Scale in Program Mode

Im getting into really learning my various scales and keys, I just noticed this feature on the mpc, and I can visually see what it does when I change the scale, but what is is doing when I change the key is it moving just those keys to the white keys?

Any help here would be greatly appreciated, as Im sure Im not the only one lost trying to figure out how to put this feature to use

Also can this be used to program in my Major and minor scales?

wow guess i need to find sean

Hey Slim, I think the answer to this is:

And I'm assuming you mean the 'transp" button in the main screen -

Say you've played a tune on a midi keyboard into the MPC. Your tune is in the key of C. All the notes in the Key of C are white keys.

Your singer comes in and says I love this beat baby but you need to drop this key down into my range...

So you enable the transposition key, and you can move down (or up) in increments from C to B to Bb to A to Ab etc to find the key that fits the singers voice.

If you settle on say Ab as the right key...well, you've just added 4 flats to the key signature.

Now anything else going on meoldicaly in the tune needs to relate to this new key. If you had samples that were pitched in "C"...you're gonna need to mess with those to get thim into the new key.

Make sense?? Or am I missing your point?

Bop

BeBop wrote:Hey Slim, I think the answer to this is:

And I'm assuming you mean the 'transp" button in the main screen -


Bop

Nope, that's the way to transpose up or down, but what he's looking at is a way to
change the Tuning Scale of the instrument itself, so in how it responds in realtime
to let's say a Piano Player, rather then later on via the Transpose feature.


Also, Transpose does NOT give you the ability to change the actual Scale of the instrument.

For example, the SITAR of India does not have the same Scale as what the Western
Mind has proposed via the C,D,E,F,G,A,B Keyboard with black and white keys.
That is ONE scale that has been proposed. It's the one that you know as it's crammed
down our throats in our Music classes when we are in school.


As stated from one of the links below:

"The mathematics of positioning (tempering) 12 scale notes in an octave prevents any more than a handful of perfectly harmonious chords for any one tuning of those notes (temperament). We have limited options:"




Here's some various links discussing diffferent Tuning and Temperament Scales:

Some of them are for other programs, but you can get the same idea of what you need
to do in the MPC:

HISTORY OF TUNING AND TEMPERAMENT
http://www.terryblackburn.us/music/temp ... stoess.htm

What are temperaments and why should I care?
http://www.petersontuners.com/support/f ... his_faq=14


The MIRAGE Multi-TEMPERAMENT Disk
http://www.webcom.com/jawknee/Mirage/UP ... pdocs.html

Iceberg-Slim wrote:Im getting into really learning my various scales and keys, I just noticed this feature on the mpc, and I can visually see what it does when I change the scale, but what is is doing when I change the key is it moving just those keys to the white keys?

Any help here would be greatly appreciated, as Im sure Im not the only one lost trying to figure out how to put this feature to use

Also can this be used to program in my Major and minor scales?

Hi Ice,
I haven't gotten to spend too much time playing around with the Scal e function,
but will see if I can detail for you what it actually is and does.
For those who don't know where it is (Ice I know you do, but other in this thread didn't),
You can get to it by Selecting "Program" and then "Misc" (softkey) and you will
see the 4th Block down is "Scale".

It is used to "Tune" the instrument that you are playing. So I don't believe that
you will physically see anything different in your sequences, they will look the same,
it is how the "Instrument" or "Program" reacts to the notes that it's getting.

NOW, I"ll be the first to say that this feature is SEVERELY under documented,
but I"m assuming that they didn't want to write a book on the topic of Temperament and
Tuning, but they could have offerred more SCALE options

The P3 that I"m building right now has (and it's only a step sequencer) has 23 preset
patterns (including Blues, Chines, and Raga) and 9 User patterns. MUCH more flexible then the almight powerful MPC 4000. Imagine playing on your keyboard and everything
comes out in a Blues Scale. Though I will admin that the P3 does it's FTS or "Scale"
on the sequence itself, rather then on the instrument level. But the programming
is essentially the same, and the feature is very nice...so why not expand it more.



What is actually does when you "Program" in the White and Black keys that show
up after you select "Window" when in the Scale Block, is essentially quantize the
notes that are coming in (not Timing Quantization like the TC of the MPC), into
the Scale that you select or Program in.

So for example you can make it so that only the D,D#,E,E#,G,G#,A,A# keys
are played, so that no matter what keys you press on the Keyboard, you will
NEVER hear C, C#, F,F#,B,B# for this program.

So one cool thing about this, is that if you are playing live, you will never hit a "bum" note.
As the actual notes/keys that you are playing on your keyboard, are then quantized or
forced to scale, so that it will only play what has been programmed in. Great for improv
situations.


Hope this helps you start to explore this NICE feature, as I as well am in the process
of utilizing it more. I'll post more to this thread and to the Newbie Bible when I get
more specific examples of uses. Or if I'm able to transfer the Blues Scale to the
MPC , might be a good thread to start, all the different Tuning Scales that one
can program in, and how to actually program it into the MPC.

Cheers,

Dave

Thank you for that renegadebliss, that really helped alot

now I guess the only other part is what the KEY parameter does on the side under that menu

I'm going to read those links now

Thanks for posting as well Bebop

whoa- I was way off , and had no idea the 4K had this function. This is something John Cage would totally exploit on this machine..


OK Ice, waiting to hear some micro-tonal blues from you

I'm checking this feature out, thanks Bliss for the tip

Bop

Thanks guys that`s what I`m talking about tips not compliants !!!!!

is this doing monophonic midi pitching i.e pitchbending midi?


thanks

(or is this microtonal stuff at all)