MPC Users..... MPC vs. Live 7 Drumracks/Slicer

EgAD · Post by **EgAD** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:04 am

so now that Live 7s drumracks/slicer has hit the shelves what do you think, how do you compare the workflow with your mpc, are the drumracks seamless for you, is there anything in your mpc that you wish was in the drumracks. I know there are alot of you post up and share your thoughts.

thanks.

v00d00ppl · Post by **v00d00ppl** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:52 am

hey enthawizeguy............

rarely do i use the slicer, but when it comes to vocal samples i will use the automatic slicing just to bring out the glicth effect. As for the drum rack i use that all the time now. Its good that they made drum racks becuase i was tired of designing two samplers in an instrument rack along with some note length midi effects racked together. Now its easy to drag and drop loops and truncate what i need in a drum rack and tracking each individual sound is so much easier and still not taxing my cpu.

but with the new audio engine and drum racks, i can finally say that i no longer regret selling the mpc 1000 back in feb 2006. actually when live 6 came out alongside sampler i was already giving akai the middle finger (except i still own an mpd 24).

With the addition of electric, a good EQ eight...why would i really need to drop 1000 dollars on an mpc 1000 or 2000 on an mpc 2500. Did you play with the timing signature changes yet? Just download the demo and making music will be fun again.

enthawizeguy · Post by **enthawizeguy** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:32 am

ha i think ya got the wrong guy voodoo

EgAD · Post by **EgAD** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 9:18 am

oh cool to see all the intrest in this topic, when the mpc/live heads wake up I'm
sure they'll fill us all in on the juicey details

Illum · Post by **Illum** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 10:03 am

no complaints. try it out.

dbolt · Post by **dbolt** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 1:53 pm

I have the MPC 1k with the JJ purchased OS and this holds me back from selling it right now and maybe if I wait long enough they will stop production on the 1k and most other MPC's so the value will rise. Sorry I just don't want to lose money on selling my 1k right now. I'm not a MPC fanatic I didn't grow up with this unit or others like most, I do love the approach to an MPC and I like to get away from the computer screen every now and again. Live 7 and Drum Racks has made slicing beats (drums,vocals, etc...) much easier and more intuitive, plus it makes playing music fun not work. One other difference might be the AD/DA converters and the EQ/Comp FX that to me has a particular sound on the MPC. But a huge drag for me is that the 1k is 16bit so a lot of my sample libraries that I would love to chop up are 24bit so that sucks and its much easier to have that hard drive full of samples to drop in Live 7. Of course some are also going to argue with the Swing and Timing of an MPC. Right now I'm using the MPC as a controller with Drum Racks right next to a Remote SL25 if and when I sell the 1k I would pick up the MPD24.

Peace

Yhtomit · Post by **Yhtomit** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 2:12 pm

The main difference is that (any) MPC has near zero latency when triggering samples but the new ableton live 7 has not!! Minimum latency is ... 512 samples!! Which is too big for triggering drumsamples with pads or drumsticks (e-drum)
... So Live is not a drummachine, yet!!
grtz

chrysalis33rpm · Post by **chrysalis33rpm** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 2:39 pm

??? There is no 512 sample limit - it depends on the speed of your system.

v00d00ppl · Post by **v00d00ppl** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 4:58 pm

enthawizeguy wrote:ha i think ya got the wrong guy voodoo

my bad, i was really sleepy when i got on the forums last night.........i guess i thought egad was you for some reason. you sure this aint a case of the superman and clark kent going on? oh well, it wont happen again.

v00d00ppl · Post by **v00d00ppl** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:04 pm

Yhtomit wrote:The main difference is that (any) MPC has near zero latency when triggering samples but the new ableton live 7 has not!! Minimum latency is ... 512 samples!! Which is too big for triggering drumsamples with pads or drumsticks (e-drum)
... So Live is not a drummachine, yet!!
grtz

just to let you know there is a altency for everything that hits sound even the mpc. its hard to give an actual number for it, but all i know is it is less than 20ms. The amount of samples doesn't determine the latency when playing on ableton or any other instrument. what matters the most is the amount of any milliseconds (ms)....the less the better. Anything less than 20ms is unrecognizable by the human ear.

and if you have latency troubles, try downloading www.asio4all.com or just getting a better soundcard.

as for live not being a drum machine i dropped my mpc when live 5 came out and made it work with my workflow. somehow to me live is m drum machine and my sample designer.

pribeh_tom · Post by **pribeh_tom** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:11 pm

Yhtomit wrote:The main difference is that (any) MPC has near zero latency when triggering samples but the new ableton live 7 has not!! Minimum latency is ... 512 samples!! Which is too big for triggering drumsamples with pads or drumsticks (e-drum)
... So Live is not a drummachine, yet!!
grtz

Exactly why I will never give up my mpc for live or studio production. I love Live and computers but its all about latency for me baby.

Heinz Graaf · Post by **Heinz Graaf** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:14 pm

No, hes right. Anything below 20ms is not HEARable by the human ear. But you will certainly FEEL it when you hit MPC pads, an E-drum or just a guitar through a VST amp. Of course there is latency on the MPC but its very low, and it stays low. There is something strange going on with the new version 7 and latency. I use a new RME Multiface II with cardbus II. With Live 6, I could easily work a few tracks with a latency of 0.7 ms and would finish it with 3ms. And I use the exact same setup. I was even thinking about selling my MPC for awhile... I though maybe the new Live 7, a laptop, Multiface and MPC pads would be the perfect replacement, well they´re not....

pribeh_tom · Post by **pribeh_tom** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:16 pm

just to let you know there is a altency for everything that hits sound even the mpc. its hard to give an actual number for it, but all i know is it is less than 20ms. The amount of samples doesn't determine the latency when playing on ableton or any other instrument. what matters the most is the amount of any milliseconds (ms)....the less the better. Anything less than 20ms is unrecognizable by the human ear.

All I can say to this is that I can feel 6ms latency on the comp (using an mpd24 to drum) while I can't feel any latency with my MPC. Also, drummers notoriously can pick up 6ms delays recording through sequencers such as Live.

That's why I'm going to save up for a symphony card for my macbook pro. They claim you can get as low as 1ms latency. That sounds impossible but I'm willing to try it out.[/quote]

pribeh_tom · Post by **pribeh_tom** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:16 pm

just to let you know there is a altency for everything that hits sound even the mpc. its hard to give an actual number for it, but all i know is it is less than 20ms. The amount of samples doesn't determine the latency when playing on ableton or any other instrument. what matters the most is the amount of any milliseconds (ms)....the less the better. Anything less than 20ms is unrecognizable by the human ear.

All I can say to this is that I can feel 6ms latency on the comp (using an mpd24 to drum) while I can't feel any latency with my MPC. Also, drummers notoriously can pick up 6ms delays recording through sequencers such as Live.

That's why I'm going to save up for a symphony card for my macbook pro. They claim you can get as low as 1ms latency. That sounds impossible but I'm willing to try it out.

jamester · Post by **jamester** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:28 pm

In guitar terms, 1ms of latency is equal to standing 1ft away from your amplifier. When playing with other musicians I am usually five or six feet from my amp and can keep time with everybody, so I equate this to having 5 or 6ms of latency on my system. I keep my latency at 5ms for everything and I have no problems, whether it's making beats or monitoring my guitar.

If you think about it, a drummer is usually sitting more than six feet from the guitar and bass amps, yet they stay in time no problem (assuming they're a good drummer).