Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
By GoodTimeAlliance Thu Mar 17, 2022 11:25 pm
Hi, I have had my MPC for about three months now and I am by no means an expert perhaps I am missing something..... I do hope so!!

Is it possible to do Polythythms with a single program/kit?
I appreciate it is possible at the Track level but it would be very useful if I could load say a drum kit program and set different lengths per pad.

I also use Studio One and the pattern editor/step sequencer has this feature and it is very useful and super fun.
The MPC step sequencer is very similar to Studio Ones pattern editor (Step Sequencer) in looks and basic functionality but S1 has a few excellent little tricks up it's sleeve which I would think should be reasonably easy for the boffins at AKAI to implement....

If I am missing something and there is already a way to do this please enlighten me..... I have trawled the manual & YT but I cant see..

Many thanks

Craig
By GoodTimeAlliance Fri Mar 18, 2022 9:11 am
Oh I see thanks for that.

It seems like a bit of a messy workaround but great news.... I didnt think of that.

I do think AKAI should take a look at Studio Ones pattern editor and implement it that way. Being able to change the length of each step sequencer lane inside a single step sequencer track allows for some really interesting variations.

Thanks very much for your speedy reply... I will have a go at that later
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By elstebbano Fri Mar 18, 2022 1:44 pm
Yeah, you will get used to it. First thing I do when I start a new project is to set the bars of the sequence to 999 and then assigning the needed lengths seperately to the tracks.
It is more easy on the force where you can just assign different lenghts to the clips..
By renegadebliss Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:20 am
They should study the Sequentix Circlon which runs circles around Studio One's pattern editor but they're not going to... I don't think their intent is to make the step sequencer robust... happy for them to prove me wrong... But I can say my Sequentix P3 pairs really well with the MPC Live
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By jabberwalky Mon Mar 21, 2022 11:49 am
renegadebliss wrote:They should study the Sequentix Circlon which runs circles around Studio One's pattern editor but they're not going to... I don't think their intent is to make the step sequencer robust... happy for them to prove me wrong... But I can say my Sequentix P3 pairs really well with the MPC Live


I'm sure they would if they could actually buy one lol.
By 0438snappy Sun Sep 25, 2022 2:24 am
Hey there, at risk of reviving a dead thread, has anyone checked whether polyrhythms / track lengths are working in firmware 2.11.4?

No matter what I do, whenever I try to set a track length shorter than the main sequence length, the shortened track doesn’t loop at the specified number of beats, but just runs to the main sequence length and then loops. Am I missing something here? I’m new to Mpc live but very familiar with other sequencers…

It seems the functionality has regressed from this YouTube video from 2017….
By 0438snappy Sun Sep 25, 2022 10:39 am
Ok…. Please ignore my earlier post lol, figured out where I was going wrong…

I had conflated the track length measured in “beats” on the MPC with “steps” from an x0x or elektron style sequencer

So for a 2 bar track it’s 8 beats on MPC, whereas I was thinking 32 steps on an elektron. DOH

I think the other thing that threw me was that the step sequencer timeline / chaser line always shows the position in the main seq, not the position in the track, again I’m probably too used to the chaser leds in elektron or x0x sequencers
By 6/8 Stanley Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:28 pm
MPC's (at least my 2500) are perfect for learning about polyrhythms. I haven't tried using different time sig's on different length tracks. That seems too hard for me. Maybe someday. The easy way is to use a time sig that can contain the rhythms you want want and use the number of bars to make them loop. In 12/8 for example you can have 2,3,4 or 6 beat rhythms and they will all loop in 4 bars. There are some freaky polyrhythms that need a lot of bars to loop right but I'm not ready for that.

Even my horrible drum machine from the 90's that only does 4/4 can be programmed for polyrhythms. Just put the beats where you want.

In Zimbabwe they have a lot of tunes (including a "beginner" tune) that use 4 bars of 12/8 with a 3 beat that starts on the 2. Very easy to do on MPC.