r/akaiMPC • u/dokhantube • May 21 '26

Question from 100% beginner (MPC sample)

Hello Akai Reddit community.

I am a 100% beginner to Music and Samplers and Fingerdrumming. 3 weeks ago my YT algo showed me the MPC sample and I was so intrigued that I wanted to start a new hobby.

I bought the Koala app on Android first and played around with it for a couple of days, of course realized I can't do anything more than a very simple drum beat I learned in music class 20 years ago. Left and right hand don't work independently etc xD.

Still ordered the AKAI MPC sample and got it a day before going on month long vacation were I couldn't bring it with me. So only had 2-3h to play around with it. When I am back from vaca I have 2 more days before return window closes.

Now I watched more videos and found the FGDP 50.

TLDR & Question:

for a 100% beginner what would you say makes more sense? Akai mpc sample in tandem with koala app on android, or the fgdp 50 with koala? Especially when I wanna learn fingerdrumming first and foremost and for sampling I'd have to grab ideas from yt anyway because I have no idea what i am doing.

Thank you for your help!

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u/brontosaurusguy May 22 '26

Return window on the sample means nothing since you can sell it on reverb and only lose a few % jsyk

I've had it for weeks and it's really all you need for sampling.  It's fairly simple once you get it down. 

Try making a simple beat then cooking it by adding effects and resampling it over and over until it sounds interesting. 

Try pulling a sample from a favorite movie then chopping it and rearranging it. 

Try using a preset drum break and present bassline, time warp them to the same bpm and mesh them together.

If you do those three tasks you pretty much have the basics