yo, first time posting here. recently grabbed a 5000 cuz the price was nice due to it being discontinued. it took only a few days for me to stumble onto the "time signature bug." it is unfortunate (and embarrassing for AkaiPro) that this "flagship" model can't handle saving sequences made outside of 4/4. BUT..no use in bitching more about it.
I assume that the members on this thread have a solid sense of rhythm and odd meters since it seems to be what we are striving for with this machine. SO..you all may have all ready figured this workaround for yourselves. I searched the site and have not seen it posted yet, so I figured I put in my two cents. here's how it works:
let's say that you want to make a sequence in 6/4 with the ability to save it and recall it perfectly. this IS possible on the MPC 5000, but the method is slightly roundabout (it doesn't take all that long, probably 2-4 more minutes of work to set up).
instead of changing our time signature, we will leave it set at 4/4 (since this seems to be the source of the problem). we are going to focus instead on the bar length of the sequence. in this example, we want a 6/4 pattern, so we will set the bar length to 3. this will give us 3 bars, each containing 4 quarter notes. that is a total of 12 beats in the entire sequence (3x4). if we treat the whole sequence as 1 bar, then our time signature becomes 12/4. now we just break it down into smaller parts. 1 bar @ 12/4 = 2 bars @ 6/4. both expressions contain the same 12 beats. so now we have 2 bars of 6/4. however, our click track is still set to 4/4, so if we hit record, it will still sound like 3 bars @ 4/4, not 2 bars @6/4. to fix this we have to make our own click track.
choose an unused track, and choose two pads (one to be the straight quarter note beat, and one to be the click accent signaling the '1' of every bar). record a straight quarter note beat for the whole sequence using the first sound, and then turn of the metronome. now we should only here 12 quarter notes with no accent straight through the whole sequence. go into overdub and record the click accents on the '1' of every bar. in this case, we have 2 bars of 6/4, so we will have 2 click accents on the 1st and 7th beat of the entire sequence. now play that back, and you have 2 bars set at 6/4 with a sexy click track ready to go!.....so go!! bang out your beat, fine tune it, whatever, all in 6/4!...nice
save it and recall it perfectly. just remember to either mute or erase your click track when you are finished with your beat.
do this for all other time signatures:
for 5/4: set your bar length to 5 (remember, always keep the ACTUAL time signature of the MPC at 4/4). that gives us 1 bar @ 20/4 = 2 bars @ 10/ 4 = 4 bars @ 5/4
for 7/4: set your bar length to 7. that gives us 1 bar @ 28/4 = 2 bars @ 14/ 4 = 4 bars @ 7/4
see the pattern here? however many beats you want in one bar (i.e. 7) will be what you set the sequence length to (i.e. 7 bars) WITHOUT EVER ACTUALLY COMING OUT OF 4/4. for all the 5000 knows, you are always playing in 4/4, and that's just groovy.
*note: for 3/4, you just take the first example of 6/4 and break it down one more step. 2 bars @ 6/4 = 4 bars @ 3/4
don't forget that you will have to record your own click track for all of these changes!
and that's it...
save these bad boys with no problems, and recall them flawlessly.
LIMITATIONS:
as you can see from my examples, while we can trick the 5000 into saving sequences in odd time signatures, those sequences will always have the same # of bars in them. i.e. if I write something in 5/4 using this method, that sequence MUST be 4 bars long. so, you will not be able to make a 5/4 sequence that is 3 or 5 bars long, etc.
however, there is another little trick. i have found that if you change the time signature for the sequence (actually change it in the MPC, not use this workaround) and save it WITH THE LOOP SWITCH TURNED OFF, then it will load up properly, and play through the sequence exactly one time (as it should). it seems that looping in odd time signatures is what gives it trouble.
SO.....you can use these two tricks together.
example:
1. make a beat in sequence 001 in 7/4 using the method stated above (this will give you 4 bars of 7/4). set the loop to ON.
2. make a beat in sequence 002 in 5/4 by actually changing the time signature and set the bars length to 3 (or 1, or whatever). set the loop to OFF.
3. string them together in song mode. play sequence 001 two times through, and then switch to sequence 002 once, and go back to sequence 001. (or whatever, it's all up to you!)
save yo shiz, recall yo shiz, play yo shiz again and again. sexy.
let me know if this is helpful, or if anyone even sees this, as it is an old thread.
glad to be here!
