Live Performance Using an MPC?

Right, so a few weeks ago I was dead set on ordering Native Instrument's Maschine, that is until I realised it doesn't function as a standalone piece of equipment. In hindsight I don't really know what I expected; I think it was something to do with loading up VSTs into the actual machine itself, but that's kind of ridiculous thinking about it. Somehow it slipped my mind that I'd need a PC unless Maschine actually stored VSTs onboard (even though that would be totally badass).

So after that I started browsing for Maschine equivalents that can function both standalone and as a MIDI controller, and that led me to Akai's MPC series, specifically the MPC1000.

I think the MPC is more suited to my needs, but I'm looking for some information from people that know better than I do. Maschine isn't suitible because I don't have a powerful enough laptop to run a DAW on, with Maschine through. I only have a desktop and a notebook.

If I got the MPC my plan would be to write the music in my current DAW (Cubase SX3) as I normally would, then for live performances, chop up the WAVs into samples that I'd assign to pads on the MPC, then trigger them at the appropriate times and sort of 'play' them on it live (Jel style! The synthesised parts anyway). On occasion I might loop things and let them play themselves if I wanted to play bass or piano or some other instrument, but that's basically my idea. How suited is the MPC1000 for this job?

I posted this thread on another board too but didn't get many replies, but one person did say "The sampler doesn't have a huge amount of polyphony which might be an issue", and I was wondering what the implications of that might be. A few of the posts on that board were sort of recommending I go down a sort of "live remix" route, and get something like a Roland SP-404 or a Boss SP-505, but I'd actually like to perform the music, in real time, if I can. I've seen a few producers that do it, most notably Jamie XX with his MPC1000 (I think), Jel (of Anticon) and his MPC2000XL, and Buddy Peace with an MPC500.

But also, if anybody has any ideas, resolutions to my problems, or any information concerning the logistics of performing electronic aspects of music live, that information would be really helpful.

Cheers.

its going to be a lot of work. get used to that.
ok good.

now its going to be more work if you are composing in one environment and trying to play live in a different environment ... going from pc to mpc.

so consider that.

now, dont get me wrong, work is not a bad thing. but just understand up front that it's not idiot proof and you will have to spend a couple nights doing your homework to get it working like you want.

an mpc is amazing for live use. what you are talking about is a really good idea, but what i like about the mpc is that it kind of changes the way you think about making music. like, you are saying you want to chop up samples and then replay on the mpc, but once you realise how powerful the sequencer in that thing is (it's strongest point), yer going to see there is a lot more you can do.

when i play out i 80% of the time use nothing but my mpc...maybe a loop pedal as well or maybe a 303. but the point is, it carries most of the weight, and it sits in this perfect (for me) groove of being able to run sequences, modify these sequences, and play live along with it. the track mute screen is your best friend.

once you get the hang of working within the limitations (they are beautiful limitations) you can really play this thing as an instrument and not just a box with all the bells and whistles that marketing departments tell you are amazing and necessary.

and about the polyphony, forget about it, you'll be fine. sounds like a bunch of internet tough guys reading the specs, seeing one number is smaller than another, and acting like they know the one with the higher number must be better. in reality and in actual use, polyphony probably wont be a problem for you.

let me restate, it's not for everyone (namely people who are 100% software), and you will have to find a middle ground between your perceived optimal way of working and the actual way the mpc kind of imposes on you. if you can ride that wave homey it aint nothin but smooth sailing and pirate booty ahead of you.

well the polyphony might not become an issue... I dont see that happening in your typical track.

The real issue for live in my opinion is low ram (memory). The way the mpc series works is, the ram is essentially the amount of sample time for samples you have loaded up to play songs.. (it differs from your saving storage memory like compact flash memory cards, hard drives, etc... which can be huge but you would load stuff from those drives into ram to play the song)

on the mpc 60, it has around 1.5 megs of ram.. on the mpc 3000, 2000, and 2000xl they have 32 megs of ram, on the 500, 1000, and 2500 they have 128 megs of ram, on the 5000 it has 192 megs of ram, and the 4000 has 512 megs of ram. (these are the amounts when fully expanded which is likely to be the case with most mpcs)

so what this boils down to is... you can max up your ram with samples and there are tricks to making samples take up less ram so you have more sample time or room if you will.

