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 Lucifer Rising Tue Mar 28, 2023 8:04 am
Hi, A lot of my projects on MPC One involve recording flute tracks which I record on audio. The problem I find is that after five minutes the MPC stops recording the audio even though the track is still running and the monitor still outputs the audio being played. I don't understand why it is limited in this way. I have recorded on much cheaper and older equipment like the Boss 864 and there is no limit on the audio track length and recording much longer audio tracks.

Can anyone please suggest a way around tuis?
Thanks,
Michael
By sparky Tue Mar 28, 2023 8:33 am
You can have an audio track which is longer than 5 minutes but you can’t continuously record past 5 mins. The only way I’ve found is to split what I’m recording into two or more sections and record them as separate tracks, then combine the audio into one track.
By jamos Tue Mar 28, 2023 5:24 pm
Yes. It's infuriating, arbitrary, and stupid. The sampler itself can record up to 14 minutes, so I don't see why this limit is imposed. And worst of all, it's undocumented, so you only discover it when you're in a recording session. Like I was when I learned about it.

The workaround is, as sparky said, to split your recording into multiple takes. The instrument will cheerfully play tracks that are longer than 5 minutes. For vocals, there's no problem, since vocalists always take a little break in the song. If you've got a long guitar track or something, you have to interrupt the recording process. A pain in the ass, but that's the way it is.

One thing to note, is that you can overlap your recordings. The recording is non-destructive, the new recording doesn't affect the old, so if they overlap, you can tinker with them a bit to find the best splice point.

Oh, one thing. You can record your second take on the same track, because again, the recording is non-destructive.
By 40Beatz Tue Mar 28, 2023 7:32 pm
:lol:
Sounds like you guys need a Separate Hardware Recording Device, versus, A Hardware Standalone Drum Machine

In my opinion..

The MPC is a Drum Machine That Can Sample n Record Audio...
NOT A Hardware Recording DAW That Can Play Drum Patterns

Sorry lol
User avatar
By EnochLight Thu Mar 30, 2023 2:41 pm
B-Wise wrote:Get a Force & record to the SSD - no real time limit.


^^ THIS ^^

There's no time limit at all. You can record up to 8 stereo audio tracks for hours on end, save them, load them, edit them, etc. All this is because of Force disk streaming, which MPC sorely needs. But to temper expectations, opening large audio files that are disk streaming on Force is instant, but saving them can take AGES. If this feature ever appears on MPC, I doubt it will be different.
By xantus Thu Mar 30, 2023 9:07 pm
uh, the sampler has a 19:59 minute limit?
don't use Audio Tracks.
learn to use the sampler with Keep > Create Events > Trigger.

does nobody read manuals anymore? these are some shameful answers lol.
By B-Wise Thu Mar 30, 2023 10:00 pm
xantus wrote:uh, the sampler has a 19:59 minute limit?
don't use Audio Tracks.
learn to use the sampler with Keep > Create Events > Trigger.

does nobody read manuals anymore? these are some shameful answers lol.

I know you ain't talking about shameful answers if this is the best you got. 20 min rec limit, don't use audio tracks & sample events - really?
I'll stick to my suggestion - get the Force or even wait for the new stuff to drop & see if they improve the MPC's in this area.
By kazakore Fri Mar 31, 2023 7:56 pm
xantus wrote:uh, the sampler has a 19:59 minute limit?
don't use Audio Tracks.
learn to use the sampler with Keep > Create Events > Trigger.

does nobody read manuals anymore? these are some shameful answers lol.


The fact the sampler stops recording when you leave the sampler screen makes it pretty much useless to me.
By jamos Sat Apr 01, 2023 1:10 am
B-Wise wrote:I'll stick to my suggestion - get the Force or even wait for the new stuff to drop & see if they improve the MPC's in this area.


"Buy something else" doesn't seem like much of an answer.
By Zack Zerox Sat Apr 01, 2023 8:16 am
Another (I think) undocumented limitation related to this: no audio recording/sampling if the unit is running as a slave in sync.

That was pretty bloody annoying too, when I discovered it. But hey, I'm over it now! Just work with this machine's little quirks.
By kazakore Sat Apr 01, 2023 10:43 am
Zack Zerox wrote:Another (I think) undocumented limitation related to this: no audio recording/sampling if the unit is running as a slave in sync.

That was pretty bloody annoying too, when I discovered it. But hey, I'm over it now! Just work with this machine's little quirks.


Mentioned in the manual multiple times, where it says if you need to slave to sync and record at the same time to use MTC rather than MIDI Clock and it will work. (Bit of a strange limitation which I don't understand why it's there though...)
By HouseWithoutMouse Sat Apr 01, 2023 11:53 am
Non-glitchy audio recording as sync slave needs good realtime time-stretching, which the MPC has not. MIDI Clock has constant small fluctuations, meaning that the recorded WAV file would need to use lots of "warp markers" (which the MPC doesn't have) to timestamp what the time was at different audio locations.