step edit

Okay... first off I'll tell you I did read the manual on this. Maybe theres something I'm comprehending wrong, or maybe I'm missing something. But the problem I'm having is that I lay a few tracks, drum, keyboard, n ish... I go to step edit and theres sometimes nothing displayed there, until I actually hit a pad or key. I thought everything that happens in the song already is supposed to be listed there so you can play around with it and tweak it how you want.

Say for example I just played a tune on the keyboard (it does playback on the MPC and MIDI is all good) but i feel like I wanna change one of the C's to a C# or whatever. Isnt the step edit screen where I go to make this change?? Or I wanna change one snare hit to a different snare. But the step edit screen doesnt display any events. What am I missing here?

Thanks in advance for any help

make sure you are in teh corresponding track that you want to edit. so if you wanna edit the snare and it is on track 2, be on track 2 in teh main sequencer screen and then go to step edit. should be there. if not, check the quant, if it is set to off you will have to scroll through the pqn's to find your note, or if you recorded in 1/32 and are now in 1/16, the next key will skip every other 32nd note, so switch back to 1/16.
hope that helps

Once you're in edit, you have to use the LOCATE <STEP> buttons to scroll through "time" (bars and beats) and you will start to see the notes. The display shows all notes that are present at any given point in time (according to the NOW time - in the upper right hand corner)

If you used quantize, the step buttons will work (it'll move though time by 16th notes - if that's what your quantize is set at)
...if you didn't use quantize, move cursor to the upper right hand corner where the "now time" marker is and scroll using the data wheel (it'll scroll by 96 ticks per quarter note.)
As you scroll through time you will actually hear your track playing in slow motion, then you will start to see your notes. Then you can move down and highlight them, delete them or whatever.

Don't hit the pads while you're in step edit, unless you want to add notes. That's why you saw notes when you hit the pads. For example, if you want to add a snare hit on Bar 3 Beat 2, then scroll through time until the NOW time says 003:02:00 .......and then press the pad that the snare sample is on, and boom, you'll see the snare note appear in the display.

Don't feel bad, I had to read the step section in the manual over and over and over until I figured out how it's set up (and I still don't understand every aspect of it.)
I suggest NOT testing this out on an important track you're working on.
Just make a simple throw-away beat and then mess with the step edit and see how it works.
Good luck to us all.

Thanks guys, you both helped alot. I got on the MPC to try it out.. and it was kinda like one of those riddles that when someone tells you the answer, you wanna slap yourself like "ahhh i shoulda known!" haha.. thanks again

"if you didn't use quantize, move cursor to the upper right hand corner where the "now time" marker is and scroll using the data wheel (it'll scroll by 96 ticks per quarter note.) "

Whoa. It is much easier to hold the GO TO button and press the step < > buttons to jump to the next event. It's in the manual.

That way you do not `have` to use the quantize feature since quantizing will record the notes different than you entered them.

mpc3000 wrote:"
Whoa. It is much easier to hold the GO TO button and press the step < > buttons to jump to the next event. It's in the manual.

Nice one MPC3000, that will definately make my life easier....like I said, I'm still trying to grasp every aspect of the step edit.
Any other good little tips?