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 Parialated Tue Aug 02, 2022 3:12 am
kb420ps wrote:If you don't want to use the software in controller mode, then you just need a good laptop computer and some software. I suggest Ableton Live. You can load whatever vst instruments you want in Ableton and assign them to different midi channels. You can then connect you MPC to your computer through wifi. That will allow it to connect the midi as well, or you can use a midi interface on your laptop and connect the midi through 5 pin. This will do exactly what you want.


The point is i have a usb cable that should be able to that.... not an extra midi interface, midi and audio cables that was my whole point, also i dont like ableton live, as in i dont use it, played with it, dont understand it and its not how i work....
i want to work standalone, but be able to use external 3rd party plugins over multiple midi channels and save and load the song and have the vst host load up all the plugins, while i run the mpc in standalone
By Parialated Tue Aug 02, 2022 3:28 am
Bigjohnson2inches wrote:Agree the current state of usb audio out is no good. To have to access the usb audio while in controller mode is not fun. I have everything plugged in a way I want it to.

I play standalone a lot ,If I need to sample from the internet , I have to stop my mpc save go to controller mode then start mpc software, or unplug my ins , reset my levels for the new sample.
If I can access usb audio in standalone it takes away those steps. :vomit:

i personally just plugin my phones with a headphone jack going to two tulips....if i want to sample from youtube or anything
By Avasopht Tue Aug 02, 2022 11:39 am
I can see a benefit to this, namely low latency stability.

But why not try just working with what you got? So you can use the MPC in standalone mode alongside your laptop with Kontakt and whatever VSTs you've got?

I first did this in software where I'd run Reason on one audio interface, and Maschine on another. I fed audio from one into the other so that I could treat the other as a source for sampled loops/phrases.

It was a weird workflow but it kinda worked and was good fun.

Didn't the Roland or Yamaha keyboards used to offer this sort of integration with their hardware?

It's not quite what you were after, but it's well worth just trying it out.
By Parialated Tue Aug 02, 2022 7:25 pm
Avasopht wrote:I can see a benefit to this, namely low latency stability.

But why not try just working with what you got? So you can use the MPC in standalone mode alongside your laptop with Kontakt and whatever VSTs you've got?

I first did this in software where I'd run Reason on one audio interface, and Maschine on another. I fed audio from one into the other so that I could treat the other as a source for sampled loops/phrases.

It was a weird workflow but it kinda worked and was good fun.

Didn't the Roland or Yamaha keyboards used to offer this sort of integration with their hardware?

It's not quite what you were after, but it's well worth just trying it out.


I agree, but to do this i need to buy a extra midi/audio interface to connect to my laptop with usb, and then connect it to my mpc live with 2 midi cables and 2 audio cables, and i would like to avoid that and use the usb cable that we use to connect our mpc to our laptop in controller mode....
but yeah if i could i would buy a roland fantom, but money issues, so yeah... at least you get what im trying to do and why
By Parialated Wed Aug 03, 2022 2:42 am
TT_Lab wrote:Usb to Midi

This might work for you and is relatively cheap. It is working to connect one of my old synths to the computer

good suggestion, but the sound card of my laptop is kinda shitty, but like i said there are ways to do it and im going to do it with a extra audio/midi interface between my laptop and mpc... but i just thought i had a smart idea.... and im sure some mpc dev's are lurking on here...
By Parialated Mon Aug 08, 2022 2:22 am
NearTao wrote:
Parialated wrote:im sure some mpc dev's are lurking on here...

