`Three Hidden Clippers Inside of MPC3

What up Forum,

Just in case you didn’t know, there are a few ‘soft’ clippers inside of the MPC/Force OS that don’t get much shine.

(sorry if i ramble on in the video, it was kindof off the cuff)

TL:DR:DW: - Drop your volume to about -18dB and run your sounds through Distortion Custom or Distortion Grimey for two extra clippers.

While AIR Distortion, Lo-Fi, Transient Designer, and a few of the Old School emulations can also qualify there are another three that you might want to take a peek at as well.

Outside of the lack of clarity in the current user guides for the MPC and Force, and the seemingly novice-focused marketing, I love what the developers at Akai/Inmusic have done. Digging back into the MPC4000 and MPC5000 manuals, I’ve discovered some gems in plugin coding that don’t seem to be widely known.

A few days ago a gentemlman posted in the MPC users Facebook group about getting his drums thicker.

There are many approaches to this but I feel MPC/Force needs a straightforward way of getting great results. So I set on a quest.

Now when making music, I like to think of myself as the intermediary between a great performance and a great recording. So with that mindset, I’ve started digging further into the MPC effects to find more unique ways of shaping the sound in simple ways.

It’s widely known that what we see affects how our ears perceive sound. Since the Akai insert effects are lacking the skeuomorphism we’re accustomed to with modern VST’s it’s easy to perceive them as archaic, useless, and lacking modern features. If you happen to believe that, to your credit you may be right But that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful tools.

In fact, outside of harmonic modeling, most plugins happen to be doing the same thing, albeit in different ways. Some EQ’s or compressors might have different curves, however, with a bit of training you can essentially replicate any sound processing. In the digital domain that is.

That might feel hard to believe, especially when juxtaposing the AIR plugins against developers like UAD or Slate Digital. But no matter the GUI or plugin design, an EQ is an EQ a compressor is a compressor.

Ultimately there are only a few ways that audio is processed. Linear Processing and non-linear Processing. Another dimension is whether the processing is static meaning it does not change depending on the signal, or non-static adapting or varying based on the signal.

With a simple understanding of these concepts or even a quick reference at the chart, you’ll quickly learn that the AIR plugins are relatively straightforward about how they process audio.

1. AIR Compressor as a limiter/Soft Clipper

As I explained in the video most compressors can also act as limiters depending on your ability to adjust the ratio (100:1) if you add in a knee parameter and adjust the attack and release to as fast as possible, you effectively get a soft clipper.

See how the output gain is directly proportional to the threshold. This is in essence how clippers work. If the sample exceeds the threshold set the sample to the threshold.

This is one way of getting thicker drums, louder mixes, etc.

Another way is using distortion. It’s pretty well known that AIR distortion is also a soft/hard clipper but what about the Akai Plugins?

Well, turns out there are two pretty good ones inside of Akai’s distortion models as well.

2. Distortion Grimy as a soft clipper

Luckily I found the MPC 5000 manual which explains how some of the distortions (alongside other plugins) are performing under the hood.

While other distortions are focusing on the frequencies entering the effect, either boosting or attenuating, there was one word that stuck out in two distortion effects “clip”

Since clipping requires a threshold, passing a signal significantly beneath the threshold will in turn enable more control over the distortion effect.

In Distortion Grimey’s case, there happens to be a sort of notch filter that when opened completely gives a boost in the 9kHz range. For most material, this filter is open enough to consider slightly warm and transparent.

This is where gain-staging comes in, if there is a clipper, what is its threshold? Essentially the plugin will peak at about -5dB to -6dB. This means that any signal below that should pass through relatively unaffected.

I found that about -18dB to -24dB is the Goldilocks zone.

Open the filter to 100 and turn down the resonance to 0 , adjust the output to 100% and start adjusting the drive and grime to your liking.

In a nutshell if you drop your volume super low and use this plugin to bring it up, you can thicken up your sound without adding a ton of gain.

Even though the loudness wars are over, plugins like this not only get your sound louder with more headroom, but also improve the stereo image and depth in the mix.

Example Track “A”

Example Track “B”

Though the tracks sound relative in volume, IMHO one has more punch and clarity while still maintaining ~-5dB of headroom.

See if you can accurately guess which one.

3. Distortion Custom is also a clipper

But its a little less straightforward to use in this manner. Again you want to start with a relatively low signal and drive the signal subtly.

The MPC5000 explains that the distortion effect can be controlled starting at the zero crossing which is similar to crossover distortion found in amplifiers.

The goal is to let as much as the signal through (under the threshold) and shape the sound subtly using the amount of clipping added to the signal.

honestly, you can take the settings from the image above and apply them. It can be tedious for someone not familiar with the plugin and at the wrong levels it’s more a sound design tool than a mixing tool.

I do like how this plugin adds a bit more harmonic content to low frequencies, however it’s a very strong distortion effect. Better suited for percussive elements or a flat vocal recording.

Note from the Editor:

In some weird way I find myself rejecting the idea that the manufacturers are lying to and/ or are trying to deceive us and believe that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. For those who care, i believe that all of the plugin manufacturers /DAW manufacturers aren’t being 100% transparent about what is happening inside of the box.

I believe some of the DSP is not that complicated at its core, that some of the DSP is based on open source code, and that we’re paying for fancy GUIs (and backend trademark licensing) when we buy some of these plugins.

But things have always been that way, when looking at samplers and workstations from the past, certain Motorolla chips or voltage filters were used across multiple brands and products with the final differentiating factor being the combination of such and the coding which bind the system together cohesively.

Another thing that has also remained constant is that a great mix is a great mix. regardless of what it’s tracked/recorded on. Learning about how audio works, frequency and how to mix will benefit just as much as learning about how to program drums or flip a sample.

Rather than join the bandwagon on why something is not as good as the past, I prefer to embrace current challenges with insights from the past and bridge the gap between the trying something new and whats tried and true.