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 mpsea Thu Jun 10, 2021 8:55 pm
Hi,

I'm new to the MPC concept and have found conflicting information regarding the 8 audio track limitation of the latest MPCs. I'm trying to find an answer before I purchase an MPC Live II.

If I wanted to created a set for live performance with 16 backing tracks (WAVs) — would this be possible if I placed each WAV into a separate sequence and only one audio track was playing at a time?

I can't figure out if the 8 audio track limitation is for how many tracks can be played simultaneously, or if it's a hard overall limit per project.

This has been driving me crazy. Thank you for any help or advice!
User avatar
By Lampdog Thu Jun 10, 2021 9:46 pm
It doesn't mention a hard limit. Remember the mpc is not a dedicated time based recorder, memory is dynamic, everything uses memory as workspace, you may run into polyphony issues before using up memory though.
By mpsea Thu Jun 10, 2021 9:53 pm
Lampdog wrote:Tells you what's what..


Thanks! I did read that part of the manual, but I'm still confused.

From the manual:
"A sequence on your MPC hardware can contain 128 MIDI tracks and 8 audio tracks."

This part that confuses me is that the manual says a 'sequence' can contain 8 audio tracks.

Does that mean that a second sequence can contain 8 different audio tracks? Meaning I can have 16 audio tracks in my project, but each sequence can only use 8 at a time?

Apologies if I'm not making sense. :(
By mpsea Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:27 pm
Lampdog wrote:A sequence = 1 sequence is how I read it.
A diff sequence can have 8 more audio tracks is how I read it.


That's what I'm hoping! If anyone can confirm this I'd really appreciate it!

I'm hoping that I can have, for example, 16 tracks available that can be used between 2 or more sequences.

I'm trying to make sure that there is not a hard limit of only 8 audio tracks that must be shared amongst all of the sequences.

Apologies again if I'm not making sense or using the wrong terminology.
By Calcaire Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:25 pm
Hey

Audiotracks are just a container.. There Are 8 audiotracks in a project, but you can put on it everything you want in any of the 128 sequences of your project ...But the audio tracks share the same settings ( routing, insert and send effects, volume, pan, mute status etc..) in the whole project, whatever sequence you play.

So you can : play Sequence 1 with the first 8 wav files on 8 audio tracks
then u play sequence 2 with 8 different wav files , then 8 more wav files in sequence 3 ... ( as soon as the memory can handle). But you will share the same settings of the 8 audio tracks in the three sequences.. You can also use the audio tracks to monitor and record audio inputs.

So for the purpose you describe, if you use Audio tracks. you couldn't play your 16 wav files at the same time, only the 8 of the current sequence,


You can anyway use DRUM program ( sample program) . And make one Drum Program containing your 16 files , triggered with the sequencer or pads ... or use CLIP program and load your 16 wav files and launch them by pads. Polyphony is 64 max.

Issue of drum and Clip Program : If you need to stop and resume playing or mute and unmute,you will resume playing from the start of the sample/ pad ... Workaround : you can slice your long wav and trigger it as you want ( you can make up to 128 slices in a sample and assign them to the pads and sequence them ... Allowing you to play a "long" track in small pieces using good sequencing or different sequences playing different "zones" of your long wav files.

128 slices means : a whole lot of re-arrangement of your wav file made easy.... it also means you don't really need audiotrack because you can split files and play / sequence them as you want.. Example, a 256 seconds wav file ( 4 '16'' , magic length) result in 2 seconds long slices x 128 pads ... At 120 bpm , it makes precisely a bar for each slice... so if you don't need to make "stuttering mutes" , it could be a good workaround to play your 16 tracks songs in the same sequence.

hope it helps
By J.O.BEATS Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:19 am
Yes. I use the Live for shows and this is exactly what I do. One backing track per sequence using an audio track.

You could just put your backing track per pad and trigger them that way. I like the sequence way though because you can name easier, set tempo, etc and there's no fear of triggering the pad again.
By mpsea Fri Jun 11, 2021 10:52 am
Calcaire wrote:Hey

Audiotracks are just a container.. There Are 8 audiotracks in a project, but you can put on it everything you want in any of the 128 sequences of your project ...But the audio tracks share the same settings ( routing, insert and send effects, volume, pan, mute status etc..) in the whole project, whatever sequence you play.

So you can : play Sequence 1 with the first 8 wav files on 8 audio tracks
then u play sequence 2 with 8 different wav files , then 8 more wav files in sequence 3 ... ( as soon as the memory can handle). But you will share the same settings of the 8 audio tracks in the three sequences.. You can also use the audio tracks to monitor and record audio inputs.

So for the purpose you describe, if you use Audio tracks. you couldn't play your 16 wav files at the same time, only the 8 of the current sequence,


You can anyway use DRUM program ( sample program) . And make one Drum Program containing your 16 files , triggered with the sequencer or pads ... or use CLIP program and load your 16 wav files and launch them by pads. Polyphony is 64 max.

Issue of drum and Clip Program : If you need to stop and resume playing or mute and unmute,you will resume playing from the start of the sample/ pad ... Workaround : you can slice your long wav and trigger it as you want ( you can make up to 128 slices in a sample and assign them to the pads and sequence them ... Allowing you to play a "long" track in small pieces using good sequencing or different sequences playing different "zones" of your long wav files.

