Need some sampling advice from the pro's

Hi all,
I just wanted to know, why sometimes when I sample into my MPC2000xl from a digital source such as CD or MP3 the sample playback on the MPC sounds really computerized/unusable? Does this happen to alot of people?

I was thinking it had something to do with the sample rates. I believe the MPC samples whatever you input into it at 44100hz (or somewhere around there), and you have to set your playback to exactly that sampling rate in order to achieve a clean sound, otherwise if its lower it'll sound weird, correct?

It also seems as if when I sample slow orchestra-like music the MPC plays it well, but not when I try to sample faster/more intricate music.

Any sound or electrical engineers in here that could help me out?

1. CDs and mp3's are compressed audio and usually not WAV (although CD is 16 bit.).

2. Sample from records.

3. Sample through an EQ (such as a mixer).

4. Layer your samples.

5. Post eq your shiz with your DAW.

6. Give it time, you will develop your own techniques.

7. Sample From RECORDS.

8. Take a bucket and a SM58, and use it for your kick or snare (depends how you filter it)

9. More cowbell.

10. Plug your mpc outputs into your record inputs (then hit shift + 4)

11. do # 10 and assign it to a pad, then put it on 16 levels, for your synth layers.

12. Sample from Records.

13. unlucky number (empty)

14. get a new hobby.

15. Sample FROM RECORDS.


all of these will work, but #'s 2, 7, 12, and 15 will work best.


I highly reccomend a combo of 10 and 11... then loop 300bpm 32nd notes.



~Grub

lol, thanks for the detailed response. Been sampling for a while, but I only have like 30 records, and wanted to expand my options. The vinyl library at my school has some crazy ass records which would be great for sampling, but I dont wanna carry my MPC around in my backpack to school, kinda dangerous. I was gonna take my laptop there and just record samples onto the laptop and then onto the MPC, but I'll try to look for a more viable route.

Im thinking of getting a Sony Portable DAT recorder to record samples from school in Irvine and when I drive back home to San Diego I can plug it into my MPC. The DAT is a analog format and I've heard alot of good things about it. Sounds like a good plan?

Well first off, CDs are not compressed. Why do think you can only fit an hour or so on a 700mb disc? Secondly, DATs are not analog. Although the format does record to tape, it is Digital Audio Tape (hence the name). What kind of audio interface do you have for your laptop? If you have something decent and portable, the laptop route would allow you to edit files on the computer and simply put them on a disc to load into the MPC. If you plan on recording though the laptop's built in sound card, forget it. You'd be much better off with a stand alone recorder in that case. Do they even make new DAT recorders? It's high quality audio if can get a good one, but you'll be sampling from it's analog out. If buying new, a cheaper option is probably one of the new flash recorders. You can just take out the CF, chop it up on the PC, and then stick in in the MPC with no loss to your original recording.

Also, the sample rate of whatever MP3 you're using is irrelevant because you're sampling from an analog output into and analog input. Were you plugging an MP3 player's headphone out into the MPC? That may be why it sounds terrible.

If your going to sample from records...(Which you should....) and don't have many, just take a $20 bill to your local thrift store. Value Village, Salvation Army etc, and buy 20 records that look cool or interesting. If you get ONE good track out of it, it's worth it. The more you do this, the more you'll get a sense of what records are likely to have stuff that you're into. You'll also find yourself getting into really weird styles of music you never thought you'd be into. Whenever you go to another city or small town, look for local releases from decades past. Chances are no one else will have these in their collection, so you might be able to actually get a sample that 5000 other producers haven't already used. I hate to say it, but don't even waste your time with oldschool R&B, and funk records. I guarantee every inch of every record has been used already.

maybe its just me, but one of the reasons i got the mpc is for that classic mpc sound. sampling into a laptop kind of defeats the purpose, because its going to sound like doo doo pretty much. i have my turntable (pdx 2000, THE ultimate sampling tool i must say) running through a phono pre, then out of the phono pre into this little yamaha mixer so i can EQ the sound a little before it gets into the mpc. i used to have it setup through a stanton DJ mixer, and the difference between the two setups is ridiculous. on that note, i do not recommend sampling through DJ mixers unless its your only option, or maybe if you have a real high end mixer like a rane or something.

also, i recently sampled a batch of recs on 45 to save sample time, but after slowing the samples back down in the mpc, they sounded pretty shitty, so i wouldnt really recommend that trick either.

oh and to the guy above, of course every easily recognizable sample has been looped to death, but if you are crafty and know what you are doing, theres always samples that people missed. different strokes for different folks you could say. sounds catch peoples ears in different ways, so what one guy heard in one sample, another might not. theres ALWAYS ways to flip shit thats already been done! wooooooooooooooooooooderah

sixtycyclehum wrote:also, i recently sampled a batch of recs on 45 to save sample time, but after slowing the samples back down in the mpc, they sounded pretty ****, so i wouldnt really recommend that trick either.

This is the only way I do it. It adds alittle more grittiness & changes the rate and I don't mean it changes it to like 27000KHZ.

algorithm18 wrote:Well first off, CDs are not compressed. Why do think you can only fit an hour or so on a 700mb disc? Secondly, DATs are not analog. Although the format does record to tape, it is Digital Audio Tape (hence the name). What kind of audio interface do you have for your laptop? If you have something decent and portable, the laptop route would allow you to edit files on the computer and simply put them on a disc to load into the MPC. If you plan on recording though the laptop's built in sound card, forget it. You'd be much better off with a stand alone recorder in that case. Do they even make new DAT recorders? It's high quality audio if can get a good one, but you'll be sampling from it's analog out. If buying new, a cheaper option is probably one of the new flash recorders. You can just take out the CF, chop it up on the PC, and then stick in in the MPC with no loss to your original recording.

Also, the sample rate of whatever MP3 you're using is irrelevant because you're sampling from an analog output into and analog input. Were you plugging an MP3 player's headphone out into the MPC? That may be why it sounds terrible.

Thanks for the reply, sounds like you know what your talking about. I was actually planning to use the laptops sound card, so I guess thats out of the question. So Im planning to get a used Sony DAT recorder, they sell for about $100, and Ive heard that they have really good sound quality. Would a good flash recorder be cheaper but still be good for sampling?

Thanks,
Eric

The sony portable dats sound great but they are getting old now - when they go wrong they can chew tape, I have had that with mine and I have heard about others that did the same. They use rotating heads (same as a video player) and all that technology in a small case can cause problems, esp if they gave not been properly taken care of.

You should seriously consider getting a Zoom H2 or a Microtrack instead. They are not much more expensive than a S/H dat and will give you less grief.

Yeah, moving parts are always a concern. A new flash recorder will cost over $200, though. Are you going to buy a used DAT locally? If you are, then at least you could make a test recording to check it out first. DATs usually record at 48kHz, so it's higher fidelity than CD, but since it uses tape moving across recording heads, this causes wear which could introduce glitches into your sound (which may be something you're into). Even worse, it could destroy one of your tapes and ruin days of work. There's not much that can go wrong with a flash based recorder since it's all solid state, and there's also the ease of backing up your recordings to a computer and then transferring them to a sampler. In the end, I guess it depends on your budget. Minidisc is also an option.

Is the mpc made to sample from vinyl or does vinyl just have a warmer sound in general. I sample from both and some of my best samples are off of cds.