Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By Fleshhologram Tue May 05, 2020 1:42 pm
Hey, had my 4K about a month now and still struggling pretty bad. This is the first mpc I’ve had and the learning curve is proving to be a little rough. I’m trying to sample loops off a loop station to the 4K and program drums. I’ve got drum samples and loops sampled but getting them both on a track is throwing me for a loop. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, after I’ve got my drum samples on the mpc they’re always pitched much lower. Positive this is an easy fix but keep going back to the manual and not getting it.
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By Lampdog Wed May 06, 2020 4:41 pm
Pitched lower, drums samples come from computer?
Sample rate problem maybe. Check the sample rate. Check the manual for sample rate specs info.

Looping, is a trial and error thing, Diff loops need different attention so you’d have to experiment.
I’d record simple drums first, no loop. Afterward I’d get the loop to play along in timing with the drums, THEN remove the drums if you like. That way the loop is in time with the 4k timing just as the drums were. You can continue to build after that.
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By NearTao Wed May 06, 2020 5:58 pm
+1 to what Lamp said...

A key thing to remember is that looping is as much an art as it is science... what is technically correct may sound like garbage... while what is janky can sometimes create some of the most dope beats. Use your ear, it will tell you what works and what does not.

The most important thing is to practice... a lot of folks come here asking questions looking for quick answers... and usually there aren't any quick solutions to provide. It takes some time to learn, and it sounds like you're trying. Just keep at it, and if things feel tough try a different approach.
By Methlab Tue Feb 09, 2021 4:59 pm
Appreciate this thread as I have a 4000 coming. Got the s4s tutorial as well, love that he is still going strong, that guy is a hip hop staple.

I make house music mainly and have a good amount of hardware. Was interested in how you experienced guys would route some of this stuff. I have my ideas as well, but I thought I’d get some takes. I’m especially interested in how you all sample your synths and modular gear outside of the more straightforward pad or 1 shot stab. It seems like the 4k could be a beast for feeding, say 8 bars of modular into and then chopping/modmatrix.

Anyway, my gear - Tr8S/Machinedrum and RZ1 for drums. Small Modular synth with Pams/Maths/BIA/Filter in it. Moog DFAM, Deepmind12. Triton rack and a Blofeld. I record into Ableton and use an E-RM for clocking.

Thinking the E-rm into the MPC and then the MPC sequencing the Modular, Triton and deepmind could be pretty sick. I could either sample them into the MPC or play them in sync with it. The drum machines I think I will program as compliments to the MPC or sample in as well. I saw a yt deep house vid where the guy used his Tr8 for the hats alongside his MPC1000 and it sounded good.

I’ve currently got 16 inputs to play with so I’ll have to do a little juggling to see what works best.

Anyway, just putting this out there as I think about the setup, if you all see something obvious that I am missing, please feel free to chime in.
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By Sense-A Wed Feb 10, 2021 3:03 pm
If I were you I'd spend a whole weekend sampling everything I like out of the RZ1 and then sell it.

There's a software version of the triton. That would be next to go if your computer can handle track recording and run a few vsts concurrently. I've never been a big fan of the triton and its samples were overused the first few years it came out. It has no mojo as a sampler and is basically a rompler.

Use the MPC 4000 as your main sequencer and trigger for drums.

For synths I sample a length that takes up the entire sequence. Unless I'm just trying to get a short synth wave into the MPC 4000 to loop.

Already having 4 drum machines, I'm not sure how the MPC 4000 serves you other than being a primary sequencer and midi trigger. I'd start building my own custom drum kits inside the mpc 4000 and wean myself off the Tr8S/Machinedrum. Unless you perform live in which case the Tr8S/Machinedrum might be more spontaneous.

You're going to need a big desk to sort out all that gear.

I have lots of rack drum modules. I use them to search for drum samples and often take a tom from one, a kick from another, a snare from another and sample them all into the MPC. I don't midi sequence them. I do use the MPC to midi trigger them for sampling.

