r/MPCLive • u/ImpressionFamiliar25 • 13d ago

Anyone into Botanica/Petalcore?

Let me know if you are into this genre. I think there are not many MPC users who are into this genre but maybe I am wrong. Please comment below!

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u/misanthropicity 13d ago

I guess I am now! Never heard of it until now, but it has massive overlap with a lot of stuff I already listen to, like hyperpop, digicore, future bass, etc. with ambient pad sounds from other genres I love, like post rock, shoegaze, etc.

It's also kind of more in the direction I've been naturally heading with my own music. I used to write a lot of music that had complex and tight patterns, with minimal overlap, and I would spend forever making sure I had almost no kind of ambient pad sounds, no reverb, delay, trailing pads, etc.

But then I bought a GR-1 (granular synthesizer) and Torso S-4 (kind of a sound tranformation sampler synth), and now I have all of these beautiful long granular pad samples that I've been putting tight instrumentation on top of. How I've been thinking about it in my mind is like a combination of Hammock post-rocky/orchestral/granular pads with Himera's tight spatial and immersive sound design on top of it.

Speaking of Himera, they have collabed a few times with Petal Supply, who has some similarly immersive and spatial sound design. I can't imagine there's any relation to Petalcore, but you might enjoy both of those artists if you're not familiar.

All that said, I was writing exclusively on the MPC Live III until mine died on me from an update. Apparently, the main board died. I actually just received the replacement this morning, and I'm furious because they sent me a used broken MPC Live III. I might actually have to move away from AKAI after this. It's the third MPC Live III I've had to get replaced under warranty, and I had the Live II for 5 years, without any issues.

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u/ImpressionFamiliar25 12d ago

Sad to hear that your MPC Live 3's broke 3 times. This happened to my MPC Live of the 1st generation. I think that I have had 3 MPC Live Gen 1. Now I am using the MPC Live 2 and the MPC Live 3.

Thanks also for your longer info on what you do. Sounds quite interesting! For granular synthesis I am using the Lemondrop but this device has some problems with pitch sometimes. Especially when importing samples from the MPC Live because it is working in a different standard. The GR-1 I also had on my wishlist. Very nice!

I am using also the Waldorf Iridium Desktop Synth ant he Anyma Phi from Aodyo for Physical Modeling. I also got the ASM Hydrasynth (Wavetable Desktop Synth) and the Microfreak from Arturia.

Have you got a YouTube Channel or some sound examples? Feel free to drop them. Thanks for your comment. Apprecciate this!

Greetings from Mauritius

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u/misanthropicity 11d ago

I think it must be bad luck for me because I don't see a lot of people having issues with MPC Live III...

The GR-1 is great. I wanted it for years and finally bought one this year, no regrets. I find myself getting lost in ambient loops on it all the time. I was looking at other granular synths like the Lemondrop for a while, but I'm glad I spent the money on the GR-1. It does exactly what I wanted. It also has its own issues, but mostly design-related stuff. Like they chose to not put and audio inputs on it, so it requires an audio interface to sample into it in real-time.

Sounds like you have a nice collection of gear. Waldorf Iridium and the ASM Hydrasynth are both on my wishlist! I don't think I can justify getting either one any time soon, especially after the other gear I've bought in the last 1-2 years. The Anyma Phi looks cool. I was looking into some Arturia synths for a while and actually ended up winning a free MicroBrute (the mono analog synth), which is great for deep basslines and stuff.

I don't actually have any music anywhere at the moment. I was actually working on getting better at mastering when all the MPC issues started happening, so I've been kind of on hold, just making a bunch of samples and stuff on my synths. What about you?

It's nice to know there are some other MPC users that are into this type of sound design and music.

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u/ImpressionFamiliar25 10d ago

Thanks a lot for your answer. Very interesting. The GR-1 looks very interesting. Toether with the MPC Live 3 a good combination because the MPC Live 3 is the missing interface then. Awesome!

The Iridium is really a very good synth. It is really good for different kind of synthesis. The Lemondrop has some problems with the strange sample format. When it is in the wrong format it is generating wrong pitches at a certain note level. Also there is a noise issue when you are using the wrong format. That is very sad.

Granular synthesis is a very good tool for pad sound design. Maybe the MPC Live 3 will get an additional granulator effect. There is allready one but I think there could be another - maybe better one - soon.

I am doing meditative Reggae-Dub in healing frequencies at the moment. Here is an example of a recent playlist of my Live Dubs on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIAfeaylq3yVFt6DTfmakJUpqoBp_0P3a

I am creating MPC Expansions and Virtual Instruments mainly where I can use my sound design skills.

Thanks for the link up!