Looking for best recommendation to add ASR to modern gear

Hi Everyone,

Looking to see what would be the best practice from some of the others here. Im familiar with running the asr through 2000xl as that is what I used to do a decade ago. I am looking to incorporate the asr into my live 2 controller mode setup, I currently run the live 2 as a vst controller hooked up via midi and the usb in Studio one. Studio one has a cool feature when I change the channel outs of the mpc to individual outs I can "render instrument" and it takes all the individual sounds and bounces them down to audio in whatever bar loop I am working in the daw. Cool.

So now I would like to incorporate the analog gear(s) I have back into the workflow now that I am feeling more confident with the newer machine. I still want the sonics of the old stuff, this vst render option is kind of a cooler drag and drop, I am unsure if it is actually hitting any type of converters though as im not running audio out of mpc into the interface only the midi cables so I doubt it.

That said I would like to know if it makes more sense in anyone with similar experience opinion to run my samples into asr Chop them and run the outs to the mpc live in and record them and trim / layout the sample or if it would make more sense to do some type of midi configuration on the mpc, chop and sample in the asr then I believe use the on board record audio functions of mpc with looper or the other method? I know there is a few methods to convert the incoming midi to audio but wanna see what makes the most sense as there seems to be 2 or 3 ways of accomplishing this. With controller mode I have the mpc with direct access to my hard drive of digitized vinyls etc so I can technically just load those chops into mpc then out to the asr 10s in and sample that way, chop and then either send back through mpc or play as midi i guess.

I would also like to know if it makes sense to run outs of mpc back into the asr and then into the ins of the interface to process those sounds on the way in almost like an effects processor. Though im not sure how much of a sync nightmare it will be getting those sounds into the daw as Im typically using about 12-16 sounds per track and I do not have expander on the asr. I know the live 2 has "32" outs as I am using it like that but that seems to be a midi or digital out only, not sure if im missing something on how many outs I can actually track at once If i wanted to do that the old school PMPTE way or something else as I used to just use 8 outs and have to do them 8 a time on 2000xl w a click track. Once I get all this working in a satisfactory manner I would like to then incorporate my motifs back in but I wanna go one layer at a time. Thanks in advance!

PS I have an old 1818vsl Presonus interface I am using as an interface with a decent routing capability 8 in 8 out. https://legacy.presonus.com/products/AudioBox-1818VSL

Also Have an old behringer mixer with some routing capabilities if that helps with recommended configurations.

You may check how much of the ASR‘s sound is preserved in any part of the processing chain you gonna design.
(the ASR features a TDA1541 converter, one of the very best 16bit DACs ever)
Track the ASR with the MPC and the Presonus, verify that the Behringer mixer doesn‘t ruin it‘s sound if engaged for routing.

Yeah for sure, It's more so figuring out if just midi up the asr into mpc and convert the midi in the mpc to audio is good enough or if I should route the out of asr into the DAW, while being controlled by the midi triggers of mpc. Im not currently using the outs of mpc into the daw to record audio more that cool feature I said earlier.

I think I found a cheat code potentially though. You can use pipeline xt in studio one as an insert and send fx out and back in. When the asr is in sample in and bypass monitor mode the signal flows through it. So im thinking it may actually pass that warmth back. I dont necessarily need to use my on board effects on the asr but can if needed later.

I would like to chop on the asr rather than mpc, can do either or but I like the smoothness of the asr sample chop workflow, would like to send my sequenced on board synths of mpc through it to chop as well. My thinking is I can use the videos below as an end result for the whole track to warm it, and just use a swap of the outs and ins from the interface for finanlizing to the mpc to use the asr when needed for sequencing.

See the pipeline studio one plugin here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB8LpzQvLug

If the passthrough works how I think you can see asr here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK4wyU2rIH0

Too get the actual sonic character of the ASR you'll need to sample into it not just run a signal thru it, unless you just want to use the ASR for FX.

I would also see if I can eliminate the ASR by emulating its character on the MPC using its sound shaping tools like the filters in the program editor, Drum FX like Bit Crush & Decimator, & the insert FXs like Flavor or even better for this Flavor Pro.

I did this to match the sound character of the SP505 Lofi sample rate, so now I don’t need it to "add character" since the Akai has more than enough, but Akai wants you to make the character you want. These modern MPC are way more versatile sound shaping & may require an updated mental approach in how to deal with deal them more effectively.

