Alfred K wrote:People, I am a 60s something guy, have been composing and making music since childhood. Bought my first serious synth, a Korg O1W, when Sweetwater was still in a garage. So I have seen, used, and learned a lot of gear. But I do not "Grok" the MPC Live II (or any MPC, for that matter) at all. Yes, I've seen many of the tutorials on line. Still don't get it.
It's me, not the machine. I think my mental block has something to do with loops, beat making, the logic of it all, the workflow...
Wondering if there is anyone out there who can help me, one-on-one, by phone or whatever, to get me over whatever mental block it is that I seem to have. I'm happy to pay whatever is reasonable.
As I am new to this forum, I'm not sure how replies will come to me, but I hope someone fluent, patient, and understanding can help out!
Thank you!
I can help, you can tip me via PM later if you want
But honestly, I recommend buying the MPC Live Bible and reading it, it will help you far better than I can. Or at least start watching some basic tutorials on AKAI video youtube channel.
First you need to understand that these devices are actually quite simple when used exactly how they were designed to be used. I think AKAI wanted to appeal to a larger audience, therefore the MPC became more complicated but in surface, if you stick to a certain workflow, it should be a breeze.
About semantics: a loop of course is either an audio snippet that repeats itself continuously, or a sequence of notes that repeat themselves. So a drum loop is just a loop of drum recording. "beat making" doesn't mean much, it's just composing a track or song on a MPC.
First you need to decide how you really want to use the MPC. As a drum machine? As your main sequencer? as an expander and just play synths live on the keyboard?
If you want the MPC to be "the central piece" of your set up, then there is basically 2 different workflow:
The SEQUENCER:
1/ creating chunks of songs with sequences ( for instance sequence 1 is verse, sequence 2 is the chorus). Then chaining these sequences via the SONG mode, when you can decide to chain sequence 1 then sequence 2 then sequence 1 and 2 again to form a song.
2/ a single sequence can have up to 999 bars I believe. So you can just create an entire song with a single sequence.
when working with sequences, remember that:
Each track in a sequence can have a different length ( it will then loop back on that length if the track length is inferior to the sequence length).
Each track can be muted and unmuted and muted stated can be automated during playback.
You can also loop through a segment of a track ( for instance from bar 5 to bar 9) in order to work that very specific area and place markers (up to 6) to quickly jump from one location to another.
PROGRAMS:
the MPC Live plays sound, the sound comes from programs, there are different kind of programs, drum programs, key groups, clip programs plugins ...
Drum programs are where you lay out a drum kit, each pad has a different sample associated with it, it can be a kickdrum a snare, but also a bass note. You can play a bassline with a mode called "16 level" where each pad will then represent a different note.
Recording is easy you press record, you can erase your mistakes by pressing erase and a pad at the same time, or correct timing errors with the time correct function...
AUDIO Tracks: you can record external audio from external synths like a tape recorder via audio tracks, it will just record the incoming audio and will play your sequence along.
When you're done creating your first sequence or sequence chain via song mode, just "bounce" the sequence to create an audio file you can then listen on your phone or anywhere else.
