gain?

where do most of you have your gain dial set at....in the middle ? or no gain at all? reason i ask is cuz the more i turn it up, the more static i hear and i wanna sample my drums as hot as i can (with out clipping ofcoarse)...so that they aint all weak.

On my mixing board I generally have gain set to unity.

With what you're trying to do, I don't think there's any way around it, apart from adjusting the EQs (hf/treble) to minimise the static coming through.
If you were getting more static while turning the gain up on a mixing board for tracking (post-sampling), then I might say to go back and resample the sound again with the desired level set on the mixer you use for sampling. This is because the more gear, cables etc you run a sound through, the more noise they pick up along the path. So it's always best to set the levels properly before you record them into the mpc (or any other gear for that matter).

..That info might not be much help with the problem you have right now, but its good to know. But yeah, I can only think of lowering the high frequencies to get rid of some of that static. (You can also try the filter in the mpc's program mode (mpc2000/xl), but that could muddle the sound a bit.) If you've already tried that, maybe go back and re-sample the sound with adjusted EQs, but that won't make a huge difference... Depends on your gear though I guess.

Peace

I turn up the master volume on my mixer all the way and keep the gain at zero.

Common sense about gain structure says you should boost to a sensible level as early in the chain as possible; if you start with a low level and boost later, you'll be boosting any noise/static picked up in the signal chain.

I always make sure the meters on my TTM56 are showing the correct levels - I hardly need to use any gain on the MPC. I try to get 'loud' samples such as kicks and snares as close to maximum as possible on the MPC, but I don't do this with samples that are going to be much lower in the mix anyway - this gives your samples a more natural starting point when mixing: there is no point normalizing a hi-hat if you're going to turn it way down in the mix later.

lo-fi wrote:Common sense about gain structure says you should boost to a sensible level as early in the chain as possible; if you start with a low level and boost later, you'll be boosting any noise/static picked up in the signal chain.

I always make sure the meters on my TTM56 are showing the correct levels - I hardly need to use any gain on the MPC. I try to get 'loud' samples such as kicks and snares as close to maximum as possible on the MPC, but I don't do this with samples that are going to be much lower in the mix anyway - this gives your samples a more natural starting point when mixing: there is no point normalizing a hi-hat if you're going to turn it way down in the mix later.

Co-sign.

i see alot of you are talkin bout mixers..but im sampling from keyboards for now....i turned the volume up as far as i could on the keyboards and have the gain set 2 0...the drums im sampling come out ok..but not as loud as id liek them 2 be...especially the high hat...and i tried raising the gain but then i got that static...

tx pimp wrote:i see alot of you are talkin bout mixers..but im sampling from keyboards for now....i turned the volume up as far as i could on the keyboards and have the gain set 2 0...the drums im sampling come out ok..but not as loud as id liek them 2 be...especially the high hat...and i tried raising the gain but then i got that static...

Well, try turning your keys down a lil and your gain up a lil, fuk around with it and se if you can get hot signals without static. Experiment!

I'd say record with different settings, note em and compare lateron.
kinda nerdy but still acurate.
.toon