Synching MPC500 to Ableton Live

I want to hook up my MPC 500 to ableton so that when I hit the pads on the mpc it plays the sounds from ableton. I have tried hooking it up as a master and a slave but I cant seem to get it to do anything. I;m using an uno midi to usb cord.

as far as i know that will only work if the midi out from the MPC is connected directly to the midi in on your soundcard or interface. idk if the mpc will connect thru a midi 2 usb cable but if so u will need to find the proper drivers for it 2 work correctly. if everything is set up right, u should be able to set ur ableton tracks 2 recieve midi from the MPC. make sure the midi track is armed for recording and the mpc track is set to send data thru whatever channel the ableton midi track is recieving on

The cord came with a cd that installed something on my computer, I assume it was the driver that was needed to make the cord work. What do you mean by directly connecting to soundcard or interface?

Esquilo wrote:The cord came with a cd that installed something on my computer, I assume it was the driver that was needed to make the cord work. What do you mean by directly connecting to soundcard or interface?

for my setup i have an M-Audio soundcard that has midi in n out connections. therefor my 500 is connected directly to my computer via standard 5 pin midi cable. since u r using a midi 2 usb i assume u r using the stock soundcard that was built into ur computer. like i said i dont know how compatible this is with the MPC, but if the drivers r properly installed u should see something in ur ableton preferences menu that will allow u to select ur external midi controller.

Well I found this website here http://www.akaipro.com/syncableton and i can get them synced but the only thing that happens is when I press play on my MPC, ableton plays. WHich is definitely a start but I still cant get my pads to control any midi. I have the track type on midi. I have tried to manually map my pads and that doesnt work.

I dont think there is midi functionality over USB for MPC500

You might be able to get it to work as a transport ( record , etc) device , but not map pads to drums in drum rack or impulse in Ableton.

I will have a go and report back

Lea

Ok just tested
USB connection to PC is only for file transfer mode ( MODE. SAVE , spin DATA wheel to activate USB mode) only.


A 5 pin midi connection from MIDI OUT on MPC to MIDI IN on PC soundcard or USB midi device will work, but you need to set a midi channel on the MPC ( press TRACK,PARAMS and spin DATA wheel til you see MIDI CHANNEL TR:A1 , move dow with cursor pad and set to 1 and press SEQUENCE to exit)
I can only get drum triggering working in Ableton Live 7 by using Drum Rack .Impulse drum app in Ableton doesnt work.

Hope this helps

Lea

I still cant get the pads to send anything to ableton. When I hit a pad the midi in light on my usb/midi cord lights up. But i can only still get them to play together. They are both on beat with each other, but the midi in light by the EXT button on ableton doesnt light up when I hit a pad. I set track 1 to midi channel 1 but that didnt change a thing.

EDIT: I just got it to work man, I guess the midi channel did the trick. Thanks a ton for your help!

No probs

Have fun

Lea

I do have one more question though now that it's working. Is there any way to change where the pads send midi to? because pad1 will hit something like E2 and pad2 will hit F#3, they seem to just be mixed all about. It;s not a huge deal but do you know if there is any way to have it play just one after the other i.e. C,C#,D,D#,E,F,F# and so on?

Always a prob with hardware controllers and sequencer software, called keymaps
drum machines can have custom notes profile , or use General Midi standard.
I dont know if anyone has created a device map for Live for the MPC500

I would look for a Ableton Forum and ask the question , as I have managed to get it working with Cubase 4 using general midi

Alternative is to get one of these for 40 UKP - Nanopad
http://www.korgnano.com/

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