1 sequence per song for live performance

I'm pretty new to my MPC LIve 2. I want to use it for live performance (techno) and have a few ideas in mind and a few questions. The approach I want to use is to have each sequence be a 'song' using track mutes to build arrangements on the fly. My questions are with regards to smooth transitions between each sequence/song. Basically I don't know how to do it! Is anybody using a similar approach? Is it possible to edit the track mute status of a sequences while another sequence is playing?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I should probably add, my approach was inspired by a Mr G Boiler room set I discovered recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HffibenJl8

The MPC doesn't carry track mutes over between sequences... so you'd have to have your mutes set as part of your set as you wanted before you transition over...

Another approach I have taken is having multiple tracks for different songs spread across all of the 128 tracks, that way you can mix between songs, while staying within a single sequence.

Thanks for clarifying re. track mutes.

So in your single sequence with multiple songs approach, are you then using the pad mutes for arranging on the fly? How do you avoid making the mistake of unmuting 2 incompatible tracks by mistake (such as kickdrum tracks)? This method sounds similar to Ableton/Force to me. I think it would require a lot of well thought out organization!

To avoid the mistake... don't make it lol... to help myself out, I usually set TC On with a 1/4 note quantization for track mutes... it's not been too bad of a problem for me. YMMV though.

Yeah... I came from Ableton... so have kind of applied a similar philosophy on the MPC Live I guess.

Certainly it requires being well thought out and organizing/labelling, all that good fun, but I also find it helps to create a stronger more repeatable approach for me at least.

I think this is where the FORCE comes in handy, ESPECIALLY if you are coming from ableton.
I only used ableton for 1year before I got the MPC LIVE so I never got hooked into that workflow. That being said, the scene/clip construct is clearly the way to do it.

NearTao wrote:To avoid the mistake... don't make it lol... to help myself out, I usually set TC On with a 1/4 note quantization for track mutes... it's not been too bad of a problem for me. YMMV though.

Yeah... I came from Ableton... so have kind of applied a similar philosophy on the MPC Live I guess.

Certainly it requires being well thought out and organizing/labelling, all that good fun, but I also find it helps to create a stronger more repeatable approach for me at least.

I wonder if there is a way of mimicking the clip view approach of ableton/Force by having conditions that certain tracks can only play when others aren’t? Like if track 1 is playing tracks 3,4 and 5 must be muted.

You want the Force, not the MPC Live, because the sequencer of the Live is not going to do what you want as of now. That's a simple reality. You want Ableton Live like session behavior? Get the Force, the Live doesn't have that for MIDI or Drum programs tracks. It might change in the future but right now it is what it is.

ace_of_dub wrote:You want the Force, not the MPC Live, because the sequencer of the Live is not going to do what you want as of now. That's a simple reality. You want Ableton Live like session behavior? Get the Force, the Live doesn't have that for MIDI or Drum programs tracks. It might change in the future but right now it is what it is.

Agreed... sounds like you would enjoy the Force better. I came to this same realization after I had my MPC Live for about two years already. Once the 3.1 firmware dropped for Force, I was like... ah... this was the machine I really needed.

I still have a lot of love for my MPC but that sequence-based workflow just isn't for me.