some song basics for the 2kxl / arranging complex drums, cop

getting really better every day with my new XL

i noticed i have to be ultra focused if i do stuff like taking away/adding bars.
obviously easy to destroy some Seq.

i wanted to ask how you XL gurus work when its time to make a more complex drum track on the mpc.

do you play in a first basics sequence and than just make a new sequence, copy the parameters like bpm and bars and play the beat a bit different, do this 5-6 times and jump between sequences on mixdown to add fills, breaks, and variations in the beat?

or do you add Bars in the same sequence mostly and play those drums in to these?


i need to find a way to have a lot of bars in a sequence to use them as kind of midi multitracking for live piano/organ/synth sounds etc. this is important for me as i dont want to have a loopy sound/song

what is the ideal method to add Variations for the beats and space (bars) for live playing of instruments in the mpc?

i imagine its quite hard to play the drums over and over again in good timing so i wonder how to non-destructive copy certain bars, add them to new bars without touching other notes on other tracks in the sequence...

such stuff....


i need to get this right because instead of a cassette multitrack wich didnt suit me, i mixdown my sings "live" to a 2 track reel to reel.
Thats why i need to make the most out of the arranging possibilities of the 2kxl.

well, I tend to make a chorus type sequence and not too full with drums etc.. just to get the basic idea down... then figure out my pattern for the verse sections... sometimes the sample pattern has some filter on it etc... anyhow, but once that stuff is done, the drums I try to figure out what elements of the drums will be more prominent in the chorus area over the verse parts... for example, more high hats.. or what ever. Don't over fill the verse parts or else you won't have enough contrast when it switches to the chorus.

very interesting. i find some similarities in how i start. i just dont want to make a the mistake to do a dozen half finished chorus beats, but rather a few well executed songs.

this was always a fight with me making music, so i need to finish my songs

when you go to the point you create your verse Seq. do you keep that mostly one or two Sequences and jump between em on mixdown/ or arrange a certain play order prior mixdown?

yes finally breaking this thing up.... making a sequence several hundred bars, quantize off and playing live is essentially a multitrack just not audio. love it

with "beats" i often locked myself in on 16-32 bars

This thread is good.
I use 4 or 8 bar sequences. Make one or two for a chorus, a breakdown, verses etc. then string them together in song mode. Each seq has minor drum changes or drastic.

That's how I was taught when learning (Pre-Youtube Era). Using sequences.

I never knew anyone who used one sequence for the entire song until I read about it on this forum when I first joined.
I use both methods now. I just do whatever, whenever.

isn't there a way to convert a song mode playlist into one long sequence? I never tried doing that because I wouldn't really use that... but I seem to think that was possible.

i am scared of song mode and step edit... scared to fuxk up my fresh creation by user error... happend a few times now

i usually try a 8-16 bar raw drum sequence thats looped, multiply to add some samples, bass with enough variation not to sound like a loop, again multiply and add live playing like piano, synthesizer etc

so my approach is: re-play anytthing as long as it takes to make it sit and groove.
So lots of undo/replaying etc

just have to involve multiple Sequences as i think thats the best when it comes to mixdown.

For drops/turnarounds/fills it's quite a nice time saver to work in a separate 1 or 2 bar sequence so you can nail it in isolation. It gets annoying hearing a 1 bar sequence looping, but when you're done you can copy the bars onto the end of the main sequence, or alternatively you can remove bars from the end of the sequence leading into the drop. Nice.

at closer observation i often find myself with uneven BARS numbers... often 7 Bars instead of 8 for example.

do any of you guys use a multitrack for live overdubbing or use samples only mostly in the mpc?

Hththt555 wrote:at closer observation i often find myself with uneven BARS numbers... often 7 Bars instead of 8 for example.

do any of you guys use a multitrack for live overdubbing or use samples only mostly in the mpc?

Most of us outgrew the 2kxl a long time ago so we have MPCs that allow you to use Audio Tracks, resample the output, record long samples in realtime etc so that allows for multitrack and/or overdubbing.

Then there are those who use the 2k with a DAW.
We still may have 2k/2kxl units around but it's more nostalgic than anything.

If you really are considering a multitrack recorder get a digital unit that supports .wav files then you can record to them and import that back into the 2kxl for building.