MPC X, MPC Live, MPC One & MPC Key 61 Forum: Support and discussion for the MPC X, MPC Live, MPC Live II, MPC One & MPC Key 61; Akai's current generation of standalone MPCs.
By richardjneo Tue May 04, 2021 1:17 am
...or am I missing something?

Unless I create a template project with all of my external gear already set up on tracks (rather not because I have a lot of gear and like to mix and match it four different projects), I can’t save a piece of gear as a preset or program including all the midi output/channel/etc assignments in order to quickly load up that piece in a new project.

I can save a CV program but it doesn’t seem to store which CV outputs are attached to the piece - kinda the most important part...

And if I have a MIDI synth with CV ins (eg Neutron - I’d rather use USB MIDI for notes and then send CV to control things) well then just too bad, or have two tracks set up.. ugh

There really should just be an ‘external synth’ track type with all the vital information able to be saved as a program and with MIDI output/channel AND CV/Gate assignable freely. I was excited to get the One as the brain of a DAWless operation but the cracks are beginning to show.. somewhat disappointing.

How are people handling these issues? Not bothered? Doing the project template thing? *Am* I actually missing something?

Also does anyone have an account on the Akai Pro forum who could swing me an invite so I can make my suggestion over here or does anyone know if they read this stuff?

Cheers.
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By bliprock Tue May 04, 2021 2:15 am
I use external gear from synths to effects units, the only difference is I don't use CV.
I find that saving programs of the CCs to Qlinks is fine and it only takes a moment to set the midi channel and as I set my gears receive channel the same way all the time, cos I don't have more than 32 external instruments over 2 midi outs on my Live. What I am saying is this effect rack is always 16 on A, this synth is always 1 on B. The only downside would be if I use 2 synths that are multitimbral but chose to not do that, and use one channel only as I have enough synths.
So I don't share your view that it needs fixing. I mean do you have more than 16 instruments on 1 midi channels? Do you change their receive channel all the time? does it really take that long to set up A channel 1? I don't think so.
If you mix CV and midi then well yeah makes sense you have to use two channels and not a big deal to me. They are two totally different things aren't they control wise. I actually use two channels a lot for midi on one instrument so I can mute CCs sent but keep the notes. Again not a big deal or even broken. But the CVs not saving in program would be a pain I can agree and would seem broken.
I have a folder in my MPC that is just synth programs I saved, these are for the Qlinks, that way I never have to bother setting them up or use a template, as I will never have a project the same or use all the synths I have. So if I decide to use a certain synth then I load the program and set the channel and it takes seconds, so to me this is actually really really good. my 2 cents.
By cmackg Tue May 04, 2021 10:57 pm
Yeah, I would like my external programs to remember their midi channels, but otherwise it works okay. i run 4 externals, so the second ones on each midi channel have a set channel number. I also got the Blokas.io midihub -- so a lot of my switching of things gets handled with it. Very nice piece of gear.
By Dmcghee Wed May 05, 2021 9:15 am
Get a USB hub and you will have 16 midi channels per hub.
Go to Preference / MIDI Sync and Rename the ports to the name of your synths.
On Main screen hit the midi icon, scroll to select instrument on each port. With a Multitimbral midi keyboard up 16 midi channels per USB port can be selected for more tracks.
By DokBrown Wed May 05, 2021 5:25 pm
U cats are luxurious. I just got my MPC and 1-2 drum machines & 2 mics / mixer for recording live / percussion sounds . . . . . .
By cda Wed May 05, 2021 7:44 pm
Are you guys saying that if you have a project/song or whatever it's called, and you have, for example, set the MIDI channel for track 1 to MIDI channel 4 out to an external device and maybe set track 2 to send MIDI on channel 3 to an external device, that when you save, turn off or work on something else and reload, those MIDI channel settings are not saved? :shock:
By richardjneo Tue May 11, 2021 1:46 am
No, that stuff is saved on a per project basis, but for every new project you need to select the midi port and channel for a particular synth every time. There’s no way to set that synth up as a preset or program with this stuff preloaded.

I do like the USB hub suggestion, that will go a ways for newer gear but older MIDI Din stuff not so much.

Regarding setting something on the same port and channel each time, I always use the same channel number for each individual synth so yes it would be a lot easier to get things going if I can just load it up quickly.

For now I’ve gone ahead and set up a master template with tracks set up for each of my synths as I found on the Sequence screen it shows you only active tracks which is handy. They’re all up in really high track numbers so I’ll never run into them while working but it’s easy enough to switch to them via the sequence screen and copy them to the next available track when needed. Still, a workaround and not ideal.

As for two tracks for MIDI and CV for the one synth, yeah it is a big deal and if you had to deal with it you might think so too - why even talk about something you don’t understand? Some functions in one track and some functions in another, while trying to jam? Absolute PITA trust me! :lol: for now I’ve forgone MIDI entirely where I can to make things easier. There’s always a workaround.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this piece of gear - it is SO versatile and I’ve used MPCs as my master sequencer before and this is an improvement, I just think they could have implemented some things better. But I understand you can’t have everything.

Thanks all for suggestions and comments :worthy:
By cda Fri May 14, 2021 11:27 pm
richardjneo wrote:No, that stuff is saved on a per project basis, but for every new project you need to select the midi port and channel for a particular synth every time. There’s no way to set that synth up as a preset or program with this stuff preloaded.



Thanks very much for clarifying that for me. Much appreciated.
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By 83dude Fri May 14, 2021 11:55 pm
cda wrote:
richardjneo wrote:No, that stuff is saved on a per project basis, but for every new project you need to select the midi port and channel for a particular synth every time. There’s no way to set that synth up as a preset or program with this stuff preloaded.



Thanks very much for clarifying that for me. Much appreciated.


Have you tried making a template for this?
:popcorn:
By cda Sun May 16, 2021 5:36 pm
I do not yet one an MPC One yet. I am currently reading up on the device. I tend to do a lot of research before buying new gear so I don't make a mistake.

Thanks for your reply.
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By Lampdog Sun May 16, 2021 7:36 pm
I do like the USB hub suggestion, that will go a ways for newer gear but older MIDI Din stuff not so much.

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