New to MPC - wondering the ways that people structure comple

So far I love it, it syncs brilliantly with my ESX and is a lot of fun playing them both live. But, I'm trying to get my head around the best way to structure entire finished tracks with JJOS2XL. I would have liked to have used song mode with recordable mutes but this doesn't seem possible. I've converted a song to a sequence but to do this you have to make sure that all your tracks in each sequence use the same sounds, so if song mode is used it means that you have to have lots of different patters with all the combinations you want vs recordable mutes.

I'm just wondering if I've missed some methods, I'd love to hear how other people use their MPC for finished tracks.

happ new year
Andy

Correct me if im wrong here, but when you say you want recordable mutes, you mean like for example mute the first half bar of drums in a loop.

Only way to do that is simply copy the sequence and erase the part you want.

Sorry, I didn't get a message that you'd posted on this thread, must have not ticked the box...

What I mean is that I spend a lot of time working with a few sequences, using the mutes live to turn off tracks etc... which is a completely enjoyable way of playing (and can easily zap several hours!). This is great live but when it comes to recording this it only works in a single sequence. My perfect solution is that you could record mutes in song mode, that is exactly what I'm after, you get the luxury of having different sequences with different programs on each track.

I am meaning to look into using program change messages via step edit which I think may be possible, or at least in XL v2.0 by the look of it, which may work out ok!

you get the luxury of having different sequences with different programs on each track.

yo you have soooooo many tracks, just keep 1 pgm per track and use diff tracks when necessary.
i keep tracks 1-8 reserved for instrument stuff and 9-16 reserved for percussion stuff. i rarely use more than 4 percussion tracks (all main drum notes on 1 track 1 pgm, here, w/ additional percussive sh!t on different tracks/pgms as necessary) so even if i only had 16 tracks it could be plenty.

let's say you switch drum kits for the verses/chorus. specify track 9 as VERSE DRUMS and track 10 as CHORUS DRUMS, put the appropriate pgm on both, and you're good to go.