Question for live performance

Hi there,

does the mpc 5000 have a mode in which I can mute tracks and twiddle the q-links (configured to synth, filter or other parameters) at the same time?

ok lets try it this way: if i am in the global q-link mode, can I mute tracks as well?

as far as I know you can use the Q-links when you are in 'Track Mute' Mode...I believe you could go this way.

But note that the Q-link is only working for the Track that you have selected in 'main Mode' ... the 'global' q-link mode (where you could link parameters from different programs/tracks) does not exist (allthough it is in 2.0 I could never make it work !)

seiko wrote:the 'global' q-link mode (where you could link parameters from different programs/tracks) does not exist (allthough it is in 2.0 I could never make it work !)

Ahm... really? Can somebody confirm this or better prove this to be wrong?
If that does not work in 2.0 eventually I forget about buying the 5k...

I really would see that what I'm saying is wrong...but I'm afraid it's not.

It is mentioned somewhere in the 'Release notes ' of 2.00 (17.Q-LINK: Added Global Q-Link Mode. Press[SHIFT] to toggle global Qlink mode.) but it is not explained anywhere how it is implemented. I tried various times but according to me the implementation was not done or does not work.

So you are always stuck with the Q-links that are connected to the Program that is connected to the Track which you have selected.

You can't make a set of q-links that handle Programs from different tracks.

again, I hope someone proves me wrong because for me this implementation is very poor (if I use 30 tracks I don't know to which track I should jump and which q-link to use, I would like to make one 'global' q-link controlling various parameters from different tracks and programs )

I believe this has been discussed allready and I found out at that time that MPC4000 can do this. I know other people that did not buy MPC5000 for this reason.

I had a live PA this weekend and everything went fine. As far as controlling mute and the fx send at the same time, well you have to plan things really well before starting to actually make music. the best way of going about this is to have the majority of the sounds you are going to be using in ONE particular program as opposed to spread through several programs.

The point of this is to always be in the same program... that way you can mute and unmute tracks while also affecting it's effect send from the mixer screen. you can then go to 1 link mode.

Planning ahead is extremely important when doing live performances with an MPC, it can make all the difference in the world.


I am going to make a little write up about Live PA best practices with the mpc5k because preparing for this one was quite a task but at the end everything came out alright and I was able to do a lot of stuff I would not have been able to do on the 2500.

as far as controlling many sounds with one knob I am pretty sure you can do this in multi... you could for example lowpass the whole program and apply and lfo live without having to stop the sequence.

my MPC 5000 is still in the corner collecting dust,
because of this annoying imperfection.

Most users just put the 5000 into their studio for the looks, otherwise there would be more riot about this. I bought many used MPCs, most of them where not touched more than 5 minutes, that´s how fresh they looked.

In fact it is just plain NONSENSE that the q-links are only accessible for the track your cursor is on. A musician would never ever have thought this way.
The MPC is there to PLAY, not to click around like an idiot before some filtering happens.
You can´t do that, the audience will notice the terror in your eyes while you click through the menues on stage, trying to fix the desaster that happens while your attention is in the wrong place.
**** that, then after you are finished the guy with ableton just rocks the house on autopilot while going to the bathroom. People don´t care, but that´s a whole other story.

Just a simple quick-fix would improve the live performance be 300%:
if you could hit "shift" and the pad in Track mute mode to activate the track
(just like it works on the main screen)
This is takes probably 5 minutes to program.

good night

"if you could hit "shift" and the pad in Track mute mode to activate the track"

indeed would be enough...

or implementation of a 'global q-link' can't be that hard.

I don't understand, for all my other equipment, new OS's with bugfixes and new functionality is released 3-5 times a year (I'm talking about Machinedum/Monomachine/Blofeld/Virus etc)

I really don't understand that the 'MPC' flagship containing plenty of bugs/annoyances/bad implemented functions did not get any update for more then half a year !!

I just stick to my belief that 99,9% of the MPC users are people laying down a couple of tracks looping 2 measures and then doing all the rest in their Daw, so no one actually cares about any other functionality. So purely function-wise I think that most of the MPC5000 users might as well use an MPC 500 or 1000 (but the 5000's screen is way cooler of course...)
Too bad for the few that would like to rely on the MPC for more then laying down a loop (live anyone ?).
I feel you Zombie.

exactly.

But I think adding "shift+pad" would be just a matter of a few minutes of programming as it does not change the structure at all.

There are other little imperfections. For example hitting [Track mute] the second tme should close the track-mute window again.
This is just obvious.

Software updates should be a normality, especially when they are requested by professional users. If I was a company I would be grateful for this input.

But it might be also difficult to distinguish serious requests from all this: please integrate Tetris into the next update, it would be soo cool to play that on stage while my liveset plays from my iPod

I am planning on switching to the 1000 now for my liveset.
I found out that the JJ OS for the 1000 and the 2500 actually has an activate Track button in the Track Mute window.
Hahahahaha, Hhahahahahahahhahaaaaaaa. It is INSANE