MPC's and MIDI sequencing??

[electronique]

Hi there.. Sorry if I come across as daft in this question..

Im thinking of purchasing an MPC. Either 500 or 1000.. At the moment I do all my production on my DAW with Sonar, but am wanting to get into sampling, and like the idea of hardware..

That being said. Im wanting to get into live sequencing...

I know what MPC's are capable of doing within their own little selves..
But with its sequencer. Can you set any of the MIDI parts/tracks to send the messages out to control an external synth?

thanks

[electronique]

Sorry..
Just downloaded the manual and found that, YES, it is also a midi sequencer..

So..? Whats it like?
How many of you use it to sequence your external synths?

I have a DSI PolyEvolver rack..
Im gathering it can only send note on/off, velocity etc.. It cant send any other cc's like filters etc, can it??

[garranimal]

I have the 1000 and will be using it with my live set. Controlling two synths - my supernova and ms2000, and kaoss pad. Has TWO midi ins AND outs for 32 possible channels of external gear control....you can select which parts are sent out over midi and which to play internal sounds. I've had really good results. Editing, especially sequence mod data, with it is a bit tedious though.....so it's easier to just re-record rather than edit all those little numbers one-by-one. The q-sliders don't really curb my appetite to mod the MPC's internal sample parameters and effects...you only get two sliders and they can only absolutely control only one parameter within one program each. The sub-outs have served me well by keeping my bass and drum parts separate from everything else on the way to the mixer. All in all I've had a lot of fun using it for more than just a beat machine. I made this vid a couple of weeks ago:

[burnt toast]

i was using my mpc 2500 to sequence my Q and micromodular yesterday - very painless and interactive and no timing issues! (which were the bane of my existence with my sound card)

[xibalba]

using it as a sequencer....i like it, i had a step 64 and was using that to sequence my moog, but when i started to condense most of my gear i started to use my mpc 1k to seq my vermona and moog. So far i havent had any issues it all works really well together.

[th0mas]

I use MIDI to sequence from my mpc1000 to a multitimbral setup on my micron. It's absolutely painless to use. The one thing I want to learn to do is to import midi snippets as patterns as I usually write my music on my computer then export to the mpc for the live version to play with my band.

[hageir]

I use MIDI to sequence from my mpc1000 to a multitimbral setup on my micron. It's absolutely painless to use. The one thing I want to learn to do is to import midi snippets as patterns as I usually write my music on my computer then export to the mpc for the live version to play with my band.

Biggi Veira in Gus Gus and I were talking about music+studio stuff, he told me that he writes the songs in logic and then dumps the midi file to his MPC 2000XL (for when they're playing live)

it's a pretty smart way of doing those things live, because they're so rockety-rock-rock-solid

it shouldn't be hard to find out how to do it, it's probably in the manual

[th0mas]

yeah I just haven't had time to fool around with techniques I don't already know, we're playing a show on monday! But I'm glad to hear that it's doable, that is very exciting.

I learnt something last night about mpc sequencing I thought I'd share. My current workflow is:

create one program for entire song
create loops for all beats needed in track
create song on mpc
export song as a pattern
save pattern and exported song in a 'rendered' directory
load all patterns and songs for the show

that way I can still load the sequences to modify the finished song afterwards, but at the same time my on-stage setup is very clean.

Anyways, I learnt that the 1000's song rendering function basically takes each pattern and just concatenates them all together. The problem arises if in one pattern, track 3 is drums, while in another pattern, you use your track 3 as MIDI out. The song will only do one or the other. So the fix is to dedicate tracks as either drums of a specific pattern or as midi of a specific out/track, and do not use the same track in the same song for 2 different patterns. Otherwise when you render them it will not come out correctly.

It's most likely in the manual, but I experienced it before reading it anywhere so I figure I'd give anyone who's planning on using that feature a heads up.

Cheers,
Tom

[garranimal]

OK I definitely need input on my process.

1) Create song in cubase w/ soft-sampler + hardware synths.
2) Export to file each midi part in a series of blocks which will eventually become sequences.
3) Export all samples as 16-bit, mono files (most club systems are mono) and this saves file space on that little flash card. This makes loading a folder much faster too.
4) On the MPC rebuild sequences using the midi files. I will also re-assign parts to the equipment which is feasible for me to take to the show.
5) Rebuild the programs using the sample files, assign pads to corresponding notes etc.
6) Pick and choose the parts I will play along live and mute those.

Going from my pc to MPC takes about 40+ hours worth of work (or about 2 weekends). I need a faster way to go from pc to MPC!!!

The thought had crossed my mind just to create the tracks in the MPC. But I'm a visual kind of person and need the GUI of pc/cubase to work through my song process.

[wiss]

Can you set any of the MIDI parts/tracks to send the messages out to control an external synth?

thanks

yes....I honestly feel its the best sequencer ever (on the mpc 60)

the mpc 60 can control up to 4 midi units at a time. if those until are mulit-timbral. you can get really deep with it

I have also used a Roland MC-50mkII as well and there are somethings that the MC-50 can do in real time that the MPC could not or I couldnt figure out live on the fly.

if you just want the sequencer off the MPC you can get an AKAI ASQ-10.

[tunedLow]

garranimal, have you looked at any mpc editors?


http://webpages.charter.net/dereese/gary/akai.html

I haven't tried this myself, but something like that might make the setup faster.

[ulfeide]

Can you set any of the MIDI parts/tracks to send the messages out to control an external synth?

thanks

yes....I honestly feel its the best sequencer ever (on the mpc 60)

the mpc 60 can control up to 4 midi units at a time. if those until are mulit-timbral. you can get really deep with it.

yes, the 4 midi outs seem lovely. and you can control much more than 4 units at a time as a midi output/input has 16 channels, which in theory means that if the gear you're controlling has midi-thrus you can link together and control 16 devices from one output.
although linking 16 devices toghether through one output apperently isn't prefferred due to the "midi data distortion" that occurs in long daisy chaining. having the 4 midi outs should really get rid of any of those problems.
the mpc 2500 has 4 midi outs aswell as ability for an HDD and built cf-card reader.

you probably already knew this, but i just came home from work and just wanted to write something

[garranimal]

garranimal, have you looked at any mpc editors?


http://webpages.charter.net/dereese/gary/akai.html

I haven't tried this myself, but something like that might make the setup faster.

Thanks! I am definitely going to download this and check it out for helping me rebuild my sample programs quickly.

I've also realized another way to do my step #2 can be: export each midi part for the whole song duration, AND THEN break the song into separate sequences.