Note Time/Position? (Due to lack of Step Edit)

After years of being away from it, I am once again inspired to make music. With that being said, I got my Ren in today (I started on a 2XL and I currently own a 3000 which is in storage, for now, and I recently brought my 4000 home. I also bought a Maschine, which I'm going to return). Anyway, with all of that being said, I know that the Ren does not have Step Edit, which is little crazy to me so, how does one know the exact timing of your notes in a sequence? I might be missing something here but for instance, how would I know if my snare is hitting at 1:2 or 1:2.36?

The grid made made the step edit screen obsolete.

I somewhat understand that so am I missing something in that there is no way to to tell the exact time/position of a note? Is there a way? If there is, please let me know.

Nah...just gotta go off ear and move notes manually with TC off.

AidenBradley wrote:Nah...just gotta go off ear and move notes manually with TC off.

I was afraid you'd say that...I'm surprised that not many people find an issue with this.

Bringing back the Step Edit has been discussed several times in the forum. Pretty much everyone wanted to have this function back. It is essential for quickly editing MIDI events. All MPCs have this function and pretty much all the leading DAWs have a Step Editor/MIDI Event List Editor.

i think it's on the "to do list" we already seen some user requests championed by forum members put into the new forthcoming update.

come on Akai step it up

Do you fellows not use the numerical midi note function by clicking on midi note to find the position? Although it is not as efficient as step edit--it is useful, yes?

godlike wrote:Do you fellows not use the numerical midi note function by clicking on midi note to find the position? Although it is not as efficient as step edit--it is useful, yes?

If you are talking about the numbers that appear on the notes when moving them? If so, I ignore them. Clicking on the note doesn't display their location. You have to move them to display this. If the duration of the note is short, the information won't be displayed at all. If you try to move the note event by using the arrow keys on your computer keyboard, the location of the event is not displayed.

Step Edit is a must. And also, it would be great to have MIDI data related to a note event displayed in the header above the grid. Like a Step Edit for a single event. Click on an event and have its position, pad/note number, duration, velocity, etc displayed in the header above the grid.

Its late....so if you are talking about something else.....my bad.

godlike wrote:Do you fellows not use the numerical midi note function by clicking on midi note to find the position? Although it is not as efficient as step edit--it is useful, yes?

Better than nothing for sure, but as Jah mentioned, currently the numbers only show when you move the notes out of position.

I believe most of us want a properly developed, dedicated step edit 'mode', and I assume it will come eventually - but damn those 100 big time producers for not suggesting it to Akai during their extensive initial consulting phase.

On a roughly related subject, I also want to be able to re-assign MIDI Note numbers to pads in DRUM programs (although there are workarounds for that if you have another MPC or are happy to manually edit XPM files in a text editor).

JAH wrote:

godlike wrote:
Step Edit AND GRID EDIT are ABSOLUTE MUSTS. And also, it would be great to have MIDI data related to a note event displayed in the header above the grid. Like a Step Edit for a single event. Click on an event and have its position, pad/note number, duration, velocity, etc displayed in the header above the grid.

Its late....so if you are talking about something else.....my bad.

Fixed. And 100000% Agreed on all points.

MPC-Tutor wrote:

godlike wrote:On a roughly related subject, I also want to be able to re-assign MIDI Note numbers to pads in DRUM programs (although there are workarounds for that if you have another MPC or are happy to manually edit XPM files in a text editor).

One of the FIRST things I looked for when I got the Ren yesterday. I use this a lot on the 4K. GREAT call Tutor. I was upset when I didn't see it in the Ren....

As it stands now, there is no way to change the layout of the pads from what I am assuming is the GM midi setup to Chromatic either, correct?

Akai Am wrote:Step Edit? We don't need no stinking step edit.

The only input these fortune 500 producers putted in was for the design of the controller. The software was a rehash of the MPC5000 OS. Dan said.

Ill-Green wrote:

Akai Am wrote:Step Edit? We don't need no stinking step edit.

The only input these fortune 500 producers putted in was for the design of the controller. The software was a rehash of the MPC5000 OS. Dan said.

The 5000 doesn't have Step Edit/Grid Edit? The 5000 doesn't have a proper Pad Assign including the ability to change Midi Note numbers? I'm not trolling. I have no experience with it and I am genuinely interested.

MaZe wrote:

MPC-Tutor wrote:

godlike wrote:On a roughly related subject, I also want to be able to re-assign MIDI Note numbers to pads in DRUM programs (although there are workarounds for that if you have another MPC or are happy to manually edit XPM files in a text editor).

One of the FIRST things I looked for when I got the Ren yesterday. I use this a lot on the 4K. GREAT call Tutor. I was upset when I didn't see it in the Ren....

As it stands now, there is no way to change the layout of the pads from what I am assuming is the GM midi setup to Chromatic either, correct?

Chromatic could be done by using a keygroup program with single note keygroup ranges - disable KEY TRACK for drum sounds.

Chromatic DRUM programs can be created by loading a previously adjusted legacy PGM or 50s file (although this would only cover half the Ren's pads), or by manually editing the XML in the XPM file.