Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By microcosm Mon Apr 06, 2009 3:20 pm
Hey all,

New MPC4000 user here. I was a 2kxl user back in tne day, but gave it up for software sequencing in Pro Tools. The GAS bug hit again after increasingly getting frustrated with my old and tired software workflow. Anyways, got it on Saturday, beefed up the RAM to 512, and I'm loving it again. Still working on a good workflow though.

A couple of questions:

1. Is there a track mute for audio? On my Motif ES, there is an option to mute events (like the MP) and an option to mute audio. With muting audio, for instance, if you hit a mute during a long sample and unmuted it, it would play the rest of that sample. With mute events, however, once the initial sample is muted, you cannot unmute it - so you will not hear the sample until it hits again. In the mixer screen on the MP, muting here does the desired result, but it's not as accessible as the pad mute screen.

2. My workflow usually has me using the MP midi out to trigger some modules I have then I go back and sample them in. Is there a way to set the sample time to a specific bar length? Or do I have to manually record and always trim them after the fact.

3. Is there a manual for Ak.sys for OSX? I may have been mistaken, but I thought there was a pad editor and I could drag and drop samples to and fro.

Thanks!
User avatar
By LvngDead Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:46 am
aksys for macosx : http://www.akaipro.com/stuff/contentmgr ... sxv261.dmg


As far as what you're trying to do, I don't THINK the 4000 has that feature, but the 5000 does. It's called an Instant Track mute or Instant pad mute and it sends a message to the mixer telling it to turn the sound off.

This way, your sample doesn't play all the way through after you do a pad/track mute.

That's what you're trying to do, right?
By jpz41 Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:12 am
WHEN YOU HAVE THE AKS. SOFTWARE LOADED ON YOU COMPUTER, IN THE LEFT PANE YOU WILL SEE A LITTLE PICTURE OF THE MPC UNDER THE AKS SYMBOL PUT YOUR MOUSE ON THE MPC PIX AND LEFT CLICK AND ONE OF YOUR CHOOSES WILL BE PAD EDITOR. jz
By microcosm Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:43 pm
LvngDead wrote:aksys for macosx : http://www.akaipro.com/stuff/contentmgr ... sxv261.dmg


As far as what you're trying to do, I don't THINK the 4000 has that feature, but the 5000 does. It's called an Instant Track mute or Instant pad mute and it sends a message to the mixer telling it to turn the sound off.

This way, your sample doesn't play all the way through after you do a pad/track mute.

That's what you're trying to do, right?


Damn! Right you are!

Selecting Instant Track Mute
The MP5000 has the ability to mute tracks using two different methods. Method one ignore Note On messages. This is how legacy MPC track muting has worked. This method allows samples and notes that are playing to finish playing through their entire length. This is useful when using loops, and you want to have a loop finish playing to the end of a measure, then not play the next time the sequence loops.

Method two is Instant Track Muting, which sends MIDI track volume. This is a method that is new to the MPC5000, which is useful for when you want to have the track muted immediately. The advantage of this method is that the loop will continue to play, but at zero volume, allowing the loop to continue playing when the track is unmuted. Using this method, stuttering, beat juggling between two loops, and other DJ style techniques can be employed.


Add this to my wishlist for a new OS. Yeah right!

How have people been getting around this?