Ok Ok... Pad Assignment Techniques?

So, I have to admit - I'm an MPC geek and I love to learn as much as possible about everyone's techniques. I have searched all over the internet and throughout a variety of forums in search of PAD ASSIGNMENT TECHNIQUES and I have failed to discover anything (minus 1 weak ass thread).

So, if you ain't got shame and can part with your secrets - let'em rip...
The only useful bit of technique I found was this:

Creating Programs in GM Layout
This allows you to flip through kits gracefully in a live situation or when lookin for a new kit to match your new song. It also allows you to work on a standard between a variety of other modules and producers who follow this standard.

Here it is...
BANK A
1 - Side Stick
2 - Kick Drum 1
3 - Closed Hat
4 -
5 - Electric Snare
6 - Acoustic Snare
7 - Open Hat
8 - Pedal Hat
9 - Hi Mid Tom
10 - Low Mid Tom
11 - Low Tom
12 - High Floor Tom
13 - Crash 1
14 - Splash Cymbal
15 - Ride 1
16 - Ride 2

BANK B
1 - Tambourine
2 - Cabasa
3 - Open Triangle
4 - Mute Triangle
5 - High Timbale
6 - Low Timbale
7 - Hi Woodblock
8 - Low Woodblock
9 - Cowbell
10 - Mute Hi Conga
11 - Open Hi Conga
12 - Low Conga
13 - Short Guiro
14 - Long Guiro
15 - Short Whisk
16 - Claps

BANK C
1 - Chinese Cymbal
2 - Crash 2
3 - Vibraslap
4 - Ride 3
5 - Hi Bongo
6 - Low Bongo
7 - High Agogo
8 - Low Agogo
9 - Maracas
10 - Long Whisk
11 - Claves
12 - Mute Cuica
13 - Open Cuica
14 - Kick Drum 2
15 - Low Floor Tom
16 - High Tom

Are you serious?... You didn't find anything about, "PAD ASSIGNMENT TECHNIQUES," because there aren't any correct "techniques" to assigning sounds to pads. It's like searching for, "JOG WHEEL SPINNING TECHNIQUES." -- and like assigning sounds to pads, everyone does this differently.

GM layout is good for certain reasons (mainly the ones mentioned), but it's really all about preference. If you really must know, though, and I don't really consider it a secret, but usually:

KICK, PAD 1
SNARE/CLAP/SNAP, PAD 2
CLOSED HAT/HAT 1, PAD 3
OPEN HAT/HAT 2, PAD 4

... everything else is usually random.

I would disagree that there are no techniques. I would have to believe there is a "better way" and different ways for setting up pads for live vs studio for example. I believe this because essentially the pads are a matrix. And if this is the case, there are logical ways to optimize layouts for a variety of uses.

Here's another layout I just finished. I may be rocking this for a moment. What you will see here is that the top row in Bank A is the essential beat components. Then this row is expanded in Bank B and C for variations. Leaving Bank D available for miscellaneous samples.

BANK A (Basic Kit)
1 - Low Tom
2 - Mid Tom
3 - High Tom
4 - Crash
5 - Perc 1
6 - Perc 2
7 - Perc 3
8 - Ride
9 - Kick 2
10 - Clap
11 - Snare 2
12 - Rim Shot
13 - Kick 1
14 - Snare 1
15 - C. Hat 1
16 - O. Hat 1

BANK B (Essentials Pitch Variation)
1 - Kick 1 -8 Pitch
2 - Snare 1 -8 Pitch
3 - C. Hat 1 -8 Pitch
4 - O. Hat 1 -8 Pitch
5 - Kick 1 -4 Pitch
6 - Snare 1 -4 Pitch
7 - C. Hat 1 -4 Pitch
8 - O. Hat 1 -4 Pitch
9 - Kick 1 -2 Pitch
10 - Snare 1 -2 Pitch
11 - C. Hat 1 -2 Pitch
12 - O. Hat 1 -2 Pitch
13 - Kick 1 -1 Pitch
14 - Snare 1 -1 Pitch
15 - C. Hat 1 -1 Pitch
16 - O. Hat 1 -1 Pitch


