Mpc1000 vs es2?

[jbvdb493]

Hey
Checking to see if anyone has experience with both?
I have an e2 and quite enjoy it BUT I need a sampler and possibly an other hardware sequencer
Having said that the way I see it:
ES2:
Easy learning curve
Cheaper buy in
Good sample playback
Poor actual sampling
Weird sample storage system?
Low sample time
Shitty slicing and resequencing of loops?
Limited sequencer
I personally like the effects of the E2 so decent effects

MPC1000:
Much steeper cost for a quality unit with JJOS XL
Steeper learning curve
Less effects
Much better sequencer
Proper sampling
4 banks of 16 pads
64 tracks
Possibly better at integrating my other hardware (blofeld and E2)

Anything I missed? Am I off the mark? So far I am leaning toward the MPC
But could easily be swayed in the other direction
I am confused about changing patterns in the ES2, if you change patterns I am assuming you will need to load the samples from the SD card, is that super slow?
I am also thinking of using it live synced to ableton live
Thanks for any feed back

[natrixgli]

I have the E2, not the E2s. But I have owned an MPC 1000 as well.

I'd say the MPC is going to blow away the E2 for sequencing or composing. 4 bars is really kind of a joke if you want to do anything composed. However the MPC is not really great for live / improv. Every video you see on Youtube you'll begin to notice a pattern, quite a lot of stopping playback happening. It's more of a studio tool.

I had a Blofeld when I had my MPC1k, and they do make an awesome pair. Though not as awesome as the Blofeld / Octatrack. Doing chromatic stuff on the MPC is pretty annoying. And again, with the sequencer stoppage.

But if you're good at programming drums on the Blofeld, the combo is like a dirt cheap Tempest with more voices and (albeit somewhat shitty) effects.

[natrixgli]

Steeper learning curve

I forgot to mention that the learning curve isn't bad at all. It seems intimidating at first, but the MPC1k is actually really intuitive.

[Hugo]

Another thing that should be mentioned is that you can setp up the ES2 to trigger notes of a certain scale. That's not possible afaik on the MPC.

[DiscoDevil]

The MPC is a much better piece of hardware overall BUT I do not find it very inspiring musically. You only get out of it exactly what you put in, literally. You can't just pick it up and sit on the couch and bang out a tune unless you've filled it with material. It can be the heart of a small studio though. With JJOS, it really is an amazing piece.

The ES2 is a frustrating piece because it doesn't do what I want it to do BUT if I just give in and work with what it does do, it's a lot of fun and music comes out of it fairly easily.

I'd say you want both to be honest.

Another option that is sorely underrated is the Roland MV-8800. It's HUGE but it's an incredible sequencer/sampler for the $. I'd venture to say it's the greatest hardware sequencer ever released but it does have it's frustrations as well.

[jbvdb493]

Another thing that should be mentioned is that you can setp up the ES2 to trigger notes of a certain scale. That's not possible afaik on the MPC.

I thought this was possible with JJOSXL am I wrong?
Thanks everyone for the feedback so far!
Edit: plus I would most likely be keeping my E2 so chromatic pads is not a big deal I mostly need great drum / fx/ loop sampling

[natrixgli]

Another thing that should be mentioned is that you can setp up the ES2 to trigger notes of a certain scale. That's not possible afaik on the MPC.

I thought this was possible with JJOSXL am I wrong?
Thanks everyone for the feedback so far!
Edit: plus I would most likely be keeping my E2 so chromatic pads is not a big deal I mostly need great drum / fx/ loop sampling

Have you looked at the Octatrack at all? It pairs really nicely with the E2, and it's a lot more inspiring to work with than the MPC, plus has load of FX.

[colulizard]

Edit: plus I would most likely be keeping my E2 so chromatic pads is not a big deal I mostly need great drum / fx/ loop sampling

If you want to use it as a drum machine type tool, it is pretty good. I have no idea about the MPC though as I've never used one.

The issue will be whether you want to programme songs or not, or just jam across a couple of patterns when playing live. I assume you're more than aware of those limitations if you have the E2 already though.

One last option (although maybe not a popular one) - If you're playing with ableton live why not store your loops as audio clips in live and trigger them with some kind of launchpad type device?

[DiscoDevil]

Another thing that should be mentioned is that you can setp up the ES2 to trigger notes of a certain scale. That's not possible afaik on the MPC.

I thought this was possible with JJOSXL am I wrong?
Thanks everyone for the feedback so far!
Edit: plus I would most likely be keeping my E2 so chromatic pads is not a big deal I mostly need great drum / fx/ loop sampling

Have you looked at the Octatrack at all? It pairs really nicely with the E2, and it's a lot more inspiring to work with than the MPC, plus has load of FX.

The Octatrack is the answer for my needs. Too bad it was 3x the price of the ES2.

[jbvdb493]

Edit: plus I would most likely be keeping my E2 so chromatic pads is not a big deal I mostly need great drum / fx/ loop sampling

If you want to use it as a drum machine type tool, it is pretty good. I have no idea about the MPC though as I've never used one.

The issue will be whether you want to programme songs or not, or just jam across a couple of patterns when playing live. I assume you're more than aware of those limitations if you have the E2 already though.

One last option (although maybe not a popular one) - If you're playing with ableton live why not store your loops as audio clips in live and trigger them with some kind of launchpad type device?

