Need help

Just brought a MPD 24. I have no idea how to assign samples to keys or anything really. Been looking around the net for answers. But there's no guide for "dummies" so to speak. I don't even know if I'm on the right forums.

I broght it off some guy 2nd uhand, took it home started to get real excited and couldn't wait to start learning. Instead I'm sitting here going through all these programs trying to find out how I make noise come out of a pad. I tried ableton demo. All I can do is make noise on the computer. Not from the pads. I feel like the biggest idiot because I don't know what I'm doing wrong but there's probably a simple answer for it. The manuals aren't very descriptive and do not go in to much detail. It's like being thrown in the deep end. Now all I feel like doing it walking outsite and throwing in the trash can


Can some please help. Like give me a program to use and a step by step of how to get a sample to play on these damn pads!! If not could someone lead me in the right direction.. I've tried youtube video's but to no avail

Thanks

Firstly welcome to the forums, you're more or less in the right place.

Let me start off by explaining that what you have is a MIDI controller. What that means is you have a very flexible device with pads and knobs that can be used to control a piece of software on the computer. Or at least you will be able to control certain options that you choose to assign to each function on the MPD.

BUT, you don't store the samples on the MPD itself. Those are on the computer, and what you will need is a program such as Ableton to be the "brain" of your project.

Here's some basic steps:

1. Firstly you will want to connect your MPD to your computer. Your MPD has regular MIDI connections and also a USB-MIDI connection. I would recommend using the USB option for now as it means you won't have to mess around with audio interfaces and you can get some ideas down right away. The other advantage is that the USB cable will also give your unit power! So plug the cable in the back, and the other end into your USB slot.

2. Next you will need Ableton to recognise your MPD so it can receive control messages from it. For example when you hit a pad, or press a button.

Open up your Ableton preferences and go to the tab that says "MIDI Sync". At the bottom you will see "MIDI ports", and the various options. Choose the correct INPUT. You won't need to worry about OUTPUT for now because you're not trying to send messages from your computer.

3. Close the preferences option. You can now insert a new MIDI track (not audio) into Ableton. Make sure you have the track armed to record by clicking the little record button at the bottom of the track. The little button should turn red. This means anything you do will now happen with that track.

At this point give the pads a tap and see if you get any reaction from the dotted meter. If there's nothing you might need to select the correct MIDI channel for that track. If all else fails select "All Channels".

4. Once your track is receiving MIDI data you can then choose what to do with it. What you will want to do is choose on of Ableton's instruments. For example a "Simpler" which is Ableton's basic sampler. I'd say it's probably more suited to musical samples as opposed to drum sounds.

Double click to insert it onto your MIDI track. You'll notice it now has the name "Simpler" at the top too! You can rename it at any time using a right click and choosing "Rename" or Cntrl/CMD "R" if you want to call it something like Drumloop or Strings etc...

5. You will now see that you can drag and drop a sample straight from your library into the Simpler, and then begin adjusting parameters. But what if you don't want to use the mouse I hear you ask?

6. What you can do is enter "MIDI Map". You simply right click on any parameter you want to control, and then click "Edit MIDI Map". You will then see the screen go crazy and highlight everything you can choose in a different colour.

On your MPD try using a slider, and it should then automatically assign it to whatever you have chosen in Ableton. Come out of MIDI Map again by right clicking and selecting the "Edit MIDI Map" option and you should then have full control using your MPD.

Be careful when assigning things! Until you get more confidence with the program you won't want to be assigning several things to one slider!

7. For drums go through the same process, but instead choose a "Drum Rack". You will notice you can drag and drop samples onto little drum pads in Ableton. If you double click on the name of each one, you will see that every drum hit is contained within it's own Simpler. This gives you a ridiculous amount of control of your samples for layering purposes!

8. Once you've built a kit and assigned your MPD pads to trigger the drum samples, you can then arm the master record at the top by clicking record. Then when you're ready press play and start to bash those pads!

Good luck. If you need any more help just say the word.

Thanks heaps for replying!! Some very useful information there.


This is what I've done now, I've download a midi track and put it in the midi section.



I'm still getting no response from the pads, can you see anything I'm doing wrong in the above picture?


Thanks again man really appreciate it

Yes at the bottom of each track below the Volume slider you will see three things:

1. A number- this is the track number.
2. "S"- when you click that it will Solo the track.
3. A little symbol that looks like a clock- clicking that "arms" the track.

You have to arm the track to receive MIDI signals from your MPD.

Also, those MIDI files contain pre-made data. All you've done is dropped them onto a MIDI track so that they can trigger a sound module etc...

Remember MIDI = data

You will also need something for that data to trigger, such as a set of audio samples!

Thanks again,

Still a tad confused as to why I need a track with no Audio behind it to play samples. Just might add as well I'm sorry if I'm taking up your time!

Ok here's where I'm at



I'm getting a response now from when I touch my pads. from the far left Midi track.

Still getting no beat sounds though. Are my beats in the wrong place or?

Man I'm such a noob lol

You should probably spend some time researching what MIDI is for mate. No need to apologise we have all been there at some point!

Just to clarify MIDI is just a set of instructions to a device. MIDI can be used in real-time like when you hit your pads. Or it can be stored in loops or blocks in Ableton and then used indefinitely, edited, deleted or modified.

Remeber MIDI is just the data. But it's very important! Afterall, without the MIDI data your Drum Rack wouldn't know what to playback to you and when, or for how long etc...

The audio is stored in the Simpler, or the Drum Rack as samples that you can put in there yourself.

The MIDI then tells those devices what they're doing.



On your screen I see you have armed Track 1, that's great. You're now getting MIDI signals in real-time from your MPD.

What you can also see is Ableton telling you what is happening in the other tracks where MIDI data that has been stored is now being replayed.

Notice that on the tracks that are also making the dotted track meter go up and down, there is also a little "Play" triangle highlighted. That's because you have "triggered" those blocks to start.

EDIT: Here is a really basic single track that you can trigger by MIDI.

http://www.woofiles.com/dl-300158-4sHvWkv7-UntitledProject.zip

All I've done is put a basic 909 kit into a Drum Rack on a MIDI track.

So I've set up the audio files in the Drum Rack to be triggered by MIDI data.

Now you need to assign your pads to the corresponding ones in Ableton.