few MPC3000 newb questions ..

hi guys .. i havent any experience with MPCs yet, tho i'm familiar with the akai 3000 series sound. i'm looking for accurate-timing hw seq/sampling centerpiece for studio and live. i'm in scoring business, but also have a live act, and intend to use this for diverse higher bpm electronica, chill house, even ambient styles. so far MPC3000 seems as best option among MPCs. a few questions/details if i may, mostly related to live use:

1)from the manual i gather its possible to select next sequence in advance while the current one is playing. can this be easily done on-the-fly? for example, having a 2-bar seq playing looped and you want to switch to the next 2-bar seq.. (mostly i wont need song mode or chain, but want to manually switch short sequences)

2) mute/unmute tracks within a seq - afaik 2000 can assign pads to individual track mutes, seems 3000 cannot. this would be awesome for live app. is this in any way possible, by utilizing one of the recent Mansell OS updates, or some other workarround ?

and, if u do switch to the next seq, do muted trks stay muted?

3) im a bit confused with MIDI vs. DRUM trks.. can you program a beat using pads, but have them fire off external midi gear instead while doin so?


in the end, im still not 100% sure if 3000 is worth it over 2000. but i don't mind paying extra if it really is.. for one thing it does seem more reliable and crash resistant.. any help/advice would be much appreciated


thanks.

regards
tom
www.babic.com

clusterchord wrote:1)from the manual i gather its possible to select next sequence in advance while the current one is playing. can this be easily done on-the-fly? for example, having a 2-bar seq playing looped and you want to switch to the next 2-bar seq.. (mostly i wont need song mode or chain, but want to manually switch short sequences)

2) mute/unmute tracks within a seq - afaik 2000 can assign pads to individual track mutes, seems 3000 cannot. this would be awesome for live app. is this in any way possible, by utilizing one of the recent Mansell OS updates, or some other workarround ?

and, if u do switch to the next seq, do muted trks stay muted?

3) im a bit confused with MIDI vs. DRUM trks.. can you program a beat using pads, but have them fire off external midi gear instead while doin so?

1) You can easily switch to the next or previous sequence(/loop) if you are in "play" mode, not if you are in "record ready" mode. You can only switch to the sequence before or after, ex: from seq. 2 to 1 or 3, but not from seq. 2 to 4. If you want to jump over sequences you will have to arrange a song in song mode.

2) You can mute and solo tracks live with the function keys under the display, but the 3000 does not have a mutescreen where you assign tracks to pads like on the 2000. Muted tracks stays muted as you have turned them off.

3) You can program a beat using pads, and you can use the pads/seq to play external MIDI-gear. I think you can only have a track set to either drumpads or MIDI, and not both at the same time. You can also trigger the MPC with external MIDI gear.

deck daddy wrote:1) You can easily switch to the next or previous sequence(/loop) if you are in "play" mode, not if you are in "record ready" mode.

thanks for the info

deck daddy wrote:You can only switch to the sequence before or after, ex: from seq. 2 to 1 or 3, but not from seq. 2 to 4. If you want to jump over sequences you will have to arrange a song in song mode.

let me make sure i understood this well - this limitation is for "play" mode as well as "record ready" mode?

you cannot use numeric keypad for direct selection, jumping patterns like 01 - 28 - 14 etc.. ? or pres +1/-1 button several times to go further..?


u mentioned "song mode" - can i toggle loop on/off for any section of song - in effect having live control on how long each section play (which is ideal for my type of music) ??

deck daddy wrote:2) You can mute and solo tracks live with the function keys under the display, but the 3000 does not have a mutescreen where you assign tracks to pads like on the 2000.

r u limited to doing mute/unmute function for only one trk at the time, or its possible to have them function keys work as toggle switches for one track each ? (like u have on a MMT-8, RS7000, rm1x etc)

deck daddy wrote:Muted tracks stays muted as you have turned them off.

perfect.

deck daddy wrote:3) You can program a beat using pads, and you can use the pads/seq to play external MIDI-gear. I think you can only have a track set to either drumpads or MIDI, and not both at the same time. You can also trigger the MPC with external MIDI gear.

gotcha.

is the assignment setup for pad>ext midinote/midich saved per pattern, or its global ?


thanks for taking the time.

best regards
Tom

imo - you would be better off getting a newer mpc for live use. I wouldn't want to be messing with the floppy and or zip if you have one during a live set.