We are a premier website for MPC sounds and MPC samples. Soundcrafting.com has been around since 2002 and we continue to put out quality samples and loops for hip hop music production. We are known all over the world. We started out selling the Get Phat Audio sample CD but later moved to MPC 2000, MPC 3000 and MPC 2000 XL Floppy disk. We now sell sounds not only for the akai MPC series drum machine / Sequencer but sounds for popular software programs like fruity loops, which is also known as FL studio. We also sell for sounds for the popular propellerhead product Reason.  As the market has changed we have added sounds for products like MPC 1000 and the new MPC 500.

We have one shot samples like drum sounds, kick drums, snare drums, hi-hats, percussion sounds, EFX sounds. We later expanded our library to include loop products like keyboard samples and loops, guitar loops, and drum loops. In December of 2006 we launched www.loopking.com which is dedicated to drum loops and all types of hip hop loops.  If you do not know what a sample is or loop is a short recording that can be played back by a sampler or used as loops to build a multitrack arrangement. All the samples we sell are in .WAV format. 

We use programs like Sony Sound Forge and WAVELAB to edit our samples and loops. A waveform editor is very useful for preparing samples. (Samples are short recording that are used as source material by hardware and software digital samplers.) Waveform editors can be used to edit samples, adjust samples and loop samples. If you own the right type of samplers that also supports your wave editor you can define your sample points.  There are several types of loops but the most common loop is where the loop section is played back one time and an infinite loop is where the sample continues to play as long as you hold down a key.  Some of the samples we sell, such as individual drum hits, are usually left un-looped. These are what the industry calls one-shot samples or MPC sounds. They are called one-shot samples because the wave plays once from start to end, no matter how long you hold down the key or MPC pad.  When you loop samples you want them to sounds seamless when they loop back to the start point. When the loop or samples comes back around you want it to sound as natural as possible.  When you edit samples in a Wave form editor once you have finished working with the sample you want to export the sample to your sampler and use the samplers onboard editing wav tools to shape the notes overall tonal quality other performance characteristics.

In this article we will take a look at some of today’s hottest music equipment for making beats. We look at various keyboards and drum machines that the top pros like to use to make beats. Most of today’s beat making equipment is affordable for the average music producer to purchase. So if you are just getting into music production you can have the same equipment that hot producers like Dr. Dre, the Neptunes, Timbaland and Scott Storch uses. Below is a list and function of some of the hot equipment that the twenty first century producer is using.

Inexpensive  Drum Machines:

Dr. Boss DR880 –DR Rhythm:

This boss drum series has been around for years and they keep getting better with the drum sounds that are inside this groove box. You can make hot beats with this piece of equipment. This rhythm-programming power house and guitar processor is loaded with 1,000 patterns, 100 drum kits, hundreds of world class drums sounds. It has everything from percussions & bass sounds from Roland’s famous SRX library. You can fine tune these drum kits. Usually runs around $495. You can buy a cheaper version of the drum machine called the Boss DR670 which is about half the price and come with fewer features than the DR880.

Alesis SR-16

Another inexpensive drum machine and groove box is the Alesis SR-16. It has the basic 16 bit stereo sounds and comes with about 233 sounds, lots od samples with stereo reverb and ambience, 100 presets and 100 user patterns. Alesis is a quality brand with years of experience in the music making game, so it can be trusted. This machine is great if you just starting out in hip hop music production and you’re working with a tight budget. It has MIDI IN/OUT/THRU and 16 voice polyphony.

Roland SP555

The Roland SP555 is a sampling workstation that is catching on in the hip hop circle of producers because it is fast and powerful and priced around $595. It’s used by a lot of Dj’s and sample based musicians. It’s loaded with a phantom powered mic Input, USB, WAV/AIFF import capabilities and dozens of awesome performance effects. It can even interface with any DAW software like Cakewalk Sonar. It has up to 2GB of sampling memory. A cheaper version of this drum sound module is the portable Roland SP404 with effects.

Akai MPC500 (Music Production Center)

One of the leaders in Hip Hop music production is the MPC 500. A lot of new producers are discovering the power of the MPC500 by Akai. The Akai MPC 500 is the first truly portable all in one MPC’s. You can sample and produce music on the go with this box. This MPC offer some of the same features as other more pricier MPC’s at a fraction of the cost. You can load all the same MPC sounds into this box. It includes a 48 track sequencer with a 32 voice drum / phrase sampler that can load up to 128MB RAM, built in compact flash card drive and USB port.

