Mpc one mixing issues

Does your laptop have an audio interface? If so you can use that and any DAW on your laptop.

I've got a few focusrite interfaces and an old behringer some where around here. Also have Reason and Studio one. So is the idea that I shoot the main outs to the interface, play the 1 khz sound on the mpc, then monitor in the Daw? And while doing that adjust the volume on the MPC one on the back until the daw reads that input as 0db?

lmao I could use a walkthrough on the subject of unity gain all on it's on. I've watched so many videos on mixing, eqing, compression, but not once did I pick up on calibrating my devices in this way. This is a very helpful tip/lead. Just gotta work out how to do it on my end with what I have. The headphones are on the way btw! Which is very exciting.

Personally, when I am setting up for unity across devices I tend to shoot for either -3db or -9db so that you have extra headroom to work with if I am mixing multiple channels. On the other hand, if you're working with just the single input on the One, setting to 0db or -3db for max or near max loudness is absolutely worthwhile to avoid having to do normalization. more than necessary in the chain.

The reason the 1khz (or similar) is relevant to work with is that it has no volume dynamics, and should "more or less" give a consistent response regardless of what device you are working with, so that you aren't looking to mix to the peak, and instead the entire sample is constant peak.

Honestly, it's not easy to mix on headphones and people advising you to upgrade your headphones are , imho, not giving you good advise. Invest in some monitors and your mixes will start to at least sound reasonable.

Yes you could mix in your headphones but it will be a hard and troublesome road which you could avoid by investing in monitors.

64hz wrote:Honestly, it's not easy to mix on headphones and people advising you to upgrade your headphones are , imho, not giving you good advise. Invest in some monitors and your mixes will start to at least sound reasonable.

Yes you could mix in your headphones but it will be a hard and troublesome road which you could avoid by investing in monitors.

Totally understand the difficulty in using Headphones to mix, but monitors aren't gonna cut in my current living situation. We have a newborn and neighbors below us, very little in the way of sound proofing. So for now, open back Headphones and trying to figure out the Unity gain situation are gonna have to do the trick. It'll hopefully get me a little closer to a better mix, and that's what I'm after for now, closer to what I want, maybe not all the way there giving the situation.

Yea I use my Headphones for Mixing Subtle Nuances and Panning different sounds in the Mix.

But for Loudness and Bass Response in a Final Mix, I use My Monitors. I use a Song or Two, with a Good Mix, in my Opinion, to reference how my Mix should sound!

QuentinB wrote:

64hz wrote:Honestly, it's not easy to mix on headphones and people advising you to upgrade your headphones are , imho, not giving you good advise. Invest in some monitors and your mixes will start to at least sound reasonable.

Yes you could mix in your headphones but it will be a hard and troublesome road which you could avoid by investing in monitors.

Totally understand the difficulty in using Headphones to mix, but monitors aren't gonna cut in my current living situation. We have a newborn and neighbors below us, very little in the way of sound proofing. So for now, open back Headphones and trying to figure out the Unity gain situation are gonna have to do the trick. It'll hopefully get me a little closer to a better mix, and that's what I'm after for now, closer to what I want, maybe not all the way there giving the situation.

When mixing the volume of your monitors should stay relatively low. My monitors are usually set at roughly the same volume As my tv set (mind that I’m sitting closer to my monitors than my tv of course). Point is, you can mix or even make beats at normal levels without driving you neighbors crazy.

Btw, isn’t it common practice to check the mix on multiple systems and adjust accordingly, and isn’t getting the mix sound good through a car system something a lot of people struggle with? I know for instance that some engineers also listen to their mixes in the car as part of their mixing process.

I don’t have a car, but I usually listen to my mix through my monitors, my AT MX 40’s and my built in MBP speakers.

Funny that it’s being pointed out that the MX 40’s have some bass boost, cause in my experience they are flatter than my monitors and Apple headphones. Usually when I get the lowend to sit well through the MX40’s the lowend sits well through any system, even my built in iPhone speaker. But the hell, I am not a professional by all means having the worst space to mic in

QuentinB wrote:

Does your laptop have an audio interface? If so you can use that and any DAW on your laptop.

I've got a few focusrite interfaces and an old behringer some where around here. Also have Reason and Studio one. So is the idea that I shoot the main outs to the interface, play the 1 khz sound on the mpc, then monitor in the Daw? And while doing that adjust the volume on the MPC one on the back until the daw reads that input as 0db?

lmao I could use a walkthrough on the subject of unity gain all on it's on. I've watched so many videos on mixing, eqing, compression, but not once did I pick up on calibrating my devices in this way. This is a very helpful tip/lead. Just gotta work out how to do it on my end with what I have. The headphones are on the way btw! Which is very exciting.

Now if you're just mixing with the MPC ONE and monitors/headphone you really don't need to do any of this stuff below. But it's a great thing to learn.



0. Set your audio interface inputs at 12 clock.
1. MPC load the sample, make sure the pads are set to 0db and make sure the pad is at full level.
2. Set the MPC ONE output knob around between 2 and 3 clock
3. Run the outputs of the MPC into the Interface
4. hit the pad with the 0db sine wave and adjust your inputs of your interface
5. Monitor and adjust the audio interface until it hits zero on your meters in the DAW.
(No distortions should occur, also make sure everything in the DAW is set at 0 DB)
6. Do not use any eq, compression, or limiters when doing this.

The issue with the MPC ONE is that the Main out and headphone out are tied to each other. So if you turn down the main gain to lower the headphone or monitor volume, you'll lose the calibration. So if you're mixing using headphone, it's better to turn down the audio in mix on the mpc and not touch the monitor out knob on the back after you have it setup.

