mixing on mpc, is it an impossible aim?

Hi guys, i need some inputs. I'm composing with my 1000 and my aim is doing some instrumental music.

The mpc works very good for me when i work on "sequences" and i think this machine is my dimension, but when it's the time to finish the song and i have to mixdown all of the seq in a song, i find limits.
I'm talking practically of MIXING

On the forum i read about people doing everything on the mpc, but is also true that the nature of my beats will need a lot of changes... so for example if i need that every program changes volume from sequence to seq... when i mixdown in the song mode i lose this setting (when i work on seq i "mix" levels using the velocity..).

What would be a good solution? Reprogram the single hits on step edit? Mixer automation? duplicate the same program with different settings?


(The fast solution could be work with pc.. changes like this are made in 10 sec..
But if I begin to trackdown on a daw... I feel lost, with all of the settings, the plugins, the possibilities, and I am ALWAYS thinking: does NOW my beat sound well like when it was on the mpc?
I dunno if it's only me feeling this way... but if I'd prefer to work with the mpc... IF i found how to do it in a comfortable way)

Thank you
Selz

Yeah, I'm one of those that don't track my MPC-beats out or mix them on a board or anything, it's straight out the machine. I EQ my samples while sampling them, I know somebody are against of doing that, but it has worked good for me the last 5 years or so. I just run the stereo outputs through my compressor and record it and I'm done.

I know on my 2000XL I can choose to change the velocity of notes within a track the same way I can shift the timing of notes within a track, and I'm not talking about just changing the track volume. So go deeper into your machine (or manual) and check what options you have. You may have to switch up your work methods to get it going.

Ive always mixed down my beats inside the MPC itself, unless I am going to a "real" studio, then I bring the MP and track it out. The engineer and I then work on making it sound better. For the older MPC's its much easier to do it inside the machine, but Ive messed with the 1000 and get a bit pi$$ed off sometimes. Its a known issue that the mixer section sucks, turn down the volume just once, and it seems the volume of that track is in the background. I believe I heard its the same in the 2500. There are ways around that though. But In any event, with any MPC you can mix down your beats internally. In doing it, I may be wrong, but the track gets a sense of cohesiveness, maybe the MP is compressing everything a bit when its getting tracked out the main stereos. I could be way off though, thats just how it sounds to me.

I actually get a bit mad when some people are super anal and want everything tracked out. Such backbreaking work, especially for those mediocre beats that your not that into. I'd rather spend my time making more bangers, and perfecting the mix inside the MP. But then again, I totally understand the art and flexibility of tracking things out for individual compression effects, levels, etc...

i mix all my beats inside the mpc but its not by choice. i dont have a daw at the moment so got no other option. and it sucks cos it eats up my polyphony as well, so i cant put too much compression / eq on the tracks - i have to be selective, which i guess is good in the end. all my beats come straight from the mp.

You can get a lot done in the machine but remember this. If you plan for your mix in the begining of the beat you will get a better outcome. Meaning if you get breaks off youtube, samples off the radio, bass off of a toy keyboard and use the mic in your phone to capture vocal samples no amount of mixing in the world is going to make it sound amazing in the MPC. If you begin with quality audio and select your sounds carefully then hell yea you will be able to get good results with your mix. Also keep in consideration not all sounds work so if you mix a beat and your kick is straight wack and everytime you try to clean it up it gets worse get another kick. THese are usually some of the things I keep in consideration when working strictly on the MPC.

Just get a MIDI cable and sync track by track on the computer in Cubase or Protools or something..

You can't mix decent on the MPC, and the beat gotta go to the computer one day.. So why don't mix decent on the computer..

deck daddy wrote:Yeah, I'm one of those that don't track my MPC-beats out or mix them on a board or anything, it's straight out the machine. I EQ my samples while sampling them, I know somebody are against of doing that, but it has worked good for me the last 5 years or so. I just run the stereo outputs through my compressor and record it and I'm done.

I know on my 2000XL I can choose to change the velocity of notes within a track the same way I can shift the timing of notes within a track, and I'm not talking about just changing the track volume. So go deeper into your machine (or manual) and check what options you have. You may have to switch up your work methods to get it going.

Almost exactly what I do.

Lazy Ray wrote:Just get a MIDI cable and sync track by track on the computer in Cubase or Protools or something..

You can't mix decent on the MPC, and the beat gotta go to the computer one day.. So why don't mix decent on the computer..

Youd be surprised how many of your favorite songs beats wern't tracked out on a computer & were mixed in a MP. And I record my music direct to live CD recorder, so no computer for me, unless I want to send the beats to people.

That songs are either send to a computer.. or straight to a mixer with analoge inserts & sends..

I'm one of those that do all my mixing on the mpc. I hate tracking out its such a tedious and time consuming job that would kill my work flow. The only time I would track out is when I'm using my MPC in tandem with my s3000xl or external synths then mixing it down in my external mixer and later tracking it out.

Most of the time I don't make actual songs but I just play the sequences instead and record that because I have more control over the beat. Turn off a track or lower the volume, anything really. You should do that I mean I have fun recording a beat cause it feels like I'm performing live. Or maybe I'm just dreaming :\

I always track them out in my daw. Sometimes through multiple outs, sometimes just a two track.
If it's just a raw mixtape beat I'll mix it down in the mpc. Other wise multitrack recording, and mix it down in cubase.

I used to mixdown on Cubase and then I tried it with Pro Tools. Maybe I'm not good at mixing 'cause I don't get that cohesive sound that I get mixing inside the MPC. Or maybe it's because I haven´t got a decent audio interface.
Try both ways and choose.

I mixed my whole album inside the MPC 1000. It is possible to make satisfactory mixes i the MPC. If you are bouncing a song to a single seq then you need all the tracks to match up, because when you do that it changes the velocity of the tracks i.e. if you have 10 sequences in a song and track 3 on seq one is Velocity 65% and track three on on seq 5 is 85%, if you bounce the Song down to a sequence both track 3's are combined and you get a track 3 with 85% velocity. This effectively ruins the mix for the Seq that had 65%. Hard to follow but I hope you get it.

There are 2 workarounds I found. One is obviously to go through, and any tracks that vary Velocity in your song, change them so they sound the same when the velocity changes, Painstaking to go through each note in those tracks and change them.

The 2nd workaround is a bit better. Take the example above, you would copy the track 3 with 65% velocity to a new track that is blank on the other sequences, so it remains unaffected when you bounce down to a sequence.
Hope this helps.

Yo Jfal, have u ever try to record the level changes with the q-link slider?