Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By Joon Ra Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:15 pm
How hard would it be to implement this into the currest 4000 OS? I read that the MV8000 is capable of it. I was wondering if it would be possible for Akai to do it with their next OS update.
User avatar

By Rob Tue Sep 28, 2004 4:18 pm
Don't think the 4K hardware was designed for a DSP-intensive task like that. And even if it could handle the load, real-time time stretching is not something to implement overnight. It would take some serious design and coding work.

Hope I'm wrong, but my guess is that it will need a new MPC and a very new OS to get this feature.

Btw, I've never been a great fan of the audio quality of a time stretched piece, and certainly not of audio produced by a real-time timestretch (granular synthesis) engine. It all gets a bit too grainy for my taste. At least that's what I hear in my V-synth (which I love, btw), Live and other granular software packages. So it's great for a couple of tracks (slomo drums for instance), but certainly not all tracks. Imo, of course.

By wax111 Tue Sep 28, 2004 6:08 pm
yeah, I agree on the quality asessment...It can be cool effect (timestretch), but it is detrimental to the overall quality of the audio....I'd prefer some feature that maybe automatically tuned samples used in a given sequence up or down according to changing tempo....That way you could DSP timestretch them afterwards, or even better, apply a real time pitch effect to compensate....But I sure wouldn't mind real time timestretching, especially if it was available as a mod matrix destination.....yeah.
By infrared Tue Sep 28, 2004 9:30 pm
I been playin with Melodyne - the time streching algorithms are mind blowing...eg.. with the 'scrub' tool, you can literally stop dead half way through a note, and it will hold the pitch perfectly as if the note were being played like that!...Only good for solo instruments\samples though :/
WORD

By richard Tue Sep 28, 2004 11:49 pm
if the 4k could stretch like Sonic Foundry Acid I'd be very happy indeed- I think the algorhythms that app uses sound pretty great. and I would love to see this feature. I also like the acid way of working... imagine if you could audition a loop from the harddrive and automaically hear it in sync with the current sequence on the 4k... I doubt it will ever happen, that kind of feature must suck up a lot of dsp

Richard