Software To Hardware... Need some help!!

[Phiba Optix]

Hello there, I'll try and keep this as simple as possible.

Basically at the moment I have a Turntable, DJ Mixer, Mixing Console, Monitors and a Midi Controllor. I run all of this into my PC and use FL Studio to Produce. But I'm started to feel limited in FL and want to go the hardware route.

So, I have my eye the AKAI S2000... I mean I do want an MPC but they ain too cheap. So I'm thinking of buying an S2000 for now and using something like Cubase as a sequencer, is this possible?

And my final question is, how would I hook my deck up to my S2000 to record samples? and how would I hook my midi controllor up to control them? As well as being able to use it for VST's in Cubase for basslines and such?

All help will be greatly appreciated!

Phiba

[Fieva]

Originally Posted by Phiba Optix

Hello there, I'll try and keep this as simple as possible.

Basically at the moment I have a Turntable, DJ Mixer, Mixing Console, Monitors and a Midi Controllor. I run all of this into my PC and use FL Studio to Produce. But I'm started to feel limited in FL and want to go the hardware route.

So, I have my eye the AKAI S2000... I mean I do want an MPC but they ain too cheap. So I'm thinking of buying an S2000 for now and using something like Cubase as a sequencer, is this possible?

And my final question is, how would I hook my deck up to my S2000 to record samples? and how would I hook my midi controllor up to control them? As well as being able to use it for VST's in Cubase for basslines and such?

All help will be greatly appreciated!

Phiba

Yanno, when you get to feeling limited, that usually means that you're ready to step your game up a notch on your software skills. I've heard a lot of good beats made on FL Studio. I may have to give it another try when I get a minute since I haven't used Fruity Loops since v3 and just thought it wasn't for me.

Yes, you can use an MPC and then use Cubase as a sequencer. If budget is a slight problem, you can pick up the MPC 1000 for about a grand or less if you shop around (I plan on getting mine soon). It's the newest one out and has all the features of the 2000, just in a smaller more portable package.

I would think that if you wanted samples from your turntables than you would record it into Cubase (I'm assuming that you would hook your mixer straight into your sound card and make the necessary settings in Cubase to do that) and then edit it there. Save that as wav files and import them into the MPC. As for your midi controller and the MPC when you got it, I believe that you would hook your midi controller into the MPC and then from the MPC to your soundcard. That should let you be able to control using both. I'm pretty sure (don't quote me on this as I might be thinking of the back of a sound module) that the MPC has 2 sets of midi in/out/thru switches as well as USB in order to connect your controller to it. Even if I was wrong, I'm almost positive that all you'd have to do is switch between the MPC and the controller and that's cake.

[Phiba Optix]

I think you misread my question... I said I would like an MPC but they are too expensive for me right now. Thats why I'm looking at an 'S2000' which is basically an MPC2000 without the sequencer...

What would be the point of putting your vinyl sample straight into cubase? Isn't that the point of having a sampler? To mess with the sample?

I may be missing something here... let me know!

Phiba

[Fieva]

Yeah I did miss the S2000. I was thinking MPC 2000. Forgive a brotha cause it was late night and I misread with the intent to help out. I'll do some homework on the S2000 and see if I can give you any info to help out. If anyone else knows the deal and wants to drop some knowledge...feel free.

[Pinachi]

Why use the turntables to record in the cubase,then export it out to mpc?Just use one track for scratching(if this is what you are doing)in cubase

You need an easy setup,so you can record each track separately,like kicks/snare etc.
So what will mpc do that FL cant? I'd say use FL for drums and get an external hardware like a keyboard or a sound module(midi),to lay the tracks to your finnished drums in the cubase.

But my view is that any hardware will simply kill any software.

I heard this guys cd in a guitar center,it sounded profecional.I asked what he uses,and he told me: MPC2000(i think) mixed out to Nuendo.Simple but yet so powerfull.

[stray411]

LOL @ any hardware is better than software. I hope that was a joke.

I got two S2000s and even though they are nice samplers (the same engine the MPC2000 has) they’re kinda pointless these days and not very easy to use. Mine rarely get used anymore cause there really is no point. I just use Acid and Sound Forge for samples.

They got stereo ¼” ins on the front that you record into, but you can’t really do much with the samples once they’re in there. The display is very small and you gotta go through pages to do any editing which is real tedious.

A standard wave editor (like Sound Forge) is much better for editing samples. That’s just a fact.

You can use the S2000 with a SCSI card and program called MESA to transfer samples from your PC to the S2000, which is really the only way I would suggest using it. But even that is pretty tedious.

You’re better off with software for sampling IMO.

[Pinachi]

I was talking about Akai mpc's

But basicaly i meant for drums and sampling done in FL,but the rest like bass lines,strings,etc made in outboard gear.

The reason i like the outboards better is that you can run them through outboard gear like comp & limiter and eq stuff before recording into the computer,thats the real way of doing it.Otherwise your mix going to come out all bassy and very narrow.

I recently upraded my mixer and a digital card(16ins 16 outs digital).So i did an "a" and "b"compare and i was blown out to see the difference between mixing inside and outside of the pc.If i can get an website to upload these clips i'l do that.Anyone know the easy place to upload these clips so i dont have to registed all day?

[stray411]

Originally Posted by Pinachi

The reason i like the outboards better is that you can run them through outboard gear like comp & limiter and eq stuff before recording into the computer,thats the real way of doing it.

You can do the same thing with software. I got a machine that just runs softsynths and I can run those outputs through whatever I want before tracking. Plus, during mixing I can bus tracks from software to outputs and route it through whatever I want.

Recording hardware is a different story…no software can hang with Avalon and Manley type gear (real class A analog circuitry)…but production equipment is purely digital for the most part (except analog synths)…no different than software…it just runs in a specialized environment.

[Phiba Optix]

I have actually turned my eye to the s1000 now due to the larger screen. Anybody got any feedback on these?