 Akai MPC1000

If you want that authentic Hip Hop sound and swing, then look no further than the MPC 1000. The Akai MPC 1000 has some of the features of the larger MPC’s but in a compact size. It has timestretch, pitch shift capabilities, sample reverse and the ability to slice up samples. They usually run around 1000 bucks. This is a great box and lives up to its Akai MPC reputation. It has MIDI ins & outs (32 MIDI channels), SPDIF I/O (RCA) and ¼ “ stereo analog outputs pls 4 individual outs.

Akai MPC 2000XL

This is probably the most successful selling MPC of them all but if you want to get one of these machines you’ll probably have to find a used one. Akai has replaced the MPC2000XL with the new MPC 2500.  The MPC 2000 is a work horse for any hip hop producer trying to make quality hip hop production with quality hip hop sounds for MPC 2000. We offer high quality Drum samples for the MPC 2000XL. We have rated high with MPC users when it comes to MPC 2000 sounds. It has a built in MIDI sequencer, it’s a sampler and drum machine, 16 Bit/44Khz stereo with 32 voice polyphony   and and 64 tracks.

Roland MV-8000

The Roland MV-8000 has been around since 2003 and fighting hard to find its place in the Hip Hop producing beat making market. It’s a little pricey around $2,295.00  The MV-8000 is  a fully equipped sampler and synthesizer.  It’s a complete production solution from beat creation and multi track recording and mixing, mastering and CD burning.                       

There are various software samplers on the market for music production. We have listed a few on this page. We sell sounds that will load into most of today’s software samplers.

Reason

Reason is made by propellerhead aand is considered a groundbreaking world famous virtual studio. This is a master computer-based audio production software system. It has a multi user interface unlike anything that is out right now. There are virtual tracks, mixers, drum machines, samplers, synths, effects, sequencers and more all in one program.

Ableton Live

Ableton is versatile and powerful. You can spontaneously compose, record, remix, improvise and edit your hip hop musical ideas seamlessly in and audio and MIDI environment. You can also integrate loops and linear production methods into your production. You have unique virtual instruments and effects at your disposal and you can record unlimited takes and tracks with the ability to change up the tempo “on the fly”

Native Kontakt 3

Kontakt opens the door to creativity. It runs on Mac or Windows and is available as standalone or with plug ins. You can tune or stretch a sound with altering its pitch with kontakt.  There are three levels to kontakt, it samples, have instruments and uses multis.

It also has a loop editor for cutting up loops. Has over 33 GB of sounds and over 18 high end effects.

We want to show you how you can put together a hip hop studio on a small budget. If you already have a home computer you are half way there. I recommend that if you are just starting out and don’t have a large budget to work with to get a program like Fruity Loops or Reason and invest Midi Controller keyboard to trigger the sounds in the Fruity Loops program or in Reason.  A Midi controller in this case would be a keyboard with no internal sounds but would trigger the sounds in your software. If you are looking for software programs you can find them at places like Sam Ash, Guitar Center, Sweet Water, and Musicianfriend.com.  Other  inexpensive programs you can purchase are Sony Acid Pro and Ejay.  Music production can be tricky if you don’t have the aptitude for it. You can end up spending a lot of money on a dream wasted.

If you’re not comfortable with computer route and prefer hardware like keyboards and drum machines, then I recommend the Akai MPC series, the Roland Sp 606, or finding old used equipment like the ASR-10, EMU sp1200, or a used MPC 60 II. Building your studio even on a budget, can be a fun an adventurous journey.  The greatest plus a hip hop music producer has is technology. When Smokey Robinson was churning out hits for Motown, he had relied on a band with about 6 to 8 musicians, bass guitar, drummer, piano player, guitar, horn section, strings,  and percussionist. Now days you can get a keyboard and have all those sounds at your call.

That brings me to keyboard workstations. This is a great way to have everything at your finger tips at once. Most work stations have an array of sounds from strings, to pianos, synth sounds, horns, drums, percussions, flutes, bass and guitar. You can actually compose all your songs directly from the keyboard. A lot of rap music hits have been made from one keyboard. Some of the hottest keyboards on the market right now are the Yamaha Motif, Korg Triton, and Roland Fantom. You can also get this in sound module format. A sound module is rack or box version of the keyboard without the keys that you would trigger with a MIDI controller. The sound Module is usually much cheaper than the actual keyboard and takes up a lot less space. 

If you plan on recording vocals in your studio you will need a program like Pro tools, Sonar, or Logic.  These programs can be expensive but are a necessity if you plan on recording vocals and mixing down your recording to a final product.

