mpc beats

[palmersutra]

So, ive been using an mpc for about 6 months now, and im lovin it. managed to find some awesome stuff to sample, only problem im having is with drums.

basically, im sampling each one of my drums, but it just never sounds right. i wanna create some huge sounding snares and kicks, but im unsure how. anyone got any tips they wanna share?

ive tried sampling 2 or 3 snares at the same time, but im still not happy with the sound im getting.

[tlennon1]

There are resources on th internet that explain how it is done. Essencially you have to sample each drum at different velocities and them do some zone and velocity mapping on the MPC. You need to have a pretty dry room as well and a good mic and pre. Nobody can answer your question in a single sentence or two, so you should do some research. You will discover how time consuning and sofisticated the process is and may elect to just buy some good samples from professionals as they are much cheaper than it would cost you to create yourself. That is, if your time is money.

[palmersutra]

thanks m'man, much appreciated.

how exactly do you do zone and velocity mapping on the mpc?

i couldnt find the option.

[kno1ills@yahoo.]

Make sure what you're sampling sounds good, clean first off. It's east to dirty up something but difficult to polish a shitty sound. I always dig for drums off 45's because they sound bigger and fuller due to the larger grooves. You don't have to, but that's just me. If you don't know much about eq'ing or compression, don't do so until you recorded into your DAW. EQing and Compressing while you're sampling leaves you no room to undo if you realize it sounds bad later. Layer your sounds in your mpc. Basically find a couple kicks or as many you like. You can play them individually or set the simultaneous portion in the program are on your MP. Find kicks with different tonal characteristics, like one with a lot of punch, but not much bottom and one with a lot of bottom but not much punch. Same with your snares and hats. Usually when I go digging I'll find at least one set of drums(1kick, snare, hat) to add to the collection.

This is how I do my drums, so don't take this as the 'rule'. There are no rules, just make good music.

[beatmasta]

I think reason has all of this built it. I'm more of a fan of fruity loops (don't laugh) It's simple and the price is right. But yeah, I'd recommend reason.