ive been watching some videos on youtube and reading up over on futureproducers (still banned, if i register i make 1 post and mp IP is automatically banned then WTF??) and other sites and people talking about the MPC 500 and how it sucks because it only has 12 pads which means you can't play a 2 bar loop properly unless you are working in 3/4 time.

now ive done up to grade 5 in classical piano (in my country grade 8 is the highest you can go) so i know all about time signatures and stuff but this stuff is throwing me off.

this is really really confusing for me.
am i missing something here.

i am assuming if you need 16 pads for a 2 bar loop that you are playing 8 quavers per bar. but the way music is written you can play one note per bar (semi-breve) or just play one note and have the rest of the notes as a rest.

i don't understand this.

is it something in the way hip-hop is produced or something because the only reason that i can think of as to why you would need 16 pads for a 2 bar loop instead of 12 or even 8 pads is if you were going to be playing 8 note quavers each hitting on beat.

please somebody explain this to me because it is really doing my head in.

it confuses me too



^ i think that is what they're doing. the smaller sections of note (quarter notes as opposed to whole notes) is to make it more adaptable with regard to BPM. it seems a really bad way of slicing, you're basically just jigging the tempo on the original sample without any re-arrangement.

the way i chop, i might use a pad/sound a few times in a loop, not just once in it's "allotted" spot. further, i chop based on individual sounds, not just regular segments of a loop. you want to twist it up, re-use the sounds on your own terms!

i really think people are watching folk on Youtube do this, and think that that is the only way to chop/sequence samples, without sitting there and figuring it out themselves and finding their own techniques and style.


12 pads on the 404 is plenty to fill with enough interesting chops to then compose a beat with.

I definitely prefer 16 pads over 12 pads, but it's not a problem at all making music.

I don't get the 3/4 argument either, doesn't make much sense to me at all actually.

requiring 16 pads to create 2 bars of 4/4 seems pretty linear to me.

nothing against 16 pads - i mean, i'd take 48 if they were offered, but not because of beat/time sigs.

exactly

whoever said that apparently only knows of one way to work and therefore...doesnt know what they are talking about. Theres plenty of reasons why I think the MPC500 is the worst MPC of all time but 12 pads isint one of them

Yeah that whole argument is based on the way people like Boon Doc (the youtube dude) make beats. Its a stylistic thing, and a method that the MPC sound/workflow lends itself to. I have 8 buttons. I want more, but not because I cant make a longer loop without more, I would just rather have more options right at my fingertips.

yeah tbh i posted this thread after watching a boon doc vid
but ive been wondering it for a while because ive heard lots of people talking about it.
thanks for clearing things up for me

You could make a sequenced beat with one pad.

Regardless of his style or what people say about it, I think his beats are pretty awesome still... The only thing that comes to mind is that it might give a faster workflow, but I don't see how you'd use all 16 pads. There's always a few pads they (Boon Doc included) doesn't use, so it's more their laziness I think.



At least not the fact there's 12 of them. I hear the pads themselves aren't exactly of great quality.

I may be off point here cause I haven't watched the vids, but 16 pads for 2 bars might be referring to step-sequencing as opposed to recording your sequence as you play it... in which case 12 pads would create some issues.

the ol' 4/4 eh? drum machines and samplers areN7t really tops for jazzy type stuff are they. you know with all those different time sigs floating around.

Mmmm, I don't quite understand that either. I don't think it creates problems, I'm step sequencing on my sP-606 with sometimes less than 16 pads too.

If you're step-sequencing with 12 steps, what increment of time does each step get to make a 2 bar, 4/4 loop?

Just watched the vids... not step-sequencing, just using 16 pads to cut 2 bars into straight 8th note chops... which yeah, 12 pads wouldn't really work for that style of production.

Not as impressive as what a lot of the cats in this forum are doing imho.