1st post here... Will an MPC work for my application?

Hi all...

I haven't had a chance to look through everything here, so forgive me if my questions are common. I plan on doing a lot of research, provided that a MPC will fit my needs.

I've been struggling to deal with both software and hardware sequencers to control a hardware sampler. I'm thinking of selling what equipment I have and just going with an all-in-one unit. The MPC series keeps popping up in my research, so here I am.

Here's what I'm trying to accomplish:

1) Provide a click
2) Play back samples (effects and backing tracks) at the right time during a song
3) Have my entire set list(s) worth of "songs" saved on the unit
4) Be able to switch from one song to the next using electronic drum pads as big "buttons"

Numbers 1-3 are easy enough. There's a lot of devices or combos of devices that can do this. I'm a drummer, so I need the click track to keep in time with the tracks that the MPC would provide.

#4 is the biggie though. I'd like to be able to control this with a few drum pads. That would be a lot easier than trying to scroll with small buttons in the middle of the gig. It'd be a lot easier just to hit the "next track" pad a few times to get to the right song, then hit another pad to start the sequence playing.

Can a MPC unit be configured to change tracks (next/previous) and start/stop via MIDI?

3) Have my entire set list(s) worth of "songs" saved on the unit
4) Be able to switch from one song to the next using electronic drum pads as big "buttons"

these last two require some of the higher ram models.


other than that, yeah.


although for the price, I would do a roland SP404

The Grublet wrote:

3) Have my entire set list(s) worth of "songs" saved on the unit
4) Be able to switch from one song to the next using electronic drum pads as big "buttons"

these last two require some of the higher ram models.


other than that, yeah.


although for the price, I would do a roland SP404

Hmm... Not familiar with that Roland unit. I'll definitely research it, though. A quick Google search showed that it's cheap enough to be had for the money I could make by selling my SPD-S.

It's amazing how difficult this stuff is to learn about when you don't know which questions to ask!

Hey there,

I'm new on here myself (just got my first MPC and luvin it!!), but I found something interesting in the manual

http://www.mpcsounds.com/download_akai_mpc_manual.php

(page 43, I think) that might help with this one:

4) Be able to switch from one song to the next using electronic drum pads as big "buttons"

It looks like you can change sequences by hitting a pad on the MPC (so I guess you can midi up your own pads to trigger the MPc to do this), but not sure if you can do this with "songs". Maybe an expert can help with that. A work around could be just to have all the songs in your set list set up as a bunch of sequences strung together. Not sure if that'd work - I guess it depends on your set up and set list.

porly_71 wrote:Hey there,

I'm new on here myself (just got my first MPC and luvin it!!), but I found something interesting in the manual

http://www.mpcsounds.com/download_akai_mpc_manual.php

(page 43, I think) that might help with this one:

4) Be able to switch from one song to the next using electronic drum pads as big "buttons"

It looks like you can change sequences by hitting a pad on the MPC (so I guess you can midi up your own pads to trigger the MPc to do this), but not sure if you can do this with "songs". Maybe an expert can help with that. A work around could be just to have all the songs in your set list set up as a bunch of sequences strung together. Not sure if that'd work - I guess it depends on your set up and set list.

Which model of MPC did you get?? I just looked at the documentation for the 500. Looks like it'll only store 20 songs. I'd need more than that.

Which model of MPC did you get?? I just looked at the documentation for the 500. Looks like it'll only store 20 songs. I'd need more than that.

I was looking at the 500 for price and portability, but ended up saving up my cash and going with the 1000.
It looks the 20 song limitation is there with the 1000 too but I figured the higher number of notes and sequences available on JJOS for the 1000 was the best workaround for the loading up during a live performance problem.

Haven't put that to the test yet though.

porly_71 wrote:

Which model of MPC did you get?? I just looked at the documentation for the 500. Looks like it'll only store 20 songs. I'd need more than that.

I was looking at the 500 for price and portability, but ended up saving up my cash and going with the 1000.
It looks the 20 song limitation is there with the 1000 too but I figured the higher number of notes and sequences available on JJOS for the 1000 was the best workaround for the loading up during a live performance problem.

Haven't put that to the test yet though.

You can't just "switch" from song to song with the press of a button, you will need to load each song and it's relevant samples from the CF card. Depending on the size of your samples and whatnot dictates how fast you can load them up. Most are around 30 seconds or so. SO if your looking to just blast in to the next song immediately with no wait I don't think thats possible on these units.