how does the 5000 feel compared to the 3000

The 960 resolution is for non-quantized notes. It records your original playing in more detail so it can capture your feel more accurately. It is still useful when you quantize after recording if you lower the strength. If you quantize at 100% strength then 960 ppq is useless.

I had the 4k and the quantize grid is different. Kind of stiff compared to the others. I think it is perfectly linear. Still great for non-quantized tracks because of the 960 ppq though. The 5k does have a nice feel even when quantized at 100% I don't think this is hype.

b-righteous wrote:The 960 resolution is for non-quantized notes. It records your original playing in more detail so it can capture your feel more accurately. It is still useful when you quantize after recording if you lower the strength. If you quantize at 100% strength then 960 ppq is useless.

I had the 4k and the quantize grid is different. Kind of stiff compared to the others. I think it is perfectly linear. Still great for non-quantized tracks because of the 960 ppq though. The 5k does have a nice feel even when quantized at 100% I don't think this is hype.

I`m not following isn`t 1/4th t/c 960 ppq on the 5k? I played them both and it felt the same maybe it just me as the user. And if the t/c is off can it be anything but my playing??

If the T.C is off on either unit then it is just your playing. Both 4k and 5k offer 960ppqn so with T.C. off it will capture all the details of your playing accurately. When you use T.C it snaps all your notes to a particular place on a grid. If the T.C. strength is at 100%(this is always the case on the 4k) then all the 960 ppq and the subtle details of your playing is out the window and your notes are lined up to the grid.

The mpc grids are not perfectly linear. You can use TC on some 16th notes and save the midi file and import it to Cubase and see it. The quantized notes are not evenly spaced apart. It is not random as it will give the same results each time. Some notes are slightly shifted forward and others behind. This is what gives it its quantize "feel". This is how you create groove templates in DAWs so that the quantize sounds more natural. Many DAWs can emulate the MPC using this method. Of course there is more to it because if the playback clock is not tight or has a lot of "jitter" it won't make a difference. All midi clocks have some timing jitter but hardware like the MPC has very low jitter thus more acurate playback and recording timing. Midi over USB for instance has more sloppy timing than the midi on a good PCI card.

Anyway, I was not able to get quite the same nod factor on the 4k when I used T.C. From what Akai is saying, the 5k and 3k quantized notes will snap to the same positions.

I thought so that turning off t/c is just that your playing, right!

However when we set to say 1/8th to 1/16th for instead are we no longer

at 960 but 480-1/8 or 240-1/16th notes hence 100% quantazaion whether 3k at
24 or 48 all 100%. But yes strengh allows for a percentage of quantization
compared 80 to 50% if you like. Great no need for step editing.

Neither 3k or 4k has strength settings like the 5k. But they all have off and they
all have to use quantization to swing, shift and even in the case of the 5k for
strength (doesn't apply on T/C off, right?)

Seems that with the 3k at 96ppq playing 1/16th at 24 that even getting 5k at 960 down to 3k res with 1/16th using strength is a big difference in resolution.


I don't know maybe your internal groove is steadier now.


If I record my 3k's midi file and the 5k's along side into
Logic they will both line up, right?

If I record my 3k's midi file and the 5k's along side into
Logic they will both line up, right?

No. In theory this should only be the same by doing an export/import of the file. If you record it into logic the timing will have at least some variance from the original depending on your midi interface and logics ability to keep sync with it.

I see your point about 1/16 being at different resolutions on the different machines and did not consider that. However, like you said, without strenght the resolution of your original playing is still lost when using TC so there is no real benifit there.

I don't know maybe your internal groove is steadier now

Maybe. It is hard to say without having the units side by side to compare. But when using TC at 100% your internal grove should not matter. Its all the machine. Someone with two units should do a test on a simple HH pattern. I am just saying that they do not all behave exactly the same when using TC. Especialy compared to using a DAW or keyboard for quantize. It is certainly true that at least some MPCs snap quantized notes non linear and it sounds way better than an even rigid quantize on the same material. This I have tested using the Cubase groove function and the MPC groove ALWAYS sounds way better.

5k all day.

I must say this there is a difference in the feel of 5 k and 4k

masada2502 wrote:thinking about buying just have some ?s i love the 3000s feel and swing.i have a 4000 which always sounded stiff in comparison(over time i managed) .any insight would be great.thx

that 3000 swing probably came from the way you chopped your samples
As you know, you had to chop by ear on the 3k, on the 4k you probably use your ears and eyes for chopping.
That's the big difference in swing. The sequencers swing is the same.