Easy Music Center » mpc1000

Kamuela Kid back at it again….

Peter — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 02:56:13 +0000

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Two more beats. I used the Korg MicroSampler to chop up some vinyl on both of these beats. The actual drum sequence is coming from the Akai Mini-Ak. I have them midi connected. It is even easier to get a feel for how my beat would sound now. I can chop up a beat and get it rocking like this in less than five minutes…This enables me to comb through my vinyl collection faster and easier than I could have ever imagined before because I have spend little time sequencing and chopping and zero time assigning sounds to pads. The first video is a sample from an Ohta San record “Love Story”. The second is from a Japanese (made in Hawaii) record for children “Kokeshi Shindig”. One day this will all get properly sequenced and recorded, but for now, I am happy to just have the foundation laid out. It is a lot of fun to play it live…The Korg Microsampler is the best thing to ever happen to my beatmaking!

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Kamuela Kid and the Naksinator Getting Funky with it

Peter — Fri, 28 May 2010 03:27:06 +0000

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I have the Korg Microsampler synced to the rhythm section of the Akai Mini-Ak here. Naksinator is filling in drums on the MPC2500 as well. The samples you hear are actually on the Korg, but the keys on the Mini-Ak are a lot more fun to play so I’m triggering them from the Mini-Ak. The drum sound you hear triggered with the samples are a sequenced drum from the Akai Mini-Ak. Each time I trigger the sample it replays the sequence, and it is synced from the tempo on the MicroSampler. It sounds sick when you do that! The Mini-Ak normally sells in the store for $499, but there is a $100 end-user rebate coming up in June. We will make sure to have some extra Mini-Ak in the store on hand. The Mini-Ak is the perfect sound companion to an Akai MPC or something like the Korg Microsampler. I love sampling vinyl, but sometimes you need to fill in the gaps of sound with something else. You can download the rebate form now: Akai Pro _MiniAK Rebate 6_10. The rebate starts June 1st.

The Mini-Ak has great rhythm sequences, drum sets, arpeggios, synths, bass inst, brass, leads, strings, keys, and it has a vocoder. I didn’t get this keyboard until I started toying with it in conjunction with my MPC and my Microsampler. It is an easy to use beast of sound! It was also easy to setup by midi to my MicroSampler. I feel like I understand why you would want to do something like that a whole lot better now. Come check it out. I have the MicroSampler loaded up with a bunch of the work I have been doing recently on our floor model at the King St. store. Oh yeah…the sound on this video recording is kind of funny. The iphone microphone add-on, the Mikey (by Blue), usually works great, but we have two studio monitors setup on each side of this demo station, and it really changed the sound when Brandon, the guy filming, started moving around with my iphone.

Kamuela Kid strikes again with the Korg MicroSampler

Peter — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:20:38 +0000

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Okay. Normally I get a new toy, get super hot on it, use it intensely for a few weeks, and then it gets buried under a pile of other gear in my apartment never to be used again (the curse or luxury of owning this store and getting to try out new gear all the time). Not my Korg MicroSampler! I’ve been super busy this past month so I had to take a hiatus from it, but last night I had about a half hour to bang out a beat, and I did. Yea…my sequencing sucks…all of my projects on the MicroSampler so far have been very rough draft sketches of where I would like this to go, but the foundation of the beats I am cooking up these days is the sound I have been seeking for years. Eventually I am going to transfer the sounds I am sampling from vinyl over to my MPC1000 where I can sequence it more efficiently. I love the MicroSampler for pulling samples, but the sequencer is a little to basic for my needs so the MPC1000 really fills in the other part for me quite well. With the editor librarian, you can load up the entire bank of sound, and save the samples you need to WAV files very easily. It is as simple as dragging and dropping by usb into my MPC1000 hard drive from there. The MPC1000 is great, but sampling and chopping on it is tiresome and time consuming. The combination of these two pieces of gear is everything I ever needed (well…I am looking for an analogue sounding synth hardware piece these days as well to complete my sound…Dave Smith Instruments might fit the bill for me….just have to look into carrying it at the store). I’ve really had a backlash against computer based beat production these past few years. I think the possibilities on the computer are overwhelmingly great. Rather than bang out beats quickly and efficiently, I found myself playing with soft synths, mastering tools, and sampler toys way too much, and I never got around to producing anything. These days, I’ve been limiting my tools to a few pieces, and I have found my work flow to be a lot better. Perhaps I will come full circle with the computer gear when I have the foundation better layed out on the beats I am trying to put together to make an album this year. I know I will need the computer stuff for mastering and if I can get anyone to flow on my album. I think Dilla would be jealous of the MicroSampler….it is sooo sick!

Beatroot 2008 – Rounds 1-6

Chris — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:20:26 +0000

Check out Beatroot qualifying rounds 2008! 6 rounds.

Presented by The Lightsleepers

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6