MPC – Cornerman

Dream machines

Everyone has them, dream machines from your younger years which you would have loved to have. For me these are plentiful, mostly electronic music machines. Way before the internet became a real source of information, the go to place where magazines. Sound on Sound, Future Music and Interface (in the Netherlands) and a couple I have forgotten about.

Future music was the one for me, within budget and it had my favorite type of article, “In the studio with”. Lot’s of pictures of the spaces and the gear and info on how they were used. Lot’s of unknown equipment to spot which to me were unknown and very intriguing.

The machines

One of the machines most often featured was the Akai MPC 2000 XL, or the 3000. The 3000 at that time was already out of reach budget wise. But the 2000 XL was still in production and while still expensive, I would in theory, be able to save up the cash with a few summers of holiday work. Dreaming is allowed.

There was however another novelty out at that time, the Nord Modular G1. In a rack and keyboard version. Lot’s of people where after the 303, 909 and 808 as there dream machines and although I would have loved to add those to the list. They weren’t as magical to me as the combination of the MPC & the Nord Modular. Im my mind, these machines would let me build everything I could think of.

Added to this was that some of my favorite artists at the time were in possession of the Nord. I thought I had the magazines laying around somewhere, but I got rid of most of them apart from a few really nostalgic ones. Funnily enough not the ones with the Nord Modular reviews or the interviews featuring one.

I have tried and look for the interviews, didn’t find them. If I am not mistaken Jori Hulkkonen & Christan Vogel had them at the time.

Also Dr Macabre had one, and much later I came across one in an interview with Frank Bretschneider in al lovely combination with an een mooi rack met een Octratrack and a Sherman Filterbank. Very nice combo.

Nostalgic

We all get nostalgic from time to time, and every now and again I look for a Nord G1 keyboard, and it’s always just a bit too big of an expenditure to justify. An MPC 2000 XL is very doable, and it will work. I have had one for quite a while. Until there was a good moment to sell it.

Now you have the MPC One, Live 3, and the new and very fun MPC sample which in a way has the limitations of the 2000 XL, or any of the other older MPC’s which made them so much fun (and to be honest, frustrating at times) So outside of the nostalgic reasons there is not much of a reason trying to get my hands on one.

The Nord Modular, in the other hand, keep lingering in the background, and I will search for one from time to time.

The software side

The Nord Modular is a platform consisting of hardware and software where you build the patches and sent them to the Nord Modular over midi. All the DSP power sits in the Nord Modular. The Nord Modular was built by a small company and the product weighed heavily on them and with the advents of ever more powerful computers the need for a pricey DSP platform subsided. With the rise in software synths, samplers and the like the need for it diminished.

So you not only need the hardware, but also get the software running. And don’t forget the right midi interface to keep things running. You could go for the old windows or Mac machine and the latest official release of the software, match the midi interface from those days and go full retro.

Nowadays there are modern editors re engineered which for some reason I never got up & running. So option one will take up too much space. Option 2 has not successfully been implemented by me. Which makes it a very expensive object for just looking at out of nostalgic reasons. And for that, I can just as well look at pictures.

A solution

Owning old gear for nostalgic reasons and getting it to work, maintaining and using them is a fun hobby on its own. My fear is that the hours I would have to invest into it versus the hours of actual music making with the machines will be too limited. The fun would be mainly in the first bit, getting things to run. In the end the working with the machines might disappoint slightly. These are not sums of money fit for impulse buys. And it would be a shame not to use the stuff.

While not a one on one replacement of the setup, modern solutions are plentiful. I will miss the nostalgic feel, that being said. Lot’s of cool options out there. Modern modular synthesizers in different formats are available, most notably the Eurorack form. Which has been doing lot’s of cool stuff over the last few decades. Software wise we have MAX MSP, PureData, and live coding tools like Tidal Cycles. With a nice controller to go along with it, workflow wise you will get close. And be in modern times.

In the MPC realm there are numerous options, which I previously mentioned. The MPC sample being the machine most closely related to the older machines in workflow, like the MPC 2000 XL.

Then there is the learning curve, time I would rather spent learning MAX MSP. Which is a great environment with endless possibilities. But still, every once in a while, indulging in nostalgia I am searching for these old machines. And in the event of a gigantic price drop, I might still go for this combination.

Sampling, an art form.

One of my favorite instruments is a sampler, ever since I watched music documentaries like lola da musica and read magazines with studio pictures in them I was drawn to these magical boxes which could record sound and then be worked into a completely different sound altogether. And make tracks with those sampled sounds.

Sampling is an art form in and of itself, finding samples or making your own as is more common nowadays is a real cool expression of someones insight into music. From the early days of making collages out of existing materials and making it your own with deconstruction and rebuilding out of existing materials has been a legitimate art form. The things you can do with sampling from an artistic perspective are endless. Everyone hears and feels something different and will go into a different direction with the same sample. It’s really intriguing.

