SumOne

Perhaps it's still the honeymoon phase as I've only had it for 4 days but at the moment I think it's one of the best music purchases I've made in a long time. This 'The MPC One Blew My Mind' review sums it up quite well. And I think that review was before it got a really good firmware update https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/akai-mpc-210 . It takes time to figure out the interface because there's a lot going on as a standalone unit - lots of layers of complexity and things are done a bit differently to the usual DAW interface, but in the space of 4 days I've figured out the majority of it. I was expecting a good drum machine/sampler with good drum pads to play live and to record loops, but it also has good in-built synth and fx plugins and is a capable stand-alone DAW sequencer and midi interface. Being able to play the Bass live through it and add MPC effects (up to four at a time) is a bonus I wasn't expecting, I'll be selling a few pedals to help fund it. It comes free with Laptop DAW called MPC2 https://www.akaipro.com/mpc-software-2 that's worth £200 if bought separately, it's basically what's on the MPC but with a bit more control, it's good for doing things like organising sample packs and finishing tunes- doing things that can be fiddly just doing on the MPC. I think you can get a free trial of it. I was really into Drum & Bass but have gradually chilled out with age and am more into Reggae and Dub nowadays. The sounds that come pre-loaded with the MPC are best suited looped electronic stuff, there are a lot of Hip Hop/Trap and electronic dance music drum kits and synth sounds. I've loaded my own Reggae/Dub samples though and as you can sample anything and play individual hits with the drum pads so I think it could potentially work with any music but is best suited to 4/4 looped stuff. The minor downsides I've found so far are registering it and the software and updating firmware and importing expansion packs took me a few hours and needing the help of youtube, all works fine now though. You need to transfer samples from Laptop > SD card > MPC (unless recording directly to the MPC) as it won't do that over the USB connection. Not all of the in-depth things are obvious, it takes a fair bit of learning. More input connections would be useful, and an in-built battery would be good. They are quite minor things though, overall I'd say it's excellent.

I'm quite amazed at how good the MPC One is as a live finger drum, drum machine, sampler, stand-alone DAW with decent plugins (including synths) sequencer. All the hardware controls (including touchscreen) make it much better for my workflow and more fun than using a Laptop DAW. Bonus is that I can plug my bass directly into it (it requires line level but my active bass goes loud) and play through it with no noticeable latency - can then add MPC effects like compression and para eq and modulation and overdrive. I'm tempted to use it to replace some of my effect pedals - it can act as a multi fx unit and simultaneously be used to trigger samples or play drum tracks.

This is useful for planning: https://www.pedalplayground.com/

I used mine placed on top of my Amp rather than on a pedalboard so I just used it's individual power supply, when I was lugging around an Amp/Cab and power outlet it wasn't much hassle having the individual plug and with the pedal itself being a bit bigger than some others. I started playing in more situations without my Amp though so wanted everything to be compact on a pedalboard powered from one power brick which is when I sold it. I think the problem you might have with the CS6 is that it'll do 12v but is only 200mA per output - so you can use two outputs with a current doubler to get 12v 400mA but according to the Markbass website it needs 600mA (http://www.markbass.it/product-detail/compressore/), perhaps it'll work with less though, if it does then the Strymon Zuma might also work as it has a single 12v 500mA output.

I had one and thought it was up there with the best of the ones I've owned (including FEA and Cali 76), I forget the exact settings but I preferred it to be set as quite subtle. The only reason I sold it was to compress 🙄 the size of my pedal board/power supply.

