First impressions and questions!

Thanks for the replies to my inquiries. This machine is complex in confounding ways and yet simplistic in others. I'll have to spend more time with it.

After messing with it all night last night, I found that you can indeed record from one sequence to another, but you have to arrange the sequences in song mode and use OVERDUB in that mode while it's playing, only then does it remain in record when sequences change over.

Also, yet again, an elegant and memory saving approach to song mode in the ASR is that, in SONG mode, you have an additional 8 tracks that roll on top of all the sequences (using the same instruments). This is perfect for drum fills, or other melodic "one-off" type elements that you don't want repeated. It's a simple solution, but it works and glues the sequences together. The tricky thing about the ASR is you get very little visual feedback of these things, so it's a lot of playing an listening back etc.

One-week update: I'm falling in love with this thing! Sure, it has its weird quirks and inconsistencies, especially around how the sequencer works, but more important than anything else, it helps me make music in a hardware environment that gets me to actually focus.

I read the discussion above about the quirky song mode, and I agree with all the suggestions and would Iike the ability to assign tracks on multiple sequences and many other improvements, but I find that the MPC gets the job done in the end.

My process is:

1. I build out all the tracks in one single sequence, typically an 8 bar loop, and I try to organize things as much as I can with the stuff I've got so far.

2. I then start to jam with this sequence using pad and track mutes and by assigning q-knobs to the Project level for the core elements I want to evolve over the course of the final song. This is where I play around with opening up filters gradually, building up the song sound by sound, and getting a feel for how I'd like the structure to be. In this step, I tend to come up with new ideas or possibly alternations of a track, etc. I try to stay on this step for as long as I can to ensure I've come up with a complete song structure in my head laid down into the corresponding tracks and programs. (As I'm writing this, I realize I could even create 8 bar variations of the same track/program by creating copies of a track inside this master sequence and assign it to the same program. I haven't tried this, but this would help me stay on this step in the process even longer.)

3. This is when I begin to commit to the song structure by creating copies of the original sequence. Perhaps I've figured out how I want the intro to sound like, so I name the new sequence "Intro" and decide on the length (using the 2X button to ensure I don't have to manually copy stuff in the grid sequencer).

4. Once I have a separate sequence for a part of the song, I begin to record the automations on it. For example, track mutes, pad mutes and knob movements.

5. I then iterate on steps 3+4 again and again until I have the full song laid out. Sometimes I realize in the end that something was missing all along, perhaps a background pad chord or an effect. At that point, that's where the MPC workflow is less than ideal, because my only option then is to create the new track+program combo and manually do that for each section where this sound will be used, and then manually select the note events inside the grid view and copy/paste into the other sequences because, shockingly, there's no way to copy a track from one sequence to another!

6. To test the song in full, I arrange it in Song mode and go back into the adjacent sequences to tweak any transitions, but I don't convert this to a single long sequence because it's not needed. I prefer the ability to quickly jump through the major parts of the song. If I want to export a work in progress, I simply do that through the Song mode's export feature and put an mp3 on the SD card and then transfer it over to the phone (Bluetooth file sharing would be neat!).

8. When I feel the song is nearing completion, at least in theory, this is when I'd convert the song into a single sequence and then explode the drum program and finally export all the stems as high quality wavs for import into my DAW. On there, I'd do final mixing and mastering (and, inevitably, I'd probably come up with more improvements and perhaps I'd even switch out a synth track entirely if I find something even better sounding in my DAW. I say "in theory" because I haven't come to this point yet. So far I've only made one full song following this process, with two others still on step 2, but I'll eventually go through the final stages in Reason 10. So far, I've been able to get at least a half decent mix inside the MPC, even though I find it to be a bit of a black box (does it have some hidden processing on the master track or is it just my imagination?).

So that's my process. I like working in this way, and like I said earlier, I find the pads to be surprisingly playable to the point that I haven't even bothered to plug in my midi keyboard yet. I prefer to just sit wherever I want in the house with the MPC and a pair of headphones.

