mpc to protools tracking - Page 3

robmix · 14th October 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by nukmusic

so Rob, what have to tried so far, that seems to work?

I use a Great River MP2nv, Manley dual mono tube pre, Wunder PEQ1r's, Neve 3405 and a Focusrite ISA-110. All of them with their built-in DI. I usually avoid the Manley for programmed drums but all the others sound great on the MPC. I'll use the Manley for things like wurli, pads, and such.

I'm waiting for delivery on my Daking console so things are about to change pretty drastically. With Bruce we used to use a rack of Neve 1073's or 1064's as well as his pair of 1084's.

hitsville · 17th October 2005

Tony, guys,

still trying to find a really cheap DI + mixer solution.
so I've been considering getting something like that : http://www.proaudiosuperstore.com/shure_200m.html or even some used, older, cheaper, shure mic mixers

so I could mix all my samplers together after they've been thru the DIs

I dont know if those mixers would be transparent enough though. I'm afraid they could lower the sound quality, or colour the sound (and I'll leave the coloring to my preamps). What do y'all think ?

I'd like to get a simple, passive, transparent mic mixer but can't find that anywhere

pete_ascdi · 18th October 2005

cool thread. i've run across this sometimes for another reason.

i typically do beats inside the MPC, then sync up to PT or DP (via MIDI beat clock) so that the beat will come in on the "grid" for later editing.

this is convenient, but USB MIDI is pretty inaccurate and certainly latent. for one thing, no matter what midi interface you're using, there's going to be about 3 to 5 ms latency before the MPC receives the clock signal PT is sending. this means that stuff from the MPC comes in very slightly late (again, only if you are slaving it to MIDI clock).

also, in my opinion, most of the time this MIDI clock is slightly sloppier / more jittery than the MPCs built-in timing. so something that sounded tight and good when it was just the mpc alone may feel a little less grooving when it's being driven by a MIDI clock. sometimes i feel like this can sound like a bad or flat mix (especially when there are other trax already in place from elsewhere, or if you try and layer different "sections" of clock-driven MPC). i used to try and record multiple passes for my different stems from the mpc, but this really sounded awful.

it sounds like the 002 issue may be your thing, but if what i'm describing rings a bell you might want to keep an eye out for it too. i grab from my mpc over SPDIF at 24-bit so i don't worry at all about getting a "hot" signal during the recording pass and slam it afterwards if necessary.

ulysses · 18th October 2005

I'm not sure it's a good idea, but I could easily build a custom Folcrom that was designed to accept microphone-level inputs and still put out microphone-level outputs. the individual channel insertion loss would be 24dB, so the mike preamp you use for makeup gain on the output of the Folcrom would require probably 15-20dB more makeup gain than you'd ordinarily need from a mike preamp being fed by a single DI channel. Depending on inter-channel correlation.

The reason I'm not sure it's a good idea is because I don't think you really need to use a "DI" for every synth channel. Most synths and samplers put out a signal that's closer to "consumer line level", in the -20 to -10dBv range, with a moderate source impedance, and an unbalanced signal. So you really don't need a Countryman type of thing with less than unity gain and a 10M input impedance. In fact, in most cases you could feed your synths directly into a stock Folcrom. It would require a bit more makeup gain than the Folcrom's "standard" useage but it would work just fine.

Feel free to call or e-mail me if you'd like to bounce around some ideas. My contact info is on our website.

Merk · 23rd October 2005

www.samplekings.com has a video on PTLE with MPC's and keyboards and stuff like that. its a hiphop studio and so the video mainly covers how to use the app and how to use midi equiptment like drum machines with it. it's worth the $30 i ordered it. the only complaint i have is it is on VHS (at least was last year when i got it) so i had to rip it to my pc to even get it near my computer and Doc didnt send the session that he goes over in the video as promised. when i e-mailed them about it i never heard anything back.

elan · 24th December 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyBelmont

No, it's still looking for line levels of -10 or +4...

but an MPC, like most of samplers and so, is unbalanced line level, at -10, so it the converter accepts -10 signals, shouldn't be ok?

18th October 2005	#64
ulysses Lives for gear Joined: Mar 2003 Location: Minneapolis and Wiesbaden Posts: 1,452	I'm not sure it's a good idea, but I could easily build a custom Folcrom that was designed to accept microphone-level inputs and still put out microphone-level outputs. the individual channel insertion loss would be 24dB, so the mike preamp you use for makeup gain on the output of the Folcrom would require probably 15-20dB more makeup gain than you'd ordinarily need from a mike preamp being fed by a single DI channel. Depending on inter-channel correlation. The reason I'm not sure it's a good idea is because I don't think you really need to use a "DI" for every synth channel. Most synths and samplers put out a signal that's closer to "consumer line level", in the -20 to -10dBv range, with a moderate source impedance, and an unbalanced signal. So you really don't need a Countryman type of thing with less than unity gain and a 10M input impedance. In fact, in most cases you could feed your synths directly into a stock Folcrom. It would require a bit more makeup gain than the Folcrom's "standard" useage but it would work just fine. Feel free to call or e-mail me if you'd like to bounce around some ideas. My contact info is on our website. __________________ Justin Ulysses Morse Roll Music Systems Minneapolis, MN Put a bottle of juice in your Lunchbox.

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17th October 2005	#62
hitsville Gear maniac Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 164	Tony, guys, still trying to find a really cheap DI + mixer solution. so I've been considering getting something like that : http://www.proaudiosuperstore.com/shure_200m.html or even some used, older, cheaper, shure mic mixers so I could mix all my samplers together after they've been thru the DIs I dont know if those mixers would be transparent enough though. I'm afraid they could lower the sound quality, or colour the sound (and I'll leave the coloring to my preamps). What do y'all think ? I'd like to get a simple, passive, transparent mic mixer but can't find that anywhere

18th October 2005	#63
pete_ascdi Gear interested Joined: Oct 2005 Posts: 1	cool thread. i've run across this sometimes for another reason. i typically do beats inside the MPC, then sync up to PT or DP (via MIDI beat clock) so that the beat will come in on the "grid" for later editing. this is convenient, but USB MIDI is pretty inaccurate and certainly latent. for one thing, no matter what midi interface you're using, there's going to be about 3 to 5 ms latency before the MPC receives the clock signal PT is sending. this means that stuff from the MPC comes in very slightly late (again, only if you are slaving it to MIDI clock). also, in my opinion, most of the time this MIDI clock is slightly sloppier / more jittery than the MPCs built-in timing. so something that sounded tight and good when it was just the mpc alone may feel a little less grooving when it's being driven by a MIDI clock. sometimes i feel like this can sound like a bad or flat mix (especially when there are other trax already in place from elsewhere, or if you try and layer different "sections" of clock-driven MPC). i used to try and record multiple passes for my different stems from the mpc, but this really sounded awful. it sounds like the 002 issue may be your thing, but if what i'm describing rings a bell you might want to keep an eye out for it too. i grab from my mpc over SPDIF at 24-bit so i don't worry at all about getting a "hot" signal during the recording pass and slam it afterwards if necessary.

23rd October 2005	#65
Merk Gear interested Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 17	www.samplekings.com has a video on PTLE with MPC's and keyboards and stuff like that. its a hiphop studio and so the video mainly covers how to use the app and how to use midi equiptment like drum machines with it. it's worth the $30 i ordered it. the only complaint i have is it is on VHS (at least was last year when i got it) so i had to rip it to my pc to even get it near my computer and Doc didnt send the session that he goes over in the video as promised. when i e-mailed them about it i never heard anything back.