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 GoodTimeAlliance Fri May 12, 2023 12:07 pm
Hi MPC peeps.

Having spent two days trying to track multi channel audio through the VST and having trouble exporting wavs I have had a thought.

The MPC can do 32 tracks over USB to a class compliant interface.
The MPC VST can send 32 tracks of Audio to a DAW in MPC desktop/controller mode.

So the MPC in standalone is obviously looking for some kind of handshake to say Hi interface I'll be your MPC.

If when we connect the MPC to a computer via USB we could trick the MPC in to thinking that the computer was an interface we could have a potential solution... Right??

So what we need is a virtual class compliant USB audio interface.... Does such a thing exist already??

I am not a programmer but if there are any out there... Could this be possible??


Thanks for putting up with my thoughts
User avatar
By Ultros Fri May 12, 2023 12:41 pm
This could be done with linux with "usb gadget" but the SoC (or kernel i cant recall off hand) has to support sharing of hardware components such as audio interface, file system, network device or various system busses. it's how inmusic acheived using "controller mode" to be a soundcard. This wont ever happen with windows or mac because they are living in a comercial box with a pay to win system that doesn't incentivize creativity in that respect.
By Certified Beatz Fri May 12, 2023 2:22 pm
Ultros wrote:This could be done with linux with "usb gadget" but the SoC (or kernel i cant recall off hand) has to support sharing of hardware components such as audio interface, file system, network device or various system busses. it's how inmusic acheived using "controller mode" to be a soundcard. This wont ever happen with windows or mac because they are living in a comercial box with a pay to win system that doesn't incentivize creativity in that respect.


It would be a great idea for inmusc brand to make a interface that would support the MPC line to get 32 channels of audio to your DAW .. using the plugin in your DAW is just so convoluted...
By Vaksa Fri May 12, 2023 4:13 pm
If MPC already chosen to be connected to PC with USB cable, then why use it in standalone (not controller) mode? With controller mode you get much much more power, less latency, bigger frame and bit rate, better embedded (not allowed in standalone) warp algorithms, VSTs of course... Controller mode can multichannel channels not only in ASIO (4 ch in, 32 ch out) environment, but Windows standard I\O settings (on mpcx 4 ch in, 8 out), probably Mac too, dunno.
Is there new benefits standalone mode connected to PC with audio multichannel need to be implemented? I mean, what purpose? Whats final goal for this? May be missing something.
By GoodTimeAlliance Fri May 12, 2023 9:28 pm
I dont mind whther I use standalone or controller mode I just want to reliably get stuff from my MPC into my DAW.
Innitially I tried (for a whole day) the MPC VST because I quite like the live ish feel you get from tracking but I had issues with that.

I thought oh well never mind I'll just export the WAVS/Stems and I really didnt think I would get issues here..... I innitially tried this in Controller mode because I happened to be using Pigments VST on the MPC desktop software but it would take about an hour each time I pressed export and some tracks did not render??

I tried in standalone too and to my surprise it was much quicker and did not freeze but still some tracks did not render!!
Perhaps its something I have done or missed??

I dont mind how it works but I would like it to work well.

Ultros I really like the "usb gadget" thing you mentioned.
One of the reasons I would like something like this this to work is for actually for linux as there is no MPC driver for Linux..... If this could work I would completely switch...

For the record I am no Linux nut but I recently tried BITWIG on my old T470 laptop and I have to say it runs way better running the exact same project on the exact same laptop running windows. MPC is now the only hardware/software that I need windows for!!!
I also love the fact Linux runs multiple audio interfaces just like a mac which is the thing I missed most from my old mac os kit.
I am actually so convinced by this that I have decided that from now on I will only be spending my money with companies who are properly cross platform..

Many thanks for your replies.

Craig
By idk973 Sat May 13, 2023 10:44 am
If like me you use linux, bitwig and an mpc,
The best way i found is export my project in ALS format then arrange my song in bitwig.
You can have all your midi tracks out replayed by the mpc midi in. Structure your sound then export a completed midi file in bitwig, import in mpc and voila
By GoodTimeAlliance Sat May 13, 2023 3:17 pm
idk973 wrote:If like me you use linux, bitwig and an mpc,
The best way i found is export my project in ALS format then arrange my song in bitwig.
You can have all your midi tracks out replayed by the mpc midi in. Structure your sound then export a completed midi file in bitwig, import in mpc and voila



Aaah..... Wicked I havnt tried that.

Thank you
User avatar
By Ultros Thu May 18, 2023 12:15 am
GoodTimeAlliance wrote:I dont mind whther I use standalone or controller mode I just want to reliably get stuff from my MPC into my DAW.
Innitially I tried (for a whole day) the MPC VST because I quite like the live ish feel you get from tracking but I had issues with that.

I thought oh well never mind I'll just export the WAVS/Stems and I really didnt think I would get issues here..... I innitially tried this in Controller mode because I happened to be using Pigments VST on the MPC desktop software but it would take about an hour each time I pressed export and some tracks did not render??

