Post your views and questions about the Akai MPC2500
By Needle201 Sun Apr 16, 2006 6:16 pm
i know that the MPC 2000 (XL) and MPC 1000 are based on the old S1000 Sampling Engine, contrary to the MPC 4000 which uses the far superior Z8 Engine. So i heard from a lot of people that the 4k sounds a lot punchier than the 1k/2k..
Anybody any Idea where to put the 2500 in this scheme? I am getting a little bit tired of the sound of my old 2KXL, and if i upgrade to the 2500 it should do better in this field...
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By Fist Full of Dollaz Sun Apr 16, 2006 7:13 pm
Needle201 wrote:i know that the MPC 2000 (XL) and MPC 1000 are based on the old S1000 Sampling Engine, contrary to the MPC 4000 which uses the far superior Z8 Engine. So i heard from a lot of people that the 4k sounds a lot punchier than the 1k/2k..
Anybody any Idea where to put the 2500 in this scheme? I am getting a little bit tired of the sound of my old 2KXL, and if i upgrade to the 2500 it should do better in this field...


what dont u like about the sound of your XL?

By Needle201 Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:19 pm
difficult to explain in words how stuff sounds... i like how the 2kXL sounds when playing live somewhere, but i feel i dont get the right dynamics while sitting in the studio and doin beats with it...missing Bass and high frequencies somehow...

ByRed_Dragon Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:11 pm
The 4000 does not have more punch. Although, the 3000 does! I would say the 4000 converters make the samples sound open. The 2000XL converters sound brighter and the 2500 sounds cleaner than the other akai drum machines. IMO!
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By selecta jo Sun Apr 16, 2006 11:08 pm
i like how the 2kXL sounds when playing live somewhere, but i feel i dont get the right dynamics while sitting in the studio and doin beats with it...missing Bass and high frequencies somehow


maybe you are using different speakers live and in the studio?
pa systems for the audience normally boost the highs and the bass a bit for listening purposes. studio monitors deliver flat sound - maybe that is your missing low end?

peace jo

By mikey beats Sun Apr 16, 2006 11:56 pm
selecta jo wrote:
i like how the 2kXL sounds when playing live somewhere, but i feel i dont get the right dynamics while sitting in the studio and doin beats with it...missing Bass and high frequencies somehow


maybe you are using different speakers live and in the studio?
pa systems for the audience normally boost the highs and the bass a bit for listening purposes. studio monitors deliver flat sound - maybe that is your missing low end?

peace jo


For real, I agree wit Jo. It also depends on what samples ur using.

Have u made a production on the 2000XL and then compared it on another MPC to be sure that the 2kXL is the problem???
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By cyrus Mon Apr 17, 2006 3:39 am
well. It all depends. I had a few drum samples that i put in my triton and 2xl and they sounded phatter in the triton.

but then i popped them into my 2500 and they sounded clean, not as thin as the 2xl but not phatt either.

By MPZ60 Mon Apr 17, 2006 3:58 am
All samplers internal circuitry colors the sound. From DSP to sound memory compression . All machines yeild different results and have their own character. Learn how to manipulate and work around the sound of your machine to get the results you want. Use filters eq ect in different manners to achieve your desired results. I have loaded the same sound in other samplers and it always sounds different. If you want more oomph from kicks assign the same kick to 2 different pads, and on one pad bring the freq way down to around 12 and crank up the resonance to around 14. (At least on 808 kicks this works well for different sounds you will have to adjust the filter accordingly ). Play the 2 pads at the same time and your low end will be retained and more enchanced than it was before. ( This is for any mpc )

By mikey beats Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:52 pm
MPZ60 wrote:All samplers internal circuitry colors the sound. From DSP to sound memory compression . All machines yeild different results and have their own character. Learn how to manipulate and work around the sound of your machine to get the results you want. Use filters eq ect in different manners to achieve your desired results. I have loaded the same sound in other samplers and it always sounds different. If you want more oomph from kicks assign the same kick to 2 different pads, and on one pad bring the freq way down to around 12 and crank up the resonance to around 14. (At least on 808 kicks this works well for different sounds you will have to adjust the filter accordingly ). Play the 2 pads at the same time and your low end will be retained and more enchanced than it was before. ( This is for any mpc )


Interesting...have to give it a try!

I always merge two different drum sounds together to get a new phatter sound but haven't tried merging a sound with its own low end counter part!

By subvertbeats Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:25 am
mikey beats wrote:
MPZ60 wrote:All samplers internal circuitry colors the sound. From DSP to sound memory compression . All machines yeild different results and have their own character. Learn how to manipulate and work around the sound of your machine to get the results you want. Use filters eq ect in different manners to achieve your desired results. I have loaded the same sound in other samplers and it always sounds different. If you want more oomph from kicks assign the same kick to 2 different pads, and on one pad bring the freq way down to around 12 and crank up the resonance to around 14. (At least on 808 kicks this works well for different sounds you will have to adjust the filter accordingly ). Play the 2 pads at the same time and your low end will be retained and more enchanced than it was before. ( This is for any mpc )


Interesting...have to give it a try!

I always merge two different drum sounds together to get a new phatter sound but haven't tried merging a sound with its own low end counter part!


beware of phase issues when you do this with overlapping filter frequencies (even though your settings may say they're not overlapping, the roll off slopes on the filters isnt instantaneous (most is 18dB per octave from memory)

As fr sampler sounds, theres little difference between the sound of the 2kxl, 1k, 2.5k and 4k. There converters are pretty similar. If you cant get a good solid sound out of any of them then changing to another will unlikely make any difference whatsoever.

to th eoriginal poster, the 4k (and z series engine that its based on) is more different in its features and whole design as a sampling engine than it is in sound - describing it as 'far superior' could be misleading.

The older MPCs like th 60 and 3k have a quite different sound, but of course the filters and converters are quite different too, and the 60 is 12 bit.