A great sample library has a collection of sounds. If you are dealing mainly in Hip Hop music you need various Kick drums, Snares, Hihats, Low End Booms, percussion sounds, FX, congas, and more. The sound should be arranged in different categories and styles based on the various types of music productions. There are various type of music production out there. You have west coast, east coast, midwest, hyphy, down south and various other types of hip hop production.  When doing audio production, it’s best to browse through your sounds and grab the sounds you need to build your beats. You can compare your production style to various top producers out there like Dr Dre, the Neptunes, Timbaland, Jazze Pha, Pharrell, Alchemist, Havoc, Kanye West, DJ Premiere and others. For example, soundcrafting.com’s Platinum Producer pack has various styles of drum sounds for various styles of Hip Hop production. Most music producers rely heavily on there drum sounds. Drum sounds are presently the foundation of rap music.

One of the greatest mistakes producers make is believing that all sounds and samples are created equally. It depends where you purchase your sounds and what type of sampler you are using. If you load the exact same sound in a MPC 2000 and then load that sound into a MPC 3000 you will automatically hear a difference in that sound.  You will find the same thing happen with software samplers compared to hardware samplers. Sounds will have a different inflection or feel to them in different samplers

All of our products are available as instant download but you can get all our samples in Sample CD format. You can either order our sounds as an instant download directly to your computer or you can buy them as sampling CD’s. We will ship you a CD-ROM data CD. The samples on the CD will be exactly the same as those you would receive in download format. You will get all the same drum samples, Hip Hop samples, or Fruity loop sounds.  Our entire sample CD’s are burned on quality CD Data disc that will read in most of today’s CD drives.  We also offer a majority of the sounds on Zip disk and some of the sounds are on Floppy disk. Very few websites in our industry still offer Ensoniq EPS Floppy Disk and Ensoniq ASR-10 Floppy Disk but we have both. We also have floppy disk for the MPC 2000 and MPC 3000 which is also rare and hard to find now days.

 

We have MPC Zip Disk for the MPC 2000, MPC 200xl, MPC 3000 and flash cards for the MPC 500, MPC 1000, MPC 2500. All of our MPC flash cards are compatible with the Akai MPC series of drum machines. We have wav sounds that work with triton patches, most keyboard patches and software samplers. 

Most producers in the game are using the same equipment, Motif’s, Triton, Mpc 2000xl, Mpc 3000, Mpc 4000, Fruity Loops, Reason, Pro Tools and Logic its all the same in the game.  The difference is the drum kits and type of sounds used to make east coast, west coast, and dirty south beats. The south usually has a lot of deep bass in its kits. The east coast are really solid but they’re lighter on the low end part of the kick drum. East coast kick drums have more of a flat response than a kick drum from the south. The west coast beats are usually influenced greatly by the funk music of the 70’s with it’s moving and shuttering bass lines.  East coast beats have more undertones and nuisances in its beats.  South beats will be stronger on melodies and chords and lead synthesizer sounds.

Sampling was born on the east coast, therefore you may hear more samples in east coast type beats.  East coast producers might sample a Kick drum and take all of the highs off of it so it’ll be all mids or sample a snare and take all of the low end out of it so it wil be all highs and mids. Then the east coast producer will blend or stack that snare with a different snare to create a totally different sonic feel for the two sounds.

Certain beats evoke different emotions from the audience. A crunk beat might get the crowd hype where a beat with an old R&B sample may play more to listening sensibility.

 When it comes to drum machines and sequencers, most producers use the MPC series of drum machine / samplers. As akai releases cheaper models of its series of samplers like the MPC 1000 and MPC 500, more and more producers will be jumping into the hip hop production game.  The day of recording albums in big studios is slowly but surely coming to an end due to the fact that programs like Pro tools, Sonar and Logic are affordable and definitely get the job done. Some of the hottest rap records today have been recorded on laptops.  No matter how much software and equipment you have, talent and a good ear are still essential to making hot records. You can make perfectly hot records with keyboard work stations like the Yamaha Motif and Korg Triton.. Another option is to make beats with software sequencers like Reason and Fruity Loops or also known as FL Studio. I lot of producers swear by these programs and it’s the only thing they use. 

 You can make various types of beats with all types of equipment and software. It actually depends more about your creativity than the type of tools you use to make your beats.  The more beats you do, the better you will be at producing hot beats.  A good rule to have is to master at least one piece of your equipment before purchasing something new.