Menco wrote:
When mixing the volume of your monitors should stay relatively low. My monitors are usually set at roughly the same volume As my tv set (mind that I’m sitting closer to my monitors than my tv of course). Point is, you can mix or even make beats at normal levels without driving you neighbors crazy.

I mix at 60 db and 70db 95% of the time sitting at 4 feet or 1.2 meters away.

Its 300 ohms you're good without an amp. Also the Beyerdynamic 990 T Pro also are a great choice for Mixing. Open back also and nice flat response frequency.

What's dope about the Senn 600 HD's is they have a velvet cushion around the ear, so they can be on without making your ears uncomfortable.

To prevent ear fatique, when you are about to mix, take off the headphones for 20 minutes then go back to mixing, do this technique every 20 minutes, this lets your inner ear muscle and brain get to relax.
Also gotta know how to mix, and what to do when mixing.

Peace.

QuentinB wrote:

Danoc wrote:You should never mix with ATH-M40X, they are not flat and concentrate a lot on the low end. You should never mix in CLOSED BACKED HEAD PHONES! Sennheiser 600 HD are flat they are OPEN BACK HEADPHONES , and what you should mix with. They are very balanced with the low, mid and high frequencies.

Everything is preceived to sound good but when you play it on another system it won't sound rught. Sound like you had a bit of ear fatigue also.

I won't need an amp for the Sennheiser right? Think I'll order from Sweetwater because the Amazon is sold out.

CharlesRandolph wrote:
Now if you're just mixing with the MPC ONE and monitors/headphone you really don't need to do any of this stuff below. But it's a great thing to learn.



0. Set your audio interface inputs at 12 clock.
1. MPC load the sample, make sure the pads are set to 0db and make sure the pad is at full level.
2. Set the MPC ONE output knob around between 2 and 3 clock
3. Run the outputs of the MPC into the Interface
4. hit the pad with the 0db sine wave and adjust your inputs of your interface
5. Monitor and adjust the audio interface until it hits zero on your meters in the DAW.
(No distortions should occur, also make sure everything in the DAW is set at 0 DB)
6. Do not use any eq, compression, or limiters when doing this.

The issue with the MPC ONE is that the Main out and headphone out are tied to each other. So if you turn down the main gain to lower the headphone or monitor volume, you'll lose the calibration. So if you're mixing using headphone, it's better to turn down the audio in mix on the mpc and not touch the monitor out knob on the back after you have it setup.

Yeah I'm usually just mixing in the mpc one, I haven't touched a daw since I bought it. But, in the event I need to be in a daw it is great to learn this stuff. I'm hoping the open back headphones and resting inbetween mixing will help resolve some of my issues. I usually have the main volume knob on the back set to half way up, which I guess is 12 o clock? depending on if you're looking at it from the right direction. I'll keep you guys posted! Thanks everyone!

QuentinB wrote:Yeah I'm usually just mixing in the mpc one, I haven't touched a daw since I bought it. But, in the event I need to be in a daw it is great to learn this stuff. I'm hoping the open back headphones and resting inbetween mixing will help resolve some of my issues. I usually have the main volume knob on the back set to half way up, which I guess is 12 o clock? depending on if you're looking at it from the right direction. I'll keep you guys posted! Thanks everyone!

In the world away from here, go to a studio where you know a Pro Engineer uses open back headphones and ask him/her.
The benefit of open-back headphones is that they don't block outside world like closed-backs do. Sound from your surroundings, even ambient noise, is able to interact with the sound of your mix. ... This is similar to listening with monitors, as the mix will sound like it's projected into the room.

QuentinB wrote:
Yeah I'm usually just mixing in the mpc one, I haven't touched a daw since I bought it. But, in the event I need to be in a daw it is great to learn this stuff. I'm hoping the open back headphones and resting inbetween mixing will help resolve some of my issues. I usually have the main volume knob on the back set to half way up, which I guess is 12 o clock? depending on if you're looking at it from the right direction. I'll keep you guys posted! Thanks everyone!

The open back will headphones will allow your other ear to pick up on the bleed over, which will sound a bit more natural. This tends to help dynamics and space, but it will hurt the bass response. That's why some people use the subpac, especially when you're in a location where, having a sub woofer is not ideal.

No matter what headphones you get, consider getting a good headphone amp to go with it. The headphone amp on the MPC is sufficient but subpar. Check out the SPL Phonitor One Headphone Amplifier or Rupert Neve Designs RNHP 1 (Which is what I'm currently using. ) I don't mix in headphone very often unless it's for seeing how things translate.

But truly it's really not worth buying the HD 600, if you're just going to plug them into these MPC'S.

SPL just released these monitor/headphone amps. Very nice and a good entry price to their system. Great to pair with your headphones if you want to use them for mixing.

https://spl.audio/en/

QuentinB wrote:Yeah I'm usually just mixing in the mpc one, I haven't touched a daw since I bought it. But, in the event I need to be in a daw it is great to learn this stuff. I'm hoping the open back headphones and resting inbetween mixing will help resolve some of my issues. I usually have the main volume knob on the back set to half way up, which I guess is 12 o clock? depending on if you're looking at it from the right direction. I'll keep you guys posted! Thanks everyone!

Here's what happened with me when l had the MPC Live. I took my Sennheisers and went directly into the MPC. I was fine. Turned about 11 o'clock clockwise and that was loud. Then l adjusted the levels inside the box. I used absolutely no amp, sounds were clear. But l also used my mixing techniques also. Amp or not if you don't know how to mix the track will sound imbalanced and off.

I don't know how The One is on the head phones. Get the cans first see if you can hear sounds clear and at a good level at a loudness good for you and if so you need no amp. If not then you need an amp.

What's your mixing techniques when you mix inside the MPC One?