MPC1000 sequencer?

hey yall,

I'm curious about how the "triggering" of the sampler in the mpc1000 and the other mpc's works?

I've had a discussion with a friend of mine about sequencers.
I told him that lately I "re-discovered" my built-in MOTIF hardware-sequencer and really like the tightness of it. And almost don't use my soft-seq anymore

So now I'm aiming towards a mpc1000, but still not sure because of the overall compromises this "little" box has made.


BUT, my friend was insisting that the mpc60/3000 are way tighter because they trigger the sounds in the sampler somehow "linear", so that every midi channel/track is triggered simultaneously.

In my MOTIF sequencer and the mpc series 2000/4000 the sampler is triggered via midi/nonlinear, he says.
That means that it always starts at midi channel 1 and then the rest (2 to 16).
Therefore it's not as tight as the Mr. Linn MPC's.


Is he right?
What about the mpc1000? The same as 2000/4000 or back to the roots?

And an additional question? Is the sample engine in the mpc1000 a newer one, like the z4/z8 samplers/mpc4000 or is it the mpc2000 engine?


thanx in advance fellas!

The internal samples of all the MPCs are played separate from any MIDI chain and so are not affected by any latency due to MIDI. Not that anyone could ever detect this latency with less-than-humongous amounts of NRPNs and shit coming in, the only time MIDI is slow enough to where it's audible is when you overload the sequencer. It's rare and I've only done it to my 2000 using an ES-1 or EA-1 a while back. The Electribe series uses NRPNs to control its tweaky bits rather than free CCs, and they eat up twice as much memory and are less convenient to edit.

Anyhow, the sample triggering is a separate thing from MIDI sound sources.

There is no such thing as simultaneous MIDI triggering anyhow, MIDI is a serial stream and can only send one literal event per whatever its refresh rate is. The space between MIDI events is indiscernable to human ear, again.

The whole concept of "sample engine" and so on is very vague and none of us have access to Akai's code to compare "engines" any more than you do. Sampling is a fairly standard affair anymore, all modern samplers use .wavs and adhere to the same set of rules. It's in how they layer sounds, their interfaces and speed that really set any of them apart.

Peace,
-tank.

[quote=

BUT, my friend was insisting that the mpc60/3000 are way tighter because they trigger the sounds in the sampler somehow "linear", so that every midi channel/track is triggered simultaneously.

[/quote]


you see, this is what happens when one only suggests only what they know, and nothing else.


for drum timing, i think all MPC's are the same. i have tried the 1000 (i own one), the 2000xl and the 4000.

they are all extremely tight, and for drums, midi is not even associated.

the samplers are held in RAM, and triggered via the pads, and played back in the sequencer.

the 1000 is very very tight, and sometimes with certain samples its sequencer plays back the drums so tight in 1/16th quantize that the beat gets annoying.

the loose / swingy feel is what i prefer, but with the stability of that particular feel to remain for long periods of playback time.

the 4000 is very tight also, i have tried all sorts of patterns on that beast and the playback is flawless. the 2000xl is no different.

maybe your friend has a particular feel for the 3000, and that is all he knows of and has tried and tested.

but drum machine have moved on since 1993.

more memory
more features
FX
HD
USB
etc
etc.

also Note:

the 3000 has been rated for best overall sound (warm, etc), but i know a person who has one, and has stoped using his for 3 years since his computer setup. i asked him why, he said the 3000 has Iregular timing.

maybe something to think about.

does the MPC automatically Quantize then?
if not can u do that yourself?

i dont give a **** what anybody says there is a definite difference between the sequencing of the 3000/60 and 2000.

which one is better, i dont know, i like em all....the more sequencers you have the more you can mix up the feel of your tracks.

def better than the motif sequecner, and i cant speak upon the 1000/4000.

He is probably referring to the 4 midi outs on the 60/3000

It might make a bit of a difference, but hardly a breaking point for eliminating a 2k or above.

Matt_J wrote:does the MPC automatically Quantize then?
if not can u do that yourself?

The MPC will quantize either during record (defaults to quantize to 1/16 notes) or after record. (labeled Timing Correction) You can quantize with swing to various %s or you can quantize straight. You can also select to only quantize certain portions of your sequence, swing some tracks and leave others straight, etc.

You can disable quantize or you can use and abuse it all you want. It's also used to determine the repeat-speed of drum rolls using the note repeat function.

-tank.