Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By manji Thu Sep 09, 2010 10:35 pm
I actually forgot to mention. Since your last note is a junk note, and you probably wont hit the stop but EXACTLY on time, be sure to trim that last note off, perfectly, to keep each note in time for the regions chopping.
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By MoreBuck$ Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:19 am
Nice and in depth. Cheers
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Re:

By YumYumRolex Wed Mar 09, 2011 11:51 am
Blue Haze wrote: P.S. it is easier to play chops using a midi keyboard.

Have fun :D



Ghat dayum me...thats the illest trick Ive ever heard for it being so simple...
By Clint Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:05 am
Round Robin Pad Cycle - An ideal technique for live use but also useful for studio sequencing.

Simply put, the Q-Link slider alone is used to select which of up to four samples (zones) triggers when you hit a single pad. So at the top of its movement sample 1 is triggered, a quarter of the way down it switches to triggering sample 2. Halfway down the slider begins to trigger sample 3, and the final quarter of slider travel triggers sample 4. Naturally the slider can be manipulated live or the movements are automatically recorded to the sequencer.

clint246clint wrote:
How to emulate the Round Robin technique on the MPC4000

Load some samples, its easier to demonstrate this technique using a drum kit but anything will do.

1. On the Program>KG MIX>Zone page, Edit should be set to ONE and Monitor set to MULTI. Load up to four samples so that you have one in each zone.

2. Specify the range for each zone, this will correspond to how far you must move the Q-Link slider to switch zones. For this example the range of the zones is 0-31, 32-64, 65-97 and 98-127, dividing the Q-Link slider movement into four roughly equal sized areas. Zone 4 will be at the bottom end of the Q-Link slider, while zone 1 will be at the top.

3. Set Zone X-Fade to REAL TIME and make sure X-Fade curve is set to LINEAR.

4. From the Range, Level or Pan fields press the orange WINDOW button to open the Program Modulation Matrix. Here you will see the active modulation settings for the program you are working on which are loaded with the program. You may choose to delete these, but it may be better to leave them otherwise you'll affect the current sound of your program. We are going to add a mod source and destination here to make this work.

5. Set EXT1 as a Mod Source with Zone Select as the destination. Make sure the selected note corresponds to the pad where you layered the samples. It should do by default.

6. Set depth to +100 and close this window.

7. Press the Q-Link setup button just below the power switch. You should land on the RECEIVE page, if not press F1.

8. In the slider section select the relevant PART or set it to ALL. Set Assign to ZONE SELECT and adjust the range to +000 > +100. Leave the Ctrl and MIDI fields as you found them.

9. Hit the MAIN button to return to the main screen.

10. Test your pad now and it should work with the active zone being selected by the Q-Link slider. The Q-Link ACTIVE button does not need to be on (lit) as this is not strictly speaking a Q-Link function but a modulation effect. Your Q-Link movements and zone selections will be recorded by the sequencerfor instant playback. Do remember that modulation settings are saved within a MULTI, you have been warned!!

All this is very easy to set up once you know the correct settings, but make any mistakes and it will not work!!

This guide should be regarded as the starting point for the Round Robin effect, advanced MPC4000 programmers should go in and tweak certain settings to see what effect they have on the outcome. I won't go any further with this, but the possibilities are endless.


Originally posted here viewtopic.php?f=2&t=148369&start=0
By Clint Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:11 am
Lampdog wrote:
Lampdog wrote:Image


Hypnotism:


.......................YOU WILL VISIT THIS THREAD...............
By mxbdev Sun Apr 14, 2013 2:16 pm
Not sure is this is common knowledge, but it tripped me up.

How to 'fix' the 'sensitity' / gain staging of the MPC 4000.

While creating some drumkits I noticed that modifying the sample levels in the programs wasn't having much noticable affect (from the keygroup mix page), I could only get audible changes when settings drastic values (e.g. -20db or below).

Thus I did some research and created the following graph:

Image

By default, the total gain for a sample (the sum of program level, kg mix level, filter attenuation, zone level and multi mix level will be -6dB). This is because the program level default is -6dB and everything else is set to 0dB. This is shown in red on the above graph.

The MPC deals with this by capping the maximum level at -3dB. Therefore any notes with a velocity > 83 will all be played at this maximum level and there will be no audible variation. (All these tests were done with default Tilt Velocity -> Amplitude of +34 and by loopback monitoring of a sine wave sample via Record -> Main Out). The 3dB loss cannot be avoided.

Apart from making mixing samples in programs a pain, this may be a contributing to the "insesitive pads" issues.

