Share your knowledge on these two classic MPCs
By sunclef Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:46 pm
here's my issue.
i have tried to sample recordings of bass or kick that have a lot of low frequency, like a sub kick, or my double bass, but when sampling into my 60, even if the recording level meter is not peaking, it still clips due to the low frequency. if i don't want it to clip i have to sample it at a low level, which in turn makes it barely audible when played with the rest of the song.
is 12bit not able to handle low frequencies like a higher bit rate? if not, i could just do my basslines after i record the sequences into my computer, cause i can record my bass into my computer and it comes out nice and clear and powerful.
but it its something that i'm doing wrong or can adjust on the mpc then could someone clear up my stupidity?
thanks

By spectre Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:53 pm
It's pretty much the 60. I had this problem last week. What I did was change my gain from mid to low and I was able to get it a little louder without clipping. Still not as loud as I'd like it but it isn't that big of a deal with the beat I did.

By sunclef Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:01 pm
cool, i'll just have to create the thumping on my comp before i get it mixed.
thanks.

By elmacaco Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:09 am
compressing sounds on the way in is good. micing straight into the 60 is only as good as your mic and signal chain. try recording it into your computer, normalize and compres, then export it with the MPC editor and load it in and see the difference.

I have no trouble with bass from vinyl.

By sunclef Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:06 am
yeah, i'll give that a shot
thanks

By elmacaco Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:35 am
the problem with a bass is that it is a relaxing waveform, so the attack is louder than the meat of the sound, which can end up at half the amplitude or less. Compressing will bring the disparity closer together, but will alter the sound somewhat as well.

Off vinyl it can be the same but often the level is high enough or there s some compression going on.

By fader-pro Fri Jan 06, 2006 5:16 pm
elmacaco wrote:the problem with a bass is that it is a relaxing waveform, so the attack is louder than the meat of the sound, which can end up at half the amplitude or less. Compressing will bring the disparity closer together, but will alter the sound somewhat as well.

Off vinyl it can be the same but often the level is high enough or there s some compression going on.


If you use a fast attack and a fast decay you can catch that peak with a minimum of "alteration".....

By elmacaco Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:39 pm
Very true.

Experiment with your sampler inputs people!
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By drumat!c Sat Jan 07, 2006 6:54 am
I think it's not the velocity of the bass that's clipping....it's probably the fact that your zero point of truncation is in the middle of the wave path. If you are using an TR-808 style kick drum and you repeatedly hit the pad on the 60, the waves will cut each other off midway causing the sound to sorta clip or pop. I imagine that if you are not peaking during sampling process then you are not having a problem with the actual sample. I'm not sure though.....just my assumption.
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By drumat!c Sat Jan 07, 2006 6:57 am
best to use a limiter rather than a compressor when sampling into the 60 or any sampling drum machine for that matter. You only really want to control the transient peaks.....that's what causes most of the PEAK signals to go off on the 60....I hate when my drum break has 5 drums that are perfectly level and then that one kick has that attack transient that causes the entire recording to peak. Annoying....Limiter helps, believe me!

By elmacaco Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:05 am
What limiter you strap to your input?

Compressors work differently but can solve the same problem. overdriving a nice limiter must sound dope.

By fader-pro Sat Jan 07, 2006 3:38 pm
FYI.... alot of the compressors on the market these days do double duty as "Compressor / Limiters" - including the budget models. I believe even the 3630 from alesis has a peak limiter in it....
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By drumat!c Sun Jan 08, 2006 7:46 am
All I was trying to express to our friend here is that by using a limiter you're able to prevent any unwanted peaks in the signal (abrupt gains) by adjusting or lowering the threshold, all while the rest of the signal remains unaltered. Compared to that, a compressor will also do a similar job ,but it "condenses" the signal, for its peaks are reduced, but the overall level of the signal is raised to applied make-up gain (output gain).

There are differences in dynamic ranges and processed signals, so I guess it's all a matter of aural preference.


DRUMMA-