Sub-forum for discussion about the DAWs and mobile apps that you use with your MPCs
By TXDelta1010 Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:00 am
I'm thinking about just doing tracks all in cubase, but I can get the swing of things to come out like on my mpc 1000 (I can prove this).

I also realized the mpc 1000 has a 96 ppq and cubase has a 480 ppq I believe.

I heard theres a way to import the import the mpc groove by recording a midi track from the mpc, but I'm not sure what the next step was, or how to get it running in cubase.

Anyone can help me out? Trying to get the 1/16, 1/16 (t), etc into cubase.



Thanks.
User avatar
By Metatron72 Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:23 am
I would think that if the MPC is the MIDI master and Cubase is the slave that Cubase would run at 96 PPQ or Cubase's PPQ can be set to match. Then whatever MIDI track you record from the MPC into Cubase should be exactly what the MPC was doing, whether straight quantized or with swing applied or even quantize off. Maybe you would have to disable quantize in Cubase. I don't use Cubase so I don't know.

If you just had MIDI files from an MPC (not recorded in real time), couldn't you use a groove extraction feature in Cubase and apply that to any MIDI or Audio clips loaded in the DAW? "Make groove" is what Cubase calls the menu command I think.
User avatar
By peeping tom Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:00 am
what a bad idea.


hold note repeat on mpc, record into cubase.

change the setting of note repeat (say from 1/8 50% swing to 75% swing) repeat.

Repeat until you have each swing setting for each Timing correction mode.......
By TXDelta1010 Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:45 pm
peeping tom wrote:what a bad idea.


hold note repeat on mpc, record into cubase.

change the setting of note repeat (say from 1/8 50% swing to 75% swing) repeat.

Repeat until you have each swing setting for each Timing correction mode.......


So just record, hit note repeat, and what's the next step?
User avatar
By Metatron72 Wed Sep 19, 2012 3:39 am
TXDelta1010 wrote:
peeping tom wrote:what a bad idea.


hold note repeat on mpc, record into cubase.

change the setting of note repeat (say from 1/8 50% swing to 75% swing) repeat.

Repeat until you have each swing setting for each Timing correction mode.......


So just record, hit note repeat, and what's the next step?


I think his point was one way the OP could capture the MIDI timing of the MPC, particularly the offsetting of notes through the swing values. The idea being that you would have to take the time to record all the different values and timing resolutions as separate MIDI files to be used in Cubase.
User avatar
By dabmeister Fri Sep 28, 2012 2:23 pm
To the op,

What's the purpose of importing midi files from the mp in the first place? I ask because before I give a solution I want to know what the intention is first.
User avatar
By golfdogz Wed Oct 10, 2012 2:28 pm
If you make a track in your mpc that has a recording of a repeating note (with the groove)

Set your daw to master and mpc to slave but turn the tempo down as low as possible on daw to record the midi. This then gives you a midi file that contains Groove you can then use in your daw.

I do this with ableton not sure how cubase works with groove templates.

The reason I record with tempo as slow as possible as it means that midi jitter is condensed... So when you speed it back up it sounds ultra tight with the timing of the mpc. Much better than recording at normal tempo I find
User avatar
By damien907 Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:06 am
golfdogz wrote:If you make a track in your mpc that has a recording of a repeating note (with the groove)

Set your daw to master and mpc to slave but turn the tempo down as low as possible on daw to record the midi. This then gives you a midi file that contains Groove you can then use in your daw.

I do this with ableton not sure how cubase works with groove templates.

The reason I record with tempo as slow as possible as it means that midi jitter is condensed... So when you speed it back up it sounds ultra tight with the timing of the mpc. Much better than recording at normal tempo I find


do you lock your mpc tempo to the slow tempo on your DAW when you do this? sounds interesting, might have to try it out.
User avatar
By golfdogz Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:19 pm
Yep. I mainly use it because it's ableton that is midi jittery - not so much the mpc. But if you record a midi sequence at say 20 bpm those jitters get condensed when you speed it up and sounds much more accurate to the original.

So yeah mpc and daw are locked at same slow speed.

I discovered on my old Rs7000 which was hella jittery and I wanted to populate that with daw created midi files. Slowing worked a treat.
User avatar
By peeping tom Wed Oct 17, 2012 8:23 am
golfdogz wrote:Yep. I mainly use it because it's ableton that is midi jittery - not so much the mpc. But if you record a midi sequence at say 20 bpm those jitters get condensed when you speed it up and sounds much more accurate to the original.

So yeah mpc and daw are locked at same slow speed.

I discovered on my old Rs7000 which was hella jittery and I wanted to populate that with daw created midi files. Slowing worked a treat.



helps if your PC and interface are upto scratch too, i noticed a huge difference from using my old as hell XP machine to using wifeys New Dell laptop (i do not endorse dell at all - just sayin') even though only using a midi to usb device, the laptop was a lot tighter clocking than my XP machine.

When i used to track in my XP machine, i often found that sequencing the 8 bar loops in my DAW wouldnt quite line up like the mpc played them, there were noticable nuances of timing difference between my mpc and my daw. Upon using the dell for a week (RIP XP Machine) have discovered that the clocking is now normal.