Good morning to all..This is a requested tutorial for the Mpc 3000. NewToProduction wanted to know how to make a dirty south “3 6 Mafia” style beat. I have the 2500 and wasn’t sure about the 3000. I went on the hunt and found a few things that may help out… Anyone with the 3000 feel free to add your tips through comments….
There is no set way to get a double time beat . Some people speed the tempo, some use time signatures, and some producers can tap it out manually then quantize. Here I will use the method of changing the time signature, because this was a specific request. The “Time Signature” specifies how many beats are in a measure. This tutorial is to get you headed in the right direction on the Mpc3000, preparing to make a dirty south beat. I won’t be making the actual beat of course, but sharing suggestions on how I would try it if I had the 3000 in front of me. Some producers double the tempo 1st. I like to work with the time signature due to the click track or “metronome” when I record. The click track stays at a normal BPM which makes it easier to count the beats and stay in the pocket when working with double time dirty south beats.
Akai Mpc3000 Manual: Akai Mpc 3000 Manual
Start with a basic 4 bar loop, set tempo to 75 BPM to chnage the time signature refer to page 91 in the manual.
This feature displays the time signature and number of bars in the
active sequence as well as any time signature changes. Press 1
(View/chng T sig) from the SEQ EDIT key menu and the
following screen will be displayed:
========== View Time Signature =========
Bar 1 – 2: 4/ 4
========================================
<Page -> <Page +> <Change TSig>
This screen displays all time signature changes within the active
sequence, and the number of bars associated with each change. If no
time signature changes exist, the existing single time signature and
the total number of bars in the sequence will be displayed. Space is
given for ten time signature changes, with two changes per line. If
more exist, the <Page +> soft key is used to view more pages of
changes, and the <Page -> soft key is used to display earlier
pages.
Change your time signature to 8/4, so your screen would look like this:
========== Initialize Sequence =========
Select sequence: 1-(hats)
===== General ===== ==== Track: 1 ====
Bars: 4 Sig: 8/4 Status:UNUSED
BPM:75.0 Type
RUM Pgm:OFF
Loop:TO BAR 1 Chn:OFF & OFF
========================================
The fields and soft keys are of the sequence edit screen are:
• The Select sequence field:
This field is used to enter the number of the sequence that is to be
initialized. The selected sequence’s name is shown for convenience.
The “General” section:
• The Bars field:
In this field enter the number of bars for the initialized sequence.
• The Sig (time signature) field:
In this field enter the time signature for the initialized sequence. It
is actually two fields, one for the upper and one for the lower parts
of the time signature.
• The BPM field:
In this field enter the tempo to which you want the sequence to be
initialized. To view the tempo in frames per beat, move the cursor to
the word BPM and use the data entry control to change it to FPB,
just as in the Play/Record screen.
You notice I am at 75 BPMS and using 4 bars. If I am using a 4/4 Time signature the beats will fall 1, 2, 3, 4 in each bar or 4 beats per measure. I changed my time signature to 8/4 now I have beats that fall 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, or 8 beats per measure. I have “doubled” the amount of beats in my measure, with out doubling the tempo.
Next I want my hats to be double the timing of my drum and snare. In order to do this on the 3000 I would now set the “Time Correct” or quantization to 1/16.
Press STEP EDIT. The Now field will change to the
nearest step. A step is defined as a specific note timing
value, 1/8 notes through 1/32 triplets, set in the Note
value field in the Timing Correct screen. Any notes or
other MIDI events existing in the active track at that
location will be displayed on the screen.
Now from here you can hold down the “Time Correct”/ note repeat and record your hats. This will give you the fast Dirty South Hats. What you end up with is this:
75 bpms
Time sig 8/4
Time correct 1/16
Hats will fall on every beat of the measure and you will have 32 hi hats in a measure when you record holding down “time correct” or Note repeat with these settings.
Now try adding a snare on the “TICKS” at 2,4,6,8 this will give you a basic pattern with the hats going fast and the snares hitting on time with the Bpm. From there add your kicks starting on the 1st” Tick” and you are on your way.
Remember this isn’t set in stone…try using a Time Correct of 1/32. Try speeding up the tempo to 140, and changing the Time Correct to 1/16 for the hats and then start adding your snares… play around and find what works best for you. Once you get used to it, changing the time signatures makes a difference on the way samples hit as well. Take some time to learn more about beats and measures, this will give you the technical understanding of whats going on when producers say ” double time”. With practice you’ll get it down in no time.
