MPC5000 reviews, bug reports and fellow user support on the most recent standalone, hardware MPC from Akai
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By czarmusik Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:31 am
Does anyone know how to record VA Synth automation on the 5000 like the fx's? Is it possible to do during a sequence?
By oneday2one Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:31 pm
i'm too lazy to look it up right now, but the information you seek is in the 2.0 manual, look up the PDF and search for it. and 'yes you can'.

probably assign the parameter to one of the q-links knobs or sliders on the q-link page, and then sequence the movement of the q-link. ; )
By ritec Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:45 pm
hat is exactly right... when you go into q-link mode from a track that has a synth you will be able to access automation to several of the synth parameters, not all but some of them. Cutoff is in there which to me is the most important one.
By markski Fri Jan 01, 2010 3:50 pm
ritec wrote:hat is exactly right... when you go into q-link mode from a track that has a synth you will be able to access automation to several of the synth parameters, not all but some of them. Cutoff is in there which to me is the most important one.


Does anyone know if you can control the LFO rate for a synth program either in this way or by recording changes on the synth screen? I can play a sequence back and alter the rate manually with the q-link slider but not record the results.
By oneday2one Fri Jan 01, 2010 6:30 pm
take a deep breath and try to think logically for a second.

the q-link page shows you a page where all the knobs and the sliders on the left can be assigned to almost anything you want. (including things like lfo)

what this page and the Akai MPC allows you to do, is sequence q-link movement, whether on faders or knobs, once the specified q-link is assigned to a parameter.

try to grasp this concept, ... without being able to fully grasp this concept, your questions will never find answers.
By markski Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:28 pm
oneday2one wrote:take a deep breath and try to think logically for a second.

the q-link page shows you a page where all the knobs and the sliders on the left can be assigned to almost anything you want. (including things like lfo)

what this page and the Akai MPC allows you to do, is sequence q-link movement, whether on faders or knobs, once the specified q-link is assigned to a parameter.

try to grasp this concept, ... without being able to fully grasp this concept, your questions will never find answers.


Thanks but I think I do grasp the concept and have applied q-link controls to other parameters such as filter cut off previously. When I go into the Q-Link screen, click the window button on the controller I want to assign and select a SYNTH program, the only parameters available to change are CUTOFF, ATTACK, DECAY, RELEASE, PAN, RESONANCE, LEVEL and FX SEND as with a sample program. I would like to control is the LFO rate or sync rate from the LFO page on the synth program so unless theres some way of routing LFO control in the synth via one of these controllable parametes I cant see how to do it.
By oneday2one Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:08 pm
holy crap, ... you're right, ... i investigated it.

the strange thing is that i was trying to re-create the wobble bass sound from dubstep a while back, and i'm pretty sure that somehow i got it, and recorded it in a way that changed the wobble.

but that could have also came from my external synth, moog little phatty, ... so maybe i just got confused.

yeah, ... it looks like unless you are recording the signal to something else, that there will be no way for the MPC 5000 to record such changes as LFO.

my bad man, ... sometimes my ego and confidence gets in the way of my actual knowledge.
By markski Sun Jan 03, 2010 5:45 pm
oneday2one wrote:holy ****, ... you're right, ... i investigated it.

yeah, ... it looks like unless you are recording the signal to something else, that there will be no way for the MPC 5000 to record such changes as LFO.

my bad man, ... sometimes my ego and confidence gets in the way of my actual knowledge.


No worries man. Thats exactly why I want to control the LFO via Q-Link, so I could manually change the wobble on a bass synth program I've created whilst playing. So the only alternative is to create different synth programs with different LFO rates and record them into different tracks which kinda sux :roll:
By seiko Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:11 am
for the synth there is no extra parameters besides the ones you can q-link for ordinary sample programs, this sux bigtime !
but has been mentioned long ago allready...
By ritec Sun Jan 10, 2010 6:02 pm
I've alway thought you can control / record the synth parameters with an external midi controller. I have not tried this approach but something tells me you can do it.
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By Jauly Sun Jan 10, 2010 6:26 pm
ritec wrote:I've alway thought you can control / record the synth parameters with an external midi controller. I have not tried this approach but something tells me you can do it.


If this basic solution would work, why all the knobs & sliders on the 5000? The 5000 is a control unit itself.
By ritec Sun Jan 10, 2010 7:07 pm
well maybe it's just not programmed in there. but theoretically all the knobs and sliders in the synth should be able to be mapped to CCs. Now, I know you can make any slider or knob in the 5k send ccs so, maybe it's possible to do it this way?


There is only one way to know, trying it.
By Winerz Mon Apr 05, 2010 1:17 am
Right, after days of crying about the fact that I can't record realtime changes to most synth parameters with the q links, I thought I'd post some workarounds I am now using. The main things I wanted to record was lfo speed, on both the filter and the oscillator amplitude. Here's what I do:

- Basically I use the effects section to get the exact same results - namely the 2 effects Tremolo and LP Filter Sync, running in parallel.
- I then send my synth program to that FX bus, and then map my q links to those effects parameters (this is now possible with OS2)
- Then I can record realtime changes to LFO speed in my sequences, to get some badboy bassline changeups.

Obviously it would be better if you could map any Q link to any parameter, so come on Akai sort it out you muppets, before I get medieval on your ass!
By ritec Fri Apr 09, 2010 6:03 am
That is a great workaround and an example of how the mpc makes you think different about making music. You come up with crazy ways to do things and work around limitations.

Of course it would be awesome to be able to automate anything though!