Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
By mpc-scales Wed Jul 01, 2020 7:12 am
the scales encompass every possible 5 to 9 note scale in the 12-tone equally-tempered system of music.

they are now available for free at: mpc-scales.com

the site doesn’t work well on mobile/tablets so please view it on a laptop/desktop browser.

if you’d like to see how the files are organized, there is a “scale player” where you can view the folder system and better understand how the scales are organized and even how the pads and banks are arranged for each .pgm file.

to use the scales, you'll need an external midi sound module that receives midi note messages. the scales won’t change the pitch of samples or play keygroups in scale at this time... : ( if anyone knows how to make this work, i'd love to know how though.

the FULL version of the scales pack includes every possible 5 to 9 note scale (including all mode shifts and rootnotes) within the 12-tone equally-tempered system of music, across a range of 5 octaves. names were added to identify 100+ unique scales from around the world and were further categorized into various folders for better user experience.

the LITE version is recommended for most people, as it only contains the named scales that people will probably find the most useful. it's also much faster to download and extract than the FULL version. please try the LITE version before the FULL version.

it took a lot of time and effort to write the program to generate the 100,000+ files, but i am very happy to finally make the scales available to the mpc community free of charge!

a note about device support at this time:

the .pgm file format that was used to create the 1.0 version of the scales may only work on MPC1000/2500 or later models at this time.

i’d like to support as many machines as possible as time permits and as i gain feedback and help from people who are having trouble loading the files. i’d appreciate your help with this since i don’t have every mpc to test the files out and i need the .pgm parameters set a certain way on the mpc to properly create the files. i might be able to work with you to generate the scale files for other .pgm formats that will work on other machines.

if you have any issues using the scales, please tell me which mpc and operating system you are using and what is happening when you try and load the scales. posting here would be good, i think. there is also a post (with the same title as this topic) on the r/mpcusers subreddit where you might find more info about issues people are having.

please be patient. i am a very busy person and i worked on this project in my free time to start learning programming and web development. it is not something i can devote all of my attention towards at all times and it may take me a while to respond.

if you find the scales useful and have the means to make a small contribution, i'm accepting donations on the site and would really appreciate your support. funds will be used to cover website costs and to ensure the scales are available for many years to come.

i hope people find the scales as fun as i have!

thank you kindly
-admin
By mpc-scales Thu Jul 02, 2020 12:26 am
i'm not sure the .pgm files are even compatible with the MPC500. even if the .pgm format was compatible, the .pgm files were intended for 16-pad layouts and might not map to the 12-pad layout very well. the note arrangements would be out of sync with the next banks and some repeated octave notes would strangely repeat for some scales when it doesn't seem to make sense, due to the way they were arranged for the (4 x 4) 16-pad layouts...

you could give it a shot, but i have a feeling they won't work.

that being said, if enough people request it, maybe i could try creating a 12-pad version of the scales in the future?