Where this plays a factor in live use is.. you load up your song.. so all your drum sounds, samples, bass samples, etc.. all the components get loaded up and you play.. then you need to load up the next song. That takes time. Some people get past this by using 2 mpcs and loading one song while playing the next.. and vice versa so there are no gaps between songs.

tapedeck wrote:its going to be a lot of work. get used to that.
ok good.

now its going to be more work if you are composing in one environment and trying to play live in a different environment ... going from pc to mpc.

so consider that.

now, dont get me wrong, work is not a bad thing. but just understand up front that it's not idiot proof and you will have to spend a couple nights doing your homework to get it working like you want.

an mpc is amazing for live use. what you are talking about is a really good idea, but what i like about the mpc is that it kind of changes the way you think about making music. like, you are saying you want to chop up samples and then replay on the mpc, but once you realise how powerful the sequencer in that thing is (it's strongest point), yer going to see there is a lot more you can do.

when i play out i 80% of the time use nothing but my mpc...maybe a loop pedal as well or maybe a 303. but the point is, it carries most of the weight, and it sits in this perfect (for me) groove of being able to run sequences, modify these sequences, and play live along with it. the track mute screen is your best friend.

once you get the hang of working within the limitations (they are beautiful limitations) you can really play this thing as an instrument and not just a box with all the bells and whistles that marketing departments tell you are amazing and necessary.

and about the polyphony, forget about it, you'll be fine. sounds like a bunch of internet tough guys reading the specs, seeing one number is smaller than another, and acting like they know the one with the higher number must be better. in reality and in actual use, polyphony probably wont be a problem for you.

let me restate, it's not for everyone (namely people who are 100% software), and you will have to find a middle ground between your perceived optimal way of working and the actual way the mpc kind of imposes on you. if you can ride that wave homey it aint nothin but smooth sailing and pirate booty ahead of you.

As long as it is possible to do what I want with it, that's all I care about. I'll get there no matter how difficult it is.

When you mentioned the MPC sequencer, did you mean there is a lot more it can do with regard to my preloaded samples, or just in general use as a music making device?

Yeah, I just want to use this to kind of play all my synthesised parts, or sounds that can't be or weren't created by traditional instruments. A real piano would be played over it, as would a guitar (acoustic or electric), a bass guitar and a singer occasionally. That wouldn't be all at once, although it might be on a couple tracks, but for the most part, they're all the other elements of the performance.

What does the polyphony issue actually mean though?

Yeah, I get what you're saying about the kind of MPC as a discipline, and I'm cool with that. I actually like the different approach to making and playing music, it keeps things fresh.

This is one of the tracks I'm looking to perform with the MPC, if it gives you any more perspective on my intentions:

mr_debauch wrote:well the polyphony might not become an issue... I dont see that happening in your typical track.

The real issue for live in my opinion is low ram (memory). The way the mpc series works is, the ram is essentially the amount of sample time for samples you have loaded up to play songs.. (it differs from your saving storage memory like compact flash memory cards, hard drives, etc... which can be huge but you would load stuff from those drives into ram to play the song)

on the mpc 60, it has around 1.5 megs of ram.. on the mpc 3000, 2000, and 2000xl they have 32 megs of ram, on the 500, 1000, and 2500 they have 128 megs of ram, on the 5000 it has 192 megs of ram, and the 4000 has 512 megs of ram. (these are the amounts when fully expanded which is likely to be the case with most mpcs)

so what this boils down to is... you can max up your ram with samples and there are tricks to making samples take up less ram so you have more sample time or room if you will.

Where this plays a factor in live use is.. you load up your song.. so all your drum sounds, samples, bass samples, etc.. all the components get loaded up and you play.. then you need to load up the next song. That takes time. Some people get past this by using 2 mpcs and loading one song while playing the next.. and vice versa so there are no gaps between songs.

That's pretty interesting actually. How long do you think the MPC1000 would take? I guess I could delay the next track by throwing in some improvised bit to distract the crowd or something. Hmm.

you could totally do a track like that with the mpc 1000 .. I noticed.. the first 12 or so seconds were the first 4 keys for the synth.. then you have it varied for the next for keys.. so lets say 24 seconds.. plus maybe another 12 seconds for each drum sound and that is being generous..

that makes maybe a rough total of say 36 seconds.


your mpc 1000 if you pick that model.. will have enough sample time to do that no problem.. but there are a few tricks you can do to make up for it.