128 slices means : a whole lot of re-arrangement of your wav file made easy.... it also means you don't really need audiotrack because you can split files and play / sequence them as you want.. Example, a 256 seconds wav file ( 4 '16'' , magic length) result in 2 seconds long slices x 128 pads ... At 120 bpm , it makes precisely a bar for each slice... so if you don't need to make "stuttering mutes" , it could be a good workaround to play your 16 tracks songs in the same sequence.

hope it helps


I can't thank you enough for taking the time to explain all of this. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much!!
By mpsea Fri Jun 11, 2021 10:53 am
J.O.BEATS wrote:Yes. I use the Live for shows and this is exactly what I do. One backing track per sequence using an audio track.

You could just put your backing track per pad and trigger them that way. I like the sequence way though because you can name easier, set tempo, etc and there's no fear of triggering the pad again.


Perfect! Thank you!
By Calcaire Fri Jun 11, 2021 12:22 pm
You're welcome .. took me a long time to figure it out :) I was stucked with my "8 bars" keyboards and percussions lops and it was fiddly to edit in audio track or in "one pad sample" .. Then I just sliced and sliced , everything , using the BPM slicing or regions slicing which cuts your loops to fit the sequence tempo ... And everything is smoother , With "pad parameters" slicing you can create many program version of the same WAV files , using different "slices maps" with the same original WAv file, which is better for memory saving... Also , different effects on pads / use of PAd mute menu can be very helpful to build your live set. But it's long time to work on it , anyway
By DokBrown Fri Jun 11, 2021 3:36 pm
Coming from a mpc1k and roland MV, Audio tracks do not function the way I thought they would. Particularly when it comes to sequence changes & muting.

https://www.akaipro.com/mpc-beats


I suggest trying MPC BEATS [I think it is FREE] with an old akai MPD [cheap online $40-80]. I assume the functionality is the same but remember to only use 8 audio tracks.

I also suggest fiddling with clip programs. They are not quite what I wanted but I find they are a way around the 8 audio track limitation. A clip program has 8banks of 16 pads. The warp falls a bit short but since they run on midi tracks, no more 8 track limit.

If the MPC workflow is not for u, u saved $1000
PIONEER/OCTAtrack also show DJing potential . . . . . . no way to try them for free tho’ so I would start with AKAI
By mpsea Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:16 pm
Calcaire wrote:You're welcome .. took me a long time to figure it out :) I was stucked with my "8 bars" keyboards and percussions lops and it was fiddly to edit in audio track or in "one pad sample" .. Then I just sliced and sliced , everything , using the BPM slicing or regions slicing which cuts your loops to fit the sequence tempo ... And everything is smoother , With "pad parameters" slicing you can create many program version of the same WAV files , using different "slices maps" with the same original WAv file, which is better for memory saving... Also , different effects on pads / use of PAd mute menu can be very helpful to build your live set. But it's long time to work on it , anyway


Thanks again! I have a lot to learn! I've been reading the MPC manual and will definitely be buying the MPC Bible next.
By mpsea Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:19 pm
DokBrown wrote:Coming from a mpc1k and roland MV, Audio tracks do not function the way I thought they would. Particularly when it comes to sequence changes & muting.

https://www.akaipro.com/mpc-beats


I suggest trying MPC BEATS [I think it is FREE] with an old akai MPD [cheap online $40-80]. I assume the functionality is the same but remember to only use 8 audio tracks.

I also suggest fiddling with clip programs. They are not quite what I wanted but I find they are a way around the 8 audio track limitation. A clip program has 8banks of 16 pads. The warp falls a bit short but since they run on midi tracks, no more 8 track limit.

If the MPC workflow is not for u, u saved $1000
PIONEER/OCTAtrack also show DJing potential . . . . . . no way to try them for free tho’ so I would start with AKAI


Thank you for the reply! What about 'sequence changes & muting' was not what you expected? I'm going to go and look MPC Beats right now.

What Pioneer are you referring to? The Toraiz Squid?
User avatar
By Bonsaipanda Fri Jun 11, 2021 7:57 pm
Iirc there is a hard limit of 64 voices (which is probably just artificial to keep performance acceptable). This can be any combination of internal synths (max 8 ), audio tracks, Drum Programs or Key Programs.

You can load more than 8 long audio tracks into a Drum Program and play them from there but I wouldn't recommend it as the box is not meant for this type of playback (you'll just run out of memory). If you can recreate your tracks inside the box using short samples and MIDI sequences, you can do very long sessions and have a lot of layers playing on top of each other.

But there are better alternatives for actual multitracking, Deluge might be one or a dedicated multitracker.
By DokBrown Fri Jun 11, 2021 7:57 pm
Like I said, I was coming from an old MPC and the roland MV. once u get used to it, audio tracks will suffice.

My only suggestion is that you have something to compare it against.
I don’t believe in collecting gear, but I do believe in trying 2-3 things before making a commitment. I compared my MPC LIVE vs ableton/PUSH vs roland MV8000. I have since sold my MV and ableton has only been powered up 1x this year so far.

Elektron has more MIDI capabilities but that small screen ;-(
PIONEER has 2 samplers with gorgeous screens. The DJS seems to be more popular 1 but it is $$$$

https://www.pioneerdj.com/en-us/product ... /overview/

https://www.pioneerdj.com/en-us/landing ... aiz-sp-16/

Whichever workflow matches your style, I would go with that machine. Ableton was amazing but did not work for my 2010 mind. 2 many options, VSTs, warping methods, FX chains.