One of my songs!

As an acoustician, I maketh sounds, and I taketh away.

Here is a sound I made:

An introduction to sampling and MPCs

For my first post I thought I’d talk a little bit about my new (ish) hobbie, producing. I’ll discuss why I enjoy using sampling to make my songs and how it allowed me to actually start writing full length songs.

When it comes to producing there’s a lot of equipment, software and techniques that can all be used for you to create your first song. When just starting out all of these options can seem overwhelming and it is difficult to know exactly which would suit you and the style you are trying to achieve. I tried sitting at a computer screen trying to put ideas together but I found the access to thousands of synths, effects and mixing tools actually prevented me from writing music, I just didn’t know where to start. I looked to artists I liked for ideas and MPCs kept cropping up in peoples set ups. I ended up going to a Gold Panda gig who is a dance music producer whose music is composed purely from chopped up samples of audio from different songs. I was inspired, that gig was truly one of the most impressive performances I have ever seen and it was all centred around an MPC1000. I managed to save up a little bit of money with a job over the summer and I ended up purchasing one.

Gold Panda performing

I found that an MPC is a very powerful composition tool, even when I had just grasped the very basics I was creating beats that far surpassed those that I managed to create sat at the computer. The MPC uses 16 pads which individual samples can be assigned to, samples can be absolutely any audio you can think of to use in your music. The MPC also comes with various features like a basic effects pack, pitch shift, a mixer and most importantly, a loop feature, as well as lots of other nifty little features, I couldn’t list them all. I found that everything was very basic which turned out to be exactly what I needed to be able to start writing music. Instead of constantly getting stuck trying to work out how to program something a specific way, or constantly altering synth sounds on the computer, I was forced to use the samples I had created with the basic tools the MPC provided. I could focus purely on what I was going to do next with the music, not how can I do what I want to do next. This was a big step for me, as I’m sure most producers would agree, when you get into a flow when you’re composing you do not want to be interrupted. In the first week I managed to finish my first song, it was by no means impressive and I hope no one ever has to hear it but it was a finished song none the less.

There are lots of MPCs you can choose from, the lower end ones starting at around £300 new ranging to £1300, the more you pay the more features you get (duh). I would personally recommend purchasing one second hand, I managed to buy the very reputable MPC1000 for £300 second hand in perfect condition and it has more than enough for me, even today I’m constantly finding new features to help me improve my music.

If I have any advice to someone thinking of getting into producing, I would advise that you look at the different equipment/software out there, it doesn’t have to be expensive, but you should stick with one that feels good to you AND STICK WITH IT. You’re not going to be able to come up with something exceptional straight away, but coming up with anything is definitely better than coming up with nothing! A lot of equipment/software share features and all have potential to be useful. Remember it won’t be the equipment that makes you good, you still have to work for it! And secondly keep things simple, it can be tempting to browse through the endless features of VSTs constantly perusing a better sound, but ultimately it will slow down your composition flow, you will start learning everything you need to whilst composing.

J Dilla – The king of sampling

I am conscious this post is getting too long now so I’ll finish with some artists that inspired me to purchase an MPC, maybe they’ll inspire you:
– J Dilla
– Gold Panda
– Prefuse 73
Also I will write another post on how I sample and how the MPC helps me come up with my ideas. Thank you for reading!