Help with MPC 2000XL Basics

I apologise for this as it is just basics that I am asking. I see that there are so many great experienced and helpful memebers here so I very much appreciate your time.

Needing answers to the following.

Firstly this is what I am doing:

Loading in Drum Sounds.

Then I make a drum loop (8 bars) in the sequencer window with Kick on track 1, Snr on track 2 etc.

MPC is synced to pro tools were my basslines, keys and all the rest is.

I press play on ProTools and my MPC plays the drums in sync.

With this 8 bar loop I have created I want to know if the following is possible:

"Can I program the MPC say to mute the Kick for bars 2 and 3? Basically what I am saying is can i program / record midi mutes etc"

(I was thinking i could just press a few buttons on the MPC to do this and if later I wanted it un muted it would be easy.)

"Can i adjust the velocity of the Snare over 1 bar. For eg. I have 16 snare hits in bar 4 and want the velocity to rise (increase) during that bar.?"

(So far the only way I have been able to do it is by editing each Snare note (hit)

Many thanks for any assistance on this..

Many thanks for the reply.

My questions above have been answered but now I want to ask another.

Scenario is:

Copy the 8 bar sequence from my mpc into pro tools, make the midi velocity and midi mute changes in the pro tools midi sequencer then copy this back to mpc.

Will the mpc now read my pro tools adjusted sequence and play back those adjustments?