So in my setup, the MPC is my drum machine. Any other drum machine in my studio is sample source material and that's about it. I ultimately want my own custom drum kits all inside the MPC. Depending on your style, you may take a different approach.

One thing that is difficult to replicate inside the MPC is how drums respond differently depending on velocity. It takes a long time to sample a soft kick, medium kick, hard kick and layer them all according to velocity. So if you have a drum machine that responds very meticulously to velocity and after touch, then sampling it may not be superior to sequencing it.
By Methlab Wed Feb 10, 2021 4:43 pm
Sense-A wrote:If I were you I'd spend a whole weekend sampling everything I like out of the RZ1 and then sell it.

There's a software version of the triton. That would be next to go if your computer can handle track recording and run a few vsts concurrently. I've never been a big fan of the triton and its samples were overused the first few years it came out. It has no mojo as a sampler and is basically a rompler.

Use the MPC 4000 as your main sequencer and trigger for drums.

For synths I sample a length that takes up the entire sequence. Unless I'm just trying to get a short synth wave into the MPC 4000 to loop.

Already having 4 drum machines, I'm not sure how the MPC 4000 serves you other than being a primary sequencer and midi trigger. I'd start building my own custom drum kits inside the mpc 4000 and wean myself off the Tr8S/Machinedrum. Unless you perform live in which case the Tr8S/Machinedrum might be more spontaneous.

You're going to need a big desk to sort out all that gear.

I have lots of rack drum modules. I use them to search for drum samples and often take a tom from one, a kick from another, a snare from another and sample them all into the MPC. I don't midi sequence them. I do use the MPC to midi trigger them for sampling.

So in my setup, the MPC is my drum machine. Any other drum machine in my studio is sample source material and that's about it. I ultimately want my own custom drum kits all inside the MPC. Depending on your style, you may take a different approach.

One thing that is difficult to replicate inside the MPC is how drums respond differently depending on velocity. It takes a long time to sample a soft kick, medium kick, hard kick and layer them all according to velocity. So if you have a drum machine that responds very meticulously to velocity and after touch, then sampling it may not be superior to sequencing it.


I appreciate you man, lots of sensible advice here.

I actually am thinking ill sell the Rz1 after sampling it. It’s basically like a regular hit and an accent on each drum. It’s really bare bones after that. The thing it has going for it is the feel of the hats, but I can get feel like that in the 4000.

Triton is absolutely a ROMpler. I use it for that and it gets a lot of use from me still so that is why I have not sold it even though the plugin exists. I usually make a 4 or 8 bar sequence and sample that, so I am thinking I could do some cool things to those samples in the 4k with all it’s LFOs and mod matrix.

I make house music so the one thing I am thinking is that it probably makes sense to do sound design automation in the 4k but for long filter sweeps and such, it may be better to do that after I bounce into the DAW. For example, lets say I have 8 bars where I want to modulate the filter by hand and do some fast moves. I can do that on the 4k with the sliders. But for longer volume fades and filter sweeps, it probably makes more sense to do that stuff in Ableton after I track out. Correct me if I am wrong.

On drums, you are dead on. If everything works out how I want, I was thinking to sell, because I do plan to do my drums in the MPC. One reason I have trouble selling the Machinedrum is it does crazy levels of modulation for percussion that I can sequence along with the MPC. It also is an effects box that I run my modulars through. So I want to see how that goes before I sell it. The TR8s is gonna stay because one thing I love to do is use it as a sound module. I can pitch everything how I want real fast and then sample it into the MPC. Its super fast for me. I also could sample 4 bars, chop and round robin the kicks and snares to get that effect you were mentioning. If I kept one drum machine, it would be that one.

My setup is going to be a mixer stand (MIX 400) for the 4000, and I’d like to make the tracks in that. Next to that is my stand with my hardware.

