Bug reports & end-user support for Akai's MPC Software 'controllers' including the new MPC Studio 2, the MPC Touch, MPC Renaissance & original MPC Studio and MPC StudioB lack.
By updaters Wed May 11, 2016 1:16 pm
I will let the samples in original folder.
Just for programs its a better way to manage sound combis kits etc .
Its not good to use 100 gb memory, only for 1000 programs .
In other daw ,there is no problem to remain the samples in original folders.
By updaters Wed May 11, 2016 3:12 pm
sadly
this make to use a program library much unusable
one of the big lacks in ren.
just the program-sequence kombinato in mpc is one of the big things .

i will try it
i make copys from programs in new folder , then i hope thats loading the samples from project folder
i have trying............. no go:

i will make a song with calling by the name:
complete Crys from gozilla and some of which friends
i buy A new disks for this song
then i am make always the programs and kits only in this song
Last edited by updaters on Wed May 11, 2016 4:12 pm, edited 9 times in total.
By IAmRickyRiot Tue Aug 22, 2017 2:47 pm
Is this still not possible? I just bought the Touch yesterday. My drum library is very large but very organized in folders by names and types. Does this mean I'd have to have duplicates of every drum sample in my library when I want to make MPC kits out of these samples since absolute paths aren't a thing for the MPC? I can't dump the samples out into general folders because my older sessions before the Touch are still pointing to my already organized folders. If this is the case, this is such a huge waste of time and space on my already limited hard drive.
By jbrown3318 Thu Dec 30, 2021 5:28 pm
MPC Fam,

I need your help. I am coming to the MPC family for the first time, but having workflow and management issues that I didn't have with other beat production software and DAWs.

My main problem is that I have terabytes of organized samples across several drives (25+) years of accumulation.

In all of my other applications, when saving projects or programs, I have the option to use relative or absolute paths. This allows a kit file format similar to what would be a MPC *xpj , *pgm, *snd, whatever, not have to have the samples all in the same place. This allows the user to not have to make duplicates all over the place. But most importantly, this allows me to track the origin of samples and the libraries from which they came. Especially good for tracking license clearance issue with certain samples. The kit files (program) would just simply reference the samples as they are in their original locations.

So I get that MPCs have never done this, and always will duplicate and copy all of your used samples to one project folder. I just have to accept that. But one thing I can't solve is how do track where things came from?

[Example]
1. I as a producer will make any number of productions, where I will just randomly build MPC programs with samples from any combination of folders. So Pad 1 sample may come from an entirely different drive, library, etc. So far no problem. The project ultimately gets saved and the samples get copied to one project folder.

2. BUT .. 5 months later, a client (or another co-producer) comes in to listen to some of my demos I play for them. All of the sudden, the client lights up and gets hyped about a beat and particular samples. He/She asks, "Hey yo, where is that sample from? Those kits are nice, what library is it from? I have no way of finding the original sample, because no path information is preserved. On top of that, since I built custom kits that have samples from all over my system, I have no way of tracking down original library samples, once they get pulled into the MPC software and project folder.

So I would then have to spend hours just running a massive file search at the top of all my directories to identify where these samples came from.

So, how are you guys able to trace back samples that are your MPC Project folders to their original locations on disk?
User avatar
By MPC-Tutor Thu Dec 30, 2021 6:22 pm
Sounds like you should just adjust your initial workflow to be more organised in the first place. You produce music commercially so keeping track of sample sources is an important part of your business. Think about adding meta data to your samples, the MPC should retain that meta data when it re-saves the file. And/or name your files with the source in the file name itself. And when you start working on a project, keep a written reference of sample sources - you could use a spreadsheet, text file, or the project notes feature of the MPC Software.
By jbrown3318 Thu Dec 30, 2021 7:15 pm
Yeah, it's looking like if I proceed with MPC projects, I will have to do alot more pre-documentation, etc, just as you suggested. I just got spoiled from tools like Maschine, Fxpansion Geist/Guru, and other DAWs that did this for me.

For example, I just used the MPC Software as a plugin in Cubase. As usual, when I drag a sample to an MPC pad (no matter, whether the sample was dragged from the MPC's File browser or Cubase's Media browser), there is no way to track the absolute path original location of the samples.

However, there is a small breakthrough when using with Cubase. It's a little work though. If I double my work time crafting kits by not only dragging the sample from the Cubase Media browser (or wherever) to a MPC Pad, but then also 1) to a Cubase Audio track (Deselect Copy to Folder option). From there, 2) Drag the sample from the Cubase Audio track to a Cubase Sampler Track. In the Cubase Sampler Track the whole absolute path of the sample pops up if you hover over the sample name.

So if I build 4 custom kits x 16 pads, I would have to do this 64 times and have 64 sampler tracks in Cubase, just to track the locations of the file origins.. Of course, I could write each one down as I do it, in a notepad, but this increases the time tenfold more for each pad.

In the meantime, I probably will just go back to Maschine and native DAWs to continue to build official productions. I will just use the MPC Software as a testbed to play with samples and layers. Once I find a way to convert mpc programs to Maschine, then this will no longer be a problem. Or I will just re-sample the MPC pads into another system for kits I like. This becomes important if you care about the MPC effects and panning that have been applied to MPC expansion programs.

I only bought the MPC Studio 2 (w/MPC Software 2 access), in the first place, to just get at the MPC programs and expansions; but then started digging the MPC workflow the more I messed with it.

The lack of good MPC file management (absolute path referencing) and tracking, and duplicate file generation for saving projects (disk hog), is just a hindrance for me.

In some instances, for creative sessions (pre-production), in other tools, I usually just bang out a bunch of beats on other applications without having to worry about where samples came from. Just swap out stuff and experiment. And 20 beats/compositions later, I can always go back and hover over files in the various projects to reveal/show in the file explorer where things originated. Can't do this on my MPC environment. For each freestyle beat, I would have to spend about an hour or more just to log what I am experimenting with.

I get it that MPCs have always dealt with programs needing to find all samples in one flat folder, but software-wise, under the hood, the MPC software has to know the source file and path in order to make the copies to the MPC project_[projectData] folders. So why not just dump this in one of the *.xml files that they drop in these project data folder.

BTW, thanks for your reply and input. That was helpful and something to chew later on down the road. This MPC world is too strong to just walk away for me completely.

Take care
By jbrown3318 Thu Dec 30, 2021 10:43 pm
Running into tagging issues: (Windows 10 : Wav files)

1. Downloaded mp3tag (also tags *wav and other formats)
2. Added path name of original file in "Title" field to files within a directory
3. Open up said files in directory to verify all now have Title information reflected. They do.
4. Drop samples on pads in MPC Software and save project. The Title metadata information is not showing up.

What metadata tools do you guys uses to update wav files? And what would be a good field or attribute to drop a string in that refers to the pathLibrary of a file? I was using the "Title" field. Maybe the MPC software ignores this?
By jbrown3318 Fri Dec 31, 2021 1:36 am
Yeah, I just logged a bug report through the MPC Software API's "Provide Feedback" widget. Hopefully they will acknowledge and address it in a future release. Thanks for taking time out of your schedule to look into as well.