stereo samples, they dont need to all be in stereo.. they can be in mono.. or some of them can at least which takes up half the ram as stereo samples do. (essentially you can fit double the mono samples into ram on your mpc as stereo samples because the data is identical for the left and right channels)

another thing you could do as well if you are in a rut for sample space is pitch the sample up before recording it to the mpc so the length is shorter .. and lower the pitch back down to the correct level inside the mpc. It does sometimes have the drawback of losing a bit of quality or it might even add something to the sound that you like... if you even notice the difference at all.


that being said, you may be able to pull off setting up the components of several songs in one mpc project so you dont need to load between every song... and the times you do need to load something up... well you work out with the band what you will do in that time.


polyphony is basically... how many sounds the machine can play at any given instance. For example that you may have seen .. you know on the computer some synth VST instruments could have the polyphony set to 1.. or they are monophonic.. meaning they can do one note at a time. Moogs are like that.. so you push a key on the keyboard, and while holding that key... when you push a next key it does only that key (it mutes the first one you are holding) .. the reason they even set up to do that is because it can be a desired effect.. but that is a different topic. The point is, 32 polyphony? you would need to push more then 32 pads at the same time which would cause noise most likely anyways... and you would need to let go of a pad or the sample would need to end before pushing the 33rd pad or else something might get cut off.. I am guessing... I have never ever maxed out the polyphony on an mpc..

I am even trying to think on how I could even achieve that.



the sequencer is essentially the play, stop, record.. and the playback of the things you record etc.. that area of the machine (because you can put together and arrange entire songs on the mpc) but for live use you can do things like... have a pattern of say high hats recorded that you could play and then live you could jam along to that with the rest of the drums and samples.

personally id say devote all your energy to manipulating the tracks in such a way that you can have them all ready to go with one load...like fit an entire set into memory. that way you don't have to load except that one time. loading between songs is lame.

it can be done, you just have to get out of the mentality of 'ill sample this loop' into 'i can recreate this loop in the mpc'.

instead of sampling a piano loop for example you can sample only one note then recreate it on the mpc. this varies from loop to loop how well this works. another benefit is you can then change it up.

thats just how i like to do it because i really hate loading. i will remix the shit out of a song to bring it into live territory if i have to.

^ this. I am sure the dude would figure that out eventually...

but it's true.

That is why I like things like the roland mv.. it is cheap to buy and has 512 megs of ram.. load everything at once plus you can assign entire patterns to single pads in one of the modes.

Something else I just remembered that was mentioned on the other forum was JJ-OS and having to purchase that separately from the MPC. And also, somebody recommended getting fat pads and the black model unless I want to "replace pad sensors." What's all that about?

mr_debauch wrote:you could totally do a track like that with the mpc 1000 .. I noticed.. the first 12 or so seconds were the first 4 keys for the synth.. then you have it varied for the next for keys.. so lets say 24 seconds.. plus maybe another 12 seconds for each drum sound and that is being generous..

that makes maybe a rough total of say 36 seconds.


your mpc 1000 if you pick that model.. will have enough sample time to do that no problem.. but there are a few tricks you can do to make up for it.

stereo samples, they dont need to all be in stereo.. they can be in mono.. or some of them can at least which takes up half the ram as stereo samples do. (essentially you can fit double the mono samples into ram on your mpc as stereo samples because the data is identical for the left and right channels)

another thing you could do as well if you are in a rut for sample space is pitch the sample up before recording it to the mpc so the length is shorter .. and lower the pitch back down to the correct level inside the mpc. It does sometimes have the drawback of losing a bit of quality or it might even add something to the sound that you like... if you even notice the difference at all.


that being said, you may be able to pull off setting up the components of several songs in one mpc project so you dont need to load between every song... and the times you do need to load something up... well you work out with the band what you will do in that time.


polyphony is basically... how many sounds the machine can play at any given instance. For example that you may have seen .. you know on the computer some synth VST instruments could have the polyphony set to 1.. or they are monophonic.. meaning they can do one note at a time. Moogs are like that.. so you push a key on the keyboard, and while holding that key... when you push a next key it does only that key (it mutes the first one you are holding) .. the reason they even set up to do that is because it can be a desired effect.. but that is a different topic. The point is, 32 polyphony? you would need to push more then 32 pads at the same time which would cause noise most likely anyways... and you would need to let go of a pad or the sample would need to end before pushing the 33rd pad or else something might get cut off.. I am guessing... I have never ever maxed out the polyphony on an mpc..

