Lots of q's re: using MPC as a sequencer...pls help!

Hi

I'm very new on here so be gentle with me ) This is a bit of a long question, but getting an mpc is one of my options and I'd really appreciate any input.

My current setup has a tr909 as the centrepiece and midi clock master. A pc running Ableton Live syncs to the 909, and then sends midi out to various external synths & an Emu Ultra sampler. As nothing in life ever seems too easy, I have two main problems a) the biggest problem - Live doesn't sync to clock all that well. The actual sync is ok, but it doesn't follow the midi song position pointers the 909 sends, making sequencing a track a total pain as you need to start from measure 1 each time - and, b) the Ultra is dying.

So, I'm looking for a solution. My options are getting an mpc 2000xl, or going real old school an getting an atari st & akai sampler (which is probably the cheapest option). What I need is a sequencer that can sync to midi clock (I know the mpc can do that) and then send midi out to different synths, whilst following song position pointers.

I appreciate this might not be the way most peeps use their mpc, and it's drawing more on the hardware sequencer side of the machine rather than the sampling functions, but can anyone with any experience of doing this or similar let me know if it's not only reliable at doing this, but good? I'm fed up with buggy stuff, I just want something that works as it should

Also, I think you can use two midi inputs on the mpc which would be great. But can you, for instance, just have tracks of only midi control information? Say I tweak out a hardware synth for 8 minutes, if I record those tweaks as midi into the mpc is it easy to edit that data, copy & paste etc? And how does the mpc handle creating chords and stuff?

Thanks for any and all help…much appreciated

TR Hed

hey bro,

for starters - why slave to the 909? try using ableton as master and i think
you'll find a lot of your problems will sneak off, tails tween legs...

i don't know anything about the 2000XL, but on my 1000 i use tracks with
just CC info frequently. it is fairly easy to edit, especially with the JJ OS
which has an added grid edit screen for basically all parameters.

i'm not too sure about the XL's display - editing midi data in a purely numerical
format, whilst possible, is laborious and quite tricky. a graphical representation
hastens productivity... IMO

but i'd say before you go buying anything, try re-routing your workflow...


in my experience though, MPC's would be able to handle these kinds of tasks
easily... the newer ones (1000, 2500) may be a bit easier, and probably
a little more familiar to you if you use computer based matrix style
sequencing.


dunno if this helps...

Thanks for your post and yeh it was some help…it's good to know that the mpc can handle cc data

The 909 has to be clock master because it behaves really badly when it's a slave….something to do with the earlier eprom chips and getting it fixed by putting a later eprom version in there would be expensive and difficult. But as a master it's rock solid, all the other hardware (tb303 etc) syncs in perfectly.

I just need this solution…a linear sequencer that can listen and sync to clock, and also output polyphonic midi data across multiple channels to other synths in my setup. An Atari ST would do this, but as I mentioned before I really need total stability when doing this…fed up with hanging, dropouts, dodgy sync etc

So if anyone else uses their mpc like this, or has any other ideas…pls let me know

Thanks