MPC 3 - Using Midi Tracks to trigger pads on Drum Tracks

I’m still very much in the exploration stage of my MPC journey, and as I started with the X se, it feels like being sat in front of the controls of a spaceship!

Thanks to this forum I’ve been able to solve most issues regarding quirks and workflow, so I thought I’d ask this question here and see what you guys say.

I was checking out the included demos, and they had individual midi tracks that addressed the pads in a drum track.

Is this a better approach to workflow than having all Midi data hosted within the Drum Track?

Do you mean there is a drum track with no events recorded to it and under it are a bunch of MIDI tracks with the actual events, using 'send to' to trigger the drum track?

It's one suggested method, I don't particularly like it as it's convoluted and MIDI tracks have a different pad layout (C-2 rather tan C1, different pad colurs etc). The obvious alternative IMO is to just record everything from that one kit to a single drum track. That's certainly how I would normally handle actual drum kits, but it can get messy if you are dealing with a 16 pad 'construction kit' like the ones Akai tend to use in the demos.

But you can explode it later if you need to, or use 'SAVE > Drum pads as stems' if you just need to separate out the pads at mixdown.

Or 'duplicate track' With explode or duplicate, I would suggest saving any track insert FX as a rack, remove the FX from the track and send the track to a submix, load the FX rack to the submix. That way you don't duplicate the track FX unecessarily.

MPC-Tutor wrote:Do you mean there is a drum track with no events recorded to it and under it are a bunch of MIDI tracks with the actual events, using 'send to' to trigger the drum track?

YES

It's one suggested method, I don't particularly like it as it's convoluted and MIDI tracks have a different pad layout (C-2 rather tan C1, different pad colurs etc). The obvious alternative IMO is to just record everything from that one kit to a single drum track. That's certainly how I would normally handle actual drum kits, but it can get messy if you are dealing with a 16 pad 'construction kit' like the ones Akai tend to use in the demos.

I’m coming from a place of blessed ignorance where everything is new, but I see what you’re saying

But you can explode it later if you need to, or use 'SAVE > Drum pads as stems' if you just need to separate out the pads at mixdown.

Is there a function that “un-explodes” a track, or combines several midi tracks into one?

Or 'duplicate track' With explode or duplicate, I would suggest saving any track insert FX as a rack, remove the FX from the track and send the track to a submix, load the FX rack to the submix. That way you don't duplicate the track FX unecessarily.

This seems to be one of the greatest hints I’ve ever read!

Many thanks

In the MPC demo project FutureBassDemo, there was a single bass sample within the kit, which was played using 16 Levels Pitch from a separate MIDI track. Since the bass sequence could be muted from the Track Mute screen, this approach likely has its advantages. Normally, though, creating a keygroup from the bass sample and using it for a dedicated bass track would be the recommended method.

Elijah wrote:In the MPC demo project FutureBassDemo, there was a single bass sample within the kit, which was played using 16 Levels Pitch from a separate MIDI track. Since the bass sequence could be muted from the Track Mute screen, this approach likely has its advantages. Normally, though, creating a keygroup from the bass sample and using it for a dedicated bass track would be the recommended method.

16 levels is a neat function to make quick and dirty melodies, however, the MPC always lacked an easy way to edit sequences that make use of 16 level pitch variations, since they appear as automation in the grid view.

mpc_fan_2022 wrote:16 levels is a neat function to make quick and dirty melodies, however, the MPC always lacked an easy way to edit sequences that make use of 16 level pitch variations, since they appear as automation in the grid view.

Thanks for reminding me to never use 16 levels. Damn legacy feature hogging a whole physical button !

mpc_fan_2022 wrote:

Elijah wrote:In the MPC demo project FutureBassDemo, there was a single bass sample within the kit, which was played using 16 Levels Pitch from a separate MIDI track. Since the bass sequence could be muted from the Track Mute screen, this approach likely has its advantages. Normally, though, creating a keygroup from the bass sample and using it for a dedicated bass track would be the recommended method.

16 levels is a neat function to make quick and dirty melodies, however, the MPC always lacked an easy way to edit sequences that make use of 16 level pitch variations, since they appear as automation in the grid view.

Yeah, I just use it test something out & if I like I'll make it in to a drum/keygroup track. The cool thing about 16 levels is that you can you warp.