MPC-ONE (A/D, D/A Convertors sound quality)

Lumi wrote:

elstebbano wrote:I think so as well regarding the live. Last week I took it to a friend for jamming and he owns a analog rhythm and a octatrack and to me they sounded really thin compared (esoteric wise^^)...well yeah I saw something on youtube about a japanese guy, who lived in a tiny room and has spend all of his money on maximum expensive speakers and a turntable..and that guy even has a direct feed from the high voltage powerlines directly into his apartment, because it sounded better(thats what he said^^) things get wierd on high end audio stuff lol

Ahah yeah.
My friends record their music on a tape machine and from there to a computer.
I always thought that it was useless, but they pretend it makes the synth sounds richer.
I don't know, I also think this is esoteric but maybe it has a sense, but I will not do it.
And also this analog/digital debate in 2020 for me is useless, and it is esoteric to think analog will sound always better then digital.
In 2020, digital is at the same level in my opinion, maybe 20 years ago the debate had sense but not anymore.
And it depends which digital device and which analog device you talk about.
A lot of esoterism.

Recording to tape will take deteriate and distort the sound somewhat but it can and will most times add something.like bring it alive.Often described as warm.There is a skill like all recording tho to hit the tape just right to take advantage of it.Def easier on the ear but unfortunately adds hiss....Noticed on a reel 2 reel there was more depth and feeling of stereo separation too.....

@ Dryad 66

Yeah sure, good tape machines still have a great sound. Some people like the hiss and the fluctuations of the tape.
I don't say I don't agree.
I just think you can obtain same result without using it, nowaday.
Digital has reached a very high level.
I have also a Roland mc101, it's 100% digital but I am impressed every time I use its internal effects. Roland and Boss digital effects have nothing less then analog effects to my ears.
Same for Roland synths.
If you use their digital eq, compressors and saturations, you really get to a tape like warmth in my opinion.

dryad-66 wrote:Recording to tape will take deteriate and distort the sound somewhat but it can and will most times add something.like bring it alive.Often described as warm.There is a skill like all recording tho to hit the tape just right to take advantage of it.Def easier on the ear but unfortunately adds hiss....Noticed on a reel 2 reel there was more depth and feeling of stereo separation too.....

Tape does add something, but it's not more depth and stereo separation. I've had the opportunity to track on Mara to a Sony and it really came down to how it was calibrated, the quality of tape, and what was feeding input. I tell you this, as much as I like tape and the workflow. I will only use it to record master tapes and transfer it back to computer and that's about it.

Cutting tape and stripe SMPTE code to it, just sync things up are over for me. Also to FRISBI, if you use a great machine and great tape you don't hear hiss.

CharlesRandolph wrote:

dryad-66 wrote:Recording to tape will take deteriate and distort the sound somewhat but it can and will most times add something.like bring it alive.Often described as warm.There is a skill like all recording tho to hit the tape just right to take advantage of it.Def easier on the ear but unfortunately adds hiss....Noticed on a reel 2 reel there was more depth and feeling of stereo separation too.....

Tape does add something, but it's not more depth and stereo separation. I've had the opportunity to track on Mara to a Sony and it really came down to how it was calibrated, the quality of tape, and what was feeding input. I tell you this, as much as I like tape and the workflow. I will only use it to record master tapes and transfer it back to computer and that's about it.

Cutting tape and stripe SMPTE code to it, just sync things up are over for me.

I think Tape has less stereo image.
It's a beautiful experience to work with tape, that's for sure.
But then do you have the money and space to afford a Studer? Or to make service every year, buy the tape and so on?
I think you can get very very similar results with digital if you are skilled.
I made some samples using a 4 track cassette recorder also, it can also be very interesting, a lot of hiss of course and fluctuations but it can be interesting using it as a special flavour.

Lumi wrote:I think Tape has less stereo image.
It's a beautiful experience to work with tape, that's for sure.
But then do you have the money and space to afford a Studer? Or to make service every year, buy the tape and so on?
I think you can get very very similar results with digital if you are skilled.
I made some samples using a 4 track cassette recorder also, it can also be very interesting, a lot of hiss of course and fluctuations but it can be interesting using it as a special flavour.

Used Studers as well, Spending $345 per reel, for 16 minutes at 30 ips. Will change peoples mind quick.

CharlesRandolph wrote:

Lumi wrote:I think Tape has less stereo image.
It's a beautiful experience to work with tape, that's for sure.
But then do you have the money and space to afford a Studer? Or to make service every year, buy the tape and so on?
I think you can get very very similar results with digital if you are skilled.
I made some samples using a 4 track cassette recorder also, it can also be very interesting, a lot of hiss of course and fluctuations but it can be interesting using it as a special flavour.

Used Studers as well, Spending $345 per reel, for 16 minutes at 30 ips. Will change peoples mind quick.

Get a 4track cassette recorder for 50 bucks.

Lumi wrote:Get a 4track cassette recorder for 50 bucks.

When I hit tape, I do it right. I'm not playing around with 4 track cassette.

Well i dont wanna get into this convo about if it does or does not.My take as always if it sounds good it is good.There are different ways to interpret sound.Sure digital can sound like its all over the room special wise.But tape is a thicker kind of more compounded sound to me.And that translates to depth.And ambience.Music i like was generally from the tape era......Which i grew up in so.......This kind of sound does not translate to the new line of MPCs because they are colourless.Static.But do have a slight punch to the output.Me,i keep an old classic Technics tape deck for flavour and what it does to recordings/samples is out of the area or simulations.Because its very natural.It fillS the room with warmth and vibe-depth and field.Just different to simulated digital.

dryad-66 wrote:Well i dont wanna get into this convo about if it does or does not.My take as always if it sounds good it is good.There are different ways to interpret sound.Sure digital can sound like its all over the room special wise.But tape is a thicker kind of more compounded sound to me.And that translates to depth.And ambience.Music i like was generally from the tape era......Which i grew up in so.......This kind of sound does not translate to the new line of MPCs because they are colourless.Static.But do have a slight punch to the output.Me,i keep an old classic Technics tape deck for flavour and what it does to recordings/samples is out of the area or simulations.Because its very natural.It fillS the room with warmth and vibe-depth and field.Just different to simulated digital.

