By B-Wise
Sun Mar 17, 2024 7:46 pm
Over on the MPC thread on Gearspace (I go by Wise Beats there) we got into the differences between the Force & MPC style of sequencing songs. I explained how the Force could be used to emulate the MPC song mode via the Clip-Matrix & the unique way I use it with something I call the “Clip-Bank Method” (CBM). This is 1 of 2 short videos I made to explain my points to them & may & be of interest to you guys.
This is a link to one of the members I was talking to that lead me make these videos: https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.ph ... ount=31010
If you go there & read back some post I explained more about my method. I hope this clears up some confusing about the different styles of sequencers. The Force may still not be your thing & that’s cool.
If you don’t want to use the link here’s some quotes from the site, but the site has way more info:
[QUOTE=Leighty;16935837]Having come full circle back to the MPC world but now with a MPC 4000. I swapped my Push 3 for this last week. I've also owned the newer MPCs in the past and the Force.
I've come to realize as 'fun' as clips in Force/Push are to come up with ideas, it's a hideous way to arrange a track. With only 8 scenes to view at a time, and a never ending combo of pad colours...try to actually piece together a 6 minute arrangement using scenes is so hard and messy to follow. Don't get me wrong it's totally doable but in practice it gets confusing. Push 3 is even worse in that you can't set follow actions and tbh follow actions in controller take me ages to setup.
The MPC 4000 has reminded me how tried and tested the MPC workflow is for song writing. I like that you can build on a non-destructive arrangement in song mode based on your patterns and then print the song to a new pattern. Optimal approach I have is to setup each song to actually be a section e.g.
- song 1 = intro . Intro is made up of four 8 bar sequences
- song 2 = drop 1. This is made up of 4 8 bar sequences.
- song 3 = break 1. This is made up of two-four 8 bar sequences
- song 4 = drop 2. Two to four 8 bars seqs
- song 5 = outro. Two 8 bar seqs
You can chizel away at your sections this via the underlying sequences, or very rapidly produce a simple set of seqs just using mute states. Then print each song section to a new pattern. Do more detailed edits in those, and then chain then to make a complete edited song.
It's a really solid workflow, even if not super quick, it causes you to focus on sections and move forward in a linear way.
I love MPC sequences and song modes![/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Wise Beats;16936940]What are you talking about? You can view all 128 tracks & 999 (if you have that many) scenes at once in the Navigate view. You can only view 8 tracks & 8 scenes in the Clip-Matrix which is like the main screen. How many sequences & tracks can you view in the MPC at once?
All tracks & pads can be set to the same color.
The first video I show how you could make the same MPC song structure you gave me in your post, tho you didn't tell me how many tracks you used so to keep it simple I just kept it to 8 so everything could be seen at once. On track 8 which is blank, I used it to name the parts of the song. The first 4 clips are named Intro#1, Intro#2... . I made the intro part beforehand, with four 8 bar seqs. K1=Kick S1=Snare, H1=Hats.
Then I did the Drop section live by making each clip one by one. I forgot to renamed them to Drop#1, Drop#2, but as you can see, once you rename the track, all new clips will have that name & the Scene number it was created on.These are just dummy tracks & clips & normally you would make them as you grow the project & record into them. I could've did the rest of the songs sections but, hopefully you get the point of how you could recreate all them section in the Clip-Matrix"
I finish by showing how fast you can delete & copy clips by using the the 64 pads that not seen in the video.
This is a link to one of the members I was talking to that lead me make these videos: https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.ph ... ount=31010
If you go there & read back some post I explained more about my method. I hope this clears up some confusing about the different styles of sequencers. The Force may still not be your thing & that’s cool.
If you don’t want to use the link here’s some quotes from the site, but the site has way more info:
[QUOTE=Leighty;16935837]Having come full circle back to the MPC world but now with a MPC 4000. I swapped my Push 3 for this last week. I've also owned the newer MPCs in the past and the Force.
I've come to realize as 'fun' as clips in Force/Push are to come up with ideas, it's a hideous way to arrange a track. With only 8 scenes to view at a time, and a never ending combo of pad colours...try to actually piece together a 6 minute arrangement using scenes is so hard and messy to follow. Don't get me wrong it's totally doable but in practice it gets confusing. Push 3 is even worse in that you can't set follow actions and tbh follow actions in controller take me ages to setup.
The MPC 4000 has reminded me how tried and tested the MPC workflow is for song writing. I like that you can build on a non-destructive arrangement in song mode based on your patterns and then print the song to a new pattern. Optimal approach I have is to setup each song to actually be a section e.g.
- song 1 = intro . Intro is made up of four 8 bar sequences
- song 2 = drop 1. This is made up of 4 8 bar sequences.
- song 3 = break 1. This is made up of two-four 8 bar sequences
- song 4 = drop 2. Two to four 8 bars seqs
- song 5 = outro. Two 8 bar seqs
You can chizel away at your sections this via the underlying sequences, or very rapidly produce a simple set of seqs just using mute states. Then print each song section to a new pattern. Do more detailed edits in those, and then chain then to make a complete edited song.
It's a really solid workflow, even if not super quick, it causes you to focus on sections and move forward in a linear way.
I love MPC sequences and song modes![/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Wise Beats;16936940]What are you talking about? You can view all 128 tracks & 999 (if you have that many) scenes at once in the Navigate view. You can only view 8 tracks & 8 scenes in the Clip-Matrix which is like the main screen. How many sequences & tracks can you view in the MPC at once?
All tracks & pads can be set to the same color.
The first video I show how you could make the same MPC song structure you gave me in your post, tho you didn't tell me how many tracks you used so to keep it simple I just kept it to 8 so everything could be seen at once. On track 8 which is blank, I used it to name the parts of the song. The first 4 clips are named Intro#1, Intro#2... . I made the intro part beforehand, with four 8 bar seqs. K1=Kick S1=Snare, H1=Hats.
Then I did the Drop section live by making each clip one by one. I forgot to renamed them to Drop#1, Drop#2, but as you can see, once you rename the track, all new clips will have that name & the Scene number it was created on.These are just dummy tracks & clips & normally you would make them as you grow the project & record into them. I could've did the rest of the songs sections but, hopefully you get the point of how you could recreate all them section in the Clip-Matrix"
I finish by showing how fast you can delete & copy clips by using the the 64 pads that not seen in the video.