Explode function & layers

Goodmorning everyone,

Yesterday I tried to bounce some stems from my mpc one and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was. Coming from having to track everything out via audiocables it really was a dream come through.

However, I noticed something, basicly that when I used the explode function it only separates tracks, but not layers. So for instance, it does make a separate track with a mixdown off all the kicks that I layered. Is there a way to also explode that further, so that instead of getting one kick track I'd get three kick tracks for each layer I used in my drumprogram for the kick?

I tried looking it up in the MPC Bible but I didn't find it in there. With my 2500 I used to mute layers while tracking until I had to make sure I got all the drumlayers separate.. Is that what I need to do again or is there a easier way? Also, if this last option is the way to go, how do I make sure the mpc doesn't overwrite the already bounced stems?

Thanx in advance

When you say 'layers' are you referring to pad layers within a program? There is no built in method to explode these, which is quite a unique requirement IMO as drum layers are typically something that would already be 'committed' within the MPC environment, rather than something requiring further individual tweaking in a DAW. So yes, you would need to create a unique workflow for that (I guess you'd have to temporarily reduce the LEVEL for the unwanted layers to 0 while you export). Use a different file name for your export each time, therefore no clash.

You can do this:
- before you explode you copy the pad with layers into multiple pads
- in each of newly copied pads you leave only one sample and delete other ones
- then you copy events from pad with layers into other pads
- you mute the pad with layers

If you use song mode you can do that on the sequence created from a song.

A few steps, but not actually that much work

You could use simultaneous play instead of using layers when setting up your project. Just put your pad layers on different pads and link. Route all those to the same submix if you want shared fx. This should accomplish the export issue.The drawback is you'll lose cycling options if that's important, and since your samples are spread out, tweaking is a bit more consuming, assuming you have them spread out on multiple banks.

I've never really considered exporting 'layers', I'd be interested to hear more about the thinking behind it as once it comes to exporting stems, I consider a single MPC pad containing multiple drum layers as single 'sound' (e.g. 'the snare' for this kit) which would be processed as part of an entire 'snare' track stem within a DAW, not decomposed back to its constituent components/layers.

Thanx for all the replies! The one with the copy pads seems a easy enough way.

MPC-Tutor wrote:I've never really considered exporting 'layers', I'd be interested to hear more about the thinking behind it as once it comes to exporting stems, I consider a single MPC pad containing multiple drum layers as single 'sound' (e.g. 'the snare' for this kit) which would be processed as part of an entire 'snare' track stem within a DAW, not decomposed back to its constituent components/layers.

While I understand this reasoning, I've always made beats (before I got a mpc) with this system. The thing I loved and still love with a mpc is that I can trigger all 3 snares with one press of a pad. The benefit of it is, is basicly that you have more flexibility when mixing your drums in your DAW.

The guy who's mixing my stuff for years always ask me to do it like that. Never really thought about exporting all the kicks as one kick track, etcetera...