Some quality of live improvements I'd love to see on the MPC One:

- Main+Pad to switch track is great, but why is there a split second delay before you can press the pad? Super annoying!
- The q-knob learn mode is clunky and should be possible to streamline. Still, it's way easier than to manually configure them from the q-knob configuration screen.
- Fix the bug where erasing pad mute automations doesn't actually erase them, forcing you to remove them through the list editor.
- Make the autosave feature silent rather than in your face. I turned it off almost immediately after enabling it because it was just a horrible experience.
- Implement more quick shortcuts, like a button + a pad to quickly access custom features/pages/toggles. I'd love a way to mute or solo tracks this way. The Menu+Pad shortcuts are mostly superfluous since there are direct buttons for nearly all of the sub pages.
- Allow a separate volume for headphones vs the audio outs. Having to unplug the audio cables when doing critical mixing with headphones is a real headache. Just implement a software override for the headphones.
- Make the +/- buttons underneath the main knob configurable. I never use them, but would love to use them if they switched between tracks, or jumped up/down a bar in a sequence for example.
- Allow spontaneous overrides of automation if playing back a sequence with automation while moving the corresponding knob. Like disengaging the autopilot on demand.
- Make it possible to copy tracks into other sequences. Edit: just realized there is a way!! It's right there on the pencil icon menu of the track.
- Make the Erase button configurable. I never use it.
- Give some visual feedback when toggling Automation via the physical button (it's crazy that it doesn't given how damaging leaving this on can be!).

Overall, I'm a happy MPC One user and I'll most likely end up reselling the Digitone/Digitakt combo because practicing live performances just isn't for me in the end. I still love the creative workflow though, but I just can't justify keeping them all given their price tags.

I was just about to tell you about editing via main rather than via grid edit as it gives you a few more options including (sort of) track copying

Btw, if you are recording automation and mutes to sequences and then converting song to sequence, are you not finding your automations getting messed up due to spurious mutes being added to the start of the sequence?

I find the Erase button useful, but the problem is, it can't be used for erasing the whole track during playback. It SUCKS to have to stop playback, because it interrupts the flow and it also means that you won't be able to do it live. And when I want to erase a single pad/drum/note completely, I have to hold Erase+pad for the whole duration of the loop? Usually I want to erase the whole pad from that track, but I haven't found a way to do that.

HouseWithoutMouse wrote:I find the Erase button useful, but the problem is, it can't be used for erasing the whole track during playback. It SUCKS to have to stop playback, because it interrupts the flow and it also means that you won't be able to do it live. And when I want to erase a single pad/drum/note completely, I have to hold Erase+pad for the whole duration of the loop? Usually I want to erase the whole pad from that track, but I haven't found a way to do that.

To erase a pad completely:
Go to grid edit,.push the pad, all notes of the pad will be higjlighted and then shift and cut.
Very fast.

MPC-Tutor wrote:I was just about to tell you about editing via main rather than via grid edit as it gives you a few more options including (sort of) track copying

Btw, if you are recording automation and mutes to sequences and then converting song to sequence, are you not finding your automations getting messed up due to spurious mutes being added to the start of the sequence?

So this is the step I haven't gotten to yet. If that conversion ends up messing the song up, that would be a shame. I guess I'll have to try it and see how it works. In my mind, converting a song into a sequence should turn the entire song into an exact copy of what it played in song mode. If it doesn't do that, that's a shame.

Unfortunately converting a song to sequence does often mess up mutes, it's usually easily fixed in list edit though, typically it's a lone 'mute: on' event added at 01.01.000 in any track that features mutes later in the sequence. It's a known bug, and an old one. Alternatively just use song mode to build the basic structure and then record mutes after converting to a sequence.

I think they struggle a bit with song mode, too many variables to cope with. The whole thing needs a rethink, including dealing with things like mis matching track orders which I assume is the reason you can't export track stems in song mode. Also it can't deal with varying tempos

I am back!
It has been a while! First starting out with an MPC Live or Clive as I use to call it. Never felt it lived up to Akai’s bold statement of the centre piece of the studio and with no CV and poor firmware it just let the Clive down. Sold for an Force - an improvement but still lacking. Sold and replaced with nothing. Until now - an MPC one! First time after a couple of days with firmware 2.10 I feel it could be the stand alone centre piece of the studio.

MPC-Tutor wrote:Unfortunately converting a song to sequence does often mess up mutes, it's usually easily fixed in list edit though, typically it's a lone 'mute: on' event added at 01.01.000 in any track that features mutes later in the sequence. It's a known bug, and an old one. Alternatively just use song mode to build the basic structure and then record mutes after converting to a sequence.

I think they struggle a bit with song mode, too many variables to cope with. The whole thing needs a rethink, including dealing with things like mis matching track orders which I assume is the reason you can't export track stems in song mode. Also it can't deal with varying tempos

Just tested it on my complete song, and indeed, it messed up with the pad mutes. It was a very easy fix though, I only had to re-set the initial state of the pad mutes (i.e. the starting point) and then the rest of the song flowed flawlessly. I had also missed setting one track to the right program but that was also a 5 second fix.