I have seen the workflow of deep house producers on YT pretty much getting the entire vibe done in the MPC and then arranging just by vibing on the mutes. I have a separate stand for the other gear that will be next to the MPC. So yeah, the MPC can sequence everything, which is great. the Deepmind is an amazing pad machine and has a chord mode if needed so I can send one note to that and make chord changes. Then I will either sample the changes into the MPC or just track in to ableton and modulate the synth by hand for sweeps, drops..etc. Same with the modular. I can dial up a sequence in the MPC and trigger it that way or just let it receive clock and dial up some crazy sounds in the modules.

So yeah. I see myself thinning down on drum machines and gear if this all goes as expected and just keeping some of my favorite synths and modulars for sampling or jamming in sync to the MPC. I’ll know more about how this will work for me soon, as I should be getting the 4k today.
By Methlab Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:22 pm
I bough the s4s tutorial so I won't hopefully ask too many questions here, but I am not fully grasping the "house" workflow. What I mean is I see a lot of guys make a beat and then are muting pads to arrange the song which is what I'd like to do.

I believe that means that each track is it's own sound. So like a kick would be track 1 and nothing else. Is that correct?

And furthermore on that note, it looks like a lot of guys will perform each track as an instrument type instead of drum, so they can get different pitches on their drums. So like a ghost kick may be a half step down. And that also looks like they apply 16 levels to velocity so they get more feel.

Is this correct? I am just trying to figure out this piece of it since S4S seems to load each track as a drum kit program and not a separate drum part. Hopefully this makes some kind of sense. I'm just trying to get my workflow right.
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By NearTao Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:05 pm
The drum kits are completely fine ways to work, you can still use 16 levels to pitch, but there are a few caveats
* You cannot pitch a drum hit from an external controller
* It is not impossible, but a different workflow to edit the tuning
* The pitch range is -/+12 semitones max if I recall correctly.

On the other hand... as an instrument/key group
* You can pitch across the entire range of the keyboard
* If you want to retune a note it is as straight forward as tuning normal instruments
* You can use an external controller quite easily to play chromatically
By Methlab Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:23 pm
Excellent, thank you. I like playing across the keyboard range with some of the drums. I'm thinking I can make a drum kit for toms and percussion and do key groups for kicks/snare clap. No real rules of course, just wrapping my head around what's best for me.
By Methlab Sat Feb 13, 2021 11:06 pm
Reveal wrote:Sup all,
good looking haze,
thats all keep this one rolling...................(':lol:')
this is basic stuff but still good to know..................................
the way you organize your HD is vital not to HD faults but user error ,i cant tell you the amount of times ive lost things though saving whilst being mashed up at the end of a heavy session. :lol:.
So in my Hd i Have 3 main ,Root Folders =1.my music
2.Samples
3.autoload
inside the folder samples,

u can create subfolders for each type/group of instrument and sound,and inside these
you could have a different subfolder..for different Bpm's(ie 80bpm,90bpm),
kinds of genres,loops/hits etc.....
kits/key groups & chopped up samples which should each be in there own subfolder folder with program/midi file.


I like to have a chopping sesion once a week ,searching for loops and chopping them up,create a program,and midi file,then save this in its own subfolder in my drumloops folder,under the under the nearest bmp.

Before chopping the sample name it, and i put the tempo in the name as well and use,instead of sample1,sample2 and so on...
name the program/midi/folder the same of similar names as the original sample including the sample tempo. And its good to make there names as descriptive as possible,you can also use empty folders like post it notes,using the names a little reminders.(':lol:')

When saving into "mymusic",
I create a new subfolder for each new tune, and save all files inside this at the end of each session.
And inside there i create another folder for samples and what i do is every time i add a new sample to my song i save this sample to my sample folder because that allows u to use replace same files again & again without worring about overwriting anything i want and still having all the original samples as reference in one place.
And theres nothing stopping you from doing this for this for different versions of midi/allseq&song/mutlis/programs files if you like.
Again using empty folders like post it notes is a good way to keep track of ur beats,listing session info on so on.


what happens alot when learning to use the 4k is incorrect loading and saving .
when u power your unit up u can use auto to load the last song u were working on automaticly.
To do this go to the "Global page" and turn "on" "auto load",then create a folder in your root directory and name it "autoload" and save the song u want to load on bootup inside this folder.
I.e my music
samples
autoload

