are set, man. AS Peter Piper mentioned the effects board has a sort of EQ.... I don't have one myself so can't realy comment on that.
But, I can send you a program file and samples if you'd find that usefull. Im not completely sure Mpc2000's and Xl's load each others files. I use a Mpc2000 not a Xl you see.
There's another program called 'Mpc Editor' which is free and you might find usefull.
Looking forward to hearing some low down and dirty beats 
Also check out the 'Beat Battle' section, they're are some samples every couple of weeks and its a good way to home your skills, match relative volume levels and stuff, PEACE. !
You have no idea how much I appreciate your response. I'd do anything for an SP-1200 but it's way out of my price range. $5,000? Man, I wish I could afford that!
Yeah there is nothing I want more than to produce some beats that remind me of that early/mid 90s east coast sound. I think that first Gravediggaz album and that 2nd Onyx album (the one with Last Dayz) has to be my favorite beats in hip hop history. Don't get me wrong, I love a ton of 90s stuff, it's just that those beats were so damn dope that it always bummed me out they weren't commercial hits. The thing I always liked about Onyx is I felt like their later albums were better than their earlier albums. The later Gravediggaz albums suffered due to the lack of RZA and Prince Paul working on them. Onyx is somehow still putting out dope music even to this day though. Google the song "Pyro" by them if you never heard it before.
I am really happy to hear the MPC is pretty much all I need. I do have the 8 outs and the effects board, yes. From what I understand, the 8 outs is so that I can plug all 8 outputs into a mixer, and that way I can adjust each sound (hi hat, drum, snare, the main beat, etc) differently on the fly before it goes into my computer. Is that correct?
If there is some way you can send me the progra thing you are talking about I would appreciate it so much. I am pretty sure the XL can load the non-XL's files just fine. How could we go about getting those files to me? Should I just post my email address here?
I have literally thousands of hours of stuff I've saved for the past 20 years that I thought would make dope samples but I never got my hands on a sampler until this month. Literally I'd be in high school, and the music teacher would play something by mozart or someone else like chopin, and I'd write down the name of the song and the time into the track that I thought would be a great sample. I have books and text documents and emails I've sent to myself since forever because I've always wanted to do this so badly but didn't finally get a sampler until now, and you helping me achieve that dream means so much to man you have no idea.
