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

dryad-66 wrote:I hope its worth it...

Doing it right is always worth it. EDIT: It's mid range as pricing goes, so it won't bank.

What’s the damage?

It's 9K but not including shipping.

CharlesRandolph wrote:

Lumi wrote:Wow a very precious and detailed answer.
Man, you are totally useless.

Only thing useless, is you using the MPC as paper weight. Where's that music at?

Dammmm. I'd rather just buy a regular paper weight. Cost less and take up very lil space.

Lumi wrote:@ 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.

Yeah the OG has a very pleasant sound,really adds a texture.Adding the fx is icing on the cake.If it had a natural pitching and envelope it would be awesome.Shame they left out the real time reverse of the 303.The 101 is too fiddly looking for me,good food for the sampler tho,but the 707 looks like a winner.The MPC software has just gone up in my estimation since i just worked out about audio tracks.Got most of the editing features i need to record into the sequence in real time.Running on my 17 inch MBP its a portable powerhouse.The tube synth is a pretty good analog simulation in my limited use experience too.

CharlesRandolph wrote:It's 9K but not including shipping.

Im envious

It’s not only your ears, I don’t like the way the MPC One and MPC Live sound. All of the beats that I’ve heard coming out of those machines sound muffled (like they’re underwater or playing through a tin can). I was wondering if what I was hearing was due to them being budget MPCs with poor-quality A/D converters or if it was due to the carbon fiber instrument casing (cheap plasticky MPCs) which I suspect may negatively affect the sound reverberation coming out of the unit (I could be wrong - just a theory). I’ve found that drum machines encased in metal tend to sound better. For example, I think the MPC X sounds worlds better than the Live or One. I find the Live and One completely unusable. I came up on the SP1200 and MPC 60ii, so sonically I favor vintage drum machines, even the Mpc 2000 sounds much better than the Live or X (note: the 2000 is encased in Metal). You’re definitely not the only person questioning the quality of the MPC One converters. I actually purchased the MPC One from Sweetwater because I liked the design and small form factor, but I immediately returned it because it sounds like trash in my humble opinion. To each his own.

Tonyc21 wrote:It’s not only your ears, I don’t like the way the MPC One and MPC Live sound. All of the beats that I’ve heard coming out of those machines sound muffled (like they’re underwater or playing through a tin can). I was wondering if what I was hearing was due to them being budget MPCs with poor-quality A/D converters or if it was due to the carbon fiber instrument casing (cheap plasticky MPCs) which I suspect may negatively affect the sound reverberation coming out of the unit (I could be wrong - just a theory). I’ve found that drum machines encased in metal tend to sound better. For example, I think the MPC X sounds worlds better than the Live or One. I find the Live and One completely unusable. I came up on the SP1200 and MPC 60ii, so sonically I favor vintage drum machines, even the Mpc 2000 sounds much better than the Live or X (note: the 2000 is encased in Metal). You’re definitely not the only person questioning the quality of the MPC One converters. I actually purchased the MPC One from Sweetwater because I liked the design and small form factor, but I immediately returned it because it sounds like trash in my humble opinion. To each his own.

A bad craftsman always blames his tools

I was there when the MPC 2000 released. Bad craftsmen also claimed it sounded like trash compared to the 60 and the 3000.

Randos making stuff up on the internet is nothing new.

But it's also irrelevant now the MPC Line supports any class compliant converter anyway.

Tonyc21 wrote:I was wondering if what I was hearing was due to them being budget MPCs with poor-quality A/D converters or if it was due to the carbon fiber instrument casing (cheap plasticky MPCs) which I suspect may negatively affect the sound reverberation coming out of the unit (I could be wrong - just a theory). I’ve found that drum machines encased in metal tend to sound better. For example, I think the MPC X sounds worlds better than the Live or One. I find the Live and One completely unusable. I came up on the SP1200 and MPC 60ii, so sonically I favor vintage drum machines, even the Mpc 2000 sounds much better than the Live or X (note: the 2000 is encased in Metal).