Albums like Endtroducing by Dj Shadow is one of the most well known examples of sample based music (all done on an MPC 3000), but most electronic music and hip hop would not exist without samplers. For some reason, and this might be just a collection of nostalgic reasons, music from the late 80’s and early 90’s has some qualities which I attribute to the samplers and more specific the limitations of gear in those days. Maybe it’s the less boxed in way of thinking about genres or simply the case of “If it sounds good, it is good”.

Some of my favorite tunes made possible by sampling, many more can be added but that would make this blog extremely long ;-). So 2 well known examples.

Roger Sanchez – Another change

Dj Shadow – Stem (Cops & Robbers remix)

A lot of these devices are unaffordable these days, things like the Akai MPC 3000 & Emu sp1200, and the Akai S950 are commanding crazy prices. There are some very nice and in my opinion overlooked samplers which can be bought for less money, like the Emu ESI 4000 or the Akai S3000. Even the MPC 2000XL can be found a little bit more affordable. Question is, would you go down the route of these vintage tools or not?

Some cool documentaries

First off some inspiration which could sway you to go the hardware sampling route. Whether that be old school samplers or newer ones. Here is some cool documentary stuff which got me inspired, and still gets me inspired these days. Pretty old stuff from the nineties and some newer things as well.

Rogers Sanchez on making another change

Lola da musica (dutch) Drum & Bass

Lola da music sampling (dutch)

My sampling adventures

At that stage in my life these devices costs more than a couple of months of wages so these were out of reach. Stuff for future dreams.

One of the most intriguing samplers was the MPC, made by Akai. A lot of great music had been made with these. It’s a staple in many studio ever since its inception. What was so great about it, to me, that it was all about beats, rhythms and structures. This had a large pull for me and many years later I bought my first MPC, a 2000XL. By then hardware sampling had fallen to the wayside in favor of sampling with the computer. So this MPC was rather cheap at the time. And I loved it, then it died and I replaced it with another one.

Work & life got in the way and I didn’t have enough time to dedicate to music making so unfortunately I sold it. But it has always held a big place in my inspiration and I always missed it, even just looking at it gave me an urge to make music. The period after these last of the old school samplers died out and all the focus shifted to software in the industry I always looked at it as a missed opportunity. Akai kept developing the MPC’s with mixed success, the MPC-1000 was a nice one, the MPC-4000 was a bit of a miss. Both great machines to be fair. Just overlooked I think.

The last decade has seen the return of hardware sampling in many forms, mostly led by beat oriented devices, such as the Elektron Octratrack, Digitakt, things like the OP-1 (Field), Tracker based stuff like the Polyend, the M8 and so on.

There is a lot to be said for these devices. As you can create whole tracks with just the one device and some sound sources. Which can be as easy as recording stuff on your phone. Looking back at my days with the MPC 2000XL it was time to get a more modern version out of storage, in an effort to further simplify my setup.

Modern MPC’s

The current MPC line up is pretty much a DAW in a box. It’s much more powerful than the old MPC’s which has its downside as you can fall into the wormhole of possibilities just as with a DAW. For me I worked around this by only focussing on sampling sounds from my small Eurorack case and trying to create some grooves with it. Setting limits that way. Nevertheless the MPC one, which I use, is a lot of bang for your buck. Whether it’s a MPC in the classical sense is up for debate. And with the new 3.0 software approaching this debate is pretty heated at the moment.

But I am a firm believer of making a device your own in such a way it fits your workflow and with a machine which has these capabilities this is possible. Might not be for everyone, but there are lot’s of alternatives out there.

I love the new line of MPC’s, especially the one with it’s attractive price point and all the options, it even has CV/gate outs, always a nice feature if you have a modular or any other synth with CV/gate.

My current approach & future ideas.

My workflow is pretty simple, the MPC is there for sampling and editing sounds from the modular, then I make a program filled with the samples from one session. Which gives it an instant coherent sound and vibe, then I make some basic sequences and see what I can get out of it.

All pretty basic, but for now that’s just what I need, for the future the MPC will function as a hub between the MAX map world and the modular, but I haven’t completely worked this out yet.

This was a good week music wise. Hopefully I can continue this week.

A Tribe Called Quest – We got it from here… thank you for your service

Most people know A Tribe called Quest. Most notably their 1991 album Low end theory. With Q-tip as the master of the MPC. Now after the documentary Beats Rhymes and Life the new album We got it from here.. thanks you for your service is here. Member Malik Taylor passed away earlier this year while the album was still in production. So it’s the last album.

Everything what made A tribe called quest great in the past is back in this album. Excellent sample selection, production, chilled out raps and a general great flow of the album are all here.
It’s has a future classic mark on it from the start , but is very relevant and to date.

For some reason it just stays with you after only one listen. It’s an album everybody who is into hip-hop or even just likes it a bit should have in their collection. It’s made by one of the best groups in the history of the music. Too bad it took 12 years or so. But now that it’s here , I am going to enjoy it a lot.