Using a footswitch to trigger samples live...

An idle question from me whilst I'm away from my MPC4000 and can't check the answer!

Our guitarist has asked me if we could connect a footswitch to my MPC4000 so he can press it to trigger a sample live when we're playing gigs.

My answer was "yeah, I think so..." -
but how exactly would that work?

In GLOBAL mode > FOOTSWITCH page, I can set either footswitch to "PAD1" to "PAD16", that's easy.

However how do I make sure which sample is gonna trigger when he presses the footswitch?

When the footswitch is mapped to a pad, it behaves just like you pressed the pad.
So going to MIDI mode, you get that screen where there's arrows to show where the MIDI signal from the Pads and the hardware IN-I and IN-II sockets get routed.

The Pads can either route to the sequencer, or direct to the Z-engine sampler's INT-A input.

If Pads route via the sequencer, the pressing a pad will send a MIDI note to the Part > Program set in the track on the sequence currently showing in MAIN (or, that was showing in MAIN the last time MAIN was displayed)

E.g. if the last sequence displayed in MAIN was Sequence 27, with track 3 showing, and track 3 is outputting to the current Multi's Part 3 (containing Program 12- Tasty Drums) then I will get a note of Tasty Drums with the footswitch is pressed.

But that's not very reliable because, live on stage, I will usually be in SONG mode, not Main mode, and who knows what track > Part it will be thinking of.

However, if I route the Footswitch (ie. Pads) direct to MIDI INT-A,
how to I determine what MIDI channel the pads are sending on?
And when I've done that, any Part listening on that MIDI channel will respond, will it?

feline1 wrote:
However, if I route the Footswitch (ie. Pads) direct to MIDI INT-A,
how to I determine what MIDI channel the pads are sending on?
And when I've done that, any Part listening on that MIDI channel will respond, will it?

I've always used the Footswitch to trigger samples via the first method that you indicated, where
it will play what ever is on the "Main" window.

But I changed the "Pads" routing to go to Sampler rather then Sequencer and was able to get this to work.

What you have to do, is go to "Pad Assign" button and in the upper right hand corner, you can determine
what Midi Channel the Pad transmits on. So I set this to Midi Channel 2, which was the channel that my
909 Program was on, and I could now trigger the BassDrum, by assigning the footswitch to the appropriate
pad. I believe that "Pad Assign" might be saved in the "Multi".... but you'll have to experiment to verify.

Too bad NO other MPC uses a "Multi", so I don't think you could do what you are describing on any other MPC but
the 4000...

Let us know if you are able to verify that the Multi saves the "Pad Assign" settings.


Cheers,
Dave

Aha!
Thanks yes that sounds like it'll work.

I'll need to have the Pads routed to > INT-A as I'll be running all by own stuff off Song mode.

But if the Multis can save the pads' send channel that their output should still reach the right Part....
I just need to make sure that the Part covering the footswitch is receiving on Pads' send channel and no other Parts are on that one...
But that shouldn't be a problem - with 16 channels there's enough to go round.

(I mean, if I had a REALLY busy multi, some Parts much all be listening on the same channel, but I don't have more than half a dozen on the go in any one song)

another idea:
why not using a footcontroller with midi like f.e. the behringer 1010 where u can assign individual notes...

http://www.musik-service.de/behringer-f ... 801de.aspx

Ya mon - I'm tinkin you get one of those MIDI foot pedals like a keyboard player uses to pump bass with his feet - Then your guitarist can really be helpful...

dreadnutz wrote:another idea:
why not using a footcontroller with midi like f.e. the behringer 1010 where u can assign individual notes...

http://www.musik-service.de/behringer-f ... 801de.aspx

cos I don't have one and we are skint!

A single footswitch for a tambourine sample is all we need right now

cos I don't have one and we are skint!

like most of musicians....

off topic: i was in brighton last month, great place, really! have also seen your local music store with the mpc5k

cheers to brighton!

The Guitar and Amp Centre (GAK)? Yeah I got my MPC4000 in there in 2002.....

Brighton is very cosmopolitan

Reading the manuals, I cannot find any mention of where the "Global Pad Assign" thing is stored -
it is not mentioned in the lists in the OS 1.50 update.

However my best guess is that it is a global setting, stored in SRAM.

Another thing appears to be undocumented -
in the Pad Assign chapter of the reference manual,
it explains that what you get on the Pad Assign page depends on what type of program is present in the Track that currently has the focus in MAIN mode:
if it's outputting to a drum program, you can assign pads to specific drum samples.
if it's outputting to a keygroup program, or a hardware MIDI output (A to D), then you get to chose "Chromatic" or "Default".

However, it does not say what happens if you go to MIDI mode and route the pads directly to the Sampler INT-A input (which is what I wanna do).

From trying it, it seems to behave like you were talking to a keygroup program.
so there you go.