MPC 1000 Timing/'Swing' the same as others?

I'm interested in getting an MPC for its realitic 'swing' when quantized to help take some of the burden off of recording live all the time. The end result is usually better live, but its not always consistent that I'll get my timing to be great everytime. So I thought an MPC could be a good investment for that purpose alone, not to mention its other features. I'm not pleased with the quantizing/swing on other sequencers as its very rigid/artificial.

So, I was offered a trade by guitar center for a MPC 1000 and some cash in exchange for my Fantom Xa. Its a fair deal based on value, but I wanted to know if the 'realistic feel' of the swing is the same on the 1000 as the others?

I've heard many times that the 3000 and 60 have the most realistic feel, but the ones made w/o Roger Linn (ie. 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, & 5000) were not the same.

Do you guys with experience on MPC's agree?

Or, do the MPC 1000's still have that same 'unique/realistic' swing that other drum machines/sequencers don't have, regardless of the model?

"legendary swing" = marketing hype. don't buy it. if you have a sequencer, you can make the groove.

Swing is in the timing resolution, ie: triplets & swing percentage.

Yeah, I know about all that. I play drums, guitar, bass, keys, and have to do it all myself. I can make great grooves on my own w/o a drum machine, I'm just looking for something to ease up the work load a bit, but still sound realistic.

So there's no truth to the idea that MPC's shift the notes differently than other sequencers?

See, most sequencers shift every other note back/forward the same amount based on the percentage.

I thought the MPC was different in that it shifted every other note a slightly different amount which would give it a more realistic groove

Do the MPC's have a microscope edit where you can look at where each drum hit was recorded, velocity value, note length, etc.?

If so, you could see where it shifts the notes to see if thats true or not.

i've heard: if you quantize with 16th triplets (16.3) its the same as quantizing 16th notes with 65% swing on an MPC. If thats not enough u can use the air swing trick. Where u samples a little extra air in front of your samples, and then cut it off..

turn off quantize

ReckOne wrote:turn off quantize

Requires some practice, but it gives a great live feel plus it's just fun to work like that

there isn't anything in the mpc that "humanizes" the swing or groove. anyone is telling you that is probably trying to sell you their mpc. the swing options are nice but can be achieve by just about any sequencer out there...

I rarely quantize my drums...it's just too much fun to program it the way i want the first time.

Scarecrow wrote:there isn't anything in the mpc that "humanizes" the swing or groove. anyone is telling you that is probably trying to sell you their mpc.

hahah like akai.

There is no magic in the MPC swing. (and by the way, realistic is definitely not the right word - robotic is more like it - not good or bad, but a matter of preference)

What the MPC is great at, however, is accurately placing your hits where you put them. In other words there's no MIDI jitter or latency like computer DAWs and even certain hardware sequencers.

What this allows you to do is turn off the quantize (timing correct) and play your sequences naturally and get much better results.

One of my favorite tricks is to quantize the main hits (the kick on the first beat, the smares on beats 2 and 4) and play the rest without quantize, by letting it loop and adding a hit here and a hit there. Also I like to leave phrase samples unquantized (or at least not totally trimmed perfectly) because you get more unique timing variations.

In short, you make the music, not the machine.