Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By deaf-mute Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:25 pm
boom skitty kap wrote:can you automate mutes while a sequence is playing on the 4000?


Yes you can record them simply by going to the mute page and pressing record... then you have to activate the mutes in the main window by highlighting mute in the track section and puting the "use track mute events" to "ON". Voila... THE ONLY FCUCKING STUPID THING IS THAT THOSE MUTE RECORDINGS DON'T FCUCKING WORK IN SONG MODE. i hear ou cry... few i've vented... that's one of my OS requests. The guy who designed the OS must have been on Opium...

boom skitty kap wrote:Is this possible on the 1000? I don't think it is?


I don't know, ask that question on the MPC1000 forum

By wax111 Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:33 pm
As far as I know, the onlyMPC this is possible on is the 4000.
My experience as far as song mode and recorded track mutes has be similar to Deaf-mute's: Totally bumblescrup (screwed up).
I do find it works a little better if you click "window" on the "mute" screen on the main page and "erase muted tracks" after you record mute automation...
But still, a bit crappy in my experience.
In pattern mode it works beautifully.
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By squareSOUL Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:36 pm
I just wait to do the automation when I've recorded into pro-tools, I use to want to do everything I could think of in the MPC but Now I try to leave only half of it up to the beast and do the resy in Protools

By wax111 Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:48 pm
Yeah, I'm FORCED to do most of it in the DAW stage of production, but it is, and always will be, a workaround for me....
Some things, like effects, I'm happy to do "in the computer", but to me, the mute recording is something I really want to do inside the sequencer..It was one of the main reasons I got the 4000, save the lovely little lady that says "please wait"...


squareSOUL wrote:I just wait to do the automation when I've recorded into pro-tools, I use to want to do everything I could think of in the MPC but Now I try to leave only half of it up to the beast and do the resy in Protools

By boom skitty kap Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:42 pm
Thanks.

About automating the mutes in the sequences. How do you delete your automation of mutes?

By wax111 Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:00 pm
you just hit "edit" in the mute screen, and then click delete on the mute event you want to edit..
By murderhausen Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:22 pm
deaf-mute wrote:
boom skitty kap wrote:can you automate mutes while a sequence is playing on the 4000?


Yes you can record them simply by going to the mute page and pressing record... then you have to activate the mutes in the main window by highlighting mute in the track section and puting the "use track mute events" to "ON". Voila... THE ONLY FCUCKING STUPID THING IS THAT THOSE MUTE RECORDINGS DON'T FCUCKING WORK IN SONG MODE.


So can you record track mutes in a sequence that won't even be recognized when you arrange your sequences in song mode?

I just got my 4k last Monday and am trying to figure out a good workflow. What I thought would be a nice idea would be to make a drum program, for instance, and load the same program into multiple tracks within the SAME sequence so I could have many variations on the same beat. Then I hoped to record those track mutes in song mode (something like Step1>Sequence1>Tracks 1,4,6,7). This would be nice because every sequence could have 96 distinct parts, so I could have a fully realized verse or chorus, or maybe even song built into one sequence with just the track mutes being recorded in song mode.

It seems, though, that this is impossible, so I'm wondering what the next best way to work with the monster would be.
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By Blue Haze Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:24 am
The pages 70-71 of ref manual explains that in song mode in order for the mute play you have to set the 4k to off tracks ignored. Plus it is important that each sequence aka step in song mode have exactly the same instruments assigned to the same tracks in order for it to work correctly. Please read the small print on the top of page 71. It should work.
By murderhausen Wed Oct 14, 2009 2:33 am
Thanks Haze. I've seen your name all over the forum and you seem to spend a lot of time trying to help people out.

I've definitely been reading the manual a lot, but what you showed me (though a useful piece of knowledge for the future) wasn't exactly what I was asking.

Let's say I wanted to have a section of a song with the same bass, strings, and guitar or something, but wanted to switch just the hi hat from a 16th note to an open hi hat on 8th note upbeats. What I was hoping originally was that both hi hat parts could have an independent track within the same sequence, and that song mode would allow me to assign track mutes for each step. What seems like the way I would have to achieve what I wanted now, though, is to copy every part of the sequence except the hi hat to a different sequence and then enter the new hi hat pattern. I guess this is the way every other sequencer or drum machine I've used has worked, but I was getting these wild ideas in my head about how simple to use the MPC was shaping up to be. I could still do what I wanted if I were manning the pads and playing the mutes live, but it would have been ultimately kick ass if I could have automated the track mutes in song mode.

Please do let me know if I am wrong, however.
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By Blue Haze Wed Oct 14, 2009 5:23 am
Couldn't you convert your song into one big sequence and then do the pad mutes per tracks?? I mean song mode is often used for arranging sequences before tracking to a daw. But I'm thinking if you go the extra step to convert the song into a linear sequnce then you can do your pad mute performance live plus trigger sequences too using the next sequence mode. I haven't tried it but it's an idea that may help off the top. I'm at work so I don't have the mpc in front of me.

But I feel the principles should work for live mode good luck.
By murderhausen Thu Oct 15, 2009 5:01 am
Ok, awesome. I have been trying to get my head around this thing and have been doing a lot of thinking when I'll really just need to mess around and get used to stuff. I guess I was under the impression that a converted song to sequence was going to be a bounced audio file, but it's great that it isn't.

Just a quick question so I don't have to bother with another thread: when I sample during playback, everything works fine but as soon as I end the recording the new sample starts playing back according to sequence data instead of the programs that were already there. Not a huge issue, but just wondering if that's life on the 4k or if I can make some changes to stop this.
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By Blue Haze Thu Oct 15, 2009 9:13 am
murderhausen wrote:Ok, awesome. I have been trying to get my head around this thing and have been doing a lot of thinking when I'll really just need to mess around and get used to stuff. I guess I was under the impression that a converted song to sequence was going to be a bounced audio file, but it's great that it isn't.

Just a quick question so I don't have to bother with another thread: when I sample during playback, everything works fine but as soon as I end the recording the new sample starts playing back according to sequence data instead of the programs that were already there. Not a huge issue, but just wondering if that's life on the 4k or if I can make some changes to stop this.



Sorry I don't understand unless you have the trigger on your record page set to midi instead of manual ???? You are talking about resampling right, through main outs?
By murderhausen Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:37 am
No, I'll be recording the analogue input while a sequence is playing a program back. Everything sounds normal while I record, and the in is recorded correctly, but the second I stop recording, the sequence begins playing the newly recorded sample according to the note numbers of the pad data. The recording still comes out alright, it's just minorly annoying and i was wondering if I could make some changes.
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By MoreBuck$ Wed Jan 26, 2011 6:10 am
I can record my mutes same way Haze said, then it means i can stitch my sequences complete with mutes and record my completed 'Song' into the main out. Makes making quick beats to scratch to easier and you can DJ with them straight away if you want. 8)