I did notice something else that concerned me when playing back the full song sequence though: a few times, it audibly clicked/stuttered over the 'seams' between the previously separate sequences, as if it had some CPU or buffering issues there. I checked the CPU monitor but it's parked around 35% so I'm not sure what's going on. It only happens during the full playback - if I go into the grid sequencer and rewind the song a couple of bars to play over the same transition again, it plays it flawlessly. Some sort of memory buffer issue due to a very long sequence? If so, can the memory/CPU monitors be trusted?

All that said, I suspect this glitch wouldn't show up when exporting the stems into wavs so it's not really a big issue for me since I'd only go through this step when I'm done working on the song inside the MPC.

djst wrote:One-week update: I'm falling in love with this thing! Sure, it has its weird quirks and inconsistencies, especially around how the sequencer works, but more important than anything else, it helps me make music in a hardware environment that gets me to actually focus.

I read the discussion above about the quirky song mode, and I agree with all the suggestions and would Iike the ability to assign tracks on multiple sequences and many other improvements, but I find that the MPC gets the job done in the end.

My process is:

1. I build out all the tracks in one single sequence, typically an 8 bar loop, and I try to organize things as much as I can with the stuff I've got so far.

2. I then start to jam with this sequence using pad and track mutes and by assigning q-knobs to the Project level for the core elements I want to evolve over the course of the final song. This is where I play around with opening up filters gradually, building up the song sound by sound, and getting a feel for how I'd like the structure to be. In this step, I tend to come up with new ideas or possibly alternations of a track, etc. I try to stay on this step for as long as I can to ensure I've come up with a complete song structure in my head laid down into the corresponding tracks and programs. (As I'm writing this, I realize I could even create 8 bar variations of the same track/program by creating copies of a track inside this master sequence and assign it to the same program. I haven't tried this, but this would help me stay on this step in the process even longer.)

3. This is when I begin to commit to the song structure by creating copies of the original sequence. Perhaps I've figured out how I want the intro to sound like, so I name the new sequence "Intro" and decide on the length (using the 2X button to ensure I don't have to manually copy stuff in the grid sequencer).

4. Once I have a separate sequence for a part of the song, I begin to record the automations on it. For example, track mutes, pad mutes and knob movements.

5. I then iterate on steps 3+4 again and again until I have the full song laid out. Sometimes I realize in the end that something was missing all along, perhaps a background pad chord or an effect. At that point, that's where the MPC workflow is less than ideal, because my only option then is to create the new track+program combo and manually do that for each section where this sound will be used, and then manually select the note events inside the grid view and copy/paste into the other sequences because, shockingly, there's no way to copy a track from one sequence to another!

6. To test the song in full, I arrange it in Song mode and go back into the adjacent sequences to tweak any transitions, but I don't convert this to a single long sequence because it's not needed. I prefer the ability to quickly jump through the major parts of the song. If I want to export a work in progress, I simply do that through the Song mode's export feature and put an mp3 on the SD card and then transfer it over to the phone (Bluetooth file sharing would be neat!).

8. When I feel the song is nearing completion, at least in theory, this is when I'd convert the song into a single sequence and then explode the drum program and finally export all the stems as high quality wavs for import into my DAW. On there, I'd do final mixing and mastering (and, inevitably, I'd probably come up with more improvements and perhaps I'd even switch out a synth track entirely if I find something even better sounding in my DAW. I say "in theory" because I haven't come to this point yet. So far I've only made one full song following this process, with two others still on step 2, but I'll eventually go through the final stages in Reason 10. So far, I've been able to get at least a half decent mix inside the MPC, even though I find it to be a bit of a black box (does it have some hidden processing on the master track or is it just my imagination?).

So that's my process. I like working in this way, and like I said earlier, I find the pads to be surprisingly playable to the point that I haven't even bothered to plug in my midi keyboard yet. I prefer to just sit wherever I want in the house with the MPC and a pair of headphones.

Some quality of live improvements I'd love to see on the MPC One:

