Thoughts on the MPC XL

Elektrobolt wrote:File names themselves don’t seem to matter much to the MPC, but the name field inside each .progression JSON file definitely does — that’s what the MPC parses during startup. The first dash appears to split the main menu category from the actual progression name, and everything after that is used for the progression submenu.

That is something the generator could easily do. If you feel confident enough to say what would work best for easier MPC ingestion and navigation, please specify your dream naming scheme and we'll implement that !

Jean-Marc Liotier wrote:That is something the generator could easily do. If you feel confident enough to say what would work best for easier MPC ingestion and navigation, please specify your dream naming scheme and we'll implement that !

This is how I changed the name field in the .progression files within one zip file:

"Jungle/DnB-Liquid DnB 1 Smooth (i ♭VII ♭VI V)"
"Jungle/DnB-Liquid DnB 2 Classic (i ♭VII ♭VI V)"
"Jungle/DnB-Liquid DnB 3 Jazz (i ♭VII ♭VI V)"
"Jungle/DnB-Liquid DnB 4 Modal (i ♭VII ♭VI V)"

In this structure:

• "Jungle/DnB" is the Music Style heading shown in the MPC dropdown.
• "Liquid DnB" is the Named Progression within that style.
• “1 Smooth”, “2 Classic”, “3 Jazz”, “4 Modal” are the individual files, each labeled with a different Harmonic Style Category.
• The parenthesized (i ♭VII ♭VI V) is the Roman Numeral Analysis of the progression.

Regarding the MPC:

This results in a main menu entry "Jungle/DnB" and when tapped opens up the four, e.g. "Liquid DnB 1 Smooth (i ♭VII ♭VI V)" progressions.

The first dash/hyphen in the name appears to be what separates the menu heading "Ballad" from the menu items "Ballad 01", so the music style cannot contain a '-', as in "Italo-Disco/House" (I just cut the "-Disco" to "Italo/House" which may have been wrong, but I was impatient).

Because I was unsure about how dash/hyphen was used overall, I refrained from using it at all, except as the one separator above. That's also why I chose space as the separator of the roman numerals.

Also, the MPC seem to have some form of auto spacing when displaying "i-♭VII-♭VI-V", because it looks like "i-♭VII-♭VI- V" (only seem to happen for capital letters after non-letters. I mean, it's not like a did deep research on this, but one wants clean classy options.

It does not appear as though the file name has any bearing, but I honestly haven't tried anything after I realized the name field is being used, so I just cut the specific harmonic style category information out (number and label), and of course slashes cannot be in the file name (I just removed it).

If unclear I can send you the files I've created so far.

BTW, I'm really tired right now, so I might write this like it's blah blah blah, please let me know and I will make it better.

In the Keygroup engine, it would be really interesting to have an option for time‑invariant pitch shifting, so samples can be pitched up or down without changing their playback length. I think this would be a meaningful improvement to the Keygroup workflow and give users another way to take advantage of the newer hardware. I’m mainly interested in using this with shorter sounds, since it would let the Keygroup behave more like a drum synth. Certain drum hits could even take on a xylophone‑like character. Imagine a sampled cuíca or talking drum with this technique — it could open up some very expressive possibilities. Traditional drum resampling is totally fine, but it’s been used so heavily for so long that this would offer a fresh alternative. It doesn’t even need to be perfect in quality — the fact that it sounds different is what makes it appealing.

I’m really digging the MPC XL, but the Grid View needs a way to select multiple specific notes without grabbing everything inside a lasso box. After laying down a chord progression, I want to isolate the thirds and bump them up an octave. It feels like holding Shift and either doing another lasso or tapping additional notes should allow that. Now that I’ve gotten used to the XL’s button‑driven workflow, this limitation in the hands‑on touch interface feels especially lacking. I’ve been trying to remember how and why I didn’t feel the same impulse about this on the MPC X for eight years, but I still can’t pin down a definite reason. Really strange.

Elektrobolt wrote:In the Keygroup engine, it would be really interesting to have an option for time‑invariant pitch shifting, so samples can be pitched up or down without changing their playback length. I think this would be a meaningful improvement to the Keygroup workflow and give users another way to take advantage of the newer hardware. I’m mainly interested in using this with shorter sounds, since it would let the Keygroup behave more like a drum synth. Certain drum hits could even take on a xylophone‑like character. Imagine a sampled cuíca or talking drum with this technique — it could open up some very expressive possibilities. Traditional drum resampling is totally fine, but it’s been used so heavily for so long that this would offer a fresh alternative. It doesn’t even need to be perfect in quality — the fact that it sounds different is what makes it appealing.

This is already possible in the current firmware. Load the sample onto a pad in a Drum Program, check WARP, and then press the button to convert the pad to a Keygroup.

Elijah wrote:This is already possible in the current firmware. Load the sample onto a pad in a Drum Program, check WARP, and then press the button to convert the pad to a Keygroup.

So that Keygroup would let me play the sample across the full pitch range without any change in duration.

I genuinely didn’t realize you could turn a converted Drum Program pad into a fully functional time‑invariant pitch‑shifting synth that easily. It really makes me wonder why that capability isn’t just exposed directly in the Keygroup UI — it’s a fantastic way to playback a sample.

Either way, that’s about as good as it gets. Really appreciate the insight, Elijah.