Sound cuts out at start of each loop

Hey guys, I have an MPC 2000 classic driving a MicroKorg. I’m using the MPC to record sequences and play them on the MicroKorg. I’m having two problems I could really use some help with -- it seems like they might be related.

1) The sound of any note being played is cut off completely at the end of every loop, even if I’m playing live.

2) If I have a note at the beginning of the first measure, the sound cuts off abruptly when it plays, only playing for a small fraction of a second.

In both of these cases, when the sound cuts off, it doesn’t just cut the duration, it cuts the sound completely, as if somebody hit the mute button.

If I understand correctly, what's happening is you are releasing a note near the end of the loop.

The effect is that the sequencer triggers a 'note off' event as you release the key. If you hold the note for just a little too long, it could read the note off event at the beginning of the next loop.

Imagine the time sequence goes like this:
hit record.
sequence plays.
sequence loops to beginning.
note is held.
sequence reaches end and loops to beginning.
note is released.

Those last two steps are the key here...you might think you are releasing the note in time, but any delay, coupled with quantisation, could actually put that 'release' at the beginning of the next loop through.

The way I fix this, is I go into step edit on the long note, and just turn the duration down until it works properly.

Is that maybe what you are talking about?

Nope, I thought of that. While trying to diagnose the problem I used the step sequencer to place a single note in the timeline that is one quarter-note long. As stated, this happens even while I am playing live with the sequence looping, to the live notes.

Also the symptom is not that note is being released, it is that all sounds being made by the synth stop immediately at the end of the loop. This means that even if I have, say, a delay that echos for a second after the note is released, that echo would stop prematurely when the loop ends.

Ok. my other guess then is that you have a program change in your sequence, and at the beginning of each loop it is actually changing the program on your microkorg.

Try this.
Play the sequence, and while it's playing, change patches.

Now, when the sequence repeats, does it switch back to your original patch?
This is also a way to tell if the problem isn't in your synth programming.
Which reminds me....does it happen on all patches?

When you say the delay is also cut (im guessing the microkorg has delay built in?), then it just shows that it's something going on in the microkorg, not the mpc, that is killing your notes. Sure the MPC might be triggering that, but that just means you have to remove that trigger.

-J

I specify the patch I want to use with the Program setting on the track. When I change programs on the MPC while the sequence is playing, the patch stays as whatever patch I changed it to when the sequence loops.

Is every midi event expressed in the timeline? The only event in the entire timeline is the note itself.

That's what's happening. Your sequence is changing the program patch (on microkorg) each time it starts.

Checkout page 56 of your manual....hit open window on your PGM field.

No, not every event is shown in the step edit view, but you can change what you do see.
EDIT: I might be wrong about that...maybe you can see every event.

Ah, thanks! I'm looking at that in the manual now. I'll check that out when I get home and post results.

I hope that helps...honestly it seems silly that it would transmit the pgm change on each loop, but then, the MPC did not come out as an answer to loop-based musicians, it just happened to work well with them in many ways.

such a beautiful piece of gear from such a transitional time in music production.

Results:

So I opened the Transmit Program Change window and set the value to No, and the symptom still occurs. I also tried setting the Midi Filter to on and the type to Notes, and that didn't help either.

As long as there is a number in the PGM field, I get this result. I can set PGM to off, but then I have to set the patch on the microKorg manually (and remember what it was later on). As a side note, I notice when I change the PGM value, I can see the patch changing on the synth.

Yep.
What you describe is all perfectly normal, though if you are turning off 'transmit program change', I can't imagine why it still is.
Is it turned off for every track?

Sounds like you have to modify the way you work somehow, because as long as that program change gets transmitted, the synth will pick it up, and cut the sound.

Barring buying new gear (precious few synths actually work properly and DONT cut out when you change program), you have two options:
1) change your programs on your synth manually. What I do is notate which patch I need by naming the track.
2) set the program change up, but then recreate the first bar of your loop at the END of your loop (a 4 bar loop now becomes a 5 bar loop with bar 1 just copied to bar 5). Now, open window on the 'Loop' field, and set it to loop from 2-END. I haven't tried this with external gear connected, but my guess/hope is that it will only send the pgm change on the first run through of the sequence (bar 1), and it will not be present once the sequence starts to loop (bars 2-5).

I just checked, and the MPC does NOT show the program change in the step editor, so it must be treating it differently than all other events.

FWIW, Ensoniq synths are about the only synths I have found that will let the previous patch 'ring out' when it receives a program change. You just need to change your seq programming style a bit.