Now this is a nasty bug.....

bear with me on this post because its kind of hard to explain...

Ive been recently using some breaks with long filenames - transferred from the PC onto the MPC HD.

Load the break

Slice the break - ive been doing this manually, taking each hit, and using EDIT->EXTRACT

Now, when you do this, the MPC will take the existing filename of the original sample in memory, and append a number to it for the new sample that youve just extracted.

Most times all this will work fine...

BUT....if you use an original sample with a very long name (havent yet worked out the threshold) and extract at least 10 new samples, then some weird things may start to happen.

1) First of all, in PROGRAM mode, ive had it so that I can never assign the sample I want. Here the name field is completely taken up by the long filenames, and I can scroll through the first 10 extracted hits, then moving the data wheel doesnt go to the 11th but back to the first! you can never get to assign those later samples without first renaming them

2) In TRIM mode, strange things have happened like duplicat samples appearing.

Basically it seems as though its referencing some of these samples by name, and unfortunately those references can get *ucked up - causing the above, and when it happens its not pretty!

Will post more as and when i observe it...

I've noticed something similar when loading samples with long names from the hard disk. The Akai only sees the first 16 characters of a file name.

So if you have two files:

breakbeat_oldskool_1.wav
breakbeat_oldskool_2.wav

The akai will only see:

breakbeat_oldsko
breakbeat_oldsko

Both files look the same on the akai, and if you try to load one, or preview it, it will play the same sample regardless of which one you own.

I suspect your problem is similar. Of course, if the filenames created *within* the akai sampler are not compatible, then its definately a bug, otherwise, it's just a limitation of the operating system.

I use amazing free Bulk Rename Utility to truncate and rename all my files to less than 16 characters before I put them on the MPC hard drive.

Every MPC has a limit to the number of characters you can use for a file name. Shorten the file names and see if you will have the same problems.........

jahrome wrote:Every MPC has a limit to the number of characters you can use for a file name. Shorten the file names and see if you will have the same problems.........

use files names 16 characters or shorter.

Don't you think that the AKAI OS should automatically truncate these files names intelligently lampdawg. Not hard to program really.

dablunt wrote:
Don't you think that the AKAI OS should automatically truncate these files names intelligently lampdawg. Not hard to program really.

I thought I was bad.....we may be asking a little too much of our MPCs..

my MPC bugged out hard the other nite. I was playing for quite some time then I went to chop a sample that I had just transferred from my PC via USB. I chopped it into 4 sections. Then I went through and extracted each zone. Everything was cool until I went to extract the 4th and final sample. I hit do it and the MPC reset. I see the MPC 2500 (128 MB installed) and then it loads up my autoload folder. So I then load up my project again (luckily I had recently saved before doing the USB transfer). I do the extract again and it happened again. Then after that I was in Trim Mode I believe and hit Input Thru to turn on INput thru, right when I hit the Input Thru button it resets... This happened twice. The rest of my night was bug free.

I have noticed that the MPC seems to start fkng up after using the USB. Maybe just coincidence.

Dablunt is right; the MPC should handle this! I am pretty sure my 2000xl does! I believe it truncates the file name appropriately and appends '~##' (where the '##' is a number from 00 to 99) to make the the file name unique.

I was really looking into getting a 2500, but after hearing all the issues I figured that I would wait it out, and just work with the 2000xl.

2000xl does internally, but the problem is bringing it to the computer then back again, it breaks whatever proprietary way the 2000l handles characters beyond 8.

xparis001 wrote:2000xl does internally, but the problem is bringing it to the computer then back again, it breaks whatever proprietary way the 2000l handles characters beyond 8.

the 2500 should definitely handle this.
It should not make a blind bit of difference where the sample in memory originated from - whether sampled through any of the inputs, loaded from cd, memory card or HD (transferred via USB or otherwise)
At the point its put in memory when loaded from a storage device it should be named accordingly (i.e truncated properly if the filename is too long) and then any subsequent operations as described in my original post should also be handled correctly.

subvertbeats wrote:
the 2500 should definitely handle this.
It should not make a blind bit of difference where the sample in memory originated from - whether sampled through any of the inputs, loaded from cd, memory card or HD (transferred via USB or otherwise)
At the point its put in memory when loaded from a storage device it should be named accordingly (i.e truncated properly if the filename is too long) and then any subsequent operations as described in my original post should also be handled correctly.

The 2500 handles samples whose file names are 16 characters or less. Akai clearly states this. So why would anyone expect the 2500 to truncate and rename files with names longer than 16 characters?

So what's next? The 2500 can handle standard MIDI sequences that have up to 64 tracks...but I want to load a sequence that contains 128 tracks..the 2500 should automatically convert that sequence to 2 smaller sequences or into a song file.....

jahrome wrote:

subvertbeats wrote:
the 2500 should definitely handle this.
It should not make a blind bit of difference where the sample in memory originated from - whether sampled through any of the inputs, loaded from cd, memory card or HD (transferred via USB or otherwise)
At the point its put in memory when loaded from a storage device it should be named accordingly (i.e truncated properly if the filename is too long) and then any subsequent operations as described in my original post should also be handled correctly.

The 2500 handles samples whose file names are 16 characters or less. Akai clearly states this. So why would anyone expect the 2500 to truncate and rename files with names longer than 16 characters?

So what's next? The 2500 can handle standard MIDI sequences that have up to 64 tracks...but I want to load a sequence that contains 128 tracks..the 2500 should automatically convert that sequence to 2 smaller sequences or into a song file.....

Are Akai paying you these days then?

Seriously Jahrome I have a lot of respect for you and how helpful youve been in the past but your response here is at best short sighted.

This is REALLY BASIC FILESYSTEM and memory management stuff.
If it cant deal with the files it should not let you even load them, or at the very least warn you and ask that you rename the file!
If it does let you load them then it should not let memory references get screwed up when you do operations on those samples.
Pretty damn simple.

About your MIDI file example. I would expect the following if I tried to load a file with more than 64 tracks:

- I get a warning that only the first 64 tracks will be used

or

- I get told that the file cannot be loaded and that I must split the file myself first.

What I would NOT expect is:

- Lets me load the file with no message, only loads the first 64 tracks, then when I start copying tracks around the tracks get all screwed up.

You tell me, what does actually happen? I dont work with MIDI files really.

Thanks

dont standard midi files only have 16 tracks?

I'm pretty sure device info, which would be required to do a midi output / channel thing isnt supported in type 1 smf files.

kind of a moot point, innit?

xparis001 wrote:dont standard midi files only have 16 tracks?

I'm pretty sure device info, which would be required to do a midi output / channel thing isnt supported in type 1 smf files.

kind of a moot point, innit?

As I said I donnt really use MIDI files. If its just type one midi files that are supported then yeh I guess you're right, but more importantly, in answer to your second question, yes its totally irrelevant

jahrome wrote:The 2500 handles samples whose file names are 16 characters or less. Akai clearly states this.

Where is that stated? I looked for it in the manual with no luck.