Recording MPC tracks to Ableton Live

How do I record a track from my MPC5000 on to Ableton?

I can only get it to record the midi notes I press, and not the actual audio.

It seems so easy...

well, ... by looking at your profile picture and your author name, ... i have a few ideas why you might not be in a position to see things clearly enough for them to make sense. take a break and drink lots of water, ...

after your mind clears, try to think about it this way,

your computer has an audio 'in', either the computer itself has a little microphone or line in that requires an 1/8th inch plug, and the MPC has two 1/4 inch main stereo line outs.

if you need adapters, i suggest radio-shack.

on your computer, 'load software, set up either internal computer sound card or external sound card as main sound card, arm track to be recorded to, press record, ... press play on mpc'

mainly, ... wait for the effects of all the thc to wear off so you can think clearly enough to understand this concept.

p.s., ... weed doesn't make you a better hip hop producer, ... skillz do.

Repeat after me...

Audio is not midi.

Midi is not audio.

oneday2one wrote:well, ... by looking at your profile picture and your author name, ... i have a few ideas why you might not be in a position to see things clearly enough for them to make sense. take a break and drink lots of water, ...

after your mind clears, try to think about it this way,

your computer has an audio 'in', either the computer itself has a little microphone or line in that requires an 1/8th inch plug, and the MPC has two 1/4 inch main stereo line outs.

if you need adapters, i suggest radio-shack.

on your computer, 'load software, set up either internal computer sound card or external sound card as main sound card, arm track to be recorded to, press record, ... press play on mpc'

mainly, ... wait for the effects of all the thc to wear off so you can think clearly enough to understand this concept.

Who are you trying to impress? Drop the ego man, you didn't give me one bit of useful information... Thank you for explaining my wiring, though.

oneday2one wrote:p.s., ... weed doesn't make you a better hip hop producer, ... skillz do.

Weird.... Because I think it was the weed that made the hip hop producer. I've only been into this stuff for a week or two. Great input though, once again.

NearTao wrote:Repeat after me...

Audio is not midi.

Midi is not audio.

Like I said, I'm pretty new at this... I started with a midi keyboard and apc40 controller last week, and got the mpc5000 this week. The way I see it, midi helps make the finished audio. That's what I meant, I guess. I am able to record about half of what I need to record, basically. Hopefully someone would take the time and actually help me understand better instead of being arrogant.

On a serious note.

I use ADAT. Wich give me 8 outs which u can easily select in a track in Ableton. If your audio card doesn't support AdAT get one or use a mixer for the 8 analog outputs this beast has. In conclusion ;read the manual.

Now THAT was a useful reply, thank you!

Try this thread for all things ABLETON. viewtopic.php?f=5&t=77616

I know we all need to start somewhere, but live plus APC is a pretty serious investment. Why pick up a 5k so soon afterwards? Do you have a audio card for recording your mpc yet?

I had played around with my friends equipment a long time ago. I was bored one day and decided to search the internet for what to get. Went to guitar center and bought an mpk49 & apc40. I got home and THEN installed ableton. I felt so lost lol, but a day or two later I was having a blast and completely happy with my purchase. I held off on the mpc to make sure I would actually be using this stuff or could even use it in the first place. After the first week I had everything down, I started creepin' around ebay. Missed my mpc4k bid by accident, and got a mpc5k perfect condition with tons of files for $1,250. Also added OS 2. Now I have a basic understanding of everything, and finding out new things I can do every day.

No, I don't have one yet. What is the difference in sound quality when recording with s/pdif or adat from the mpc?

That ableton thread looks great, thanks!

The sound card'll just let you get more inputs... might get you away from needing a mixer. Motu 828 mk2 is super cheap these days... might want a 4x midi input too so you can use all 64 midi tracks on the MPC to sequence Live (if you care to do that).

Oh... Adat/spdif... I'll probably get this backwards, but I believe Adat allows you to do multiple outs over the cable, spdif is only 2 channel. Both are digital so won't lose sound quality though...

NearTao wrote:Oh... Adat/spdif... I'll probably get this backwards, but I believe Adat allows you to do multiple outs over the cable, spdif is only 2 channel. Both are digital so won't lose sound quality though...

That's correct.

I have a MPC for a few weeks now. All I do for now is going through the manual page by page hands on. The MPC keeps suprising me when I wonder if it can do this or that. This is the best perchase I've made music wise.

I come from an all software enviorment. Because I have some experience learning the MPC is easy. You don't have any experience so the coming year is going to be a learning period for you; learning DAW, the basics, MPC 5000 and how to get them to communicate with eachother(syncing timeclock and all that crap). I have a hard time right now getting Cubase to communicate proparly with the 5000 whereas with Ableton it's done in seconds. Ableton, 5000 and ADAT is the best combination ever. Select the 8 outs in the MPC mixer, 8 ins in Ableton, press play on the 5000 and record in Ableton. Done! `

NearTao wrote:The sound card'll just let you get more inputs... might get you away from needing a mixer. Motu 828 mk2 is super cheap these days... might want a 4x midi input too so you can use all 64 midi tracks on the MPC to sequence Live (if you care to do that).

I didn't want to say I was planning on getting the focusrite saffire pro 40, because I was afraid that might be a mistake and would get flamed by the super cool elitist's here. I see the Motu is the same price. What would be better?

Useful information guys, thank you! I will go with ADAT.


Edit:
Correcting my first post...

Midi Data***

See, I'm learning...