I am even trying to think on how I could even achieve that.



the sequencer is essentially the play, stop, record.. and the playback of the things you record etc.. that area of the machine (because you can put together and arrange entire songs on the mpc) but for live use you can do things like... have a pattern of say high hats recorded that you could play and then live you could jam along to that with the rest of the drums and samples.

Thanks, that's all really helpful stuff to know. When you talk about setting everything up in one "MPC project", what exactly do you mean? I think I know what you mean in concept, but how does that translate to the MPC? Would one "project" basically be, one set of 16 pads mapped? Or one sequenced track?

Thanks for clearing up the polyphony issue. I know exactly what you mean. I've used the Moog VST and experienced that. Yeah, it hardly even seems relevant the other forum poster mentioned it.

On the sequencer too, thanks for that. Yeah, I was thinking that kind of function could come in handy, especially if I couldn't physically play every part at once, so I though I'd instead have some things just rolling as I play along.

tapedeck wrote:personally id say devote all your energy to manipulating the tracks in such a way that you can have them all ready to go with one load...like fit an entire set into memory. that way you don't have to load except that one time. loading between songs is lame.

it can be done, you just have to get out of the mentality of 'ill sample this loop' into 'i can recreate this loop in the mpc'.

instead of sampling a piano loop for example you can sample only one note then recreate it on the mpc. this varies from loop to loop how well this works. another benefit is you can then change it up.

thats just how i like to do it because i really hate loading. i will remix the **** out of a song to bring it into live territory if i have to.

When you talk about loading one note into the MPC and then recreating the sample on the MPC itself, are you talking about streching it up pitches? I don't really like doing that, it detracts from the authenticity of the sound I think.

What actually causes the loading times? Loading up new "tracks"? I'm just wondering whether the way I have in mind would evade that as a problem, or suffer from it, because I actually want to play the stuff, not really load loops. So where you have that 4 chord sequence in that track I linked to, I'm looking to sample each chord and assign them to 4 different pads (or less if some chords are the same), then play them live that way. Would that get around it as a problem? I think if I could help it, I wouldn't be loading or sampling live, only playing live, if you see the difference I'm getting at. But, I may not really get what you mean.

Here is what I'd like to do with that track I linked to, on the MPC, live:

I'd be covering the first synth you hear, then the dropping sound kind of synth you hear next, the bass, and the percussion when it enters. My plan would be to cut the separate chords of the first synth progression and assign them to pads, then when it's live I'd play that sequence, and loop it. I'd do the same for the next synth that enters (0:15), then add that to the loop. Either that or just play them and not bother about looping. I think I'd prefer playing it.

I'd probably have my friend/the singer play the piano because it continues into the chorus, so I wouldn't be able to play it along with everything else (if I was playing it I definitely wouldn't but if I was triggering loops I still don't think I could manage it). When the chorus came (1:03), I'd switch banks/assignments (or whatever the terminology is), to the chorus samples (synth + bass + percussion), and hit the synth and bass notes at once and in time, much like I proposed for the verse section. They're both triggered at the same interval too, which helps. I'd play the percussion live around triggering them at the appropriate points. The reason I mention switching banks (or whatever) is because the chorus chords are different to the original verse chords that use the same synth tone, so I'd need to account for that and assign them to different pads or what I'm calling 'banks', which I'm basically ad libbing for the actual term for when you switch to another mapped pad setup. I have an MPD24 and there was this 'A/B bank' function that switched between two different pad presets you assigned.

Anyway, in the chorus, I sample the singer's vocals and chop them up a little bit. I'd sample them into two pads, and then press both at the relevant times I think, while playing the rest.

The next verse (1:35) I'd either drop out the original synth from if I was looping, or just play live instead. After that the second chorus happens (2:07), so I'd do what I did last time, and for the outro I'd figure out some finger gymnastics to play all that stuff at once, and that'd be it. The singer would handle all his reverb/delay stuff, and his harmonies he'd either layer through a loop pedal or I'd sing one part of.

Again, thanks for the time you took to reply.

All I can really say is... once you wrap your head around how the mpc functions.. that is really where you can start figuring out what the mpc does for your setup..

