Standalone 1000 fun.

Hi peeps.

Been mostly a lurker on this forum for some time now but thought I might as well join in more
with the 1000k chit chat.

I am just curious as to how many of you actually use just the 1000 as a standalone work station. In that I mean not just making the beats but all the added extra sounds etc to create a track.

I took the 1000 back to my folks home at Christmas time and played around with it more than I did/do in my studio. It was interesting
to use on it's own and without all the other gear I slap along side it.

I've recently hooked up an FX rack to the 1000 so going to play around with that approach for a while.

What's anyone else's experiences using the 1000 on it's own and now that all the extra goodies have been added with the new OS. I have read a couple of people on here who have mentioned they have made tracks only using the 1000 before. How did they feel with the end result etc.

Cheers.

what's up puck. good to hear from you.

I've used just my mpc before for a couple songs...especially when i was learning to use it. by the time i knew 90 of its internal sampling functions (ie no midi controlling stuff going on) i was pretty enthused.

most of my songs start out all just on the mpc, using samples and synthesis, esp now with the qlinks. over winter break, i went home for the holidays. it sucked - i didn't have anything from my studio. i did have, however, my mpc1000. just that, and a bunch of mp3s taken from my mom's cd collection.

i actually composed an orchestra beat while i was home, synthesizing violins from very short 1 second stabs...it was one of the most complicated and dramatic songs i've ever worked on, and it was just my 1k. pretty cool stuff. it gets slept on as a stand alone workstation - i think that's stigma still attached to the old os.

anyway, rock on
nym

Excellent stuff mate that's exactly what I'm talking about. Like you when I got my 1000 I just played with it, then of course I wanted to go on and link it up etc with your other studio gear.

I dunno about you mate but when I play with the mpc I feel it's like when I first started making music. You know the times when you had F'all money to buy any equipment and what you got you savoured.

I did what you did when I went home. Grabbed a load of MP3's and played around with them after recording parts into the 1000. I bet you would not have put as much effort into that orchestral track you made if you had been in your studio. Too much temptation to use your other equipment right?

I think your spot on about the old OS and what people thought back then on the 1000's limits etc. Now the new OS is out, it's changed and to be honest I can't see all the hype about the 2500. I don't need a CD drive etc on my MPC. 1000 can have a hard drive now so unless you were going to use the 2500 as standalone with nothing else like an extra sampler, synth racks etc then I would just about justify getting it other than that and if your already using an MPC in a studio with other goodies the 1000 holds it's own and standalone if people put the time into the unit.

The reason I asked the question I did is because, of course people will always mention the beat making side when it comes to the MPC. But it is a sampler and not many peeps mention the other side to it other than making beats. Was just curios to see how many people on here use the 1000's
other side.

Too much temptation to use your other equipment right?

it's terrible! sometimes all you need is one pencil, not a whole set. in fact, when you're scetching out a big picture, it's best not to have all the tools right there in front of you so that you can lay out the outline first and fill it in later.

this is why i take my mpc to my college's dining hall. i stay there for 5 hours or so just effin' jamming with my samples. this is often when i get the most work done. when i come home, i touch things up - resample into my sp404, add stuff from reason via midi...and then resample everything back into the mpc so i can hit the road again. it's truly the brain of the operation...

I have heard many people say the more stuff you have the less you do at times. You don't know where to turn you know.

Like you mentioned the 1000 is a great note pad amongst other things. I guess Reason on a laptop is also but with the MPC you get that raw hardware sound eh. I always have much love for Reason though as that opened up a whole new world for me when it first dropped. I use it in most of tracks right up today. Great App. I managed to get a Roland Varios for a silly price and that goes well with the 1000 much like the sp404 as in mixing the audio together with the two units. The Varios ain't portable though and I bet you have some good fun with the sp404 and the MPC on the move.

puck wrote:I have heard many people say the more stuff you have the less you do at times. You don't know where to turn you know.

i sometimes find reason as being the 'more stuff' you speak of! there's just so much you can do with it, i seem to find myself just starting new tracks all the time with a new hook going on, just because i can. i never seem to finish anything tho! crazy!

Reason's the Don. Great app mate I agree with you, it's an endless canvas of creativity.

puck wrote:Reason's the Don. Great app mate I agree with you, it's an endless canvas of creativity.

i was sort of saying it's a bad thing actually, in that there's so many possibilities, that you can get lost trying out new things, and never finishing anything you start. well i do anyway!

Yeah but it's so simple to save and come back to also don't you think? I used to hate doing all the midi dumps from my hardware synths to save stuff.

puck wrote:Yeah but it's so simple to save and come back to also don't you think? I used to hate doing all the midi dumps from my hardware synths to save stuff.

yeah it's a fantastic program, and that is the way i tend to work with it, when i use it on it's own for a track, i.e.: start a lot of tracks, and then come back to them later on, and do a bit on each one when i come back to it. i find it helps keep the sound fresh, because otherwise if you stick with one track for a couple of months, you end up getting bored with a track, and start thinking sounds need changing, when they don't, it's just that you've heard it so many times!!

yep and also over tweaking and messing about can make a track sound flat and dead as the flow ain't there. You get a lot of Synth Surgeons who spend 90% of the time tweaking their racks etc and actually not getting anything soulful at the end of it. Reason is fast and addictive. The deep tweaking capability is there if you want it but also the speed of putting down fast ideas is too. I think that's why so many of us love it eh?

puck wrote:yep and also over tweaking and messing about can make a track sound flat and dead as the flow ain't there. You get a lot of Synth Surgeons who spend 90% of the time tweaking their racks etc and actually not getting anything soulful at the end of it. Reason is fast and addictive. The deep tweaking capability is there if you want it but also the speed of putting down fast ideas is too. I think that's why so many of us love it eh?

you're not wrong mate.

Reason's finger lickin good mate

The 4 tracks below are mine bud and are about 90% Reason made also has the 1k in action. Have a listen if you get time, if not no worries

Gypsy Fingers- Ich I Rat (instrumental)
Gypsy Fingers - Old Fashioned Boy (vocal)
Gypsy Fingers - Old World Order feat: Sweet Adele (Vocal)
[url=http://www.phantom-noir.co.uk/gypsy/shebetsibizz.mp3]Gypsy Fingers - Shebetsi Bizz(vocal)
[/url]

puck wrote:Reason's finger lickin good mate

The 4 tracks below are mine bud and are about 90% Reason made also has the 1k in action. Have a listen if you get time, if not no worries

Gypsy Fingers- Ich I Rat (instrumental)
Gypsy Fingers - Old Fashioned Boy (vocal)
Gypsy Fingers - Old World Order feat: Sweet Adele (Vocal)
[url=http://www.phantom-noir.co.uk/gypsy/shebetsibizz.mp3]Gypsy Fingers - Shebetsi Bizz(vocal)
[/url]

quality stuff mate! i liked Shebetsi Bizz best, and Old Fashioned Boy too (reminded me of Bentley Rhythm Ace a bit!)

you should get signed easily enough.

Hey there,

I agree with both of you, Reason can be somewhat of a burden sometimes because, I too spend ages tinkering with stuff - and subsequently get nowhere! (or nearly nowhere).

I have recently just tarted up my 1000 - putting the full ram in it and installing a 40gb hard drive - so now with no real restrictions as to space to save and load samples etc - I to have started using the 1000 as a completely stand alone unit - going over to the less tinkering, more fun side of things.

I swear to god - since I updated my 1000 and installed the new OS ( about two weeks ago) ive been more productve than I ever have!

Anyway, - back to the MPC........