Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By Donlong Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:52 am
i thought of another question:

what filter setting would u normally put on a drum sound whether kick, snare break, etc?

and is just filter enough to tinker with, or res, etc worth doing as well.
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By ssnedden Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:26 pm
Donlong wrote:i thought of another question:

what filter setting would u normally put on a drum sound whether kick, snare break, etc?

and is just filter enough to tinker with, or res, etc worth doing as well.


I think learning what everything does, and then using your ear is most effective.

Kick too weak? chop it out, low pass filter it between 25 and 12 and eq it for a bass boost. Then maybe stack it with a kick that has the properties that you took out (or a copy of the same kick that you haven't touched), etc...
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By ssnedden Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:28 pm
Donlong wrote:
ssnedden wrote:Then assign all of your drum chops to the same mute group as you always would,.


i dont use mute groups i tend to just chop small so it flows. do i need to use them? if so any particular formula to using them???


I do it out of lazyness. I chop the front end to get every start point I want, and leave the back long.

Then I put them all on the same mute group so that they stop each other and there's never any gap where there's no sound playing. I'll also put silence or "air" on a pad in the same mute group to turn off or rest my drums.

Try it out and see if it works for you, everyone is different.
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By poundaproblem Wed Oct 15, 2008 12:41 am
Mute groups are dope. You can definitely pull off some tricks with them. As far as drums man, search around, I normally avoid anything that says "hip hop kit". Experiment chopping up breaks too, You could pull a lot of nice one shot drums from breaks....You gotta just sit there and freak your gear, push buttons like crazy! Eventually you'll find something that gets your attention, then take it from there.
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By ssnedden Wed Oct 15, 2008 4:48 am
fatkyle wrote:i've got to look into this 'mute group' thing.

Chop a drum break and don't cut off the ends when you're extracting. Leave them so they play out the rest of the break. Put them all on the same mute group and DRUM! it sounds like real drumming.

Start at every kick, snare, hi-hats, etc... and it'll be dope. I adjust the pitch on them to match the speed of my samples, but that also changes the tone of the drums, so you can also time stretch or adjust on the TT before hand.
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By fatkyle Wed Oct 15, 2008 6:50 pm
from what i can gather i've seen people cut up loops and they must be using mute groups. i'm guessing it's an mpc staple, like track mute. i'm just so new to the mpc that i havn't found this feature, i'm sort of in the honeymoon phase, i keep finding killer new features to **** with.
By AskR Fri Oct 17, 2008 10:16 pm
i hit myself with my fist in/on random parts of my body, then correct the a+d to give it the omph. hope that helps ;)
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By Menco Sat Oct 18, 2008 8:16 am
poundaproblem wrote:Mute groups are dope. You can definitely pull off some tricks with them. As far as drums man, search around, I normally avoid anything that says "hip hop kit". Experiment chopping up breaks too, You could pull a lot of nice one shot drums from breaks....You gotta just sit there and freak your gear, push buttons like crazy! Eventually you'll find something that gets your attention, then take it from there.


Well, poundaproblem just said everything that needed to be said imo.
The only thing I would like to add is that experimenting (and practice) really is the key to a higher level
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By drunkmonkey5556 Sun Oct 26, 2008 5:30 am
I went on btjunkie.org and downloaded a torrent filled with thousands of drum sounds. then i choose them and tweak them barely. there are so many to choose from. download bittorrent. sampling every drum sound you use sounds hard and unneccesary. just download full libraries, and since there are so many to choose from, its original.
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By ssnedden Sun Oct 26, 2008 7:18 am
drunkmonkey5556 wrote:I went on btjunkie.org and downloaded a torrent filled with thousands of drum sounds. then i choose them and tweak them barely. there are so many to choose from. download bittorrent. sampling every drum sound you use sounds hard and unneccesary. just download full libraries, and since there are so many to choose from, its original.


Whack!

Get that shit out of here. After I learned how to properly mic up a drumset with 9 mics and control the mix, I can't take sample packs seriously. There is so much you can do to sounds using just the sound processors on the 500 and digging is awesome if you've payed your dues.

By the way, I don't use libraries at all, I don't even make my own. I don't archive snares or anything. Everytime I work on a beat I chop a break and/or find one hits and get them sounding proper. Plus it's near impossible to make a bunch of one-hits sound like anything but just that. There's no drummer on beats like that, just a midi sequencer playing back some library drums.
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By Lampdog Sun Oct 26, 2008 9:07 am
drunkmonkey5556 wrote:sampling every drum sound you use sounds hard and unnecessary.

To you maybe unnecessary but to some others maybe it's a very good idea/choice.
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By kneebone77 Sun Oct 26, 2008 9:30 am
Lampdog wrote:
drunkmonkey5556 wrote:sampling every drum sound you use sounds hard and unnecessary.

To you maybe unnecessary but to some others maybe it's a very good idea/choice.

or even essential.