To get full range of amplitudes to velocities the total gain stage for the chain needs to be -20dB or lower. The easiest way to set this is to set all levels in the multi to -24dB. By doing this (and the -6dB default in program levels) the total gain stage is set to -30dB and you have full velocity sensitivity, and still up to 10dB of gain you can apply in the multi part mixer.

Hope this helps somebody as it confused me for a while :)
By Humbboy Fri May 03, 2013 8:49 am
Swing audition go to the swing editor and hear the difference swing makes while the track is playing you can then apply it to any one track or the whole seq. Idk about yoswu but this is why I bought the 4 . Swing audition, 960 ticks, q link, Roger linn blessed
By dustymaestro Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:37 pm
MXBDEV, that should be on front page.

My tip would be to remember that mod matrix is always on. Any sounds you load or make will be going thru the mod matrix. Turn off all the routing in the mod matrix and you will get your original sound.
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By Coz Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:59 pm
dustymaestro wrote:MXBDEV, that should be on front page.



It's one of the best tips in this whole thread. :worthy:

The only problem if you drop your levels to -24dB is if you load sounds from your HD… It's LOUD!
By dustymaestro Thu Mar 27, 2014 5:35 am
Coz wrote:
dustymaestro wrote:MXBDEV, that should be on front page.



It's one of the best tips in this whole thread. :worthy:

The only problem if you drop your levels to -24dB is if you load sounds from your HD… It's LOUD!


Huh? What do you mean? It doesnt respond to the level control?


313 studio tricks wrote:what if we all just turn on our full level button? :Sigh:


Its fine for drums and phrase samples. When you play the keys you want expressiveness, part of that comes from being able to play soft notes to full velocity.

What were saying is when the 4ooo gets to a certain db level, some of the other controls will not have an effect after a certain value.
By mxbdev Sun Mar 30, 2014 9:14 am
People have been reading up on my post about the gain structure within the MPC4000 and so I did a bit more research into it.

As it turns out, you don't need to do the -24dB base point within the multi to allow full range - the problem it with the default tilt-velocity value within the programs modulation matrix.

For those who do not fully understand, I'll give a quick example.

Lets say we have a normalised sample (to -0dB) within a program. All the gains and levels within the program are set to 0dB and the overall program level set to -6dB. Volume within the multi is also set to 0dB. At this point, irregardless of the tilt-velocity value, a midi note of velocity 63 will trigger a sound at this volume below the -3dB limit (0 + 0 + (-6) + 0 + (-3)) = -9dB).

Tilt-velocity is the rate at which variations from this midi set point affect the volume. This is best explained with another graph:

Image

Note that this graph shows relative amplitude, so shift everything down -6dB if your total gain strucutre is set to this as per the description above. Additionally, note that this graph is for linear response mode in the program.

With a tilt-velocity of 0, any change in midi amplitude has no affect. For example, this would be suitable for an organ sound. With a tilt-velocity value of 34 (the default for a new program), the dynamic range over the midi note is a massive 42dB! Bearing in mind that 6dB is a doubling/halving in volume, this is just too much. Lets say your entering a hihat pattern on the pads and you are reasonably consistent with hitting the pads at the same velocity. Assuming there is only a velocity of 20 between your hardest and softest hits, this would result in a doubling of volume between them. Remember that the pads record 128 levels of velocity, so in practice (at least for me), my range is larger than this.

From looking through the Akai Pro 0 CDROM patches I found the following tilt-velocity values in use:

* 17 appears to be a good default (used in 18/27 patches).
* Piano and bass sounds have a tilt-velocity of around 11.
* Drums are a bit more dynamic with a tilt-velocity around 22.

So my recommendation is set tilt-velocity to 17 for all new programs and work from there. This also alleviates somewhat the volume issue and avoids the -24dB volume within the multi (so you don't have a huge volume different between multi and sample modes). With a tilt-velocity of 17, and all other default settings (0db everywhere, -6db program level), only velocitys 121-127 are clamped to -3dB, which is an acceptable tradeoff.

Again, hope this helps!
By dustymaestro Sun Mar 30, 2014 9:48 am
Mxbdev, im going to gather some info from some old posts. Ill put in a thread as we can figure it out. I have read some really informative posts from Feline, Illiac, Blue Haze, MCSmooth, and yourself. Everybody is talking about gain structure, but has there own theory.

The problem you describe is not getting a full dynamic response. I have read also that the gain structure effects how far you can turn a level up like the depth in mod matrix. For example you wont get a change in depth after +83.

Now that I recall I did a search on "master level" and found those posts.

If you wanted full dynamic response without going over 0 db, wouldnt you need tilt to be 0db at +100 in the depth field?