Post your views and questions about the Akai MPC2500
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By dablunt Tue May 30, 2006 12:11 pm
Hey Spirez - I see your thread about direct recording got a little bogged down with polictics, but if I could get back to your topic...


I was just wondering how you have ur MPC hooked up to your source when recording?

Do you take the Mixer output and stick it in the 2500 Input In? Then whichever modules you have enabled on the physical mixer are recorded thru the MPC?
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By Spirez Tue May 30, 2006 12:48 pm
Hi, i'm only using a Proteus 2000 module at the moment but have no mixer.

I've got the digital SPDIF output of the Proteus hooked up to the digital in on the MPC and then use the input thru function set to digital so that i can hear the sounds.

If i want to use the sounds from reason i take my sound card out and connect that to the MPC in.

It's not really ideal if you've got a number of modules but as i'm only really using the one i don't have to worry about that at the moment.
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By mnh2410 Tue May 30, 2006 3:42 pm
Well Spirez have you done a complete song yet? I talked with the dude who started the thread(dont wanna say his name cause dont know what it will lead to) all day yesterday and he let me hear a beat he did using the direct record(all melodies, instruments,ect was done through direct recording).

Now alot of you may like the feature but you do need to keep in mind that it requires alot of sampling time but the dude who did use direct recording was using 16mb memory and that one song used up all that memory so if you have the 128mb u do the math.

But what I like about this feature is everything is in the MPC so u could basically save everything and start fresh and later go back and track it out.

But spirez could u reply on timing issues you encountered along with different bar lengths being tested.

If im asking to much. Sorry.

Nicole
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By Spirez Tue May 30, 2006 3:59 pm
Yeah it will use a lot of memory if you're doing long tracks. I've got the 128mb of RAM so that's good for around 25 minutes of mono recording, which is probably what i'd use most of the time. Should be more than enough for most songs i make.

I haven't gone into depth with the feature as i've been too busy with work and sorting out my qualifications the last 6 weeks or so. Should have more time freed up after this weekend when everyhting's finished though.

There's no issue with the timing as far as i can tell, it's exactly the same as the midi sequence if you recorded that way, or it's down to your own timing if you're playing in from an instrument like a guitar etc. If you want your timing to be perfect then just perfect the midi sequence with step edit etc before going to direct record.

By _Stilo_ Tue May 30, 2006 5:57 pm
One question:

If you trigger your sound module via MIDI notes in your sequence, and Direct Record them into the MPC, the MPC puts only one note at the beginning of the sequence when you set "Record event" to "Yes", right? That is if you start Direct Recording right from the beginning.

So you basically only have one long sample containing all the triggered sounds from the modules?


Stilo.
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By Spirez Tue May 30, 2006 6:09 pm
Yeah that's right, so it's just like if you'd tracked it from the outs into a DAW basically, but you're doing it all in the box.
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By mnh2410 Tue May 30, 2006 6:13 pm
So he saying used MIDI to do all your keyboard/module sounds then direct record each one into it. Now u can turn the keyboard/module off or take the mpc to the studio to track out.(if u take it to a studio-just using it as an scenario)

Hit me Spirez.

By _Stilo_ Tue May 30, 2006 6:16 pm
Ok, I thought so...

Like I said already, it would be so much more useful still, if the sequencer did NOT stop when you stop the recording and want to assign the sample. That's the only thing I miss about this function.
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By Spirez Tue May 30, 2006 6:22 pm
Yeah they could probably get round this by assigning the pad first before recording. Then as soon as you stop the recording it will be automatically assigned to the pad and the sequence will carry on playing.

The other great thing that ties in with this feature is the continuous sample track. That annoyed me about some hardware that i'd used where it would only play the sample if the sequencer was started from the first beat. being able to continue the sample from any point in the sequence is cool

I love this machine!

By Ajax Tue May 30, 2006 8:29 pm
OMG.


This feature is amazing. Im gonna go home and try this out right the way... it makes it sooooo much faster to add random effects from a keyboard...



Aw man... this is spectacular.




ronJ
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By bad mind Wed May 31, 2006 12:28 am
MpcGuru wrote:I think I need to point out that you don`t need to sequence in your midi pattern in before direct recording...


is it strictly live doing it this way, or will your notes quantize to whatever you have set on the sequencer?
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By dablunt Wed May 31, 2006 8:16 am
mnh2410 wrote:Now alot of you may like the feature but you do need to keep in mind that it requires alot of sampling time but the dude who did use direct recording was using 16mb memory and that one song used up all that memory so if you have the 128mb u do the math.
Nicole


**The benefits of leaving it all as Midi data rather than Direct Recording everything to down to WAVs stored on the MPC. I guess.

By Mr Dean Thu Jun 01, 2006 1:17 pm
An automatic loop without assignning it to a pad (i.e. mid playing of the sample) would be ideal I think. Akai have done it for the Headrush guitar pedals, surely it would be easy to make it happen for the mpc?!