Does "Decay" on single wave cycles cause loss of polyphony?

I am using some single wave cycle samples to create synth pads on the MPC 500. Is this yet another way that I am losing polyphony? My MPC 500 keeps dropping out sounds. I've converted ALL samples to monophonic. They have also been turned into MONO on the MPC as well. All drums are ONE SHOT. The single cycle waves are also ONE SHOT.

So. Being one cycle long - does that create an issue where the sample is being repeated so many times to create the pad sound, that it's choking out the other sounds?

Also, why can I only use about 5 or 6 MONO drum samples at a time, and get cutting out? 32 note polyphonic my heiney.

do youhave the ram expansion?

mr_debauch wrote:do youhave the ram expansion?

No, I do not. All of my samples are either a single cycle wave-form - less than 1 kb, or they are single shot drum samples, which are roughly 45 kb. That is not even close to 1 MB. I have roughly 500 kb of sample material loaded into a 16 MB sampler.

By the way, I like your track "Intractable Humidity". Cool drum pattern!

Kirk Markarian wrote:

mr_debauch wrote:do youhave the ram expansion?

No, I do not. All of my samples are either a single cycle wave-form - less than 1 kb, or they are single shot drum samples, which are roughly 45 kb. That is not even close to 1 MB. I have roughly 500 kb of sample material loaded into a 16 MB sampler.

so I dont know why you cant use more then 5 sounds or why notes are cutting out. it does seem odd or like you ran out of events

Well, I am new to this machine, but not this type of programming. I guess I just keep working with it. I'm pretty sure the single cycle waveforms, due to their repetitions to create a synth sound, are what is causing this. It's just a bit annoying. 32 voices...This machine seems to work much better with loops.

may I suggest asking ill green (he is a member on the forum) because he has some good experience with the 500. I dont know if he will know the answer exactly... but there is the chance he will know what you are facing. I have only used the 500, I dont have one here to run experiments or what have you.

Check your Program to see if any pads are Mute Grouped. Also check if the pads are Note On. I'm not by my 500 right now, but I'll check it during tonight when I get home. Been heavily on the MV these past months, so I don't want to mix up operations.

But I'll tell you this, when the 500 is at 32 max polyphony, it does get kinda wonky but samples don't cancel out, at least I haven't experienced that unless samples are in stereo which cuts polyphony in half. Has nothing to do with Decay though. Just keep fiddling with the pad settings in Program mode until I return.

Ill-Green wrote:Check your Program to see if any pads are Mute Grouped. Also check if the pads are Note On. I'm not by my 500 right now, but I'll check it during tonight when I get home. Been heavily on the MV these past months, so I don't want to mix up operations.

But I'll tell you this, when the 500 is at 32 max polyphony, it does get kinda wonky but samples don't cancel out, at least I haven't experienced that unless samples are in stereo which cuts polyphony in half. Has nothing to do with Decay though. Just keep fiddling with the pad settings in Program mode until I return.

I'll start working with it tomorrow!

Erased all programs and sequences and files, started over (nothing important lost). 3 Drums. Mono samples. MONO selected in the MPC. Mute Groups OFF. Decay 5. Pads are ONE SHOT. No FX.

Made a sixteenth note beat. Bass drum sometimes shortens. Snare drum sometimes shortens. I have a 2 bar drum beat with 3 samples, under 200kb...wtf.

Is the 16MB memory card that comes with this machine a removable stick? I'm gonna check to see if it's loose.

Yes the 500 is 16MB internally but with the presets in there, you really have 4MB to play with. It could be the RAM and they go cheap on Amazon now from $10 to $100 bucks. Do you know what OS its running on? The latest is 1.31, sometimes reinstalling it works.

I tried to mimic your problem but the pads sound off. Are you recording the samples to a sequence and getting that problem? If so, then set the drum pads to poly so it can overlap where the sequence loops.

Well - I did seem to work the problem out - I read prior about the drums being set to poly, and doing that seems to work a bit. I then moved the single cycle oscillator sound to mono and used only two tones of the same sample. On occasion - less often - a sample does cut out here and there. I found that adjusting some of the pads volume levels seems to allow more of the sounds to come through. Still, here and there, the sounds cut out. It almost seems natural. I'm a drummer, and on occasion, we cut out part of a beat. It's almost imperceptible if I don't listen. I found that the angle of the MPC seems to be part of the issue - although this really could just be coincidental.

I'll complain less now. I really do love this little machine!