BANK B (Essentials Low Pass Filter Variation)
1 - Kick 1 - 25 Freq 75 Reso
2 - Snare 1 - 25 Freq 75 Reso
3 - C. Hat 1 - 25 Freq 75 Reso
4 - O. Hat 1 - 25 Freq 75 Reso
5 - Kick 1 - 50 Freq 50 Reso
6 - Snare 1 - 50 Freq 50 Reso
7 - C. Hat 1 - 50 Freq 50 Reso
8 - O. Hat 1 - 50 Freq 50 Reso
9 - Kick 1 - 75 Freq 25 Reso
10 - Snare 1 - 75 Freq 25 Reso
11 - C. Hat 1 - 75 Freq 25 Reso
12 - O. Hat 1 - 75 Freq 25 Reso
13 - Kick 1 - Filter Off
14 - Snare 1 - Filter Off
15 - C. Hat 1 - Filter Off
16 - O. Hat 1 - Filter Off

BANK D (Misc.)

OK. good luck with that.

have a look a this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC3OU7mfQj8
in the end he breaks down his setup.

i think there are a milion ways to use your pads. personally i have three to five main schemes, depending on occasion and what i want to do (studio or live performance). if i sample i use another layout (kick a1, snare/clap a2, hats a3a4, samples starting from a13, bass starting from a9. if i want to do a track with mostly midi instruments bank a is drums, bank b are basses, bank c are midi instruments. sometimes i don´t care at all and just use the pads, tracks, banks in the right order from 1 to 64...

peace jo

Pad assignment will always depend on the user. Its all preference. Looks like you found some stuff, use that.

For me it depends on what samples I'm using. Somtimes I'll have 5 different ghost snares. They go to the towards the left. And it's even as vague as "to the left". Hats are usually adjacent to my kicks. Not always though only usually. Is that considered technique?

I work more with edited breaks than stock single hit kits so I generally assign pads in the order of the edits so that the correct hat follows the correct kick etc. Then with edits of more than one hit I keep them together on another bank of pads. I also printed off a load of templates I made up, each with 16 square boxes on them for referencing which hits are where.

episode wrote:OK. good luck with that.

Sarcasm?

Honestly, I am not starting this thread because I am looking for help. I started this thread because there is very little talk of any positive and usefull information on this board relating to PLAYING your instrument.

Just like a drummer sets his set up a cartain way. Tunes it a certain way. Or prefers toms a certain way. It's the same difference as a performing keyboardist who uses splits and layers a certain way to achieve a much more fluid performance. And this is the same as an MPC player who likes to use one bank for drums, another for midi control and another for fx.

Is it really that hard to believe you can get better through technique? Or is the MPC just for the musically and performance illiterate? I hardly believe it is.

Sure, everyone has different set-ups but so what? Everyone uses EQ differently but that doesn't stop aspiring kids from asking engineers what are good starting points for EQing a snare or a vocal.

What if someone is so new to the mpc they have never even used a drum machine before and found themselves using bank a for kicks and bank c for snares? Would that make much sense or would it be a better technique to use the kick and snare on the same bank to increase performance skills? Come on, this is suppose to be the MPC Forums - let's turn it up a notch and lets see some serious users contribute to this thread.

selecta jo wrote:have a look a this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC3OU7mfQj8
in the end he breaks down his setup.

very cool... makes sense... thanks

using the MPC chromatic pad assignments and a wah wah pedal to mimic an electric guitar for his live show...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j42SdmiU ... ed&search=

Still, though... the topic at hand is "PAD ASSIGNMENT TECHNIQUES" and I still agree that it's all too subjective. There really isn't a definitive way to arrange those sounds on pads.

episode wrote:Still, though... the topic at hand is "PAD ASSIGNMENT TECHNIQUES" and I still agree that it's all too subjective. There really isn't a definitive way to arrange those sounds on pads.

I agree. There is definitely no "right" way. But there are many ways

ShaneFontane wrote:

episode wrote:Still, though... the topic at hand is "PAD ASSIGNMENT TECHNIQUES" and I still agree that it's all too subjective. There really isn't a definitive way to arrange those sounds on pads.

I agree. There is definitely no "right" way. But there are many ways

Indeed.