Technology

The Akai MPC (1988-Present)

Akai’s iconic sampler has been around for over 30 years with fruitful timeline. Think of a producer, any producer. They’ve used an Akai MPC at some point or at the very least they’ve wished they had one. Much like the Fairlight and Mellotron before them, the Akai MPC has been a hardware staple in music …

Hip Hop

Freddy Bracker - Daily Grooves & Nasty Loops

Belgian producer Freddy Bracker gives “a retrospect of the daily” with Daily Grooves & Nasty Loops. With an SP-202, DR-202, MPC2000XL, MiniNova and a lot of patience at his disposal, Freddy Bracker brings us Daily Grooves & Nasty Loops, an urban smörgåsbord of samples and ever-shifting rhythms. The textures are accentuated by the samplers because sometimes you need …

Video

How J Dilla Humanized The MPC3000

Estelle Caswell discussed how J Dilla made his MPC3000 musical for Vox. Many musicians are synonymous with their instrument of choice – Jimi and his guitar, Questlove and his drums, Dorothy Ashby and her harp. And then there’s J Dilla and his MPC3000. In effect, J Dilla was a Jimi, Questlove, and Dorothy thanks to …

Hip Hop

eLiMenCe - Out of Ram

Imagine a whole set made out of a single record. That’s exactly what eLiMenCe has done with “Out of Ram”. According to eLiMenCE, all of the beats on this set contain samples from one record with accompanying drums from one drum kit created from random sounds. But the origins of the name “Out of Ram” is …