I know it sounds boring, but try reading an mpc manual to figure out the general process of what you would be doing with your sounds etc..

however essentially the part where you asked about loading.. this is what it consists of data wise.

first off you have your sequence file (the project's unique sequence file) that basically takes into account what you have done with your project's sounds and tweaked parameters etc.. stuff like the bpm of the song if you recorded one... what tracks you recorded what pads on, the song playlist (the order you arranged your various patterns aka the sequences) and a bunch of other data.

then you have your program file. This is simply the file that loads up where you have each pad assigned... for example, you might have your kick drum on pad 1, the hat on pad 2 etc... often the process of loading this file also will automatically load each sample you used in that song.

then you have the sample files.. each sound obviously has its' own sample. As I said you are likely going to be in the situation where those get loaded when choosing to load the program, but lets say you love that snare and plan on using it in another song... well you could go ahead and load that individual snare sound for assigning to a pad in the new project... of which it would then be saved in that song's program file when saving.

the thing is, the mpc works in a way that when recording a sequence (hitting in your sounds while recording for playback) it's only actually recording what pads are getting hit when, and on what track(s)... as opposed to which actual samples are getting hit in.. so the reason this is good is lets say down the road you decide on changing the snare for a better snare... it's simply a matter of loading up another snare and assigning it to the same pad the original snare was on... and when you push play... the new snare is now playing due to the sequence being only tied to the pad... not the specific sound.

I hope that helps a bit.

I mean.. it is hard to explain it all in text you know?

The process you mentioned above is mostly possible on the MPC, but if you want it exactly like that then you probably should be looking into ableton live and your MPD, and using ableton as a live looper.

I think it's important to realise that the MPC is it's own instrument, and although you can bend it to your will in some ways, it also has a say in how you work and what you can do.

You could probably figure out a way of cramming your track into the MPC and triggering many parts like you mentioned, but my suggestion would be to allow the MPC to inspire you too. You'll get a passable live set just building a song with multiple tracks and then muting and unmuting them, and switching between parts of the song (verse, chorus, breakdown, etc). Your songs will take on a different feel entirely if you break them into a couple of stems, and cut up the stems into loops, and further cut up the loops into hits, and then start to rearrange all that on the MPC. You'll also want to add more drum solos as your finger drumming skills improve. I think that's probably a great way to demonstrate to the audience that what you are doing is live, and requires skills.

on the other hand, I haven't really gotten too far on my MPC yet, mostly due to a lack of time but I have done live sets with hardware before. So take my advice with a grain of salt.

You might also want to check out http://livepa.org/board
It's a forum for people playing live electronic music, with a heavy leaning towards hardware. Several of the peeps there are using MPCs as sequencers. Lot of good advice to be found there.

innovine wrote:
You might also want to check out http://livepa.org/board
It's a forum for people playing live electronic music, with a heavy leaning towards hardware. Several of the peeps there are using MPCs as sequencers. Lot of good advice to be found there.

oh nice... I am for sure checking that link out.. thanks for the post.

mr_debauch wrote:All I can really say is... once you wrap your head around how the mpc functions.. that is really where you can start figuring out what the mpc does for your setup..

I know it sounds boring, but try reading an mpc manual to figure out the general process of what you would be doing with your sounds etc..

however essentially the part where you asked about loading.. this is what it consists of data wise.

first off you have your sequence file (the project's unique sequence file) that basically takes into account what you have done with your project's sounds and tweaked parameters etc.. stuff like the bpm of the song if you recorded one... what tracks you recorded what pads on, the song playlist (the order you arranged your various patterns aka the sequences) and a bunch of other data.

then you have your program file. This is simply the file that loads up where you have each pad assigned... for example, you might have your kick drum on pad 1, the hat on pad 2 etc... often the process of loading this file also will automatically load each sample you used in that song.

then you have the sample files.. each sound obviously has its' own sample. As I said you are likely going to be in the situation where those get loaded when choosing to load the program, but lets say you love that snare and plan on using it in another song... well you could go ahead and load that individual snare sound for assigning to a pad in the new project... of which it would then be saved in that song's program file when saving.

the thing is, the mpc works in a way that when recording a sequence (hitting in your sounds while recording for playback) it's only actually recording what pads are getting hit when, and on what track(s)... as opposed to which actual samples are getting hit in.. so the reason this is good is lets say down the road you decide on changing the snare for a better snare... it's simply a matter of loading up another snare and assigning it to the same pad the original snare was on... and when you push play... the new snare is now playing due to the sequence being only tied to the pad... not the specific sound.

I hope that helps a bit.

I mean.. it is hard to explain it all in text you know?

