Playing a sequence in steps

I know this is probably not possible but I’d like to be able to play from either the grid view or the list edit page by stepping through events rather than being locked to a tempo. In grid edit, locate event and play and stop as a method but it’s really tedious and the locate event seems to jump ahead one step so it involves a forward>back>play>stop button sequence. In list edit it’s more straightforward but still requires a bit more tapping than ideal.

I guess this is the play version of step record. As others have pointed out in other threads, the 4k used to do this. But maybe someone can suggest a way…?

Maybe these will help.

This a Force demo but it should be the same on the MPC until the end when he talks about the Arranger.


These had lots of good info maybe not for you want to do.

Thanks B-Wise. I’d seen all these already. They’re useful for inputting steps - but what I’m talking about is output. In the grid edit and list edit on the old 4K, if you stepped through the events by advancing, it would sound each event in turn (without having to press play and run the sequence - a sort of preview function). It was a great way of doing tempo-free performances with long samples, you could advance through them by feel rather than time… kind of like strumming a guitar chord, letting it sustain, and then waiting until you felt like playing the next one. It can be done in the list edit page with the play button there, but it doesn’t have the same smoothness as you have to keep selecting the next step.

Understood.
Hopefully some else will get something from them.

I think on the 1k/2500 this was called Step Sound in the Grid options.

Yeah B-Wise I think you’re right, I have the 1k too - it was an option in the settings. Just another feature of the old machines I yearn for…

sparky wrote:Yeah B-Wise I think you’re right, I have the 1k too - it was an option in the settings. Just another feature of the old machines I yearn for…

Yeah I never really used it but was glad it was there when I did need it. Add it to the request list & make a good case for there so other may want it & start requesting it too.

Keep in mind your request is competing with everyone else's & Akai only has a limited amount of time/energy/money, so you better make the reason for it a good one that gets the users that wasn't thinking about it to now want it too

B-Wise wrote:Maybe these will help.

Thank you - I had wanted it so much that I was considering getting some cheap MIDI hardware for that specific purpose... This isn't perfect but it gets most of the job done !

"It isn't perfect but it gets most of the job done" should be the MPC motto: it does 90% of absolutely everything !

Jean-Marc Liotier wrote:"It isn't perfect but it gets most of the job done" should be the MPC motto: it does 90% of absolutely everything !

M.P.C=Mostly.Probably.Can do what you want

For anyone interested (still probably just me) this can (sort of) be done in the grid editor - but it requires pre-programming to fit the approach. You can place the events you want on each bar (or quantise an existing sequence and tweak it), set the tempo to 20bpm, then step through the sequence by pressing play and advancing a bar when you feel like it (assuming that’s shorter than a bar playing at 20bpms). Only problem using this method is, when long samples overlap (regardless of program or pad polyphony), they’re cut off. So… mixed results.