Test

Lets talk hip hop music production. We will talk about equipment of yesterday and equipment and software programs of today.  When I first started producing music, the Akai MPC 60 and Akai MPC 60II was all the rage in the music production game. It was probably the greatest sampler ever created at the time. The MPC 60 was an 8 bit sampler created by Roger Linn who was also known for creating the Linn drum machine. The MPC 60 was the predecessor of the new samplers like the Akai MPC 500, MPC 1000, MPC 2000, MPC 2000xl, MPC 3000, and MPC 4000.  Year after year Akai has worked harder to create a better version of the Akai Midi Production Center (MPC).  Because, hip hop producers accept the MPC as the staple for rap music production, Akai became synonymous with rap music and its producers.  Other companies had samplers like Ensoniq’s EPS 16 Plus, and ASR-10 and EMU had the Sp1200. But the MPC had those Pads that producers loved  to pound out beats on and I think that was one of the main advantages. With Ensoniq’s EPS and ASR series, if you’re like me you don’t drum out beats on keys of a keyboard.  Ensoniq apparently realized this and created the sample beat box ASRX(ASR-X).  Years later Roland created a drum machine that is a direct rip off of the MPC called the Roland MV8000. This box, even though it is similar to the MPC it is comparably as good as any AKAI sample that is out there now.  It loads AIFF, WAV files and MPC .SND files.

I had a manager of a few rap groups and producers in my studio one night and he was talking about how good one of his producers was. He said all his beats to this point was done on a little Boss 660 drum machine and that he was going to get him a MPC 2000Xl because he felt he needed some better sounds.  Like a lot of people new to the game the manager thought the MPC came with pre-loaded sounds. The Akai MPC does not come with internal sounds.  You have to have drum kits for the MPC series samplers.  You have to load sounds into samplers like the MPC and MV8000.  Soundcrafting.com sells drum kits for MPC 2000, Drum Kits for the MPC 4000, Drum Kits for the MPC2000xl and Drum kits for EPS.  If you are looking for sounds for samplers there are many website on the internet that sell sounds and the free sounds on the internet also. You just really have to do a lot of searching to find free sounds.  We sell sound disk and sampling CD’s at Soundcrafting.com.  We are the number one source in the world for MPC sounds and Fruity Loop packs.  Our drum kits and sound kits will also load into software samplers like Reason.  We have Aiff drums Sounds and .WAV drum sounds.  We are a great source for Akai Sounds, Akai sample CD’s and Akai sample Downloads.

Every major music producer in the game like Jermaine Dupri who has the most hits of any producer in the 2000s, will tell you that you need to invest in sounds and always keep improving your hip hop sample library. To have a good strong Hip Hop sound library, you need hard hitting kick drums, crisp snares, Hi-Hats, Percussion sounds, EFX and FX, Bass sounds and keyboard sounds.  If you’re new to the game you can buy ill hip hop samples. If you are a veteran to hip hop production you can create you own samples by digging’ crates of records and sampling your own sounds and creating your own sound

 

The different forms of hip hop music has always used samples from back in the day. Some producers have sampled beats or musical compositions from old vinyl records. Other producers rely on the hooks of old records for inspiration.  It is important if you use samples and plan making the recording for sale in a commercial environment you may want to get the sample cleared before proceeding.  Back in the day you could sample old records with out facing consequences because no one was really sure how to handle samples. But after many years of litigation and lawsuits there are many precedents for samples in the music business today.  Still many producers continue to sample without checking into clearance for their samples which is setting themselves up for real problems.  When sampling other artists you need to make sure you have the proper clearance because in most cases you have to get permission to use other artists music and you probably going to have to pay somebody.

In the music business now you should clear every sample you use even if just a second long. If you are just doing beats in your bedroom for fun and you are not trying to seriously consider a career in music then you don’t need to get permission to use samples.  But if you are putting together beats that are going to be released on record label you might want to get permission.  If you are the producer, it is your responsibility to let the record label and artists know which samples you used. You don’t want the record label and artist to get sued because you didn’t let them know your song was chalked full of samples.

Who pays for the samples? When it comes to putting up the funds for samples used in beats both the artists and the producer shell out the funds for clearance of samples. Not all samples are created equal. Sampling a piece of music from some unknown R&B group from the seventies will probably cost you a lot less than sampling from a major hit by Stevie Wonder or Michael Jackson. Let us pretend you are producing a beat for Rick Ross and you use a sample from a George Clinton song. Clinton’s publishing company may want half of the publishing rights since George Clinton was one of the biggest recording artists in black music in the eighties. Rick Ross might not want to give up half his publishing and may even want to turn down the track or beat based on that factor alone. To compensate Rick Ross and label might negotiate where you as an up and coming producer might not get publishing rights or points off the album.

