MPC with Live Band Questions

Hey everyone..Im really new to this so please forgive me ahead
Im in a live hip hop band...(drummer, bass, guitar, singer/emcee)

we want to figure a way to use the keys/horns/samples pre-recorded from our albums to play at live shows...it would be more than a loop but basically the tracked out instrument of the song

can this be done with MPC..?

if so which one would be best for live shows
and our drummer would be the one using it...

im not sure i understand fully what you are asking?

your in a live band, so do you just program the drum sequences and horns and such while you have a bassist and lead guitarist play over them?

if thats the case, it sounds very simmilar to something i have done once with a group i was in. i may be able to help. lemme know more though.
1
jroc

i've seen bands that play live with sequenced material and the drummer wears headphones to lock in with a click.

the other option would be to get some trigger pads or something so he can play the samples live - that could get a little hard for him though.

or have someone else tappin those pads onstage

"im not sure i understand fully what you are asking?

your in a live band, so do you just program the drum sequences and horns and such while you have a bassist and lead guitarist play over them?

if thats the case, it sounds very simmilar to something i have done once with a group i was in. i may be able to help. lemme know more though.
1
jroc"

thanks for the question....anways...
im thinking more of pre-programming keys/horns (full songs pre-composed with breaks and hook parts already..really an intrumental)....we have a drummer/bass/guitar player....
the drummer would hit the button and the song would start in his headphones and be amplified out to the audience......

does that work with mpc? can i pre load hip hop instrumental tracks to play when i hit a button....


thanks

you want the drummer to play the horn stabs etc sampled from your album, right? mpc will do that. you can easily get all your samples onto the mpc and access lots of them quickly.
the drummer can then play the samples using the pads on the mpc, or a midi device -- like midi trigger drums or a footswitch.

try the 1000. the 500 is cheaper, just check it has the functionality you want.

the real question is why wouldn't an MPC be able to do this?

anything than can sample & sequence will allow you to... well... sample and sequence... right? what exactly is it that you're doubting as far as the gear's capability to sequence some samples?

cambio wrote:"
thanks for the question....anways...
im thinking more of pre-programming keys/horns (full songs pre-composed with breaks and hook parts already..really an intrumental)....we have a drummer/bass/guitar player....
the drummer would hit the button and the song would start in his headphones and be amplified out to the audience......

does that work with mpc? can i pre load hip hop instrumental tracks to play when i hit a button....


thanks

you should be able to do this just fine. i dont see why you wouldnt be able to.

Possibel - yes, but there are easier ways to get a half-playback on stage.

One simple way would be, to record your playbacks to mp3/minidisc-player (playback left chanel) and a click track (right chanel).
So your drummer is able to play 1:1 to the Playback, plus easy to handel and to transport.

A minus would be, that you have your playback running mono... which is just a problem if you have important stereo fx, panning...

In that case use gear with more outputs -> for example laptop+multitrack software+soundcard with more than 2 output chanels...

btw: is your drummer used to play to click?

The trick is finding a drummer good enough to play with a click track and able to compensate when he falls off the beat. Don't try this without plenty of rehersal with the drummer. I've known some pretty good drummers who really struggled in the studio with a click. Another possible downside is that once you go to using sequences live, you eliminate a lot of the safety nets most live bands are afforded. Without a sequencer, if the singer fails to come in on time he can just wait for the band to play back around to the into and off you go. Same as if he wants to add some extra stuff (I believe you catz call it freestyle these days - It was called scat back when I was growing up ). Ditto for extending a song because people are on the dance floor or the guitarist decides to take an extra 8 bars on the solo. none of that is possible locked to a sequence. You will also need to build "live-set" versions of your tunes. Most radio ready cuts at 2:30 - 4:30 minutes long are just not long enough for live work.....

I'm currently working on a project that's using both coreographied dance, and multimedia film / Powerpoint type stuff with the music. (It's a world/Jazz kinda thing) We started out trying to use an MPC with mixed results. In the end, I think we'll have all material we can't pull of live built into a powerpoint presentation, and take the audio feed from the computer. One thing for certian is that the 5:00 minute CD version of a tune is not anything like the final arrangement for the live tour. I have had to do massive amounts of tweaking sequences to fit our live presentation and it's still going on - months longer than I thought it would take.

Hey guys, I joined ages ago but this is my first post!

So a hello from Scotland! =)

Well Cambio I dunno if it would help, but the band Late of the Pier have a live MPC player, he used to use 2 500's, but i think he uses 2 1000's now.

He usually plays the songs main melodies or random effects/glitches etc. The way he does this is by mapping single (or maybe a few) notes from the melody onto different pads, which means he can compensate for bad timing, extended sections etc.

Here's a Youtube clip of them, where you can see it action a little bit. Unfortunately there was a video I seen months ago that was much better, but I think the old Copyright Law got it lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkPmKsBx-3I

It means you would need someone to program and play the MPC, unless you were willing to do it yourself

It also means that you would be able to dodge/sidestep the sometimes disastrous secnario of the Drummer using a click. This is obvsiously a good way to play seqeunces, but as fader-pro said, it doesnt allow mistakes taking away your safety net.

Also if the Samples are mapped in a single pad/note manner, then you can improv like mad

Hope this helped =)

Full tracked out versions of a song are going to eat up the limited MPC RAM pretty quickly and jumping around the said tracks is also not so great if you want to maintain a degree of flexibility while playing live. At the risk of sounding heretical, the best solution would be some kind of controller (drum pads if it's for a drummer) and a laptop running Abelton Live.

thanks for all the responses....
i will take it into consideration....


one love

I realize this hasn't been opened in a while, but i figured I'd suggest it anyway. You're best bet is, if you have an MPC 1000, is get JJOS - assign the click to one of you're outputs and send that to the drummer. Sequence every single one of you're songs out to the bar - then, if possible, you can midi up a sound module and use the mpc as a sequencer for that module. On top of this, you can still run whatever samples you might need. Midi doens't take up half the memory that samples do, and you can have every single sequence perfectly in time.

Tros