You See What I Wrote 13Yrs Ago in My Tagline At The Bottom

Sorry if I hurt any Nukai (Numark + Akai) fanboy’s feelings voicing my subjective opinion about how the MPC Live and One converters sound. The above troll is accusing me of being a bad craftsman just because I said I don’t like the way the converters sound. I’ve owned the MPC 60, 2000, 2000xl, 4000, s950 to name a few Akai samplers I’ve worked with, and I’ve tried the MPC One, and I think they all sound different. Of course a good musician/craftsman can make great music working with any tools, but I’m just saying out of the box without any EQ or doing anything, the MPC Live and One sound muffled to me. I think it would take more work to get those machines to sound warm and to my liking than it would take to get say the MPC X for example. I also own the 2000 and am aware people were complaining about the way the 2000 AD converters sound. I’m not a huge fan of the way the 2000 converters sound but I think they destroy the Live and the One. Anytime I go on YouTube and I arch videos of people playing MPC Live and One, I never like the music I’m hearing and the music made on those machines always sounds muffled to me which I’m assuming is due to poor-quality AD converters or the carbon fiber (cheap plasticky) budget build quality. This is just one person’s opinion. Sorry for anyone who owning a Live or One and getting their feeling hurt and getting so sensitive. Following the above troll’s logic about blaming the craftsman would mean that all drum machine samplers (and AD converters) are created equal and sound exactly the same. All drum machines sound different to different people. Like I said to each is own. One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. I, personally am waiting for Akai to release the MPC Key 61. I’m hoping it sounds similar or better than the MPC X and hoping to make that workstation my studio centerpiece. All you Live and One fanboys, keep making those under water sounding beats all you want. I’m just not feeling those two machines.

Tonyc21 wrote:Sorry if I hurt any Nukai (Numark + Akai) fanboy’s feelings voicing my subjective opinion about how the MPC Live and One converters sound. The above troll is accusing me of being a bad craftsman just because I said I don’t like the way the converters sound. I’ve owned the MPC 60, 2000, 2000xl, 4000, s950 to name a few Akai samplers I’ve worked with, and I’ve tried the MPC One, and I think they all sound different. Of course a good musician/craftsman can make great music working with any tools, but I’m just saying out of the box without any EQ or doing anything, the MPC Live and One sound muffled to me. I think it would take more work to get those machines to sound warm and to my liking than it would take to get say the MPC X for example. I also own the 2000 and am aware people were complaining about the way the 2000 AD converters sound. I’m not a huge fan of the way the 2000 converters sound but I think they destroy the Live and the One. Anytime I go on YouTube and I arch videos of people playing MPC Live and One, I never like the music I’m hearing and the music made on those machines always sounds muffled to me which I’m assuming is due to poor-quality AD converters or the carbon fiber (cheap plasticky) budget build quality. This is just one person’s opinion. Sorry for anyone who owning a Live or One and getting their feeling hurt and getting so sensitive. Following the above troll’s logic about blaming the craftsman would mean that all drum machine samplers (and AD converters) are created equal and sound exactly the same. All drum machines sound different to different people. Like I said to each is own. One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. I, personally am waiting for Akai to release the MPC Key 61. I’m hoping it sounds similar or better than the MPC X and hoping to make that workstation my studio centerpiece. All you Live and One fanboys, keep making those under water sounding beats all you want. I’m just not feeling those two machines.

It's ok you don't like the sound of the Live and One but tbh someone who blame case material as reason for bad sound is not very trustwothy IMO. Thats esoteric.
Also if you don't like the sound of these machines based on what you hear in YT videos.......
If I judge the sound of the SP1200 based on YT videos I would hate it cause in most cases they record with the camera mic. Room, heavy distorted sound.
When we talk about converters we're talking about nuances you only can hear in an A/B test either when you have the machines in front of you or with well recorded wav files under the same circuimstances.

