Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By richard Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:15 am
I noticed that copying a Multi does not copy its q-link send settings... Not life threatening I'll admit but a small pain if you want to copy a multi 50 times, make small adjustments to the fx and change between them on the fly using q-link - which I do. It would also be nice to have the option to be able to make multiple copies of a Multi... I had to do that 50 times too... not that anyone cares, as probably almost no-one ever wants to do it

How many Multis can I have? 128? It must be is in the ref manual somewhere but I couldnt find it
By renegadebliss Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:58 pm
richard wrote:
How many Multis can I have? 128? It must be is in the ref manual somewhere but I couldnt find it


I believe that it is limited by memory. Since you can only have 1 Multi Active at a time, I don't think there is a limite on the number of Multi's that can be loaded into the 4000, other then the limit imposed by 512M of RAM...


Dave

By fader-pro Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:32 pm
128.

I tend to work within a single sequence, extending it as I go. It seems to be a more linear "work flow" as opposed to managing a bunch of individual sequences. One upside to me is being able to ride a Q-link process through the entire piece, or lay in additional elements through the entire piece. I realize you can convert individual sequences into a "song" in song mode, and then add additional elements, but that in itself, is constricting....plus most of the 'bugs' I've encountered tend to appear when converting a group of sequences to a "song" (stuck notes, dropouts, etc....).......it takes a little effort to get used to creating sequences this way but the few folks I've "converted" over the years have never gone back.......

By renegadebliss Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:31 pm
fader-pro wrote:128.


That's incorrect. There is no limit to the number of Multi's that you can have, other then what is dictated by RAM or CPU.

I just created 130 Multis, to verify this, and it took about 3% of my CPU after having created the 130 Multi's. You are limited to 128 Program Changes numbers, so after 128, you'll have to manually select your Multi..


Cheers,
Dave
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By McSmooth Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:02 am
^Damn dude, I thought you said you didn't have time when you got home from work, thats dedication :wink:

I saw that bug too, just on the send side. Would have been worse if it was on receive, so it only effects you if you assigned CCs or pad control. I see what you are doing, making copies soley to change Q-links and FX. That is a pretty good idea for live use when you need to change the FX around or want quick q-link reassignments. I never realized how seemless the switch between multis is (as long as you don't have a stuck note with a crazy effect).

Coming from an XL, I had never seen the need for more than one multi since 128 programs is more than enough, but that is a good use of using several with the same set up. Once again, another workaround would be sysex commands to switch parameters, but that would prob be more work.

By renegadebliss Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:59 am
McSmooth wrote:^Damn dude, I thought you said you didn't have time when you got home from work, thats dedication :wink:

Luckily for the last couple of weeks, it's been down to 8 hours a day. The pager's been silent, and i've been much happier. He happened
to catch me when I was at lunch. I work from home, so just fired
up the 4000 to check it out, because I had thought I had checked it earlier and that there wasn't a limit. I've never needed 128 Multi's myself, but
I am one to use a lot of Multi's. I am one to use more then 1 Multi per song.... mainly i'll use at least 1 so that each song will have it's own FX, Q-Link and Mixer settings. Since they fixed the slow Multi change bug back in 1.50, it's been pretty smooth sailing. Not all FX can change over smoothly, but most of them do it pretty good. I like it because you can use 4 FX for the Intro, then use 4 different FX for the breakdown or what not. You just use a Program Change to change the Multi. Then when I use "Next Sequence" it automatically switches the Multi for me..

By fader-pro Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:01 pm
I have to admit, I've used as many as 4 Multis in a piece, but then I really don't use the fx much at all on my 4k. I find them to be, on the whole pretty bad compared to both outboard and many plug-ins.......besides, the MPC is not exactly the center of my studio for about 50% of my work.....it rarely gets used for much more than sequencing and drums plus the occassional "home-made" sample or two......

By richard Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:04 pm
I thought fx on the 4k were crappy too, until I realised the possibilties of sequencing them with q link. The delays especially are too clean to be effective as nice textured delays in a mix (we need eventides for that!) but as a modulatable way of resequencing fragments of audio.... its just great... because they are so clean the ear can't distinguish the original sound from the delayed one. Also the orginal audio can be removed from the mix so only the delay bus is heard - also very interesting

and sequencing the mutlis makes basically infinite possibilties to make a whole piece from a 2 bar loop which never is always morphing and never actually repeating

The distortion and compression could also be interesting used in this way - my pal is doing amazing things witha sequenced sampler in reactor by sequencing these kinds of fx but my experience so far is that they just don't have any vibe on 4k - i will keep trying though

I am very happy to discover this complexity on the 4k, at the moment I only using my computer as a tape recorder and occassionally as sample editor - this is how it should be

By richard Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:16 pm
little tip, don't try to copy a multi while its playing

or if you do - just make sure you have a recorder going - I just did it and the macjhine gret screened and crashed but produced the most atonishing display of patterned white noise and distortion for 2 minutes before it croaked

I've never heard anything like it before... I'm gonna try it as a creative technique next time

By richard Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:18 pm
of course it would have been better if I'd saved the friggin multi first
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By McSmooth Wed Mar 05, 2008 6:43 pm
I was just bustin' your balls bliss. Totally understand though, I usually do most of my posting AT work to save play time for home, haha.

I'm still shocked how well the multis switch, always figured there would be some type of stall or something, but it works just like program changes on the XL (you could only have FX on the first program, so you'd have to use program changes on the fly to get a new program into that bank).

One of the things I've been playing around with on the sysex adventure is the changing of FX types on the fly. The mutli change is a great work around for that despite the extra programming it takes because you only need to switch one parameter instead of many. Might be able to come up with some crazy glitch effects.

So I took 4 variations of a multi, gave them each their own multi #, set it to Bank Select at 1A. Then I set each of the Q-links to send MIDI CC 0, values 0-3. Finally set the current track to INT-A 1, and bam, a knob to scroll through your multis. Its too bad the tail of the FX doesn't hang on during a switch, but still really cool.

I agree the FX aren't anything to write home about, I'm not going to record any of the reverbs on something important. I think they are fine for live use and even recording when you want to digitally tear up the sounds or when using some of the basic fx.