Also when loading if "default items" is on in the Gobal page,and you load your song up,without pushing "clear all memory" and "replace same items" is set to off, a multi or program which have the same name as the default items will not replace the default items.
or if u dont "clear all memory" and "replace same items" is set to on a default multi and program will be in memory as well if your not laoding up anything with the same names,which may mean u have the wrong multi/programs selected,check by going to the multi page.

options when saving and loading..................
Load= select what files to load
Replace same files=this replaces same files in memory or on HD when saving and loading.
Load with =select what files to load with multi/prog/all
Save=select which files to save with
Seq=load one sequence out of a .all
Clear =clears current memory and loads selection
do it=loads file
and when loading samples u can add samples to programs and create a new ones...etc .etc.etc

1.so if u save with replace same files set to "yes" and save "entire memory"
all your files will will be saved in the selected folder overwriting existing files with same names

2.save the multi with "replace same files" set to "yes" and "save=with programs and samples" ,
then save "allseq&song"
and all your sequences will be saved but only the one multi you choose to save along with all the programs it uses and all samples the programs use ,not the entire memory.
You can also have the option to rename or replace when saving indervidual files ,if the filename already exists.

You can use purge samples&programs not in use in the gobal page>F2 memory>operation and scroll to purge samples/prgrams before u save to cear out the unwanted.....but use with care, because any sample not assigned to a program will be deleted/and any program not assgined to a multi will be deleted.

when loading go the multi ,push "Doit" then select "Load"="with programs and samples" and set "replace same files" to "yes" .
push "f3" clear all memory".

but if you have files in memory you want to keep select "Doit"F5" but make sure u have the right multi selected after loading,
and that your not going to load samples with the same file names as thoses in memory,
as the ones in memory will be wiped or, if "replace same files" is set to off your song will not load up as saved ,the solution to this is to rename the files with the same name in memory.

then after loading up "allseq&songs" ".ALL" and you should be ready to go,
also u can load up one sequence out of a .ALL files by pushing F6 the F3Seq instead of F5Doit or load enitire folders,.....etc.
........refer to all the manuals as well..


HTH


So on autoload folder, you save the track you are working on to that and then save all memory and it will load up with the samples and programs and everything, I get that.

So what if you make a blank template labeled and set how you want and want to use that for new songs. When you are done with the track you were working on (and autoloading).do you move it out of autoload and then move the template into autoload? and if so, I guess it would be best to make a folder called template and just move everything from that into autoload. Is this all correct?

Leads me to this other question :
Let's say I have all this on a thumbdrive and want to reorganize the files on my thumbdrive. If I move my samples around inside it, as long as the program is saved with the samples in the file that I made for my specific song, then nothing will get lost, correct? Just makes me think of ableton where if you dont do the "collect all and save", the samples you used in the song will not be loaded if you moved them around.
By Methlab Mon Feb 22, 2021 8:26 pm
Not sure if this thread is alive but how do i set different quantize values per track? I highlighted the swing area in main and hit window but no matter what i do when i change the value, it changes for every track.

For example,Id like to change my kick or hats to 16thtriplets and have the rest at regular 16ths.
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By Lampdog Tue Feb 23, 2021 1:18 am
Main Menu is for the entire seq.

Go into timing correct (open window) to get at individual tracks

or at least this is what I've come to understand.
By Methlab Tue Feb 23, 2021 3:19 pm
Lampdog wrote:Main Menu is for the entire seq.

Go into timing correct (open window) to get at individual tracks

or at least this is what I've come to understand.


Thank you - I must be doing something wrong because it still changes all the tracks when I change it in the tracks timing correct window. I will try again though today and verify, I would imagine this is something that can be done on the 4k.
By Methlab Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:33 pm
In Main, on track , I went to TC:1/16 and hit window. Switched to TC 1/16 (3) and hit do it. Checked my tracks and they all were switched to 1/16 (3). So I'm not sure how this works.