playing SCALES / CH0RDS on mpczils.

yo what up kehdz.

ive seen some videos where people play scales/chords on mpc. jfilt has a few where he shows you some different scale..and there is some other crazy guys playing the "dalexa" scales and all that..

is there a way to find out the musical "values" of each note pad? or the value of tuning between each pad? say pad 1 is a piano c note and once you turn it into 16 notes what other pads are which notes to find out how to play a scale..

i saw an app for ifone that lets you chose a scale/note you want to play and highlights what pads to press. but i dont even have a phone. let alone a smart phone.

for example.
if noticed that i like to make a few copies of a sample weather it be bass/piano/vocal and then tune them individually since i have more control over the tuning parameters. and when i set it to 16 levels i only like using the first 8 pads. after that the higher you go the more "chipmunky" or "electronic it sounds" specially on the down tuning.

Which mpc do you use? I think on the 1000 there is a screen that shows the note value of each pad. I don't know if its in the midi section or not. Maybe that can help.

Use a keygroup program instead of a DRUM program - the pads are chromatic by default and the notes are shown either down the left hand side or via the on screen keyboard.

You can then look up a specific chord and work out which pads to play, although you'd be better off plugging in a MIDI keyboard IMO.

You can do the same with a drum program as well, but keygroups tend to make more sense when you have that option.

Remember you can only tune a single sample over a limited range before it degrades the quality, acoustic sounds struggle past +/4 or 5, so ideally you need more samples to cover 16 pads (3 or 4 - C, E, G works well).

I cover all three methods for making musical programs (via keygroup, DRUM and 16 levels) in great detail in my book:

http://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php/ ... laid-bare/

god damn you tutor..
yea i know..ive been slacking on that book..hahah
ok ok i might finally gift it to my self come christmas time ;p

hmm..

gona try out the keygroup thing.
i mainly like using the 16 pads/tune for bass..but after ts tuned too high/low it starts soudning like shit..so yes degraded badly..

ill give wha tu said a try..
and ill probably..finally buy the book next month. haha

and im on mpc ren..
if not i wouldve posted in the other mpc section ;/

oh sh+++ my bad. I clicked on new posts. didnt even realize it was posted in the ren column.

16 levels gives you a range of 16 semi tones. Or a full octave and 4 notes. If you want to use the 16 levels function effectively to play scales or chords you first have to figure out the what note or chord the sample is.

cool shiet.

so each pad is a half steap which makes up an oktave? hmm ok

MPC should have a scale mode. Where it turns pad banks into certain scales.

MPCWeapon1 wrote:MPC should have a scale mode. Where it turns pad banks into certain scales.

That's true!
Meanwhile I've made some blank programs with pads linked in various chord styles only for major and minor scales. And each pad is pitched so I only have to copy 1 same sound to them.

MPCWeapon1 wrote:MPC should have a scale mode. Where it turns pad banks into certain scales.

This would be niiiiice!

that would be pretty sick +10

I came across this website awhile back, very useful for putting chords together on pads


http://web-development.cc/mpc-chordfinder/#

if they do add a scale mode imo it would be best if it worked by lighting scale tones green and non-scale tones red (similarly to ableton push), so that you still have the option of playing notes outside of the scales.

fdodds wrote:if they do add a scale mode imo it would be best if it worked by lighting scale tones green and non-scale tones red (similarly to ableton push), so that you still have the option of playing notes outside of the scales.

Yeah that'll be dope. "Accidentals" are a must. A lot of good melodies are made with Accidentals.

Or use this old school trick:

resample a chord and put it on a pad...then use 16 level pitch & or put it on a keygroup