Yeah old tape Technics deck is great to give colour to your music.
Do you record the mix into tape or also single sounds?
Mpc is steril but Akai filters and saturations are not that bad. I use them to give strength to weak sounds.
Also I use a Psp fetpressor on mastering, the makeup has a saturation that is the most similar to analog saturations I found.
But yeah, Technics tape desks rule.

Tape and reel2reel als also professional and consumer is not the same.
I wouldn't expect much from an old low quality consumer tapedeck.
Before buying a bad tapedeck I recommend reading about tape itself and gear. For example :
http://www.tapeheads.net/
Good infos (about all kind of crazy elecronics) are also on Techmoan channel on youtube. (I'm always surprized by his music taste. First time I saw LL Cool J and Public Enemy on one of his Minidiscs I realized how biased I am (He doesn't look nor doesn't talk like any of the people I know who love 80s/90s HipHop). Shame on me. In this video about a reporter tapedeck he put in the Dr Octagon tape )


peace

peterpiper wrote:Tape and reel2reel als also professional and consumer is not the same.
I wouldn't expect much from an old low quality consumer tapedeck.
Before buying a bad tapedeck I recommend reading about tape itself and gear. For example :
http://www.tapeheads.net/
Good infos (about all kind of crazy elecronics) are also on Techmoan channel on youtube. (I'm always surprized by his music taste. First time I saw LL Cool J and Public Enemy on one of his Minidiscs I realized how biased I am (He doesn't look nor doesn't talk like any of the people I know who love 80s/90s HipHop). Shame on me. In this video about a reporter tapedeck he put in the Dr Octagon tape )

peace

Great video thanks.
I had a Tascam 4track recorder.
I always thought Tascam sounds good.

Lumi wrote:

dryad-66 wrote:Well i dont wanna get into this convo about if it does or does not.My take as always if it sounds good it is good.There are different ways to interpret sound.Sure digital can sound like its all over the room special wise.But tape is a thicker kind of more compounded sound to me.And that translates to depth.And ambience.Music i like was generally from the tape era......Which i grew up in so.......This kind of sound does not translate to the new line of MPCs because they are colourless.Static.But do have a slight punch to the output.Me,i keep an old classic Technics tape deck for flavour and what it does to recordings/samples is out of the area or simulations.Because its very natural.It fillS the room with warmth and vibe-depth and field.Just different to simulated digital.

Yeah old tape Technics deck is great to give colour to your music.
Do you record the mix into tape or also single sounds?
Mpc is steril but Akai filters and saturations are not that bad. I use them to give strength to weak sounds.
Also I use a Psp fetpressor on mastering, the makeup has a saturation that is the most similar to analog saturations I found.
But yeah, Technics tape desks rule.

It depends,sometimes i just wanna record something in there what ever it is,sometimes whole mixes but usually just sketches and impros....I’m on the MPC 2.8 software now and yeah theses some great effects and tools in there that warm and spice up the sound/feel.Got a MPC4000 next to the Macbook.Really interesting piece is my OG SP404 which had a lovely warm sound imo similar to tape (Some kind of Roland compressio) unbelievably.And other bits and pieces for variety.In the end you have a library of sounds that are Vibeing.And feed the software so....

peterpiper wrote:Tape and reel2reel als also professional and consumer is not the same.
I wouldn't expect much from an old low quality consumer tapedeck.
Before buying a bad tapedeck I recommend reading about tape itself and gear. For example :
http://www.tapeheads.net/
Good infos (about all kind of crazy elecronics) are also on Techmoan channel on youtube. (I'm always surprized by his music taste. First time I saw LL Cool J and Public Enemy on one of his Minidiscs I realized how biased I am (He doesn't look nor doesn't talk like any of the people I know who love 80s/90s HipHop). Shame on me. In this video about a reporter tapedeck he put in the Dr Octagon tape )
peace

This is where, I'm going to get my mixdown deck from: https://maramachines.com/

CharlesRandolph wrote:

peterpiper wrote:Tape and reel2reel als also professional and consumer is not the same.
I wouldn't expect much from an old low quality consumer tapedeck.
Before buying a bad tapedeck I recommend reading about tape itself and gear. For example :
http://www.tapeheads.net/
Good infos (about all kind of crazy elecronics) are also on Techmoan channel on youtube. (I'm always surprized by his music taste. First time I saw LL Cool J and Public Enemy on one of his Minidiscs I realized how biased I am (He doesn't look nor doesn't talk like any of the people I know who love 80s/90s HipHop). Shame on me. In this video about a reporter tapedeck he put in the Dr Octagon tape )
peace

This is where, I'm going to get my mixdown deck from: https://maramachines.com/

I hope its worth it...

@ Dryad66

I had an sp404sx before and now I upgraded to mc101.
Check it.
Compressions, staurations, filters and effects are superb.
Sp404 was more gritty, mc101 and 707 are more modern but the effects are really top quality, in my opinion the best of all grooveboxes on the market.
I love the distortions and saturations, they are really convincing and tape echo and all the delays are Boss quality, they just give an analog vibe to anything.