My idea is to do a kind of DJ set with ableton live and launchpad on one side of the DJ mixer and the E2 and a sampler on the other side as almost 2 turn tables but my biggest concern is load time for patterns/ samples on the ES2
Also the octatrack doesn't appeal so much because I can do everything it does with effects racks in live and it won't be as good for drums/ sequencing as the MPC although maybe better than the ES2

[natrixgli]

How about Ableton Live <Octatrack> Electribe 2

That would be a pretty bad ass setup. The OT is your sampler AND DJ mixer. It's a ton more flexible than a simple mixer, and amazing for making your incoming audio more "live". (plus it's quite satisfying once you get the hang of it!)

Using the OT as a real time audio processor is probably it's most ideal use. Basically you can fade between live incoming audio (which you can do cool tricks with echo freeze delay) and a sampled version of it remixed in real time via recorder trigs and sliced recorder buffers. This will require 2 Thru tracks and 2 Flex tracks. That leaves you 3 tracks for drums and 1 master track.

If you use parts instead of the crossfader, you could free up two additional tracks. But with sample chains, 3 tracks is really quite a lot. Actually I use 2 Thru tracks for incoming audio and 2 tracks for drums, then 3 flex tracks to sample and slice the other 4 in real time, with the crossfader going between live audio, sliced samples, and variations on both. (changing slice number with crossfader scenes makes for wicked fills, changing sample rate parameter makes for cool scratching fx, etc.)

Dataline kind of does this with the Volca series in this video, though he uses the crossfader more for FX and uses parts to switch between the live audio and sampled audio.

When you see a cross like object appear on screen, that is the part switcher, that means he's captured a sample of the volcas and is switching to playback. Only he isn't playing back just a loop of the volcas, he's playing back a pre-sliced real time buffer which allows him in one smooth motion to grab a sample, slice it, and play it back with the slices in different order, and with parameter locks, and such. It's mad fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okdZFgxFxjQ

[jbvdb493]

How about Ableton Live <Octatrack> Electribe 2

That would be a pretty bad ass setup. The OT is your sampler AND DJ mixer. It's a ton more flexible than a simple mixer, and amazing for making your incoming audio more "live". (plus it's quite satisfying once you get the hang of it!)

Using the OT as a real time audio processor is probably it's most ideal use. Basically you can fade between live incoming audio (which you can do cool tricks with echo freeze delay) and a sampled version of it remixed in real time via recorder trigs and sliced recorder buffers. This will require 2 Thru tracks and 2 Flex tracks. That leaves you 3 tracks for drums and 1 master track.

If you use parts instead of the crossfader, you could free up two additional tracks. But with sample chains, 3 tracks is really quite a lot. Actually I use 2 Thru tracks for incoming audio and 2 tracks for drums, then 3 flex tracks to sample and slice the other 4 in real time, with the crossfader going between live audio, sliced samples, and variations on both. (changing slice number with crossfader scenes makes for wicked fills, changing sample rate parameter makes for cool scratching fx, etc.)

Dataline kind of does this with the Volca series in this video, though he uses the crossfader more for FX and uses parts to switch between the live audio and sampled audio.

When you see a cross like object appear on screen, that is the part switcher, that means he's captured a sample of the volcas and is switching to playback. Only he isn't playing back just a loop of the volcas, he's playing back a pre-sliced real time buffer which allows him in one smooth motion to grab a sample, slice it, and play it back with the slices in different order, and with parameter locks, and such. It's mad fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okdZFgxFxjQ

Hmmm... You are giving me lots to think about
A couple questions tho:
How good is the octatrack for studio use? It seems like a mostly live tool
How is the sequencer compared to the mpc's?
How is playing those hard buttons on the octatrack?
And lastly regarding the ES2 how annoying is the sample loading/ management?

[natrixgli]

Hmmm... You are giving me lots to think about
A couple questions tho:
1 - How good is the octatrack for studio use? It seems like a mostly live tool
2 - How is the sequencer compared to the mpc's?
3 - How is playing those hard buttons on the octatrack?
4 - And lastly regarding the ES2 how annoying is the sample loading/ management?

(I numbered your questions to make answering them easier...)

1) Good. Great source of inspiration. It's more of an instrument than a workstation like an MPC.

2) Simple compared to the MPC both in functionality and UI. 8 tracks, 4 notes per track, 64 steps per pattern. Patterns can be chained though, and have independent track lengths. And of course automation is aplenty with parameter locks. (if you're not familiar, you hold a sequencer step and turn a knob and that parameter is set for that step. This can be internal parameters on sampler tracks or CCs on MIDI tracks. Like motion sequence, only a jillion times better.)

Bear in mind you also have Ableton Live which is a very competent sequencer, too.

3) They're pretty much like you'd expect hard plastic buttons to feel. I don't really mind but of course they're not velocity sensitive. The OT is so unlike MPC style samplers you really gotta approach it in a different way. I use "sample chains" (a single wav file containing multiple drum hits broken up into slices) to create beats mostly, sometimes iterating through the slices with a LFO to generate weird random beats. Or programming "random locks" in the sequencer, then refine and tweak. But there is a slice trigger mode where you can record slices into the sequencer live and it's not bad at all. This way I can do a beat (albeit monophonic) on a single sample track with multiple different sounds. I also have the E2 and the Tempest which both have velocity sensitive pads, so if I want to program more dynamic beats I use those.

4) No idea, someone else will have to chime in on this.