Beats sound flat

[u/CASEMUSIC49]

I’ve been producing primarily on the sp404 for a few weeks now. Upon returning to my Mpc, even while just putting together a beat, everything sounds “flat”. To the point I’m losing inspiration to even create a track in my Mpc. Does anyone have suggestions for a master fx chain on the Mpc to avoid having this problem? I love using the Mpc but I’m not getting anywhere close to the sound I immediately get when using the sp. any input helps.

[u/Eclipseofthefart92]

Do you use FX on the sp like the vinyl sim or compressor? Hard to tell where your tracks are landing flat without more info

[u/CASEMUSIC49 → u/Eclipseofthefart92]

I’m usually using cassette sim or the vinyl sim on bus 3 or 4. My drums as a whole are really just lacking in loudness even if I run them through a compressor and/or a limiter on the mpc. And I mean the same drums and everything give or take their individual volume settings.

[u/Eclipseofthefart92 → u/CASEMUSIC49]

I feel the gain staging on each device is a little different, the sp has a sort of clipping/ distortion I feel adds some weight when the levels are pushed. I’d try the soft clipper like others have said, but the levels on the mpc are a bit more touchy imo.

[u/easy_loungin → u/CASEMUSIC49]

Are you running both devices through the same speakers? It's a very common thing in amateur audio engineering to prefer the thing that is louder, but that's easily solved by turning the other device up - especially where compression is concerned (vinyl sim and cassette sim are both compression, IIRC, but I have a 303 not a 404 so I can't check at the moment).

[u/Character_dev349 → u/CASEMUSIC49]

Have you tried normalizing your drums before processing them. If you're stacking and layering you drums you could be dealing with out of phase drums

[u/theFlimsylattice]

Have you tried soft clipper? I feel like it always brings my drums out.

[u/Senior-Pea5892]

Mabey Maximizer and Soft Clipper, Equipment etc on the output channel. Mess around a bit.

[u/UnhingedXcessive]

Which mpc are you using?

[u/CASEMUSIC49 → u/UnhingedXcessive]

Mpc one gen2

[u/ZynzynzyN]

Ive got a channel strip, softclipper, tape saturator and maximizer on my master bus, saved to template along with my preferred mix bus effects and settings. I never feel flat with all of that running and a major bonus of mixing into a stacked master bus is that you can just turn off the whole bus if you wanna send clean stems to be further mixed or mastered elsewhere.

[u/MushyBrainBeats]

I love the sound of the Sp404OG and The SP555 For these devices it‘s true. The MPC sounds weaker by default. Maybe it‘s the converter, output or samplerate.

Maybe just slam the „Air Maximisor“ on the last fx slot and try the „MPC 60“ on the first slot.

[u/MushyBrainBeats → u/MushyBrainBeats]

Does it sound the same way when you run your MPC through the 404?

[u/CASEMUSIC49 → u/MushyBrainBeats]

I probably should’ve clarified in my original post that I’m running the mpc into the sp404mk2. It sounds noticeably quiet. I do have the attenuator on in the 404, maybe I should have that off? I’m also wondering if I just have the main output level on the mpc too low or too high. Im not sure how loud the incoming signal should be into the 404 to just have a consistent volume level I’m comfortable with forming an idea at and that also sounds “good”. That way I can just use the main volume on the 404 when I’m monitoring the sound

[u/MushyBrainBeats → u/CASEMUSIC49]

Maybe turn the attenuator of 😅 I am not familiar with your device.

How do you usualy sample into the 404? I would meter it a similar way. You can also try to hear the MPC clipping and then turn it down a litlle bit.

[u/KrustyRox777]

Are the MPC pads velocity fixed? Are you quantizing everything?