If you like the sound of vintage gear like SP1200 or s900/s950 (I really do) bear in mind that these machines have THAT sound not just because of the converter but also because of filters and distortion that happens in the machine. For example look at the frequency response of the 950: cut in the subbass but a massive +6dB in the 7k to 18k range. You won't find this in modern machines.

peace

An MPC is not an acoustic guitar, the case material is not going to affect the sound being routed out of the main audio outs.

I have a Live and a One, among many other MPCS, the Force and other samplers, there is nothing muffled about the sound from these MPCs. As for direct comparisons, I can't say I've ever attempted an A/B comparison between, say, the MPC One and the Force, but I think you can convince yourself of pretty much anything if you sit there listening to A/B recordings for a couple of hours.

There might be a technical difference, but I doubt it's audible to most ears. Certainly not to my 50 year old ones.

If you guys read my initial post more carefully you'd see I wasn't blaming the instrument casing. I said "I could be wrong" and I said what I suspected was just "my own theory". I'm not an instrument designer and I don't know enough about electronics or instrument designs to act like some authority or make a statement like that. My opinion is just based on my own observations from the listening test I've done. I've owned many MPCs, EMU samplers, Ensoniq samplers, etc. and it is my opinion that each sampler and AD converter has its own unique sound and imparts its own color/artifacts onto the sound, whether the color/artifacts I'm hearing are due to the AD converters, or some other components that make up the machine's build. I'm not sure if the instrument casing could have any effect on the sound. I suspected the casing may have something to do with it because I was thinking along the lines of "you get what you pay for"-- If an instrument is built with cheaply made in China plasticky components, maybe that could be having a negative effect causing the muffled sound I was hearing, but again the muffled sound I am hearing is entirely subjective and I'm not sure what was causing the muffled sound I've been hearing. Other people may hear the same sound and think the MPC One and Live's converter's sound completely transparent. To me, the converters sound a bit muddy. but I wasn't sure what was causing the muddy sound I was hearing and I suspected it may have something to do with the AD converters or the instrument casing (but just a thought). Similar example: I own an Avid C24 mixing board, which lots of people always complain about quality of the mixing board's built-in preamps. Some people argue the C24 preamps are garbage and unusable, while maybe there are people out there who rave about the C24 preamps and would choose them over higher-end preamps like a Neve 1073. To each his own. I'll give another example, I'm a fan of a lot of music that was made on the MPC2500, although I'm not a fan of the way the MPC 2500 converters sound either). Alchemist, Arab Musk, and 9th Wonder are a few legendary producers that make excellent music on the 2500. To me, the MPC 2500 AD converters sound a bit muffled to my ears similar to the Live and One, so I prefer not to use the MPC 2500 as my starting palate for music production/sound design. I prefer the sound of the MPC 60, 3000, 4000, and MPC X, but the 2500 works for producers like Alchmest and he's able to make incredible music on it. When a master producer like Alchemist uses the 2500, he makes incredible beats on it. I just haven't heard any beats/examples made on the Live or One yet that I really liked how the beat sounds sonically. All the examples I've heard and keep hearing coming out of the One and Live tend to be overpowered by this muffled cloudy sound I'm hearing. This is just my subjective experience coming from my own listening tests. I don't know why people on this forum are attacking me calling me a bad craftsman just because I'm voicing my own opinion. I'm a huge Akai fan, but I just think all the MPCs have their own unique sonic signature. I just haven't been feeling the music I've been hearing coming out of the One and Live because the music sounds cloudy to my ears. On the other hand, maybe I've just been hearing some bad examples and haven't given the One and Live a fair chance. I'm not a hater. I'm a big fan of Akai and someone who loves music and passionate about music production. I just don't appreciate being attacked being called bad craftsman just because I voiced an opinion/observation about how the Live and One converters sound. Peace and Love everyone!

dude. its 2022. you cant voice your opinion.