MPC2k/2kXL live capability / Resampling and replacing sounds

Hey everybody, i'm looking forward acquiring an 2k or 2k XL (prefered) model.

1)

What i would like to know is how these machines are capable of performing live.

I especially try to focus on the process of switchign between songs/programs while playback is rolling. I would like to perform similar to a DJ set, while everything is coming from the MPC.

Let me give you a situation:

Say i wanna play a homeprogrammed track (Song A) in front of an audience, that is somewhat around 120 bpm. When the first song finished playing, how do i advance to the next song (Song B) without having a feelable interuption of playback?

Kickdrum 1 and vocalsample from Song A should keep playing while i would like to activate patterns from Track B.
According to the MPC2k XL manual the MPC is able to hold up to 4 programs(songs? or am i wrong when i think programs=songs?) containing of max 99 sequences and 256 samples.

Say i wanna change to Song B, insert my Song B floppy - load up the Song and play it (as it is in the same tempo) without interfering with Song A.

What happens when 4 programs are loaded into the machine, is it refusing to load new programs? Is there a function to clean up memory?

I hope you can imagine this situation and eventually bring in points that i haven't mentioned.

Heres a sketch of how i imagine this setup:




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2)

Say i have my track produced at home, used my sampled sounds, some keys for example, arranged them and applied FX to them externally (Reverb, Compressor, Delay etc.)

Since i want to keep the setup for live as tight as possible i thought it would be a good idea to replace those dry Key sounds with the fxed sounds. How is this made possible easiest.

Do i have to program my pattern from scratch when i use a new sampled sound?

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Is the 2k / 2kXL model maybe the wrong machine for this?

Regards,

Peer

peerdu wrote:Is the 2k / 2kXL model maybe the wrong machine for this?

maybe so.

when you use a floppy, you have to stop everything - then it will take a couple of minutes to load a new set of sounds.

i use an mpc live all the time, but i spend a lot of time making sure i am within the 24 programs / 256 sounds (<-KILLER!) limit, combining programs, rewriting sequences to share programs, and i invest a lot more energy in the sequencer / midi than i do into the samples.

also, if you want to use the fx without an external processor, you either need the fx card (expensive and very dated), or you have to cook the fx into your samples which is going to mean the fx sound different than if they were done in real time.

i would suggest using a laptop or a newer mpc. i love love love the mpc for live - but i totally changed my way of thinking to make this happen.

but you definitely cannot load a new floppy while the mpc is playing.

I would recommend searching up the numerous threads on using an MPC in a live set already. I would also recommend not getting a legacy machine for live sets, it's doable but not ideal compared to a 1000/2500 in a live situation. Depends how badly you want to be on a legacy machine, and how much you love work arounds. With an older machine I have to sit down and create my live set, and think it out, create the master programs etc.. On a newer machine I wouldn't really need todo much to play my tracks live.

*id post some links for you to other threads, but I'm on my iPad and the search function is mad slow for me right now.

Aight, say i had all my sounds on a flashcard. I'd still have to pause right?

You know i've seen Mr. G in the Boiler Room lately and it blew my mind.

unfortuanately the video is reall out of synch. All he did was use the jogwheel and turn it a little, so i assume he just switched to new songs as i refered from the manual.

m56p87 wrote:Depends how badly you want to be on a legacy machine, and how much you love work arounds.

this is really important to consider and well said.

how much do you love the 2kxl?

if you really love it, then yes you can find a way to make it work.

if you have no previous connection with it, you might be better off going more up-to-date and saving yourself the headaches of dealing with a late 90s vintage - alot of things changed right after the xl came out (usb namely).

peerdu wrote:Aight, say i had all my sounds on a flashcard. I'd still have to pause right?

flash card - disk - zip - cd - doesnt matter. you have to stop the sequencer to do a lot of things on the older models.
you could do like i do and really craft your programs with a notepad and lot of planning, but you really need to learn the machine and how it works to do this properly.
you wouldn't expect to just pick up a guitar and wail like jimi would you?

Well i had my eyes on the 2k/xl for quite some years now.

Guess i'll give it a shot and work something out.

I don't really want to wait more years, it just amazes me to see ppl doing their music on one of these machines.

I'm in the wrong subforum, but how does the 2500 handle live situations, is it better off? Or how about the 4000. Questions man, I got em.

^when it comes to people in the 2kxl I think they got the machine to produce, and then using work arounds use it in a secondary performance capacity. They definitely didn't buy it thinking "this will be perfect for live shows". For what your asking, I would look up 2500 vs 4000 spread sheets online. Or 2000xl vs 4000 etc.. Look for the ability to load multiple programs at once, playing sequences over one another. Anything that will give you more flexibility.

the music in that video is sick as hell btw - cotdammit i love house music.

do take note thought that homedude is hardly doing anything with the xl
he touches the mpc wheel every few minutes - maybe just changing songs or more likely songs converted to sequences.

he's probably got the song skeleton developed as sequences and he is 'remixing' on the fly using the mixer.
he is also using very few sounds (he reuses things a lot), and very short sounds, something that makes the mpc much more usable in a live situation. also that can probably all fit into memory at one time - very important.

the reason being is like ive said before - if you let the sequencer do most of the work instead of loading in large loops, you have a lot more flexibility because this is maybe the best hardware sequencer ever created.

he did a lot of prep work to make this work as smoothly as it did - and you must accept that you might not be on this level the first few years you use the machine. this guy really knows the machine for sure.

no amount of internet forum advice will get you there - you have to put in the work and have the love.
this guy has it.