MPC CYcle Mode "Issue"

OK, put four different hi hats on a pad (fill all four layers). Put the pad mode play on cycle. Record 16th note hi hat progression going 1234, 1234, 1234. Play it back and it will be 2341, 2341, 2341. Press play start again and you get 3412, 3412, 3412, and one more time: 4123, 4123, 4123.

If it does not play back what you recorded, what is the sense of this feature?

The 5000 remembers the last played layer and continues from there. So if you stop sequence play back after layer 2 is played, it will play layer 3 next, regardless of where in the sequence you are. It's a pad dependant feature, not sequence dependant.

Is this is bug or by design? Who knows, it's anyone's guess. The workaround in your situation is to ensure you stop your sequence at the end of the cycle, or just use CYCLE in instances where it doesn't matter which sample starts first.

Yea this is kinda rediculous. I wouldnt use cycle if it was a case where order didnt matter. Thanks for the reply though. I am glad this is just how it is and not some weird issue I am having. On the record I may just have to press play start a few extra times before beginning the record. Nothing too major. Just kind of stupid if you ask me lol. Thanks again for the reply mate.

yeah i use this feature as a ambient effect(and background noise) rather than a specific rythum effect.. if they fix it so that pad cycle resets on end of bar that;ll be cool... Or have the option to...

I mean, it sux, but its not completely horrible being that you can just press play start a few times, and when you resample in your entire song, when you press play to begin the record, it will record correctly at least. I just dont see how they over looked something like this. I feel like they rushed this thing out there so they can fund some other crap they got going on. Same feelings that I have on the pad mutes feature. You cant just overwrite current pad mutes. You have to actually go into every track and remove the events manually. On all legacy models, you just press rec and play start, and it overwrites all the pad/track mute data in one shot. Why would the make a feature like this more complicated and a bigger pain in the but on their flagship unit. Some of it makes no sense to me. I am certainly figuring out work arounds to these things, but the 5k without a doubt does have a learning curve to it, as the algorithms are completely different within the OS than any legacy MPC. Sure the menu navigation is the same, but thats not what I am referring to here.

It's just being used in the wrong way.
The true usage of the cycle is like a combination of velocity layering and randomizing.

You layer your pad with variations of the sound or type of sound.
It will then give your drum programming a more humanized feel because the drum hits won't be the same repetitive sound hit after hit.
It will give your drums basically 4 layers of nuance per pad, sound etc.

The reason they make it continue along it's way is to give a certain level of unpredictability much like a human.

It's really a great feature and people using other devices or software are constantly asking for it to be added.

Okay, if this was true, why is there a random mode also? Unpredictablity is for RANDOM mode. CYCLE, is supposed to go in order, hence the word CYCLE. If you watch the Akai rep himself so you this feature he uses it to do a hi hat progression with an open hat at the end, AND shows you how you can put a bass snare kick and hat on it, and perform a simple beat with one pad and one finger. So this feature is obviously not supposed to be RANDOM and UNPREDICTABLE. This what the RANDOM feature is for.

jigzelmnt wrote:Okay, if this was true, why is there a random mode also? Unpredictablity is for RANDOM mode. CYCLE, is supposed to go in order, hence the word CYCLE. If you watch the Akai rep himself so you this feature he uses it to do a hi hat progression with an open hat at the end, AND shows you how you can put a bass snare kick and hat on it, and perform a simple beat with one pad and one finger. So this feature is obviously not supposed to be RANDOM and UNPREDICTABLE. This what the RANDOM feature is for.

You are still not getting it.

One mode is for a more predictable result since it walks through in a continual fashion, while the other jumps around.
BOTH are to give your drum hits a change in nuance that prevents you from having tired boring drum programming.

For years with every MPC we have had to use all sorts of tricks to add variability to the drum hits to give them some form of realism.
This is just another method to help achieve this.


He used that method so that it would be easier to detect the changes in a demonstration.

The function is pretty similar to a velocity switch of sounds but this allows you to still have the advantage of a wider range of velocity levels for your hits since it's not the switching factor.

I see what your saying, but say you created a direct sloping velocity change in a hat, so sample one would be the lowest, sample 4 would be the highest. So I want it to cycle through low to highest, but yet, when I press play the next time, it may start with two loud hats and two low hats. It should be able to record whatever you play. Its pretty counter intuitive to make it how they did. It makes absolutely no sense to do that. I see what your saying, but yet, it still makes no sense of why they couldnt give an option at least to record what you play. If you make a recording and like how it came, why should the mpc ranomly change it when your not in a random mode. it goes from 1234 to 2341 to 3412 to 4123. This is just another rushed new feature by Akai. Hence the reason my screen flickers, randomly get no sound out of the unit and have to restart it. Midi data gets randomly taken out of my recordings (e.g., record 16th note 2 bar hit hat) and when it hits the loop point during record, drops into overdub mode and you hear back what you played, random hits are completely removed from the recording (e.g., first hat, 8th, 10,th). I have never seen such a mess in my life. This things going back to the store. Its a joke.

jigzelmnt wrote:I have never seen such a mess in my life. This things going back to the store. Its a joke.

Are you suprised?

Anyways apart from the OS improvements you found out, which were already established, I have no MIDI note problems or flickering nor smoking screens.

I use it everyday. Sometimes hours back to back. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. So no melon here.

Thanks Co, appreciate the much needed verification that these are not things seen regularly on the 5k. I need to take this back. Hopefully a local Guitar Center will do the exchange for me, even though I purchased this in the Twin Cities Guitar Center online. With the luck I have been having in the past few months with MPCs I wouldn't be surprised if they don't.

Now you're getting it.
Akai is not known for doing things right, it's just people have always made the best of what was offered.

The 4k was the flagship that had almost limitless potential but they stopped it's production instead of trying to get it there.

The 5k was the new flagship and ended up the same way.
They put so many wow that's nice features in but half@ssed them so once again it falls short.

Makes you wonder if the next flagship will actually deliver the goods?

There really is no such thing as a bad MPC, you just have to learn (or desire) to work around things.

No doubt the cycle function could have been done better but unfortunately it is the way they designed.

ntalec wrote:Now you're getting it.
Akai is not known for doing things right, it's just people have always made the best of what was offered.........

There really is no such thing as a bad MPC, you just have to learn (or desire) to work around things.

You learn to live with it, tiptoeing around your MPC. I know what I can and better not do with the 5000. Coming from full on DAW I never had the urge to throw my 5000 out the window. I just like the MPC way of things in general. Just make a habit to save alot and double backup programs on a regular basis, because when your project is gone it's realy gone!

jigzelmnt wrote:Thanks Co, appreciate the much needed verification that these are not things seen regularly on the 5k. .

Not sure if it was MPCtutor who mentioned it recently, but there is really nothing wrong with the hardware, it's the damn OS! Such a shame. Too bad you have to return it.

Yea I know, I have been reading about all the "bugs" and what not with the OS for a while. The thing is, since I started using it, the things that everyone was complaining about did not surface, yet different much worse things eventually did (hence my post about my mpc5k being FUBAR). I am going to try reinstallaing the Operating System, and see how that goes. I am either going to exchange it for a new one (and hope they continue to support OS2.0 with a damn upgrade), or go Roland. I don't know what to do. Anyone heard any actual facts about there being additional updates for this damn thing?