Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By schoolforthought Sat May 27, 2023 5:11 pm
I'm pretty sure I've been doing it the long and hard way for years.

I can record into my mpc using my mixer and the analog ins----ill play my tune, record it---trim it up on the mpc, put it into a sequence.

Then add drums from a kit on track 2.

And I can trigger my midi keyboard to play notes/sounds....yadda yadda...


I've been making tracks like that for.....15 years.....? Its never been a bother but now I'm like "Wait, there has to be an easier way..."

If I play a rhythm on my guitar and record and sample it into the mpc, then play it on loop/repeat and play some other notes....there should be a way I can go to "record" and still press play, then play my new melody while hearing the backtrack of what I've just recorded, and just have the new recorded note rather than a new recording/sample of me playing a melody over the backtrack/rhythm. Right?

And there should be a quick way to do it all on the mpc right? Right now I can dump the rhythm I looped up on to my computer/laptop then go to the mpc and hit record and play while listening to the rhythm on my computer/laptop then I'll have just the new melody as a sample and I can create a new sequence and layer them.

It probably has something to do with my mixer. But I can't wrap my head around it. My main outs go to the mixer and obviously I get Sound from there, my rca left and right inputs on my mpc connect to the aux out on my mixer. So when I play my guitar or keyboard through my mixer I can hear them (the guitar or the keyboards sounds) and if I want to record/sample them to the mpc it's through the aux out on the mixer to the aux in on the back of the mpc.

When I record/sample on the mpc, I'm recording on the aux in, since the aux in on my mpc comes out of my aux out on my mixer, all sounds/backtracks get recorded with the new stuff.

There should be a way I can monitor my current tracks, then record/improvise/play new instruments (keys, guitar) into the Mpc...I'm going on 21 hours with no sleep so I can't think my way through this, but there is an easier way, right?
By schoolforthought Sat May 27, 2023 6:38 pm
So I guess I'm trying to track in, while monitoring what I've got without a second piece of equipment...which probably won't work.

I like to get away from computers and tablets and just play, record and playback. Thus why I have guitars, keyboards/synths and hardware.

I'm thinking I may have to push play on my mpc which will play my track, and then record into my daw/computer. And from there just play my recording from the daw into the mpc. And I'm pretty sure that still leaves me having to cable swap during the process.
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By Lampdog Sun May 28, 2023 6:47 pm
ASR-10 and Triton had me spoiled with playing their own sequencers AND sample in with efx AND monitoring all in its own box.

Hated that 2kxl and 4k couldn’t do that. No simultaneous seq playback and record in at the same time.