I tried in standalone too and to my surprise it was much quicker and did not freeze but still some tracks did not render!!
Perhaps its something I have done or missed??

I dont mind how it works but I would like it to work well.

Ultros I really like the "usb gadget" thing you mentioned.
One of the reasons I would like something like this this to work is for actually for linux as there is no MPC driver for Linux..... If this could work I would completely switch...

For the record I am no Linux nut but I recently tried BITWIG on my old T470 laptop and I have to say it runs way better running the exact same project on the exact same laptop running windows. MPC is now the only hardware/software that I need windows for!!!
I also love the fact Linux runs multiple audio interfaces just like a mac which is the thing I missed most from my old mac os kit.
I am actually so convinced by this that I have decided that from now on I will only be spending my money with companies who are properly cross platform..

Many thanks for your replies.

Craig


I've pulled it off using jack but its complex. the trick is to start jack on the MPC and default to a loopback interface that jack captures and plays from then start a netjack client with jack_load netadapter. then start up qjackctl on the linux host and run jack_load netmanager... it's a hellscape to navigate i almost had it all automated and lost the work.

as far as mounting your mpc, when you build your kernel enable the usb fs options. also to get visuals you need "displaylink" and to compile the .ko (kernel object) against your kernels source tree. After that you can lxrander or xrander the usb display on your MPC as an evdi device. set up xorg for it and all.
User avatar
By HanHuman Thu May 18, 2023 12:29 am
Certified Beatz wrote:It would be a great idea for inmusc brand to make a interface that would support the MPC line to get 32 channels of audio to your DAW .. using the plugin in your DAW is just so convoluted...
Would be great, plus adding an switch to automatically spread tracks to separate outputs. Perfect to capture things live. And once done, switch spread off, disconnect controler mode and back 1-2 default output.

But tbf "flattening out" the projet in song mode to 1 single and long sequence, then record all automations, mutes, etc, and then save as Audio mixdown would land the same result. But the export options are rather buggy, I've had things that didn't print in the stems before, even blank stems sometimes. Not 100% reliable, as often with this OS.
By TT_Lab Sat May 20, 2023 9:38 am
HanHuman wrote:...
But tbf "flattening out" the projet in song mode to 1 single and long sequence, then record all automations, mutes, etc, and then save as Audio mixdown would land the same result. But the export options are rather buggy, I've had things that didn't print in the stems before, even blank stems sometimes. Not 100% reliable, as often with this OS.

I've been using this method like forever and have had 0 problems. The empty wavs normally are because of the numbering of the tracks, or because it exports the first audio track that is created by default in any new project.
Anyways, user experiences may vary because are dependant in multiple subjective points, so me saying I have had no problems does not mean I infer that anyone shouldn't have any problems. Just sharing my personal experience with the method.
By GoodTimeAlliance Fri May 26, 2023 2:15 pm
TT_Lab wrote:
HanHuman wrote:...
But tbf "flattening out" the projet in song mode to 1 single and long sequence, then record all automations, mutes, etc, and then save as Audio mixdown would land the same result. But the export options are rather buggy, I've had things that didn't print in the stems before, even blank stems sometimes. Not 100% reliable, as often with this OS.

I've been using this method like forever and have had 0 problems. The empty wavs normally are because of the numbering of the tracks, or because it exports the first audio track that is created by default in any new project.
Anyways, user experiences may vary because are dependant in multiple subjective points, so me saying I have had no problems does not mean I infer that anyone shouldn't have any problems. Just sharing my personal experience with the method.


I agree it is something I must be doing in the project as I have had the same results in different computers and in standalone.

I know doing stems is a way and a good way but I prefer to record it live into my daw as a kind of performance....

I think audio over usb direct to daw without the vst should be implemented..... No apps... OS agnostic no fuss....
User avatar
By Ultros Fri May 26, 2023 3:23 pm
LOL we ALL want that.. it was one of my first questions when i got my modern mpc and when i found out it wouldnt do it i was like "who the fek makes a digital box that forces you to route through analog?"
By GoodTimeAlliance Thu Jul 27, 2023 5:27 pm
Hi all.

I have tried all the above and have had reasonable luck with exporting but still have issues with the VST.

Ideally I still want to track live to my DAW whether using the VST or standalone I dont really care.
I can see that this is possible using a Tascam model 12 or 24 mixer recorder and presumably other mixer/interface/recorders like the Zoom L range...... Anyone doing more than 16 Mono channels this way??

I am still shocked that I cant do mono chanels via MPC vst to my DAW..... I hopped the recent updates may have added this but I dont think so..... Has anyone managed this since our last posts??

I think AKAI are really missing a trick not giving us this capability.
The more I think about it the more sense it makes to me that a Virtual Audio Interface applicvation could be the answer here..... Any brainy person out there had a chance to experimant with that USB Gadget thingymajig ???

Thanks all....