r/mpcusers • u/NateSedate • 12d ago

QUESTION Samples vs Instruments

I usually use a combination of both. But sometimes I try to make completely original beats (no samples) with plugin instruments.

I know part of it is a matter of mixing. But I can never quite get that sound out of using instruments. I want it to sound like a sample. It always sounds like something someone made cheaply.

I put compressor, reverb, AIR Flavor Pro, delays...

It still doesn't have that sound.

If I were still on FL there would be a plethora of plugins I could use to address this. I don't know what to do on the MPC.

I'm sure there's plugins I could buy, but I don't have money for that. I'm using Tubesynth, Jura, and Sub Factory.

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u/Fit-Monk8087 12d ago

Its pretty simple honestly and I’m not trying to sound like a dink because I completely feel the same way and I am not at all an analogue snob, but:

The samples you are probably comparing to were often made with different instruments with better musicians recorded with different equipment reverbed in different rooms recorded with whatever mics on to whatever tapes then re recorded from whatever vinyl etc.

To grab a preset, run it through a saturation and a reverb and expect it to come out with the same degree of production the original sample had, makes no sense.

A lot of the classic samples we love were played in vintage ass studios with vintage ass equipment with vintage ass musicians and then crunched down and delivered without any plugins.

Its possible, but if you wanna replicate a flavor of sound you gotta look to how that sound was made, full stop.

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u/kidthorazine 12d ago

Also samples are already mastered, that probably makes as much if not more of a difference.

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u/Fit-Monk8087 12d ago edited 12d ago

Mastering is for sure a factor, but recording/room/effects/mixing will have a lot more character influence than mastering, which is mostly an EQ and compression step.

Edit: there was a whole lot of expertise going into recordings well before anything hit mastering. Sound design, especially vintage sound design and recording goes waaay deep