MPC 4000's reception of Program Change is not received

Hi All,
I was hoping to air this here to see if anybody else has seen this, before sending in
an official bug report to [email protected]

I believe I have run into a bug. I am running OS 1.60

I am preparing for my first live show with MPC 4000 this weekend in Seattle. My partner
is running a MPC 2000XL and I'm running a MPC 4000. We have my 4000 setup
to change sequences with program change request, and then we've setup in his 2000XL sequences to send his Sequence 1 to send Midi Program Change 1 to select Sequence 1 on
my MPC 4000. And For his sequence 2 to send Midi Program Change 2 to select Sequence
2 on my 4000. This way, when he goes into "Next Sequence" and selects the next
sequence that we are going to play (our live act is 1 hour with all songs mixing into each other),
it switches my sequence and we're always in Sync, at least in terms of which Songs (sequences) were are playing.

This works great except for a minor problem that I'll discuss in another thread.

But I am seeing a bug in the actual recieving of Program Changes.

If I am in the
"MAIN" screen and we are jamming, all of the MPC 2000XL program changes, change
my sequence as we are wanting, but if I am in the "Track Mute" , "Mixer", "Multi", "QLink
Setup" , "Qlink Sequencer", "Next Sequence" screens, then the MPC doesn't get or ignores
the program change request. So he'll be playing one song, and I'll be playing the previous
one. I have to then go to Next Sequence and manually change my sequence.

As a workaround, my partner just tells me when he's going to switch sequences, and I jump
to the "MAIN" screen until the sequence change is done. But this is an anoyance.

I believe that the MPC 4000 should be able to recieve Program Change messages, and Act
on them, no matter which screen one is in. In all of the Screens mentioned above, they
all allow my sequence and multi to be running and playing without problems , so I don't
understand why the program change messages don't get processed or recieved.


Thanks... Dave

check the multi list page and turn multi change to off. Go back and make sure program change to on in the program change and all the programs have a program change number since it will be change by midi. I hope it helps and contract Sean at Akai.

Thanks for the response, but I'm pretty sure this is a bug.

If I am in the main mode, all program changes work great, but if I am in one of the listed
screens it is not changed. Here is how I have things setup for further clarification.

I have 1 Multi per song that I am playing. I've set each Multi so it accepts Program
Change on Midi Channel IIB. I then go to the sequence for that song ,and
on for example Track 100 (so it doesn't get in the way of my trackmutes) I set
it to send Program Change for that Multi on internal IIB.

I have this setup of for all 15 songs that I will be playing. If I switch sequence to sequence 2
it brings up the proper Multi for sequence 2.

Now I have gone one step further and selected the option the "Misc" page that indicates
that for the MPC 4000 to change sequences with program changes.

So if MPC 4000 gets program change 2 sent to it, it automatically switches to Sequence 2
which in turn is already programmed to bring up the Multi for Sequence 2 (via another Program Change).

This is all works 100% without any problems. Whether it's Live 4 sending the Program
change or my partners MPC 2000Xl sending the program changes, when I am in the Main
Mode, if the MPC 4000 recieves a program change, it switcghes to the sequence
to the corresponding program change number, which in turn is programmed to bring up
the proper Multi. We can perform the whole set , if I stay in Main mode.

The bug that I am seeing, is that if one is not in the "MAIN" mode, but is in one of the
other screens (Mixer to adjust FX levels or Track Mute to Mute Tracks , as well as others
that I listed), then all works great. But if i switch to one of these other screens then
my partner sends a program change, then either 4000 doesn't recieve it (bug is in listening
to program changes when in one of these screens) or it doesn't act on the program
change (program change is recieved but 4000 doesn't have instructions for changing
the program when in those screens). I don't know exacty which one it is, but it
would be nice if it was fixed.

I'm sure there aren't a lot of people using the setup that I am, but if you have more then 1
MPC going together or if you are using a computer along wtih MPC and you
use Program changes to keep both systems playing the same songs, then this
will occurr.

I know that we're not the only ones using 2 MPC's , as I saw the Beyonce article on
Akai Pro's website, with thier tour featuring 2 MPC 4000's. They are probably
using program changes the same way as me, but probably are leaving it in the
"MAIN" screen, so probably don't see this.

I'lll PM Sean, but will send an official bug report to Akai.

Thought that I would update this thread, in case anybody else runs into this.
I did contact Sean W and he let me know
the current specs for the 4000 in regards to Sequence Program change.

**
This is the current spec of the MPC4000.
* Program Changes to select sequences are only received in the MAIN page.
* If the MPC4000 is stopped, the sequence change is immediate
* If the MPC4000 is playing a sequence, the Program Change selects the Next Sequence

Allowing Program Changes to select Sequences in other pages than MAIN could cause the unexpected complications. It might be possible to allow program changes to be received in Track Mute and Next Sequence screens, as a Next Sequence field is available in those pages. We will check.
**

This is perfectly acceptable to me. The main modes that I need while in a Live situation,
is Main, Track Mute and Next Sequence screens. I'm hoping that they can implement this
sometime soon, but until then, My partner has to tap me on the shoulder, so I can
put myself in the "Main" mode, so the Next sequence change will occur.