MPC5000 reviews, bug reports and fellow user support on the most recent standalone, hardware MPC from Akai
By WaterHead Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:14 pm
Hello everybody, I am new to the forums. I have been a 2KXL users for many years and have just recently got a 5K. Since I use the 5K as my main sequencer triggering a Triton Extreme, Logic instruments and a couple of other hardware-synths, I edit my sequences directly on the MP.

The new Grid Edit is nice. When I use it for Drum Tracks I can quickly switch the section I'm viewing with the bank buttons. Unfortunately it seems as this does not work for MIDI Tracks. I have to use the cursor buttons to get to the field on the left to change the displayed octave from say C1 to C2. Isn't there a faster way to do this? The manual didn't help much. Oh, and I'm using OS 2.0.

Thanks guys

Edit: Buggy? While reading through the manual, I also noted that selecting multiple events using shift in Grid Edit does have no effect. Events which I select this way can not be edited or deleted together. Is this a bug? Selection of multiple events seems pretty useless in this case …
also, the manual states that for example if you set the time signature for example to 3/4 for a measure previously recorded in 4/4 the material will not be truncated. This seems to be wrong. If I extend a bar from 3/4 to 4/4 again, all the recorded material is gone.
By ritec Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:19 pm
in regards to seeing more data in midi try to change the TC value so you can see more notes in the screen this might or might not solve your problem.

Regarding selecting multiple notes using shift, I have done this before and I know it works.. you might be doing something wrong.

and as far as changing from 4/4 to 3/4 the material won't be truncated but I believe it does not work the other way around.

hope that helps.
By WaterHead Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:18 am
Hey ritec,
thanks for your reply.

ritec wrote:in regards to seeing more data in midi try to change the TC value so you can see more notes in the screen this might or might not solve your problem.

Yes, this is handy when you want to see more notes horizontically. The problem I have is that you can only see one octave at a time and changing the view after editing one octave requires going upupupupupupleftdown with the cursor buttons, then changing the octave with the data wheel to see a different one vertically. If there is no faster way to do this I would request a feature for the next OS Update: Similar to switching octaves for drum tracks via bank buttons on drum tracks, we should be able to switch Octaves in MIDI Tracks by hitting for example shift and a MIDI note in the corresponding octave.

ritec wrote:Regarding selecting multiple notes using shift, I have done this before and I know it works.. you might be doing something wrong.

Yes, I can select multiple notes. But have you tried actually cutting, pasting, moving a multiple notes selection? This does not seem to work here.

ritec wrote:and as far as changing from 4/4 to 3/4 the material won't be truncated but I believe it does not work the other way around.

hope that helps.

The reference manual v2.00 states on page 29:
"if a bar becomes lengthened due to a time signature change, blank space is added to the end of the bar. If you
decrease the length of a sequence, the last bars of the existing sequence are not played, but unlike previous MPC's,
these bars are NOT truncated. This means that the length of a sequence can be adjusted without losing the end bars of your sequence!
"


Do the following:
1. Record one bar of a simple 16th note hihat track.
2. Set the time signature for this bar to 3/4
3. Play the track and you will hear three beats with hihats.
4. Set the time signature for the same bar back to 4/4
5. Play the track and you will hear the hihat playing for three beats, the last beat will play silence.

So the manual seems to be wrong?
User avatar
By dubkutter Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:20 am
On my 5k I have found copy pasting notes in grid mode works fine.
Shift selecting with jog will whole bars, half and quarters work OK.

Pasting to other tracks work well also.

Only problem is that notes always stay on one or the corresponding grid line.

In other words not transferable to different pads in this mode.

On the rare occasion you need to select a certain note twice the same problem deleting also.
However, making the transfer from 2000XL to 5k work flow in grid mode is a breeze.

Question: Does anyone know if the 4k has a grid mode edit and is it as easy?

Trunciation of bars I have checked in the past and it does not occur.

Did you try recording after changing the signature that could be the cause of your missing notes.

I myself have not tried to do this yet but I can try when I get home.
By WaterHead Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:56 pm
Thanks for your answer. Maybe it's just me but I tried and tried and multiple selection still does not work for me. I can't copy, paste, move or delete multiple notes whether they are quantized 100% or off the grid. Doesn't work here …

About the missing notes: notes are only missing when I change the time signature of a sequence. Shortening and lengthening a sequence again does actually work the way it is described in the manual. No big deal though, I hardly ever change the signature of a sequence after it is recorded.

You are right, the workflow on the 5K is very similar to the 2KXL but it offers so much more. I would recommend anyone who is using an older model to go for it, despite the small OS bugs it seems to have. It's much easier and more fun to use. :)