Sampling is definitely a creative way of making music. I would smack anyone who says sampling is not an art form. Sampling is not for every producer. Producer like Kanye West built there careers on sampling and PDiddy was sampling force back in the 90’s. Producers with a lot of money and Artists with big budgets don’t mind using samples and giving up a part of their publishing for a hit record, usually because they have a lot of money.

 

Soundcrafting.com is the premier website on the internet for Hip Hop samples and Hip Hop sounds for music production. We carry drum samples for the Korg Triton, as well as the MPC series and MV 8000 Roland. We specialize in drum samples for rap music. We are the number one source for drum samples. Most of our drum samples are in WAV format and load in today’s most popular hardware samplers and software samplers.  If you are looking for drum sounds you have found the right site. We also have keyboard loops and Keyboard synth sounds. We have every imaginable drum sound for the MPC 2000xl, MPC 2500 and other hardware drum machine sequencers.  If you are a hip hop music producer working in today’s hip hop studio environment, then our sound library is must for any producer.

We also have drum sounds for fruity loops and FL Studio 7. We work with the best sound designers in the Atlanta music scene to create groundbreaking hip hop sounds.  We specialize in hip hop rap music production and also sell beats on this website.  We also sell floppy disk for the Ensoniq ASR 10 and Ensoniq EPS 16 and 16 plus. If you make beats on a computer, we have sounds that work with most of software samplers out there.

A list of Samplers we have sounds forand the available formats:

We have these sounds for the following samplers either on Floppy Disk, Zip Disk, Flash Card, CD-ROM, Instant Download check List below:

• MPC 500 Samples

On Flash Card, CD-ROM and Instant Download

• MPC 1000 Sounds

On Flash Cards, CD-ROM and Instant Download

• MPC 2000 Sounds

On Floppy Disk, Zip Disk, Instant Download

• MPC 2000XL Sounds

On Floppy Disk, Zip Disk, CD-ROM, Instant Download

• MPC 2500 Samples and Sounds

On Flash Card, CD-ROM, Instant download

• MPC 3000 Sounds

On Floppy Disk, Zip Disk

• MPC 4000 Sounds and Samples

On Zip Disk, CD-ROM, & Instant Download

• Fruity Loops (samples and sounds)

CD-ROM and Instant Download

• FL Studio (Samples and Sounds)

CD-ROM and Instant Download

• Reason (samples and sounds)

CD-ROM and Instant Download

• MV8000 Roland (Samples and Sounds)

CD-ROM and Instant Download

• Ensoniq ASR-10

Floppy Disk

• Ensoniq EPS and EPS 16 Plus

Floppy Disk

• Korg Triton

CD-ROM and Instant Download

• Plus any sampler that will load .WAV

This article is about principles in sampling whether it is hardware samplers or software samplers.  The biggest problem in the past with samplers was the fact that they didn’t have enough memory. If you are using a hardware sampler you want at least 32 megs or better of memory. Samplers like the Emus, Ultras and Esi series all have more than enough memory. The Akai S2000 goes above and beyond the needed memory. If you are using virtual samplers like Gigasampler, Kontakt, Intakt, the EXS or any other software sampler these tips will apply. It’s a good Idea to have a wave form editor that supports your sampler. This really works out if you have an old hardware sampler with SCSI port that supports SMDI sample dumps. Propellerhead, has dropped hardware sampler support with Recylce 2.1.  It’s very important to have a computer with a good quality audio card that can playback at different sample rates whether it’s 44.1K, 22.050K or other odd rates.  Most samplers recommend cards that work with particular manufacturers.  When it comes to storing the data, the days of saving samples on floppy disk are all but done when it comes to hardware samplers. Most of todays samplers are equipped with Flash card drives. If you are running software samplers get the largest hard drive you can afford within your budget and dedicate it to samples.

There is a faster and quicker way to sample sounds than to sample them directly into the sampler. If you sample into an editor it is far easier and efficient to sample into a waveditor like WAV LAB or Sound Forge. With an editor you can record different variations of the sound or sample. You don’t have to start and stop by working with ithe instrument.  Say for example you want to sample a piano lick or two. Rather than record each single note into your sampler. Try recording a chromatic scale on the piano 3 or 4 times. Inside your waveform editor look at the notes and wav and see which one are the best ones. Grab the choice notes and cut and paste them into their own individual files.

Using a sample editor you can use plug ins to fatten up drums by adding EQ and effects to individual instruments just like you might mix a track you mix the individual sound, whether it’s drums, EFX or instrument sounds.  You work with sounds and keep the one you like and delete the sounds you don’t like. You can better audition your sounds in a waveform editor than just sampling them directly into your sampler. Sample editor can save you time and effort and make can processing audio faster and quicker.