outboard groove vs intrenal groove?

[dsound]

I've noticed that when using internal groove makers like reason or stylus (drum kit) and creating my own beats via Pro Tools, I feel the need to creat sub divisions to get the groove 'moving' versus with external beats like with the MPC2000, a kick an snare is all you need. Why does midi sound weird internally? Is it just the samples I'm using? Even after quantizing, things don't seem to lock too well...

[H-Rezz]

If things are not locking to well as you say , this is another problem ! Things like Stylus Remix should be sample accurate ! Here lies the dilema , with the mpc you get the groove with it's internal engine , and you rely on it instead of pushing beats forward and back to create a feel ! So in effect it's the inconsistency of the actual machine that make it groove , that's what people hear and like ! With beat manipulation within a DAW via softsamplers you have to rely on your own ability to assess where a beat should be late or early ! quantize is not always your friend and sometimes especially with heavy grooves your enemy as it often makes things sound rigid ! As an experiment program a simple groove with sounds of your choice, kik on 1 and 3 snr on 2 and 4 , and program straight 8th note hats , bring beat 3 of of hats slighlty early, and delay the snr on beat 4 a smidgeon, and see how that feels !

Also do not be afraid to use your natural feel and only quantize specific beats to bring things in line ! For example program you playing the hat freely and choose which hits sound the best to you and copy those ........

[Acko]

HiRezz has spelled it out pretty clearly for ya.