Q about recording audio

I'm a new MPC user. The Ren is my first venture into sampling / drum machines. I've had a few weeks with it, and I'm comfortable with it's operation. Loving it. Thanks so much to everyone on the forum for providing much invaluable information.

I can do just about everything I want with it now, and while I don't know absolutely all of it's capabilities perfectly, I feel I know my way around it well enough for my purposes.

I'm a guitar player. I'm using the Ren to make beats and sequences, which I then use as backing tracks to play guitar over. The Ren is overkill for this purpose, maybe, but I'm having a blast.

I record my guitar and bass parts into the Ren, too, but I'm struggling a bit to line up the start and end point of what I'm recording. I mean, I can do it, but I feel like I'm missing some simpler way to do this. Hoping someone reading this might be able to help with a tip or shortcut or something.

So, for example, I have a 4-bar beat on Track 1, and I want to record a 4-bar guitar part for Track 2. I can do this! I have have done it a bunch of times now, in fact. However, the step where I painstaking locate the start and end points of my recorded guitar part, so that my recording lines up and loops properly within the 4-bar sequence, is time consuming and feels entirely avoidable. I feel like the Ren has all the information to do this for me, but can't find a way to tell it to do so.

Is there no way to record / sample a 4-bar long piece of audio, and have the Ren trigger and "marry" the start and end points so I don't have to? Does it make sense, what I'm asking?

What I want is for the sampler to begin recording at the beginning of the 4-bar loop which is playing, and then stop recording at the end of the 4-bar loop.

I've had some success using the threshold setting, when recording the sample, to get the start point registered as close as possible, but that relies on my timing, which is not perfect.

Finally, is what I'm asking related to the feature request for "Audio tracks?" If so, and I suspect it is, then fingers crossed for that one.

The MPC Software doesn't have audio tracks. Also, it's sequencer doesn't sync to sample recording. Unfortuantely, the workflow you discovered is the only way to do what you are trying to accomplish as of software version 1.4.

Previous MPCs have had Direct Record, Continuous Sample Tracks, and Hard Disk Recording that can be used to accomplish what you described. NI Maschine has a feature where the sequencer and sample recording can be sync'd...so they resulting audio file can be easily aligned in the sequencer without any editing.

Thank you for the info Jah.

I know that just because previous MPCs had an applicable feature doesn't really mean the Ren will in the future, but it does sound hopeful

Even after a few short weeks with the Ren, and even if a sample-sync-to-sequencer feature is never implemented, my appetite for a different system is just not there. The Ren fits too perfectly in my setup.

I have the audio from my entertainment unit feeding into it. My ps3, TV, my youtube / netflix computer, my kemper profiling rig, synthesizer, all go into a mixer, and the mixer's output goes into the Ren. The Ren feeds my speakers / headphones. This way, I have the Ren running at all times, and am ready to capture a sample of anything I have going on with just a couple button clicks. Using the Ren as the sound interface on my MPC-dedicated Mac Air really simplifies the whole setup.

And, the workflow I'm discovering with the Ren has quickly become second nature. Granted, I don't have experience with other sampler / drum machines, or even a different MPC. There may be some better thing out there for me, but at the moment I have little interest in anything but the Ren.

It sounds corny, but I feel like the Ren's workflow was designed with me in mind.