Tips on batch making previews for drum/instruments programs?

Hi,

I am new to the MPC One world and am really enjoying it, especially the previews for drum/instrument kits!

I was wondering if anyone has come across any app/method/tips on how to batch make previews for drums/instruments that are missing previews? I know it can be done manually but I was hoping to find something that would accept a midi file and then cycle through all the instruments to generate an mp3 or wav file preview.

I ended up getting kit-maker and preview-maker to convert my Maschine expansions and various other sample banks that are missing previews and doing it manually seems like a daunting task.

If anyone is interested, I can share my GNU Octave/Matlab script that extracts the missing previews from the maschine expansions after kit-maker conversion. The only caveat is that kit-maker renames the kits so there is a small amount of manual work to rename some previews to match the kits (approx 10% need fixing).

Thanks!

I make previews using a multi-track sequence, with one track per instrument, then export the stems and rename accordingly. Would be pretty quick if you were using the same MIDI pattern for each track.

Subbing to this thread. I was just thinking this as I made a bunch of preview files yesterday. Unfortunately you can’t save to the [Previews] folder in standalone, so there’s extra work to do previews in standalone.

In theory you could dial in a sequence and copy it to a bunch of tracks. Then load different programs to the different tracks. Then you could export individual tracks in bulk (stems) to get a bunch of audio files in one go. You’ll need to bulk rename the and save them to the [Previews] folder.

This is just an untested theory, but maybe you can make a few templates with either drums, bass, chords or lead sequences, then load a bunch of programs in one go.

Yeah this kind of stuff is best done in the MPC Software and by using apps, templates, finder functionality etc. Can be very quick once you get the workflow set up.

Its been a while since i did my conversions, but if I recall correctly aren't all the previews just an ogg audio file sitting in folders? i just used a audio converter to convert them to flak then used a bulk renamer to make all the names the proper format.

SuperKonquer wrote:Its been a while since i did my conversions, but if I recall correctly aren't all the previews just an ogg audio file sitting in folders? i just used a audio converter to convert them to flak then used a bulk renamer to make all the names the proper format.

They can be any audio format, wav, MP3, flac, etc

Here's my article about making them

https://www.mpc-tutor.com/mpc-expansion ... ete-guide/

I did this video not long ago about doing your own expansions from samplepacks you own.
I used kitmaker for this but you can do it without it

MPC-Tutor wrote:

SuperKonquer wrote:Its been a while since i did my conversions, but if I recall correctly aren't all the previews just an ogg audio file sitting in folders? i just used a audio converter to convert them to flak then used a bulk renamer to make all the names the proper format.

They can be any audio format, wav, MP3, flac, etc

I mean the maschine previews are ogg files. Unless Op is referring to 3rd party expansions which may or may not be complete, all the NI stuff has an associated ogg file for every kit. I just converted to flacc because it takes up way less space without loss of quality.

What are the benefits of having things in an expansion vs. having the same stuff in a regular folder?

HouseWithoutMouse wrote:What are the benefits of having things in an expansion vs. having the same stuff in a regular folder?

People like having the nice picture and the shortcut in the Expansions tab? Other than that there is no difference. Previews work with any folder, is doesn't have to be an expansion. If they implemented the grouping feature found in the MPC Software expansion browser, and maybe the tag filters of the media browser then this would give standalone expansions a distinct advantage over standard folders.

Ultimately it's another rushed out, half implemented feature that I suspect was made purely for marketing reasons to help sell expansions. I'm not complaining of course, as I also sell expansions. But these day no one wants to buy just a 'folder of sounds & kits', they want expansions with a nice picture.

HouseWithoutMouse wrote:What are the benefits of having things in an expansion vs. having the same stuff in a regular folder?

What Tutor said plus you can set the order of the expansions in the xml file. No need to have them in an alphabetical order.

Thanks everyone for all the tips!

@mpc-tutor I did see your tutorial and that was a big help to outline the process. I too would love to see a tagging feature in the standalone browser

Re: maschine previews
Some expansions are missing previews but can be added via an additional download (legacy previews i think its called). I believe they are saved in a folder named NBPL but the expansion folders are not named in text, so its a guess to which expansion they belong to. I will probably write a script to find all the missing drum previews and see if instrument previews are there too.

