Grid Editing on MPC 2500

I currently have an mpc 2000xl and Im thinking about upgrading to a 2500 mainly because of the grid editing feature (as well as hard drive)...

Anyway, I just have a quick question regarding grid editing... are you able to actually have a whole song within the grid editing, or is it only individual loops that you can grid edit?

Well, it goes by sequence. So if you turn all your sequences to one song sequence, then yes would answer your question!

Grid editing if for step editing of sequences.
You make the sequences then go to MODE + Song to make your song.

Thanks for the replies guys!

dynamis, i've often had 16 bars or so in grid edit... say for a verse section but you want to do little accents or mutes to a 4 bar sequence you already have... for me, i've copied that sequence track by track to a new sequence, copy+paste each track into the 16 bar sequence and edit/insert/delete as needed.

it's good for adding little variations and once it's set if you want to use song mode, you can just do one rotation of it (since you can specify how many times it repeats) for seamless integration into your song.

hope this helps.

itslikezacanduh wrote:dynamis, i've often had 16 bars or so in grid edit... say for a verse section but you want to do little accents or mutes to a 4 bar sequence you already have... for me, i've copied that sequence track by track to a new sequence, copy+paste each track into the 16 bar sequence and edit/insert/delete as needed.

it's good for adding little variations and once it's set if you want to use song mode, you can just do one rotation of it (since you can specify how many times it repeats) for seamless integration into your song.

hope this helps.

this is basically the sort of thing I want to do..at the moment Im doing all the variation in my DAW which isnt the smoothest way to do things, Id prefer to do lil changes etc all within the MPC, but I dont like step editing as Im more of a visual person (hence grid editing appears to be the perfect compromise for me, although I just read that you can only use grid editing on drum tracks)

I don't really use Grid Edit. More of the Step Edit for fine tuning midi points when playing without quantize and Song mode for laying out the sequences.

Saying that Ive never really looked at Grid mode. Maybe I can create a beat and not have to recreate it in every sequence.

Dynamis wrote:

itslikezacanduh wrote:dynamis, i've often had 16 bars or so in grid edit... say for a verse section but you want to do little accents or mutes to a 4 bar sequence you already have... for me, i've copied that sequence track by track to a new sequence, copy+paste each track into the 16 bar sequence and edit/insert/delete as needed.

it's good for adding little variations and once it's set if you want to use song mode, you can just do one rotation of it (since you can specify how many times it repeats) for seamless integration into your song.

hope this helps.

this is basically the sort of thing I want to do..at the moment Im doing all the variation in my DAW which isnt the smoothest way to do things, Id prefer to do lil changes etc all within the MPC, but I dont like step editing as Im more of a visual person (hence grid editing appears to be the perfect compromise for me, although I just read that you can only use grid editing on drum tracks)

word, from what i was reading, it sounded like you work a lot how i do.

and you aren't limited to just drums on a drum track... you can use samples all day.

one very neat thing, which i highly enjoy and thank jj for implementing in os2, is looping bars in grid edit. you can repeatedly loop a bar until you get that snare smack right where you want it, and same with samples if you're getting gappy play/off beat sample placing, you can nudge the note slighly within the grid either direction +/- its dope.

itslikezacanduh wrote:

Dynamis wrote:

itslikezacanduh wrote:dynamis, i've often had 16 bars or so in grid edit... say for a verse section but you want to do little accents or mutes to a 4 bar sequence you already have... for me, i've copied that sequence track by track to a new sequence, copy+paste each track into the 16 bar sequence and edit/insert/delete as needed.

it's good for adding little variations and once it's set if you want to use song mode, you can just do one rotation of it (since you can specify how many times it repeats) for seamless integration into your song.

hope this helps.

this is basically the sort of thing I want to do..at the moment Im doing all the variation in my DAW which isnt the smoothest way to do things, Id prefer to do lil changes etc all within the MPC, but I dont like step editing as Im more of a visual person (hence grid editing appears to be the perfect compromise for me, although I just read that you can only use grid editing on drum tracks)

word, from what i was reading, it sounded like you work a lot how i do.

and you aren't limited to just drums on a drum track... you can use samples all day.

one very neat thing, which i highly enjoy and thank jj for implementing in os2, is looping bars in grid edit. you can repeatedly loop a bar until you get that snare smack right where you want it, and same with samples if you're getting gappy play/off beat sample placing, you can nudge the note slighly within the grid either direction +/- its dope.

Ok, you've now sold it to me! (the looping of bars)...

So whats your actual workflow when it comes to building up tracks?.... also, can you actually do all the editing functions in grid edit (such as changing velocity, pitch etc) ort is it just a placement and timing?

you can nudget timing, edit velocity, level of notes... other things i may be forgetting -- check the jj manual it's all in there in grid edit what you can do, i probably don't even utilize half of it right.

i usually lay down my drums first, then find and chop samples. then i go back and tighten up timing on both afterwards (retrimming, working in grid edit, adjusting velocity, etc). then eq/filter within the mp, route audio out into my daw, eq more... that's pretty much it.

that would be an ideal situation but there are lots of variances, such as working w/outboard and midi, keys, vsts, yada yada yada.

itslikezacanduh wrote:one very neat thing, which i highly enjoy and thank jj for implementing in os2, is looping bars in grid edit. you can repeatedly loop a bar until you get that snare smack right where you want it, and same with samples if you're getting gappy play/off beat sample placing, you can nudge the note slighly within the grid either direction +/- its dope.

Bro you're talking about the Pattern Edit screen that opens from the drum grid, right? The one where you see the timing/velocity/pitch for one pad (and 1 bar) at a time?

elevated wrote:

itslikezacanduh wrote:one very neat thing, which i highly enjoy and thank jj for implementing in os2, is looping bars in grid edit. you can repeatedly loop a bar until you get that snare smack right where you want it, and same with samples if you're getting gappy play/off beat sample placing, you can nudge the note slighly within the grid either direction +/- its dope.

Bro you're talking about the Pattern Edit screen that opens from the drum grid, right? The one where you see the timing/velocity/pitch for one pad (and 1 bar) at a time?

I don't know about OS2 but in XL you can move the cursor to the Loop bit and change it to start looping from any bar for as many bars as you want looped. JJ shows doing it in one of this videos.

kazakore wrote:

elevated wrote:

itslikezacanduh wrote:one very neat thing, which i highly enjoy and thank jj for implementing in os2, is looping bars in grid edit. you can repeatedly loop a bar until you get that snare smack right where you want it, and same with samples if you're getting gappy play/off beat sample placing, you can nudge the note slighly within the grid either direction +/- its dope.

Bro you're talking about the Pattern Edit screen that opens from the drum grid, right? The one where you see the timing/velocity/pitch for one pad (and 1 bar) at a time?

I don't know about OS2 but in XL you can move the cursor to the Loop bit and change it to start looping from any bar for as many bars as you want looped. JJ shows doing it in one of this videos.

That's not what he was talking about-- You can't nudge a note while looping like that.