Hi,

Yeah I have been using flavor pro, decimators etc. Im no sound designer of course, but All the effort has not reproduced the same sonics I got out of the asr and 2000xl combo. Im willing to do the extra work for the sound I want so If need be Ill just have to do some manual work. Question is will the signal be retained when coming out the asr to the mpc in if its midi triggere and quarter inch ins when you use the mpcs convert to audio functions or will it lose that character.

I purposely didnt add any of my old gear for the last four months or so to get used to the new machines capabilities and try and squeeze what I could from it on its own. I think theres still much more to discover for sure as there is a ton of possibilites it has within it and the new stuff compared to old days is lightning fast. I also dont want to spend 3 hours crushing and tweaking sounds just to get there in the middle of creating though lol. I dont mind fine tuning later but I would like to have the sonics from the jump as Im going through my processes.

Nino_Allah wrote:Hi,

Yeah I have been using flavor pro, decimators etc. Im no sound designer of course, but All the effort has not reproduced the same sonics I got out of the asr and 2000xl combo. Im willing to do the extra work for the sound I want so If need be Ill just have to do some manual work. Question is will the signal be retained when coming out the asr to the mpc in if its midi triggere and quarter inch ins when you use the mpcs convert to audio functions or will it lose that character.

I purposely didnt add any of my old gear for the last four months or so to get used to the new machines capabilities and try and squeeze what I could from it on its own. I think theres still much more to discover for sure as there is a ton of possibilites it has within it and the new stuff compared to old days is lightning fast. I also dont want to spend 3 hours crushing and tweaking sounds just to get there in the middle of creating though lol. I dont mind fine tuning later but I would like to have the sonics from the jump as Im going through my processes.

No, you won't lose any of sound texture when recording into the MPC, If anything you should be able to play those samples louder without distortion because of the extra headroom 24/32f bit depth provides. it's still has the same sample rate of 44.1k - which means it can record frequencies of half that so up to 22.5kHz. The converts more transparent so what you hear coming is what your gonna get after sampling. Look up Harry Nyquist for more nerdy info.

I don't know what your extent of testing & what methods you used in trying the capture the sonic of the MPC/ASR. I have an ASR & when I did a quick sound test of it vs the Force which sound just like the post-2017 MPCs, the ASR sounded a little dark & airy (whatever the hell that means) but I didn't try to emulated it like I did the SP505 which I was able to match. I'll do a proper Force vs ASR test, soon since it's been on my mind for while & I also what to compare the filters & FX's to see if the ASR is worth keeping because of it's "unique" sound.

The first thing to do is to sample the same sound(s) into both MPC's then try to match the raw sound of the XL on the new MPC as close as possible then run them thru the ASR & see if the new MPC can emulate the sonics of the XL. Keep in mind you can keep tweaking the FX & other setting on the new MPC to see if you can make a new & maybe better sound - which is what those new tools are for. The current MPCs & Force is designed to shape the sound of the future!

I'll keep you posted on my Akai vs ASR sound test.

actually up to 20 khz not 22,050. you have to account for the antialiasing filter slope and the filter phase distortions around cutoff frequency. that's why the minimum decent sample rate is 44.1 khz and not straight 40khz.

hyena wrote:actually up to 20 khz not 22,050. you have to account for the antialiasing filter slope and the filter phase distortions around cutoff frequency. that's why the minimum decent sample rate is 44.1 khz and not straight 40khz.

Good to know.

Just a quick update,

I did run the outs of master bus in daw of another session through the asr ins and you do get some mojo just running the signal through back into the DAW again.

Using pipeline in studio one, which makes the outboard signal a plugin to external gear. I have been able to use asr as outboard processor, trying to figure out what is going on with the latency though. When printing the whole thing the wave (right signal?) is slightly off from the left when recording it all back in stereo. Need to see if this is due to some latency trick,some kinda phasing that needs to be resolved or if it’s some bad cable etc. did not have a chance to go back yet but it def works just running the signal through not even sampling it.

So there ya go you got some added warmth for your whole track if needed and of course the asr effects if you want without even sampling it in. Just running it through the listen and back out is hitting some converters it’s not just passing a clean signal straight through.

Running a signal thru the analog ins/outs will add the internal noise of the ASR, the digital ins/out will give you a clean signal. Sampling into the ASR & playing that sample back is where most of the character comes from. The same sort of warmth can be added by running the signal thru an analog mixing board. Maybe the ASR got better warmth & noise floor than most mixers.