I wouldn't hold my breath for them to make themselves known... :D

i cant really blame them to be honest....
By handthrow Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:23 am
Parialated wrote:I agree, but to do this i need to buy a extra midi/audio interface to connect to my laptop with usb, and then connect it to my mpc live with 2 midi cables and 2 audio cables, and i would like to avoid that and use the usb cable that we use to connect our mpc to our laptop in controller mode....
but yeah if i could i would buy a roland fantom, but money issues, so yeah... at least you get what im trying to do and why


Just in case if you have an old NI maschine lying around you can use it as a midi <-> usb interface
By Ekl1p5e Sun Mar 12, 2023 2:14 am
One thing about forums, you post a concern and get replies to a bunch of workarounds and asides, and never really get a satisfactory answer. A person would not use the mpc software for plugins in controller mode because they dont want to[.] (emphasize the period) now, it would be nice if a mpc user could use something like unify or gig performer as their plugin host, and select a mpc x usb midi port as an input. there is not parity between the software and hardware, with hardware being the preferred working method. i fell in love with the idea of an integrated workflow but working with it, it is definitely not integrated and tbh only the hardware is useful, the software and the integration between it and the hardware is buggy asl.
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By zangetsu01 Sun Mar 12, 2023 9:50 am
I'll try to answer OP's question with my own setups.

My goal is to use the MPC in stand alone mode and to stream multiple channels in realtime to the laptop that's running a daw with mastering plugs. (yes this will introduce latency but with one click of a button I can dissable all of the mastering plugins and the latency is back to normal.

Using the mastering plugins I can hear the end result without rendering the audio files and can make changes on the fly. One could say why don't use controller mode for this? Because I needed all of the horse power I could get to get it to run smoothly. So the MPC X uses it's power for the beat and the laptop uses it's power for the polishing of the sound. And I don't always need the laptop, sometimes I just want to build in stand alone. The laptop only comes in to play when I have to polish the sound as the beat/song is entering the final stage..

For this I can choose between 2 setups.

Setup 1: MPC X connected via usb to an iconnectivity audio4c audio interface and my laptop connected to the same audio interface using the second usb port on the audio interface.
(The audio4c is an audio interface that can have 2 hosts connected to it and you can stream audio from host to host using usb cables.)

This setup was unusable for me up until 2.11.7 beacause of all of the audio glitches (pops, clicks and artifacts). But with the release of 2.11.8 it now works glitch free so it's usable again.

See the following Block Diagram for setup 1:

Image

Because setup 1 was unuable to acomplish this for such a long time I had to come up with another way to acomplish my goal. and thats setup 2.

Setup 2: MPC X connected via usb to an RME Fireface UFX II. In CC mode the MPC X can only use 8 analog channels and 8 ADAT channels (ADAT 1-8). But what I wanted was 16 ADAT chanels so I connected the 8 analog outs of the Fireface to it's own 8 analog ins and linked those to ADAT 9 - 16. I've run tests to see if there was any noticible latency shifts between ADAT 1 - 8 and 9 - 16 but there wasn't.

So those 16 ADAT channels are streamed into a RME Fireface 800. The Fireface 800 is connected via a Apple (Fireface to USB C) adapter into the laptop. This setup has always worked for me.

See the following Block Diagram for setup 2:

Image
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By Telefunky Sun Mar 12, 2023 10:42 am
Good setups :smoker:
They share an important (but easily missed) feature: both rely on the respective manufacturer‘s routing software that controls the audio data paths inside the interfaces.
That sets both solutions apart from most other interfaces.

The iConnectAudio4 is a bit limited in hardware io channels due to it‘s specific chipset, but those 20 „software channels“ via USB are great and probably the „most affordable, least cables required“ solution.
It‘s not the most intuitive interface to setup and configure, but it‘s extremely versatile and a true workhorse, reliable for years in my case.

Hint: you need the old configuration software (still downloadable), their current Auracle control panel is plain rubbish. :Sigh:
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By jabberwalky Mon Mar 13, 2023 7:32 pm
I used my Surface Pro 7 in controller mode with MPC Live. Surface pro is so tiny, it fit right beneath the MPC. It was working ok, but I wasn't into how hot both things were getting, and the processor isn't that much better than standalone. Still, a good way to use your desktop plugins, and totally portable.