I got an MPC One today, it seems really good. I started making beats on Grooveboxes (MC 303 then MC 505) about 25 years ago before using just about every DAW going. I've bought Macbooks and Logic, decent Windows Laptops and Reason, also Cubase, Ableton etc. but DAWs and VSTs always annoy me a bit - my Laptops never seem to be quite good enough to handle it without glitchy loading times mid-song, there always seems to be an update required or the driver isn't mapping as it should, or a sample is corrupted, aVST works on a song one day then doesn't the next, lag between midi drum pads/keyboards and hearing the sound live, mapped midi controls not saving properly, output working properly via Traktor but not via the DAW, and even using Reaper I found I was spending a fair bit on VSTs (and a few free ones, but they often seem to be a spammy virus danger!). Admittedly, most of this is probably user error but I've been at it a long time and it still is a frustration so it must partly be the tools not being user friendly - it all adds up to quite a lot of time and ££ rahter than making beats and me eventually getting frustrated with it and not bothering. So lately I've been heading back to hardware, for me it's more fun to use and more instant - which in some ways makes it more practical, it feels a bit more like being a musician and learning an instrument. I'd got the Teenage Engineering PO-12 (great for a pocket sized beat maker) then the Elektron Model Samples (a decent bit of kit but I found loading external samples a faff and the drum pads too stiff to use for finger drumming). It's early days but it seems the MPC One is in a whole different league to any other hardware stuff I've owned and good enough to actually ditch the Laptop DAWs. .....not cheap though.

Yeah I think a teacher would be useful, I'll look into it. Nowadays there are so many free online lessons that they've got me to the point of being able to play in bands and to understand a reasonable amount of theory but I expect someone giving critical feedback on my technique and explaining more of the theory in context would be worthwhile.

Cheers all. Looking up a few courses it seems like the RGT courses are the ones that would suit me best. I think I'll start with the books (Grade 1-8 three book bundle is £35).....they will probably get used for a few weeks and will then gather dust as I settle back into my routine! But perhaps I'll then book in with a teacher and work towards doing the formal exam grades to add some motivation.

Yeah, that and YouTube tutorials and a few books have done me alright so far (along with a reading and theory foundation of piano lessons when I was young). It feels like formal courses and exams could help me level up though - perhaps I'll learn to love sight reading or Jazz noodling!

Has anyone here as an adult that can already play the Bass to an alright band-playing level decided to do learning and exams for Bass Grades and thought it was worthwhile? I don't need the certificates for what I do or what I aspire to do but I think the pressure of deadlines for exams and formal learning might help push me out of my comfort zone and improve my overall Bass playing faster than the informal way I do it - I play in two bands and learn the songs and can play the music competently, but the music is similar genres and there's no need to read music (but I can read music, slowly), I sometimes fall into a 'that'll do' attitude and perhaps I need a formally structured kick up the ar$e!

I bought a pedal from Luke with good comms and quick delivery and it's in the good condition as described. Thanks!

Classical, Jazz, Techno, Ambient, Dub, tribal drumming, (and many more) disagree. Instrumental music communicates emotions without directly telling you in lyrics 'I am sad/happy because...' it's applicable to every human regardless of what languages they speak, it lets you use your imagination. It's instrumental music that makes me consider the philisophical question of why people enjoy music, whereas someone singing 'yeah, yeah, I love you baby, and I don't mean maybe' sort of de-values music.

Lyrics are overrated* *usually

The C4 and Future Impact are the best ones I've used. To get the best out of either of them requires Laptop editing though (and extra control stuff for the C4). Or save £hundreds and go the Zoom route which isn't as good but does decent usable synth sounds.

I guess it might have been down to the rest of my setup but also that I had the non-deluxe version which doesn't have as much EQ control.

I'd need to draw a line at Robbie Williams 'Angels'.

Yeah, I'm suprised they aren't playing bigger venues/festivals, they are playing at a punk festival this weekend. Personally, I'd put them headlining City Splash as they are pretty much the best UK Roots Reggae band still playing live in the UK. They were practicing at Arch studios in Chiswick and had Blood Shanti playing keys. I was a bit star-struck! Edit: Blood shanti was drumming

Misty In Roots were playing in a practice room next to us the other day and sounded excellent (my band didn't end up playing much as we kept stoping to listen!), had a chat with a couple of them and they were very friendly and down to earth and supportive.

Christopher Ellis - Rub A Dub

I've got an MXR Brown Acid which I think is based on the Coloursound and likewise - no bass loss, no need for clean blend.