- Main+Pad to switch track is great, but why is there a split second delay before you can press the pad? Super annoying!
- The q-knob learn mode is clunky and should be possible to streamline. Still, it's way easier than to manually configure them from the q-knob configuration screen.
- Fix the bug where erasing pad mute automations doesn't actually erase them, forcing you to remove them through the list editor.
- Make the autosave feature silent rather than in your face. I turned it off almost immediately after enabling it because it was just a horrible experience.
- Implement more quick shortcuts, like a button + a pad to quickly access custom features/pages/toggles. I'd love a way to mute or solo tracks this way. The Menu+Pad shortcuts are mostly superfluous since there are direct buttons for nearly all of the sub pages.
- Allow a separate volume for headphones vs the audio outs. Having to unplug the audio cables when doing critical mixing with headphones is a real headache. Just implement a software override for the headphones.
- Make the +/- buttons underneath the main knob configurable. I never use them, but would love to use them if they switched between tracks, or jumped up/down a bar in a sequence for example.
- Allow spontaneous overrides of automation if playing back a sequence with automation while moving the corresponding knob. Like disengaging the autopilot on demand.
- Make it possible to copy tracks into other sequences. Edit: just realized there is a way!! It's right there on the pencil icon menu of the track.
- Make the Erase button configurable. I never use it.
- Give some visual feedback when toggling Automation via the physical button (it's crazy that it doesn't given how damaging leaving this on can be!).

Overall, I'm a happy MPC One user and I'll most likely end up reselling the Digitone/Digitakt combo because practicing live performances just isn't for me in the end. I still love the creative workflow though, but I just can't justify keeping them all given their price tags.

Yes, you can copy a track from one sequence to another its just not labeled as such which can be confusing...

jabberwalky wrote:Thanks for the replies to my inquiries. This machine is complex in confounding ways and yet simplistic in others. I'll have to spend more time with it.

After messing with it all night last night, I found that you can indeed record from one sequence to another, but you have to arrange the sequences in song mode and use OVERDUB in that mode while it's playing, only then does it remain in record when sequences change over.

Also, yet again, an elegant and memory saving approach to song mode in the ASR is that, in SONG mode, you have an additional 8 tracks that roll on top of all the sequences (using the same instruments). This is perfect for drum fills, or other melodic "one-off" type elements that you don't want repeated. It's a simple solution, but it works and glues the sequences together. The tricky thing about the ASR is you get very little visual feedback of these things, so it's a lot of playing an listening back etc.

Can you please explain this process better? I hit overdub in song mode and nothing happened...

sirmalikcobra wrote:

jabberwalky wrote:Thanks for the replies to my inquiries. This machine is complex in confounding ways and yet simplistic in others. I'll have to spend more time with it.

After messing with it all night last night, I found that you can indeed record from one sequence to another, but you have to arrange the sequences in song mode and use OVERDUB in that mode while it's playing, only then does it remain in record when sequences change over.

Also, yet again, an elegant and memory saving approach to song mode in the ASR is that, in SONG mode, you have an additional 8 tracks that roll on top of all the sequences (using the same instruments). This is perfect for drum fills, or other melodic "one-off" type elements that you don't want repeated. It's a simple solution, but it works and glues the sequences together. The tricky thing about the ASR is you get very little visual feedback of these things, so it's a lot of playing an listening back etc.

Can you please explain this process better? I hit overdub in song mode and nothing happened...

I don't think this works. Not sure what jabberwalky is talking about here.

5. Turn off auto-save!!

djst wrote:Does it overwrite all samples every time you hit save?

No, just the first time and if you edit the sample (I think, haven't verified).

djst wrote:Where is the time-synced traditional ping pong stereo delay?

No such thing. I hate it's missing too.

djst wrote:Why are some Hype synth settings hidden?

Almost all of the Hype's settings are hidden and you get only a crude macro access to the engine. Some patches even utilize a different sounding reverb etc. No way to edit, no way to create your own combination.

djst wrote:... this thing feels slow to start ...

It's extremely slow to start (MPC Live here). All my other gear is just whistling and waiting it to boot up. But, it's linux so it's still relatively fast.

djst wrote:I was surprised about how the autosamper didn't make better use of the tail of each sample.

Safest bet is to sample stuff manually. I wrote myself a Processing script that chops/crossfades and concatenates samples to an instrument just to have a clean and controlled result. The Autosampler is sometimes late and then you have to go in and manually adjust the start points etc.

djst wrote:Sampling in general felt more clunky than I'd expect from a machine that was built for sampling.

It's still a bit clunky, I've gone back to the PC to prepare samples and then just do minor edits while composing and arranging.

sirmalikcobra wrote:
Can you please explain this process better? I hit overdub in song mode and nothing happened...

Caveat - Since testing this again (granted the OS updated so maybe it changed) It works, but not ideally.

Using an external midi controller to play in the active track. In song mode you can enable Overdub and record from one sequence to another. HOWEVER, the first notes SOMETIMES don't record in the following sequence, but the rest of the notes do, which seems like a bug....i.e. a typical Akai oversight.

Maybe there's a fix or workaround. I'm surprised others aren't annoyed by this, but I guess there are many ways to use the machine.