Playing the MPC with a band

Hi there,

Just a thought, but does anyone else use their MPC as an 'instrument' in a band setup? The bassist for my wife's group (Amy Blue) has dropped out and I'm wondering about the logistics of playing the bass notes live on the MPC rather than a bass guitar.

Does anyone do anything similar to this? If so, are there any tips/tricks to help me on my way?!

Cheerio
Hombre

it's definitely possible

create some bass programs where the pads are in chromatic order of a scale based on the key you are going to be playing in, that way you won't have to worry about switching pad banks all the time just to avoid hitting the wrong notes

you can program pad bank A for instance to be the major scale in the key of E

Not trying to question your way of making music or anything but why not just pick up a bass?Get a feel of the instrument and learn how to play it.Kinda defeats the purpose of having a band in my opinion but i really don't know what kind of music you want to play?But what your thinking of is possible.If you want to use your MPC in a band i reccomend sampling a live bass guitar because i'm guessing your trying to emulate a real bassist sound.You will need a stereo Y adapter ,one female two male 1/4" cable to record the bass into the mpc or else you would only get one side of sound that would then have to be converted to mono.You can get one at radio shack for like $5.00.If you do sample live bass remember to take really long samples of each note(s).As far as sampling any other sort of bass from a record or mp3, make sure you find the right sort of bass sound.Plus a good thing about the mpc is that you pretty much have all the effects you need already built in!Hope that helped

^^^ But the bass guitar is a mono signal, so you would record it in mono. Whats the need for a y-cable?

M02 wrote:^^^ But the bass guitar is a mono signal, so you would record it in mono. Whats the need for a y-cable?

no need - having the sample in stereo would be a waste of space

i guess if you'd want to you could play the mpc as a bass. but since it might look kinda rediculous you better rock the f*ck out so as not to raise suspicion

I guess you right, i forgot a bass guitar's signal was mono.I know when i used to record my friends bass guitar i would have to choose left or right as the input on my mpc.Thats why i got the Y adpater to record in stereo.It just doesn't sound the same when you convert it to mono.

djhombre wrote:Hi there,

Just a thought, but does anyone else use their MPC as an 'instrument' in a band setup? The bassist for my wife's group (Amy Blue) has dropped out and I'm wondering about the logistics of playing the bass notes live on the MPC rather than a bass guitar.

Does anyone do anything similar to this? If so, are there any tips/tricks to help me on my way?!

Cheerio
Hombre

I use the mpc on stage with my band. We're 8 guys and
play a mixture of Hip Hop, Funk & Dub.

my setup is the mpc, a kaos pad for fx and
a little midi keyboard hooked up to the mpc for keyboard-playing.

I've got some chromatic programs with looping waveforms for
synth sounds (my ms2000r was stolen)
dubby samples, some vocal shouts, some breaks programs for adding a "double drums" feeling to some songs. but mainly for electronic sounds that
complement the acoustic parts in the band.

we also got some songs based on a loop in the mpc, and i do live
track muting n stuff. our drummer got the beat on his headphones
and plays along.

its great fun and a complete different approach to making music,
than just sitting alone in your room, in front of the mpc.

I'd say: Go for it. but you'll need some good Bass Programs and
samples.

i used my mpc1000 yesterday to perform my homework which was to perform something on a instrument .. i flipped a old MJ Sample .. improvised and got a A