Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By digiman Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:55 pm
I know you can control VST's in Cubase (or any other DAW) and I have followed the threads on how to set this up. Question I now have is after I've recorded the midi tracks in the MPC for the VST, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to get the tracks dumped into Cubase. After I've recorded the notes on the MPC from the VST's, do I now want to have the MPC send those notes on the MPC to then be recorded again in Cubase as midi notes? Or do i just need to skip the midi part now that I have midi recorded on the MPC and just record the audio to an audio track from thered. Until I did it, I didn't realize Cubase could actually record the midi track from the MPC back into the midi track in Cubase. Seems like it would be cool to do so that I could further manipulate the midi notes in Cubase. The only thing I'm afraid of is losing the clock and timing of the MPC's sequencer when I dump the midi into Cubase.

Any thoughts on this?
By seiko Thu Mar 31, 2011 2:05 pm
if you record the midi into whatever DAW that is synced up to MPC, the notes will be recorded exactly when MPC 'plays' them, retaining the swing of MPC (if you don't start quantizing them in your DAW, that is)
By digiman Thu Mar 31, 2011 3:46 pm
seiko wrote:if you record the midi into whatever DAW that is synced up to MPC, the notes will be recorded exactly when MPC 'plays' them, retaining the swing of MPC (if you don't start quantizing them in your DAW, that is)


That's just D-O-P-E! I just got my 4000 after fooling with software for the past few years and I'm lovin' it a MickyD's commercial. The learning curve has been a little step coming from software. And actually, I had a few MPC's in the 90's, but moved to software in like 2001. I had heard of being able to integrated "somewhat" with software, but being able to do this is HUGE, at least for me. Thanks for sharing this.
By Clint Thu Mar 31, 2011 6:25 pm
Either of the two ways you suggested are fine.

Your choice may come down to which sequencer you prefer to use when editing and arranging midi data.

But it can be done using just the MPC sequencer for midi operations, albeit on a smaller display.

Using the MPC in this way you treat any VSTi's just like any other sound module, record the 'outputs' or bounce to audio in a DAW.
By digiman Sat Jun 18, 2011 10:37 pm
I have successfully set up Cubase as a sound module where I am able to control and sequence VST's on the MPC. What I now want to be able to do is to sync up Cubase to the MPC (or vice versa) to record audio (and record midi from the mpc). I've seen several posts on this, but nothing about what sync setting need be set on the MPC. Also, should the MPC be set to slave, with Cubase as the master?

Thanks
By digiman Sun Jun 19, 2011 11:44 pm
One more question about this? What do you do with the metronome track? Do you send that out of one of the individual outs or set up a separate track in cubase for hearing the metronome on the MPC?
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By YumYumRolex Wed Jun 22, 2011 11:16 am
digiman wrote:One more question about this? What do you do with the metronome track? Do you send that out of one of the individual outs or set up a separate track in cubase for hearing the metronome on the MPC?


In my setup, I have a Digi 003 and MPC 4000...when I record the metronome its coming out of the MPC...You just make a ghost track for the MPC Metronome...