tempo weirdness 1k-4k

(also posted in MPC4k forum as it applies to both)

I've a bunch of songs on the 4k, and i have a drummer who plays along to a click (until recently click was routed to one of the 8 outputs on the analog 8 outs card).

I also have the 1k and recently decided to transfer to that for live shows (portability being a main consideration).

As the 1k and the 4k aren't really compatible (AKP vs PGM), I've printed full songs as samples in the 4k via the sample main outs option, using an internal MIDI note as a trigger for the sampler to avoid any threshold-related time delays.

The result is stereo samples averaging 5 minutes in length.

When i import the samples into the 1k and set them to play in a sequence with matching tempo to the songs in the 4k, the click eventually drifts out of time slightly, and sometimes then seems to drift slightly back into time. There are NO internal tempo variations in the original songs, they are all constant tempo from start to finish. WTF?

Is this the legendary 'feel' of the MPC? Micro-variations in tempo-clocking? Anyone any suggestions for how to overcome this problem? Preferably by 3pm tomorrow afternoon. We're talking small enough drifts but rendering the tracks useless for playing along to via a click which should be exactly in time with them... I'd really rather not have to cut the tracks down into sections and resample them, or chop them on the computer into their sections (actually, now that i think of it, the songs seem to drift off grid over time in a DAW with matched tempo too).

For what it's worth, 4k is set to play at sequence rather than master tempo: but seeing as the sequences don't change (in fact, the songs are all one long sequence) surely this can't make a difference - that said, it's the only thing i haven't tried. And there aren't any decimal considerations - both MPCs only go to one decimal place.

Advice please

are you trying to play the click while you are playing live?


why don't you midi slave both machines to your daw and print tracks that way?


or



slave the 4000 to the 1000 clock at the same bpm on both... and record the wav into your DAW. that way the 1000 is setting the play speed


then, take the 16bit wav you recorded, load it back into the 1000 and get the front of the song trimmed correctly. in theory, since the clock was originally generated by the 1000, you should stay on time with the click of the 1000.


tedious, but in theory, it should work.

sparky wrote:(also posted in MPC4k forum as it applies to both)

That's not how it works.

If your issue applies only to a specific MPC model, post in the forum specific to it.

If your issue is more generic (applies to more than one MPC model), post in the 'Studio Environments' forum.

Don't double-post , the mods will lock both your threads next time.

for anyone who wants to do this, solution is (after much hair-pulling) to slave the 4k to the 1k and use the audio track function to record into the 1k. Rock solid. Wanted to use the 4k's internal recording facility but there you go, not noticing any major signal degradation...

Thanks to Metaphonetic for trying to help.

doh!



(forgot about audio tracks)

good work.