Sound Quality

Is it just my 1000 or did other people notic the 1000's sound quality is not what it could be?
when i sample something into my sp-404 it sounds big and all the tones are represented well, but when i sample the same thing into my mpc 1000 it's really depressing. it's so bad that on the sp-404 i sometimes really like the beat that i can make with the samples but on the 1000 it just doesnt sound convincing enough to be dope....

i think it's all in your head
do a signal comparison, turn off the master effects, do not monitor your dominant samples from the analog outs.

i was the exact opposite, found the sp404's sound inferior to the 1000

New to the world of MPC.
I just ordered an MPC-1000 over a Roland SP-555 today. Hope I don't regret choosing the Akai. It was the pads, screen and option to fit an internal HD that sold it for me.

Antonym wrote:i think it's all in your head
do a signal comparison, turn off the master effects, do not monitor your dominant samples from the analog outs.

i was the exact opposite, found the sp404's sound inferior to the 1000

i never use the master effects and why not monitor through analog outs? the 404 also only got analog outs

did you mean main outs? because i just checked and theres definately a difference between the headphones out and the master outs... ( headphones out sounds much better for musical samples )

good to hear about the master fx outs, sometimes folks leave em on and forget about them

i say digital out because it's a more detailed, higher quality sound. by that i mean it's closer to the exact thing that's being played thru your mpc - undergoing less conversion than something that's going out the analog outs into a mixer out the mixer into your monitors out your monitors. you know? i have compared em side by side and if this makes sense the analog is way softer sounding, and not necessarily in a good way.

when tracking i aim for most of my high detail stuff to get tracked via spdif. lead sample for sure. snare drum and hats, almost always spdif. bass drum and bassline? analog outs.

the sp404's outputs aren't grounded (them being rcas) compared to the main outs of the MPC (them being balanced, but remember that the individual outs are unbalanced!).

i used to like the sp404's sound because it was "rough and frosty." it adds more character to the sound (even before fx). however, i keep my samples in the mpc as dry as possible (besides layering). this is the way i personally like it - i wouldn't want my sampler to color my sound unless i had wet/dry control over said color.

i was talking to transformermonkey about this before and i think i made a more convincing case on the telephone. but remember - after a certain point, you're kind of knocking your head against a wall when you're struggling/striving/dying for a final sound right out of the mpc1000 or any sampler for that matter. it's just not that step yet - that's daw work, mastering and all that jazz. the mpc1000-4000 etc just isn't suited for that type of work.

all in 1 box sounds are destined to be kind of limited. i'd advise you to leave that work for later, during the 2nd half of song construction and manipulation in the daw.

another example is panning. i prefer doing that sooo much more in daw than in the mpc. everything is dead dry and unpanned (unless the sample is stereo) in my mpc until daw. it's best suited as a compositional tool, after all.

Chulukinat wrote:did you mean main outs? because i just checked and theres definately a difference between the headphones out and the master outs... ( headphones out sounds much better for musical samples )

yeah, i did mean main outs (and assignable outs). spdif is just more clear and sharp in my experience.

I thought the A/D/A conversion of the MPC's were something that was desired? If I use the spdif ins/outs, I might as well keep making beats with Cubase and Battery.

the mpc is not a guitar pedal. the workflow and functions (and in the 1000's case, the portability) is the desired feature. you'd lose both of these with cubase/battery.

Antonym wrote:

Chulukinat wrote:did you mean main outs? because i just checked and theres definately a difference between the headphones out and the master outs... ( headphones out sounds much better for musical samples )

yeah, i did mean main outs (and assignable outs). spdif is just more clear and sharp in my experience.

if thats what u wanna do...i use a mpc because i dont got much space and sampling thru a computer just seems wack

I wouldn't say the analog outs sound bad to my ears... I do A/B the same soundclip pre- and post- mpc sometimes and doesn't sound much different to me. I'll have to do some more listening..

Have you seriously done a straight A/B comparison (with matched levels) of an 'original' sound and then the sampled version, monitored thru the same gear and everything? How would you describe the difference?

Perhaps the 404 degrades or distorts the audio in a way that actual makes it sound 'better than plain'?

I did read somewhere that tests showed a rolloff of high frequencies on the 1k's analog outs; that wouldn't surprise me and perhaps that is the source of a little 'something' lacking... but at least for the material I work with that just as often makes it sound a little better as a little worse. Too much of the super-hi freq's just annoys my ears anyway .

The first time I saw a thread like this I remember it ending with the discovery of some kind of default setting in the master out (EQ?) being responsible for a difference in sound output. The setting was changed and all went back to normal. That was quite some time ago so I can't remember much more than that.

BTW only the inputs are balanced.

elektrik_muz wrote:BTW only the inputs are balanced.

I've always thought that the main outs are balanced.

Ridgestone wrote:

I've always thought that the main outs are balanced.

Nope. Check the specs page in the manual. It's one of those things people on this forum seem to forget every few months for some reason...

hahaa, ok. Pretty strange tho, I've always assumed that those are balanced..