MPC Live - Audio track length for stems...

Greetings all,

I don't have an MPC live, but have used an MPC1000 heaps in the past, and currently have an Octatrack MK1.

What I'm curious about is audio tracks, and it's hard for me to understand their use just from what I've searched. But I've got a specific need so here's hoping someway can help me with some answers

Let's say I have a track recorded, already in a DAW, and bounce it as as three stems - Bass, Lead, Beats.

Can I import the three tracks into a sequence and have them all start simultaneously?

Can they all be sent through different outputs? (IE, three stereo pairs from the back).

And what is the maximum length these tracks could be? (Confused about the 5 min maximum recording time, and something else about a 19 minute length...).

I assume I can still use the MPC as a sampler to layer other sounds over the top, but does the available sample time change depending on the length of these imported audio recordings?

Thanks for this one team, I know the OT can do it in terms of synchronised playback of long samples over multiple tracks, just hoping this one can too!

The audio tracks live in the same memory as samples for the sampler. I have been able to load 45-50 minutes of stereo sounds in there. It might be less if you have loads of small samples, but three stems for a five-six minute track should be no problem.

You have 8 dedicated audio tracks (stereo) that are kind of like audio tracks in a DAW. You just put a file in there and you can move it around in the timeline, chop it up into regions etc. You can add separate effects to each, use sends in the mixer, assign to separate outputs etc. as you'd expect.

You can also put long samples in drum programs if you want, but they have to be triggered in the sequencer, so if you put the trigger on 1.1.1 you wont be able to start play back in the middle of the track.

As said, audio tracks will influence the memory available to the sampler - so if you fill all 8 audio tracks with stems things can maybe get a little tight. Large multisampled programmes can also eat your memory.

I don't recognize the limits you write about. I haven't actually ever tried recording more than about six minutes into an audio track, but that works fine. I would expect it to work up to the limits stated above, but I can't say if there's a 19 minute limit.

Thanks for that info, really helps me to understand the system.

I’ve got a feeling some of the info I’ve been reading may have been on earlier releases of the OS, so there may have been fixes since.

Realistically I’d need close to 120 minutes of stems for a full live set, so I’m not sure if this is pushing it?

Another question though, if you had a six minute track like i’d described, and wanted to switch to a different track, do you essentially need to stop and load a different track? Or can you seamless switch to a different sequence? (Sorry, I probably have the terminology makes wrong but hope it makes sense!).

I don't think you'll be able to load that much audio, no. The few people who've checked arrive at the same limit, around 50 minutes.

Akai have promised to make it possible to stream audio from disk with a future update which should make it possible, but if you really need it, I would not purchase the unit until it's actually out and confirmed working.

The 50 minutes is the amount of audio you can load into a single project. A project can contain up to 999 sequences that you can switch between seamlessly. If you can stay within the memory limit, you can totally put different tracks in different sequences and switch between them.

Switching projects clears the memory and loads new sounds and requires stopping playback. It's fairly quick, so depending on the type of live set you do it might even be doable on stage if it's ok to tell a few jokes or play other instrument or just stand around looking mysterious while the MPC loads, though.

You have to wait for the much anticipated Disk Streaming to happen in order to achieve this..