I did use a program called SikuliX with the first Ableton Push to make instrument racks for all my vst's, so I might just do that again for the Mpc instrument previews.

Basically the program controls the mouse and keyboard to automate repetitive tasks via java with python syntax. Put out by a few MIT researchers. I tried to install it again a few months back on my MBP and it killed it. Had to do a wipe and clean install so will need to see if it will run in a VM.

Will share here if I get a working script/workflow. Just wish I had more freetime. Less coding and more music making. Too much to wish for?

So I went down the rabbit hole and wrote a whole whack of Matlab and a SikuliX scripts to automate a bunch of stuff including batch making previews for instrument and drum programs. Note that all my xpm's were made with Kitmaker and Preset maker (not affiliated) so this is what all these scripts are designed to work with.

Make sure you test the scripts on a copy of your MPC library. I take no responsibility if this kills your library or sends your cat to sspace. You have been warned.

Dropbox link to all my scripts and a video showing the Sikuli script working, so anyone who wants to use it will know where to change the values. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vsvxb40jboqnthx/AAAQBy4s8aHYR_nFF8DAzn9ba?dl=0

For drum programs only (written in SikuliX, tested on macos 10.15.7)

- you will need to install SikuliX (I can not provide help with this but its pretty straight forward)
- take a look at the video to see what the script does
- read the comments in the script to see what values you will need to change
- you will need to provide a two column csv file with the xpm name and path to said xpm file
- I have included a matlab script that will generate this csv file for you
- you will need to use a midi sequence for the drums
- takes about 70 secs to make a drum preview

For instrument programs only (written in Matlab, paid software but with free trial. *should* also work in the free and open source GNU Octave)

- you will need to install Matlab (they give a free full functional trial, i believe its 30 days)
- scripts I wrote do the following (this list is the same order as the dropbox folder):

- Rename xpm to start with folder name
- I had kitmaker make kits based on category (eg. bass, pads, synths) but I wanted to have the category in the xpm name (eg. bass - awesome bass.xpm) this script takes the name of the parent folder and puts that in all the xpm file names and changes the name xml tag so it shows up properly on the MPC

- Rename folders that have ' Samples-Loose' appended to folder and xpm name
- Kitmaker will use the orignal folder name so if it contains 'Samples' it will be in the folders and xpm name. this removes them.

- Move Loose presets up one folder
- kitmaker will make Loose presets if they are unidentified. This means there is a subfolder called Loose and the xpm name will have '-Loose' appended as well as the xml tag will only show 'Loose'. this script removes all 'Loose' names and renames things

- Move all presets up one folder
- Kitmaker puts each .xpm in its own folder with samples. I wanted all my (for example) bass xpm in a folder called bass. This moves them all up one folder.

- eg. this will only work if your folder structure looks like this:

- /volume/Instruments/bass/awesome bass/awesome bass.xpm
- /volume/Instruments/bass/more awesome bass/more awesome bass.xpm

- the resulting folder will be this after the script (note - all the corresponding samples will also be moved up one folder)

- /volume/Instruments/bass/awesome bass.xpm
- /volume/Instruments/bass/more awesome bass.xpm

- Change parameters in xpm files
- This can be used on any xpm file and will allow you to change a parameter in all your xpm files.
- eg. Kitmaker doesnt add volume release in any of the xpm. This script changed all my xpm so I have release values for all xpm.
- you can use this to change any parameter. just need to open an xpm in a text editor and look for the tag you want to change. for ex. I changed the polyphony of all my bass xpm to mono.

- make instrument previews
- last but not least. This script does not use a midi sequence for the preview but rather a original sample from the xpm. It searches the xpm file and looks for a match on a user defined key and octave (eg. C2)
- In other words, you will get a single note as a preview instead of a sequence. i dont need to hear a funky bassline, i just want to know what the sample sounds like.
- I processed about 500 xpm in about 5 mins.

I have spent more time writing these scripts (3 weeks evening coding) than I have on my new MPC One so I plan on disconnecting from the interwebs for the next while. So dont be angry if I dont answer or provide support for these scripts.

This is juicy, I may 1 day actually install the MPC SOFTWARE to do something like this.