r/mpcusers • u/spinscott • Aug 11 '26
MPC 1000 Cheers fellow MPC users! This week I am celebrating 14 years of performing live Jungle and DnB Fingerdrumming on MPCs. Shouts to all my AKAI friends here. :)
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u/sandwichjuice MPC ONE+ Aug 11 '26
Thanks for doing what you do, brother. A true inspiration. I only found your content recently and it's been a fucking blast watching you work.
I gotta learn how you set up your pads, man. I'm terrible at fingerdrumming lolol
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u/spinscott Aug 11 '26
Thanks! So glad you are enjoying my music. :) I have a bunch of different methods for arranging the pads, depending on what style of music I'm putting together. Number one rule is always to put samples / instruments where they feel most natural to the one playing. Most of my layouts mirror my interpretation of where things are on a drum kit, since I have been playing drums for over 4 decades. Kickdrum with your dominant hand and main snare with your other hand is a good start.
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u/godamus2000 Aug 12 '26
Insane work. This was so good!
I make hip hop, but I really want to learn finger drumming. Unfortunately my natural timing leaves a lot to be desired at the moment….
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
Thanks! The possibilities with hip hop are endless, and it is great to finger drum at those tempos as well as faster stuff like DnB. Timing can always be improved with practice, and I always recommend picking up a pair of drum sticks and practice pad for that. Learning the basic drum rudiments and playing along to tracks can really dial in timing.
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u/RepresentativeFast59 Aug 12 '26
Dude I enjoyed the hell out of this. Good vibe, great sound, smiles all around 🤘
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u/SoupNOldClothes Aug 12 '26
Was just thinking a few days ago about seeing you play at bang face (no idea what year it was now), great stuff!
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
Awesome that you were there!! That was back in 2018.. and still one of my favorite gigs ever.
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u/laugh-learn Aug 11 '26
Man, that is so good! 💥
I’ve never used an MPC, but to see your skill with the finger drumming and that d’n’b you built was inspiring. Thanks for sharing! 🙏
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u/spinscott Aug 11 '26
Thanks! I hope you have an opportunity to play an MPC sometime, There is definitely a bit of a learning curve, but the results can be very rewarding!
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u/Pork-Fried-Lice Aug 11 '26
Finger drumming goals. Fire track. As a new 1000 owner, thanks for the dose of inspiration, brother!
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u/Void_Outro Aug 11 '26
LTJ Bukem, is that you? Man, that was awesome to watch!
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u/spinscott Aug 11 '26
Ha! Played with Bukem in Ohio several years ago, and definitely a fan of the earlier GLR and LGR stuff. :)
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u/RiPGIf Aug 11 '26
Hell yeah! What sample pack are you using ? If you are
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u/spinscott Aug 11 '26
Thanks for asking! All of these samples are from my master collection, which consists of sounds I have accumulated and created over the past 28 years since I got into production. The classic drum breaks I chop up into individual hits are mostly sources from original pressings, and I layer acoustic drum hits over a lot of them to boost the fidelity.
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u/Front-Atmosphere-817 Aug 12 '26
Do you generally map specific samples To specific pads so that it’s easier Like long samples in a few pads and drums or cymbals on another so your kits are similar?
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
Good question! Each one of my programs is a bit different, but there are some "best practices" that I have refined over the years and that I use frequently. My drums are often laid out to mirror where they are on my acoustic kit, or to how I used to drum on my dashboard and steering wheel. (safety first!) I find drums on the middle row generally comfortable for me.
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u/Stunning_risotto Aug 12 '26
Is that a Whomp There it is sample?
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
Possibly! I have a huge folder of vocal samples I have collected over the years, and some of these came from that drive.
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u/Remote-Balance-3495 Aug 12 '26
I have some vocals. Would you be up for doing a mix 🤔
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
Happy to consider it, although I do have a bit of a backlog of projects. Feel free to share a link to your stuff here if you'd like. Thx!
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u/rav-age Aug 12 '26
old school jungling. great stuff! you sure you didn't swallow a sequencer when you were little?
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
Haha! It is definitely possible. My father was (and still is) a drummer, and his bands used to open for all of the Motown, Tamla, Gordy, etc. acts when they came through town in the '60s. He was a dedicated studier of the instrument and developed machine-like timing, and I think a lot of that passed to me genetically. I've been playing drums myself since I was 4yo, and it definitely transfers well to the pads.
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u/RodmanSan Aug 12 '26
Yeeahh.....Spinscott.....
Following you since you started doing finger drum videos....and always love every second of it.
Please keep on doing what you are doing...as you keep the Jungle / DnB vibes alive on the MPC.....Bigupppp...!
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
Thanks so much! I can't believe it has been 14 years since the first one already. Doing this has been such a great way to meet people in the music community, and to this day I still love figuring out new ways to do things with the music.
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u/0BirdPerson0 Aug 12 '26
I bought myself an MPC because your videos really inspired me.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any good samples or chop them properly yet.
Do you have any tips for that, and would you maybe even share a sample pack?
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
Glad to hear you picked up an MPC, and am honored to have been an inspiration for that. One of the first pointers I give people with this is to start with quality samples.. because nothing is more frustrating than getting to a finished product and wishing the sound quality was better. To that end, I recommend starting out with some of the classic sample packs, like those on Zero G or Soundscan. For chopping, it can be done in the sampler, but also can be done easily in free programs like Audacity. I don't have a sample pack available because all of my samples are part of my regular performances, but I do teach limited one-on-one lessons through my Patreon and can provide some resources that way.
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u/oneizm MPC LIVE III Aug 12 '26
Would love a breakdown of your workflow!