Yeah, I get all that. It's sort of like MIDI within itself, rather than straight hard recordings.

Just to call back upon your previous post though, where you outlined the seconds of sound from the track I linked to. How does what you had in mind when you heard it compare to the outline of my intentions for the same track? Would it be possible to assign four pads those four chords or would doing it like that be limited due to RAM? Would it be better to just cut the 12 second loop and trigger that each time instead?

innovine wrote:The process you mentioned above is mostly possible on the MPC, but if you want it exactly like that then you probably should be looking into ableton live and your MPD, and using ableton as a live looper.

I think it's important to realise that the MPC is it's own instrument, and although you can bend it to your will in some ways, it also has a say in how you work and what you can do.

You could probably figure out a way of cramming your track into the MPC and triggering many parts like you mentioned, but my suggestion would be to allow the MPC to inspire you too. You'll get a passable live set just building a song with multiple tracks and then muting and unmuting them, and switching between parts of the song (verse, chorus, breakdown, etc). Your songs will take on a different feel entirely if you break them into a couple of stems, and cut up the stems into loops, and further cut up the loops into hits, and then start to rearrange all that on the MPC. You'll also want to add more drum solos as your finger drumming skills improve. I think that's probably a great way to demonstrate to the audience that what you are doing is live, and requires skills.

on the other hand, I haven't really gotten too far on my MPC yet, mostly due to a lack of time but I have done live sets with hardware before. So take my advice with a grain of salt.

You might also want to check out http://livepa.org/board
It's a forum for people playing live electronic music, with a heavy leaning towards hardware. Several of the peeps there are using MPCs as sequencers. Lot of good advice to be found there.

Yeah, I would be looking into Ableton and Maschine, but I don't have anything mobile that can run Ableton. I only have a desktop computer and a low spec. notepad.

I'm cool with adapting the music for live MPC performance, just as long as I can, as in, the MPC allows the song to resemble the original song well enough. My outline of intentions was just differential assumptions. I expected it would go a little differently when I got hold of the thing.

Thanks a lot for that link; it should prove helpful. I'll check it out.

well I didn't see anything wrong with your setup idea for the mpc...

except the only issue I see maybe coming up goes back to the need to load up songs more frequently due to ram limitations.

again, keep in mind you can record those sounds into your mpc in mono... and pan them inside the mpc or add effects to almost re-stereo-ize them again which would help..

hey, also look into the mpc4000, and the roland mv 8000 or mv 8800.. the reason I mention these is because they have a max of 512 megs of ram.. which is 4 times the amount the 1000 or 2500 can handle. you wont likely be maxing out the ram on one of those machines.

Ehh, they're a little out of my price range.

I just e-mailed the shop I was going to order the MPC1000 from and they told me they have none, and there is no UK stock until the end of January. They offered me a refurbished MPC2500 for £750 though. Still, that's out of my price bracket too. £500 is my maximum.

Given my outline of intentions for that track on the MPC, could I not evade loading up songs by dumping everything into one sequence, like you suggested earlier, or do you think the samples would be too big?

I'd rather not have to put them through mono and then make them stereo because there are dynamics within the sounds that pan, and they aren't always mirror images.

Sorry, also, I mentioned in an earlier post about JJ-OS and fat pads, but it wasn't addressed. Are the fat pads necessary, and what is JJ-OS, an updated operating system for the MPC? I heard I'd have to pay separately for it.

well the mv8000 which is almost identical specs and feature wise to the newer 8800... are cheaper than mpc1000s.. when I got mine years ago it was 400-450 canadian dollars (like 200 pounds)

all i'm saying is, check all these pieces of kit to see what ones have options you need.

I feel you about not wanting to lose the stereo signal because it will lose some of the song's charm.. just remember live audiences will not be wearing headphones..

that is why many people suggest designing new material on the mpc rather than attempt to convert songs to the mpc... there is always going to be somewhere you need to cut to save sample time or what ever else. that is the only reason I brought up the roland mv-8000 to you... because you could load like 50 minutes of stereo in to ram on that machine. (ie: you could probably load up every one of your songs at once.... and you could have each song's components on a different midi track)

the 1000 doesn't require fat pads or the jjos... it's just, the fat pads are rubberier i guess.. they are designed to improve the sensitivity as well which is great... they only work if you have the pad fix/upgrade.. the JJOS is a third party OS for the machine... it has more features for production than the stock akai OS which will do the trick for your task on the machine.