PLEASE HELP - Live performance due - Im in trouble :(

I have the MPC 1000 with the 128 ram upgrade and a 256 card.

I wanted to do an hour of live performance. My idea was to have everything on autolaod. I have a live performance due on May 28th and I'm almost thinking I may not be ready if I can't resolve these concerns quick..

genre: Techno

My intial thought was to take about 200 Mb of samples and load them into the autoload. create about 40 patterns or so and use the scroll and mute feature.

Please Help!!

Problems.

1. I can not record live into my mpc. It says memory full / even tho I when I check on the computer I have HALF my memory left..?

2. I can drop samples..... in the flash card using the computer however I can't read them. Is this realted to the above...?

3. Even if I have the 256 card are the samples some how defaulted only to take 128 of space due to my ram size?

I've read in other forums about problems ppl had using midi and actually had to return their unit for another.... do you think I may have to do this...?....

Please help.

the retail store where I bought it ....... isn't even returning my calls.

feel free to add me to aim, msn, or yahoo... I'm running out of time..

well your mpc will only hold 128mb of memory at a time. you would have to clear up space on the internal memory before you can load more sounds. also sounds that are sterio will take more memory than sounds that are mono, you can check your sounds and make what ever you dont need to be sterio mono instead. do you have any other gear that can take some of the load off your mpc?

I do have a Roland sp 808....however I was not going to use it with the mpc...

I thought that if I save in autoload that was on my flash card...NOT in my internal memory..

are you saying the whole time it's been saving to the internal memory..?

if so is their a quick / direct way to delete it..

also is their a way to NOT save in the internal memory to avoid running out of space in the future..?

I was going to use the mpc as more or less the computer.. creating all my loops and sounds from within.

the mpc is only going to load 128mb of samples max at one time (that is what the 128mb upgrade is for). the card size (256) is how much stuff you can save on the card, but 128mb is gonna be THE MAX that you can load at the same time.

maybe live you might want to break your stuff down to atleast 2 or 3 folders to load individually throughout your set. each folder being enough samples and loops for like a couple songs in a row. i don't know. then maybe you could play samples/loops/interludes off the 808 while the 1000 is loading up?

good luck.

* also note:

run simultaneously.

I would NOT be using ALL 128 at the same time...I just want my patterns to be able to pull samples from the 256 card....?


What is the biggest card you can get ?

Is the 1 gig just for the flash only ..?

I did a search on google... is it assume it will take any "flash card" ?

would this be acceptable...?
http://www.flash-memory-store.com/lex1gb16xusb.html

I was under the impression the 128 external ram piece was more or less for processing power and the 256 was for the load up. Or perhaps I just wasn't far enough into my thoughts to explain this to the sales guy...(either / or).

I think perhaps this may be the direction I may need to go to avoid problems in the future.

I need one fast. Can anyone post other links..?

I have not made a habbit yet of making folders for say individual tracks yet. My first attempt was to create a mass folder filled with 256 Mb of samples.........but perhaps this is not the way to approach this.

no7exit wrote:well your mpc will only hold 128mb of memory at a time. you would have to clear up space on the internal memory before you can load more sounds.

Is their a DIRECT way to delete what is in the internal memeory without deleted samples used in other tracks being pulled from the the 256 flash card .?

The MPC doesn't work like the SP808. Well, nothing works quite like the SP808! The SP808 has no internal memory to speak of, everything is played from the ZIP drive which as you probably know is 100Mb or 250Mb depending on the model you have. Advantage being you have lots of space but the disadvantage is the low 4 stereo voice polyphony maximum. ZIPs simply aren't fast enough to play back any more than that at once.

The MPC works like most other gear including rack samplers and other grooveboxes. The internal memory is how much data the MPC can hold at once, 128Mb. The compact flash reader is simply for storage, like a floppy or hard drive. Upto 2Gb cards can be used. The MPC cannot playback from the CF card. Unlike the SP808 which can only playback from the ZIP. So remember, the CF card is just storage. All playback, sequencing etc is from memory.

So if TechnoSong1 is 50Mb in total, TechnoSong2 is 40Mb in total and TechnoSong3 is 120Mb in total you could have TechnoSong1 and TechnoSong2 in memory at the same time (total 90Mb) but not TechnoSong1 or TechnoSong2 and TechnoSong3 at the same time. You would have to load TechnoSong3 separately, replacing the others from memory (but not the card!).

However, MPC projects should rarely reach such large sizes and I suspect you are again making an assumption about the MPC based on your experience of the SP808. The SP808 is primarliy a "phrase sampler". It excels at playing very large chunks of audio, entire 16 bar drm loops or instrumental breaks. The MPC concept is building songs from much shorter samples. Drum samples, short instrumental phrases and true multi-sample "instrument patches" (ie PROGRAM:Piano = PianoC1.wav, PianoC#1.wav, Piano D1.wav etc etc) like traditional rack samplers.