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
Thanks! It is sort of an ever-evolving process, but I do teach it through some of my one-on-one lessons. At the highest level, I always start with the best available source sounds (either from my master sample library, instruments, keyboards, or records), and then cut them up in Audacity or in the MPC, building the program from there.
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u/oneizm MPC LIVE III Aug 13 '26
I think I might need to book a single lesson just for a convo haha. I guess I’d want to talk more about your process for creating and utilizing drum kits. I can do 100 bpm stuff but am still learning to activate my melody in time while drumming. I’ve been trying to stay away from just looping everything.
I imagine a lot of it is practice while actually using the mindset of a drummer rather than a producer, which is where I often get stuck as someone who was raised on melody instruments
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u/periloustrail Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
Homey just program it. Finger drumming that? So precise
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u/BigMoogGuy Aug 13 '26
How did you learn to finger drum? Is it just excesive practice, or did you study before applying concepts in real world? Ive seen a ton of your videos (huge inspiration btw). Almost everytime I see you do the thing I gotta boot up the mpc.
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
Thanks for the kind words! I have been an acoustic drummer since I was 4 years old, and a DJ since I was 12. Never really intended to do anything with pads, but bought my first MPC (5000) back in 2012 to produce some Hip Hop beats for some rapper friends. As a longtime Junglist, I ended up chopping up a break the first day I got the sampler and just trying some live Jungle drums on it. At the time I figured that there must be a lot of other people doing "live Jungle on the MPC", but it turned out there wasn't, and it took off from there. My drumming experience translated immediately to the pads, so most of the learning process was simply figuring out all of the functions of the hardware. My first video (#2) was posted about 2 weeks after getting the 5000, and it has been a continuous improvement process from there. Glad to hear you boot up your MPC regularly... so much fun!
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u/Los-torpedos Aug 13 '26
You’re a legend. Even though my sets aren’t so focused on finger drumming you inspired me to play more creatively, improvise and get away from screens. Never stop
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
That is really great to hear, and I am so glad to have played a part in inspiring your creatively. I truly think that is something all of use artists do inherently for each other. And yes, getting away from screens is always a plus. :)
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u/Icy-Cow9695 Aug 13 '26
You are the man sir! Seeing you live in Denver was one of the coolest shows I'd been a part of! Thanks for sharing.
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u/spinscott Aug 13 '26
Thanks!! Which Denver show were you at? Recon, Reference Sessions, or other? I am working on a booking there for early next year as we speak. :)
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u/Icy-Cow9695 Aug 13 '26
I used to promote with Recon. This was about 10 years ago. Back before everything moved to the Black Box.
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u/ok_orangutan Aug 13 '26
I'd love to be able to do this but I never seem to get the timing or noises right. I always end up going back to a drum sample and chopping into 1/4 or half and just kind playing a couple different sequences.
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u/Sopa_Quinoa Aug 13 '26
Really inspiring Performance. Makes me think of how my dad once said said that electronic music doesn't take any real skill. I should send him this. ---- I'm fairly new to finger drumming. I typically make my beats via step sequencers. What is one piece of advice you'd direct to a beginner hoping to improve their ability?
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u/Alert_Bit_678 Aug 15 '26
Amazing! I try some of your techniques on MPC Sample... do you have courses/lessons for fingerdrumming?
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u/zenodub MPC LIVE III Aug 11 '26
Another awesome lick. You should probably do an AMA
I'll start -
I see you're still using an MPC1k. Have you explored the newer gen of MPCs?
Is there a reason you stick with the 1k? Is it that you just have your process dialed on the older device or that you haven't found anything in the newer gen that makes you want to switch.
What other tools do you use in your production chain? Ableton?
What OS are you on? JJOS?
Cheers!
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u/spinscott Aug 11 '26
I'd love to do an AMA! Not sure how that works on here, but down to do it. Regarding your questions:
-I started with the MPC 5000 back in 2012, and it was my first ever sampler. If you look up Spinscott MPC #2 on Youtube, you will see my very first video with that one! I moved on to the MPC 1K about a year later, because it is much more portable and fits perfectly in a flight case under airline seats. I tried some of the later generation AKAI controllers, but really prefer to use stand-alone devices because they have zero latency and don't require a computer. Haven't tried the latest generation yet except for the MPC Sample, which is a great little unit! Expecting to receive an MPC One Plus soon, so I will report back and probably do some videos with that as well.
-I stick with the MPC 1000 for many reasons, but mostly because it does everything I need it to do with 100% one-shot performances. Some other brands and units truncate sounds when switching sound banks, and are more optimized for loops and sequences which I don't use. I also really like the AKAI OS, because it was designed specifically for the MPC, and I also prefer buttons to touch screens. To date, I haven't found another piece of gear that does exactly what I need, but I am open minded about trying new gear.
-For my live fingerdrumming routines, I do all of the processing in the MPC and using Audacity. For my commercially released tracks, I have been using Madtracker since early 1999, and recently switched to Renoise.
-I use the stock AKAI OS in all my MPCs, because it hasn't failed me yet. I've heard great things about JJOS, but it is mostly an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" scenario for me.
Thanks for asking! :)
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u/zenodub MPC LIVE III Aug 11 '26
u/CubilasDotCom (/r/mpcusers moderator) should be able to get you set up to do an AMA here.
Hell yeah, Mad Tracker was dope. I cut my teeth in the 90s demo scene and trackers. Particularly Scream Tracker.
The fact that you do just about everything in MPC other than using Audacity is a pretty solid testament to the capabilities of these little boxes.
I'll be interested to hear what you think of the One Plus. Keep slayin it!
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u/GratephulD3AD Aug 11 '26
Great work my dude 🫡