newbie looking for a little bit of help!

hi guys (and girls)! pretty new to the mpc and internet forums in general, but i have some question's that i'm hoping some of you can help me out with i've had my mpc a couple of weeks now and im getting on fine with it for the most part, making beats on it seem simple enough (even if they are sounding a bit amateur at the minute lol).. but some of the things i wanna know i don't generally see covered in the manual?? so i hope some peeps can help!

im a huge fan of dibiase, madlib, knx, swarvy, tuamie, youtaro, wun two, elaquent etc (alot of the new school instrumental type stuff) just to give you all a little bit of insight into what im actually trying to create on my mpc!

1, im using the original akai operating system, um i've seen alot of talk about jjos and that it's much better and improves alot of stuff (especially on the 1000 with the chopshop and timestretching etc) but im wondering is it really worth the time me getting it for my mpc 2500 since it already has these feature's, what kind of improvements does it make!?! the only real gripe i've had with the current os is that i can make 15 cups of coffee by the time it autochop's anything lol

2, i actually searched the forums for this one but got 2 completely different answers, one basically saying i can and the other saying i can't! is there anyway for me to set a filter or tune to a q link slider and manipulate an entire track instead of just a single pad so i can record everything in real time with filters etc ala mr dibiase style, a bit like how i've seen some people use it on the sp404 or am i only limited to using them on single pad's only?

3, im also at the point now where i want to start playing with and adding accapella's to my track's what's the easiest and best way to do this, through the mpc itself (which i've already been messing with) or a program on my pc!?

wall of text, sorry lol.. thanks in advance

1. get the jjos... worlds better

2. if you want to filter your whole track, do it at the mix when your tracking out your beat. i don't know what program your using but its easier that way I find.

3. acapellas I do through my computer too...

I have an mpc 2500 with jjos, I usually dont use the filter function with the q-links, some people love it, some people dont. I find it easier to do it all on my computer after i've tracked out everything. and with acapellas just find out the bpm, make your beat with the acapella in mind and then set the bpm on Logic,reason,reaper etc. and do it that way.

but whatever you find easiest is good, thats how music producing works. play around with some techniques and find out what works for you.



get JJOS!

thanks for your quick response mate i will take a look into the jjos operating system! bare in mind i will be looking at getting the free version as after upgrading the ram and adding a hard drive im a bit short for pennie's! but i've read you can always refer back to the original os so i will def take a look after your recomendation!

also i meant a track on the mpc like track 1, track 2 as opposed to the entire final mix with the drums and all the other sounds included, just the samples.. for example if i chop a bunch of piano samples and make a sexy piano loop from them and bounce them down as a loop to a track can i then filter that on the mpc with one q link controller? im not sure if that's what you meant what does the mpc export it's file's as? a wav file? i don't want to get too far ahead of myself with load's of tech savvy stuff lol, i own reason 4 so it's good to know i can use that for syncing vocal's, just really interested in adding accapella's and filters in real time!

thanks for your help man

fish wrote:thanks for your quick response mate i will take a look into the jjos operating system! bare in mind i will be looking at getting the free version as after upgrading the ram and adding a hard drive im a bit short for pennie's! but i've read you can always refer back to the original os so i will def take a look after your recomendation!

also i meant a track on the mpc like track 1, track 2 as opposed to the entire final mix with the drums and all the other sounds included, just the samples.. for example if i chop a bunch of piano samples and make a sexy piano loop from them and bounce them down as a loop to a track can i then filter that on the mpc with one q link controller? im not sure if that's what you meant what does the mpc export it's file's as? a wav file? i don't want to get too far ahead of myself with load's of tech savvy stuff lol, i own reason 4 so it's good to know i can use that for syncing vocal's, just really interested in adding accapella's and filters in real time!

thanks for your help man

You can't filter an entire track. Seanstatic was referring to when you track out. So if you have all your piano samples in one track, you would track out and end up with one large audio file in your DAW (or added as a sample in your MPC) that you can put a filter on that massive sample. This isn't for the whole song though. There are infinite ways to track out, but a common form is to track out each instrument individually. So you would have one big 3 min wav file with your piano, one with all your drums (or broken into kicks/snares/high hats/etc), and the other instruments.

The MPC also doesn't "export" songs. You either record what is coming out out of your mpc into your DAW/computer or have the MPC record what is coming out of it's own left/right speakers. In both instances you will be creating wav files. This keeps the sound rather lossless.