Bass Problem

I've owned my mpc for 18 months and i've had this same problem since day one. I've never been able to play a bass note at the same time as a kick drum. It messes up the sound completely. I think it's something to do with side chain compression but i'm not too clued up on that.

I know you can fix this if you master the song on Pro Tools or whatever but is there anyway to work round it on the mpc itself?

This has been a big problem for me as it totally restricts my creativity with my tracks.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help..

how do you have your pgm set up? It sounds like maybe you have the bass note and the drum set in the same program, and the param is set to Mono.

Try making a separate program for the bass, and the drums

The only thing I can think of (apart from if you used crap samples) would be if you were using the same sound for both the kick and the bass (i.e. using one sound but applying different filters to each in order to create separate bass and kick sounds). Doing this causes phasing problems (because the mpc is not sample accurate) if you are not very, very, very careful.

I don't know why you mentioned side-chain compression. Do you mean you have processed your kick and/or bass sounds using side-chain compression techniques and then imported the sounds into the mpc??
I'm confused. The compressor built into the mpc doesn't have side-chaining capabilities anyway. I suppose you could feed your bassline into the right channel and your kick into the left channel of the on-board compressor, make sure the loudness of your kick is set high enough, then record the bassline from the right channel and import that recorded wav back into the mpc as a new sample. Is that what you did?
Sidechain compression is a way of controlling the rate at which a compressor is fired off by connecting an external signal into its side-chain input. The sound that is going into the main audio inputs of the compressor is therefore influenced by the sidechain input.

Fix it if you master in Pro Tools?
Now I really am bewildered.

I'd like to help, but I don't understand what mastering in Pro Tools has got to do with your kick drum and bass sounding like shit when they fire at the same time in your mpc.

Are you using the s/pdif outs? If you are then check that the sample rate of whatever you are connecting to is 44100.

My 2 pence.

Yeah.

If you have Side Chain compression going on then its not the MPC at fault here, it sounds more like a production problem.

If you are going on about Pro tools and Side chaining Im guessin you have tons of hardware between the MPC and the speakers. Therefore take that out of the equation(bypass), make your track, and apply the tweaks (side chain) afterward.

When I got my mp, I thought it was too quiet, so I bumped up the master volume. When I did, it made bass and kicks distort. Then I turned the volume back down to the factory setting and the problem was gone. Just a thought.

Word, good advice folks, I can dig it. This is what audio engineering is all about. You have to balance out your frequencies across the spectrum. Kicks muddle basslines. horns, winds, guitar, they will all obscure a vocal track depending on what's goin on. Any track can mess up another that shares frequencies, because you only have a set number of frequencies and a finite headroom.

With bass management, this is particularly tricky, because the percievable frequencies are fewer. IE: more chances to phase cancel over top of eachother. So if your kick drum is sharing important frequencies with a bass note, the dominant will 'cancel' the other, or lessen it's impact to a degree. Or they can cancel eachother out completely if they are very close in frequency range and decible level, via phasing. Some phasing is okay and in fact in small doses can be undetectable, especially in a finished 2track mix, but you know what sounds good and what doesnt...

If your baseline/note is very 'filtery', try a kick that's more punchy, with a nice 'round' thump and a good beater smack to it. Likewise, if your bass has more top end, go with a more low-end kick. Don't just throw any two low-end sounds together in a track, you will lose impact and clarity more often than not. It does not matter that the sound simply contains a nice high end, it may still have enough low end shared frequency to f up the juxtaposed, low-end sound. I'd give you the whole frequency overlap breakdown, but then you wouldn't have any fun discovering, now would you?

Yes, like the man up there said, sidechaining is a great way to make room put your EQs after your compressors, (unless you going for frequency-dependant compression, which is a whole other discussion) or you will reverse alot of the sound you just eq'd. Not as much with fast-attack sidechaining (ie:kick, vs. bass) but it's a good rule that will keep you out of trouble. Signal flow and gain structure are just as important as all the other stuff...

yep... you are probably trying to use a bass with too much high shit in it and a kick with too much low...


the frequencies are canceling each other out and your getting a shitty sound...

eq your shit homie

yeah i agree with the previous two replies...sounds like the frequencies are clashing there bro...

you could try making a lil notch via an eq for ur kick drum...scan through frequencies until u find a sweet spot dont give too much gain but just enough to make it hit the kick sweetly...then make a notch removing a lil bit of the same frequencies from the bassline...or vice versa...

not sure how that would be possible on an mpc as I aint got one until nxt week...

thats how i do it on stuff like FL, Reason, Cubase etc...

Peace