HTH
Jim

jellyjim:

My idea was to create many mulitple patterns and have the freedom to scoll through them at my pickings.....

my approach is NOT loop based..but samples...creating 50 tracks in a pattern in which I would mute out certain elements at a time ..... then ...when I was done with the "pattern I would roatate into the next song.

so your saying the music would stop for example...I would have to laod up a new track?

REDLINES wrote:jellyjim:

My idea was to create many mulitple patterns and have the freedom to scoll through them at my pickings.....

my approach is NOT loop based..but samples...creating 50 tracks in a pattern in which I would mute out certain elements at a time ..... then ...when I was done with the "pattern I would roatate into the next song.

so your saying the music would stop for example...I would have to laod up a new track?

Yeah you can do what you are suggesting and it's a common way to work with MPCs but all your patterns, tracks and associated samples have to fit within RAM, ie 128Mb. Beyond that you'd have to loose some in memory to make way for new ones loaded off the CF card. Which would interrupt playback yes.

Probably best if you just start building some patterns and pulling in samples and see how it goes. You'll get a feel for the process and a good idea if 128Mb is too limiting for you or not.

Jim

either way.... one of my favorite producers used this machine...so no matter what.. if it's good enough for him, then it's good enough for me.

would loop based production safe space? perhaps i can create in the mpc and record a loop into the computer. and/or vice versa...

Also bear in mind that the reputation of the MPC range as excellent live tools isn't only based on their use as standalone devices. They are, don't forget, MIDI sequencers as much as they are sample sequencers. A lot of the big techno acts of the early 90s used a pair of MPCs driving internal sounds, normally drums, AND a BIG rack of hardware samplers for all the stuff they couldn't fit on or use with the MPCs. Typically multi-samples of their valuable and unreliable vintage keyboards and synths that they didn't fancy dragging out of the studio and taking on a punishing 90 day tour! The earlier MPCs on which the reputaion was built had far less than 128Mb of RAM after all (MPC60, MPC3000 up to 16Mb and MPC2000/2000XL 32Mb IIRC).

Jim

can anyone suggest how someone could pull off a full hour of live material and save space to be under or around the 128 mb..?

Well you could fit 5 days of performance in 128Mb if the music were appropriate!

It's only your samples that are gonna take up lots of room, sequences aren't large at all, a few Kb.

Are you thinking in terms of "phrases"? 100s of loops at a few seconds or more each? Yeah sure that'll gobble up memory very quickly. That's not really where the MPC is at. Sequence a bassline from individual notes rather than sample the whole bassline for example. Use mono samples. Use the Q-sliders to vary the same sounds. And so on.

Jim

jellyjim wrote:
Are you thinking in terms of "phrases"? 100s of loops at a few seconds or more each? Yeah sure that'll gobble up memory very quickly.
Jim

that is exactly what I had in mind for my intial approach.

jellyjim wrote: That's not really where the MPC is at. Sequence a bassline from individual notes rather than sample the whole bassline for example. Use mono

Ummm I was doing it note at a time... I have a few 1-2 second samples in a few tracks nothing really extensive so I thought perhaps by using the entire sample may use less some how. meaning i'm NOT doing that now and I've reached the 128 mark.

Note: I'm not using all the samples... my intial thought was to laod up as many sounds as possible..then pull from that...my live set..

i've gone back to the plurge button and perhaps may some add just sounds one at a time / I GUESS / for the moment but this is the exact opposite of why I bought this machine.

granted on one of my loops may have 30 something tracks to it but again i'm not using huge chucks in samples. 80% drums / 20% sounds.

this is going to be for a live performance. asking those from experience....would you suggest NOT making any drum samples in mono? If that is the root of the performance is drum programming..I would hate to think I would have to alter the sound just to fit it in...

I may have a way to go around the stop / no sound / load pitfall by perhaps djing in the middle of the set.....perhaps as an intermission.

but again....one of favorite techno producers used this maching and Banged an hour long set.... I'm just trying to find out how he did it..

I was assuming I could just use loops and perhaps this would make it easier but are you saying this would do the opposite and take up more space? my intial thought was to have about 35 small loops that pehrpas have 1-3 parts per loop... save them all in auto load.. turn the machine on.... and just hit play, simple no hassle..... ............

In that case I can't quite see how you're using the whole 128Mb. 128Mb is 24m 28sec in mono or 12m 14sec in stereo. That's 734 unique 1sec stereo drum hits or 91 unique stereo 4 bar loops at 120bpm!

Jim