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 MuttBeats Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:11 pm
Quick question (I guess for Andy but others may also know the answer)....I'm looking forward to buying the new MPC Samples Electric Keys 2.0 expansion as I do love me a good Rhodes patch and the demo sounds phenomenal. But here's the thing... how can you get 8 velocity layers out of a MPC keygroup program when there are only 4 slots for samples in Program Edit? Genuinely curious as I like making my own keygroup programs with layered samples and have found the 4-sample layer structure to be a bit limiting. What magic is this? Or (more likely)... have I missed something important in the MPC Bible/manual??

EDIT: just found this in the FAQs - "An MPC keygroup program has 4 velocity layers per keygroup, so we can achieve 8 velocity layers by assigning two keygroups to the same note, with one keygroup handling lower four layers, and the second keygroup handling the higher four. Then repeat this for all the required notes - maybe we'll create a tutorial on this topic in the future!"

Yes please to tutorial.... seriously good!
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By MPC-Tutor Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:40 pm
Yes this is a new technique for me so not currently in the MPC Bible, it's something I've been experimenting with for a while, I needed to make sure I could keep memory usage to a reasonable level. In fact the 8 layer versions are smaller than the 4 layer pianos I did in Electric Keys 1 as I'm now using sustain looping and handling decay with the amp envelope.

For people wondering what we're talking about, here's the expansion:

https://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php ... expansion/
By KaoticShock Wed Jan 26, 2022 9:27 pm
MPC-Tutor wrote:Yes this is a new technique for me so not currently in the MPC Bible, it's something I've been experimenting with for a while, I needed to make sure I could keep memory usage to a reasonable level. In fact the 8 layer versions are smaller than the 4 layer pianos I did in Electric Keys 1 as I'm now using sustain looping and handling decay with the amp envelope.

For people wondering what we're talking about, here's the expansion:

https://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php ... expansion/



I really want to learn the specifics of the sustain looping technique, I still havent figured out how to make auto-sampled patches sustain properly without getting wierd crossfade artifacts. These optimized 8 layer keygroups seem very interesting. I'm curious as to how they would compare in Memory usage to using the "Electric" Plugin.
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By MPC-Tutor Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:09 pm
KaoticShock wrote: These optimized 8 layer keygroups seem very interesting. I'm curious as to how they would compare in Memory usage to using the "Electric" Plugin.


'Electric' uses pure synthesis, there's no samples as far as I'm aware, so memory usage is negligible, but of course the sound of a synthesised piano is... what it is.... :) The Electric plugin is great with all those parameters to tweak, but Electric Keys is all about offering more realistic, organic sounding pianos.

FYI, Electric Keys 2 pianos use around 7% memory (or 3-4% for the compact 4 layer versions).
By MuttBeats Thu Jan 27, 2022 11:47 pm
Bought the expansion and… blimey…. seriously good. There is some ninja programming work under the hood, it’s phenomenal. Doesn’t seem slower to load than the v1 electric keys so good job on memory optimisation too. This is a world part from the Electric plugin, it’s got an organic actual instrument vibe to it. Love it. Great job!