zone select

Hello there...

I have been trying to use something other than velocity to switch between zones (per pad in drum pgm)


* removed misleading cobblers... was previously barking up the wrong tree. *

Yeah, using an LFO to change the zones works. I believe FELIX wrote a post about it where you have 2 different loops in zones 1 and 2, the LFO is used to switch between the loops. did it once, sounded bad ass!

can you remember how you did it? I am trying to set it up for transient drum sounds.

So far I have set ranges in obvious blocks: 0-63/64-127 or 0-31/32-63/64-95/96-127.

I would expect the lfo to change the 2 or 4 samples selected in zones 1-4 in time with the sync settings... Are there specific settings to be observed with the range settings for each zone?

******** Zone select trigger Mod********


Yet another very cool trick, that lets you play randomly different zones while holding down one pad, here’s a post from member Rob that shows how you can program one pad to play infinitive variation of the same beat….
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Here is a contribution from the Akai mail list, from a thread that I started last friday with David Davis, the guy that learned me the Zone Select trick for emulating analogs:

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Thanks Jeremy, that was one of problems indeed. The other
one was that I hadn't assigned each of the zones its own
velocity range. Stupid me.

But works great now. As David originally suggested, using
and LFO with random waveform gives you a nice mechanism to
have the mpc select one of up to four samples to play at
note on, to simulate analog variation (using closely
matching, but not identical samples).

If you don't want the zones to be changed *during* the
playback, simply set the LFO rate to 0. The LFO output
level is also an important factor to get a good balance
between the various zones, as David already found out.

I also toyed with syncing the LFO to tempo. That's fun! You
can mix the zones in and out at a given rate, synced to
tempo. Very nice stuff. ))
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I did some more experiments later on and it works great! Try this:

- Get two drum loops with identical BPM.
- Set the MPC's main tempo to the tempo of the drum loops.
- Puts each of the loops in a zone of the same voice.
- Give each of the samples their own velocity range,
like 0-64 for zone 1 and 65-128 for zone 2.
- Set the Zone Select field to realtime.
- Set LFO1 to random waveform.
- Set the LFO's Midi Sync field to ON.
- Set the LFO Beat Field to 1 or 2 (change as you like).
- Set the LFO Depth to 50 or so.
- And finally, make a Program Modulation setting in the modulation
matrix with LFO1 -> Zone Select

This will do a real-time and random fade between the two drum loops, but synced to tempo! If the two drum loops are similar, like variations of the same beat, you get a great live feal, because the drum pattern is never the same. Very, very, very cool!

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http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11725&hilit=zone&start=45

Nice post and diggin in the archives. This is the nice of threads that matter.

I can't get this to work.... its really getting on my nerves now. I have tired the following:

lfo: various waves/ free run and midi synced: various settings/ depth between 50-100 (have tried most settings by now).

Mod matrix: 1: lfo>zone select/ depth: +100 (is this the only mod matrix setting required?).

The zone page is set with 2 differing beat loops in 1 and 2, the ranges are 0-63/64-127. When you use the full level button I only get zone 2, it dosen't switch between. If I don't use full level it reponds to velocity and plays the 2 zones accordingly but doesn't switch between them as intended.

One of the instructions from the previous post says: - Set the Zone Select field to realtime.

Where is this realtime field? I'd like to get over this hurdle as I have some ideas for more interesting stuff based around modulating the lfo that modulates the zone select but I'm stuck at the start line!

Realtime. You should go to zone page and you will see velocity x fade between zones level pan and velocity and zones tune, start, and one shot. Highlight the section with your cursor and press the window button to change it!

Blue Haze wrote:Realtime. You should go to zone page and you will see velocity x fade between zones level pan and velocity and zones tune, start, and one shot. Highlight the section with your cursor and press the window button to change it!

Got it! Nice one man...

It seems I was playing at muppets; I was switching zone x-fade back and forth between off and velocity without going on to real time, how i missed that I am not quite sure

Anyways, sounds good, tried some loops just to get it a' workin', will try some more complicated stuff later and report back with anything worthwhile...

Blue Haze wrote:Nice post and diggin in the archives. This is the nice of threads that matter.

Agreed, instead of pointless waffle these kind of threads are what will help people succeed in mastering the mpc4k! Delving into the heart of this machine will yield intriguing results...

Cool I'm glad it's working now. Yup we need a lot more threads like this!!

agreed

As suspected, the mpc4k can be made to generate some pretty f*cked up drum patterns when using zones with transients. Altering the lfo shift is interesting as it then favours certain key ranges (as set up in zone>range) depending if it is + or - shifted.

I tried using lfo 2 to alter lfo 1 depth, rate etc but the results so far have been uncertain, perhaps with other kinds of samples it could work, not really sure; it isn't a modular synth I suppose

Setting up 4 zones and creating patterns and then loosing some of the samples, eg:1/2 or 3/4, whilst still in play mode gives suprising new patterns, you can play about and conjure up pretty weird on the fly disorder! Nice

Good for glitchy abstrakt stuff if that floats your boat, ha ha...

Been working with this operation some more lately. I put some d+b loops in the zones and using fairly long lfo sweeps, 4-1, 8-1 got some nice chopped up breaks.

For best results I found using one shot on all samples with a max polyphony of one (2 if using track out 2; which is desirable for old school naturally flanging amen breaks etc. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanging) to stop overlapping as the emphasis was on creating a linear series of beats from several sources.

If note repeat is used subtly in places you can get some really nice results.

You can set up a 2nd (3rd and 4th etc) pad using the same procedure but perhaps using different lfo sweeps as well as applying all the other techniques given earlier in the thread.

If all the pads are set to the same mute group by using the track mute page you can start creating some good junglist mash ups as the pads as well as the loops assigned in the zones will cancel and replace each other (dependant on settings).

Obviously it is important to get the tempo correct for all loops otherwise this will become a right f*ckin' mess.

Good thread.