Sound Distortion and other problems w/my MPC......HELP!

I recently purchased my 1st MPC. I am not familiar with the machine and it seems that when I try to record multiple tracks to one sequence I get a distortion and can not hear what I am trying to press on the pads.

For example....Say I lay down a sampled sound on track 1 of sequence 1, then I playback track 1 while trying to lay down a kick, and snare for track 2 on sequence 1. When I try to lay down the kick and snare or whatever other sound I want to record on track 2 the sounds become muffled and only plays when there is a hesistation or gap in the sampled sound on track 1.

Even if I just try to solo the track I want to record on///lay down my sound/// then unsolo the track so I can hear the whole sequence//I still get that distortion!!

Is my mpc defective? I am also having trouble with certain pads not playing when i press them on certain occasions....( Unfortunately, I have the old pads on mine)

I still have my receipt and will take it back to guitar center for another if I have too...I want to just make sure its nothing I am doing wrong. Any advice, suggestions from the vets would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance

Sounds like the audio is overdriving. Is your volume turned all the way up on the sampler? If you sample a loop hot, have your tracks at full volume in the mixer menu, and have your MPC turned all the way up, you are going to get the kind of distortion you seem to be talking about.

Thx for your response RexRhino. I am a newb but not a complete Novice....My volume levels are set properly. So I am not sure that is not the issue.

I just tried something else last night and decided I will take my MPC back and see if I can get one with the new pads.

Its seems that when I lay down my drums first(snare, hi-hat, kick, etc) then I add my sampled and additional sounds second and so on.....my playback is fine. No distortion.

But when I lay down my sampled sounds first then try to lay down my drums I get that distortion!!! Odd?!?!

**PADS** I know it has been discussed quite a bit here but here is my 2 cents. I just bought my MPC 1000 on Nov 16th. I have the Black one w/the metal silver bottom. It came in the Black Packaging Box w/the 128mb card. I have the OLD PADS. It seems that the sku numbers or model #'s do not make a difference...its luck of the draw. The pad situation is complete BS

I am going take it back today and see if I can come across one with the New Pads.

I don't think that anyone here can answer the "Is my MPC defective" question. There are well known issues with the MPC 1000 pads, but as for the sound problem you mentioned, it could be your MPC, it might not. It really depends.

One thing you could do is download some nice clean samples and try them. Sometimes .wav files saved from certain software can be in a weird format that plays well on the PC, but sounds distorted when copied to the MPC. Sometimes the sounds can also have a spike at the begining, that can kind of mess with the sound.

It might even be that the cord going into the headphone stereo out have a short between the left and right ear... that sometimes can cause distortion.

Take it back to Guitar Center though... even if it isn't a problem with the MPC, it can't hurt to get a new one.

I just tried something else last night and decided I will take my MPC back and see if I can get one with the new pads.

do this before you do ANYTHING ELSE

it sounds like you have all your samples on one program set to mono. that would def make it sound f'd up. stuff cutting eachother off and all that.

That is right. I do have all of my samples on one program.
EXample....so if I sample some luther vandross into my MPC from my turntable. Then I slice it and convert it into a program and automatically assign it to pads....i get that f'ed up sound. What do I need to do to fix that Educated???

yeah, man... sounds like your definitely trying to make a whole track using just 1 track... you need to spread stuff out for it to play proper... like your loop on track01, your kick & snare on track02, hihats on track03... you get the idea. to do this just go to the bottom part of the main screen where it says "NAME: Track01" and select the next one and keep recording. you can still hear what is recorded on the other tracks when in a different one... this is the proper way to spread your samples out. it's also more convenient for when you want to add effects or panning to only one of the layers. hope this solves your issue.

i've made the same mistake... and sometimes still forget to switch the track number before recording my next sound, but i will admit that in some cases the sample getting all messed up and choppy has actually made it sound really cool & unique... so i might just start doing this on purpose occasionally too.

the MPC having a "silver bottom" isn't a way to tell if it's one of the newer ones... the new ones still have a silver bottom... it's the back part where the ins/outs go that used to be silver and is now black. the back part is black, not the bottom.

My problem is coming from my sampling......and then trying to lay sounds over the sample.

If I try to make a beat w/out a sample I do not get the distortion...

sounds like you sample stuff to hot, or have some problems in your signalpath

Thank you for all that have responded, but you guys are just pointing out issues, but not giving me any solutions....I need solutions......

Do I need to address how I am sampling?

What does sampling stuff too hot mean? When I actually load a sample it plays fine on the pads. All of my levels are fine..I do not get the distortion until I try to layer other sounds over it.

I have my turntable hooked up to my mixer which is hooked up to my MPC. Should I just link my turntable directly to the MPC?

well if your sampling a bunch of things close to the peak level eventually you will begin to get distortion when you start layering them. You have to understand everything that has been recommended before is a possible solution. However there are multiple reasons why you could be having this problem. Check your effects as well. If you have say a compressor set overall it may be distorting as you begin to layer things. If you have tried all the above and still found nothing maybe you should return it because theres no real solution if it is indeed defective.

I cannot help with the sampling issues you are having.


I just purchased an MPC1KBK 2 weeks ago and it had the old pads on it, so I took it back and exchanged it, and I got another BK and this one had new pads.. This was all at the same store, so it does seem like it is the luck of the draw, but I have read that if you can get ya hands on a BK-N it will def have newer pads... Just take the one you have back and get another one and make sure you check it b4 you leave the store or have them bring out a couple until you find one with new pads.... Good luck with ya problem, seems like doing the tracking they way stated should fix ya sampling/playback problems.

I found out the problem from watching a YouTube video.....

I just needed to play with the Mono and Poly settings of the program. Everything is good now. Thanks for those who chimed in.

Greatly appreciated.