Midi Programs.. What's the point?

When using a drum program on a given track, all the samples for a loaded kit are available, but when using a track to send midi externally, there seems to be no real advantage of making a midi program. It doesn't store any info like Program Change, midi channel etc. I go to the trouble of setting all this stuff up and give it a name to save it but then load the midi program and none of my settings are there.. what gives? Am I missing something?

You can make midi programs to assign midi cc's for instance. Let's say you have two synths but you want to control the knobs from both. Then you'd have to create two midi programs for it. That's basically it.

Program change, midi channel etc are selected in the track you are working on. I'm quoting the manual below:

While viewing MIDI programs, the MIDI Program field shows the name of the program.
Use the MIDI Port field to select the port over which the program sends its MIDI data.
Note: You also have to configure the MIDI ports in the Preferences. See the user guide in the MPC software to
learn how to do this: click the Help menu, select MPC Help, and select MPC User Manual.
Use the Program Ch field to select the program change message the program sends out.
Use the MIDI Ch field to select the MIDI channel over which the program sends its MIDI data.
Use the Bank MSB and Bank LSB fields to select the messages for Most Significant Byte and Least Significant
Byte (respectively) that the program sends out.

I can highly recommend to read up in the manual about midi programs and how this works.

Thanks for the response..Ok, midi cc automations.. I'm not a stranger to midi sequencing, just the mpc workflow. Still in the first week of owning the (one). It seems like it would be easier to have the channel stuff there when you load a midi program so as to have a template for control that isn't linked to a given track.

Yes, I agree.

The "MPC" style of sequencer seems to be one of those old "staples", but fortunately Akai is on the way to break out of that "dogma". They are working on something they call one-to-one type tracks and what they refer to as multi-mode. Basically what it means is that the old MPC "way" will either go extinct or there will be two ways of using the sequencer. In other words, the current line of MPC's is becoming more DAW-like, either way.

Long time MPC users are reluctant to break out of the old, and new MPC users have a hard time understanding the workflow. Tough call, but obviously Akai is on the right track. If you can make a tool a little bit better, why not. Old MPC devices (or versions for new devices even) are still around for peeps that cannot let go.

dBVelocity wrote:It seems like it would be easier to have the channel stuff there when you load a midi program so as to have a template for control that isn't linked to a given track.

Hmm.. not for me. Because now you can just go in the main screen, select a new midi track, assign the right channel and then you are setup to create a midi track for that selected external device. I sequence 6 external synths with it so this makes selecting it fast. (instead of having to go to the program mode and do everything there and then get back to main mode).

You could also make a project template with alle the tracks pre-selected to the midi channels you desire. More about that also in... the manual!

I asked Akai support about this ages ago and was told basically MIDI programs are completely useless. Sometimes I actually make multiple ones just so I can name them to keep track of the patches that are being played on the synths, but other than that, you can do an entire 128 track external MIDI device based project with one single MIDI 001 instrument and nothing else. They have absolutely jack shit to do with anything other than saying 'This track is playing a MIDI instrument'.

So I've been reading the manual some more and it literally points to the notion that the five main settings for midi are done inside of a midi program. Around page 69 iirc. It should be saving these settings in the program. Further, we should be able to edit the cc labels.

I may want to setup a track template for my 8 synths, but then I don't use every synth on every song and there is no easy way of cutting the unused tracks. So then I'm scrolling through empty tracks to get to others and it's just not smooth.

I would really like to see the midi Programs updated to at least store the midi channel and relevant cc data with custom labels. Then I could load it in a new project and set the PC, msb,lsb as needed.

dBVelocity wrote:
I may want to setup a track template for my 8 synths, but then I don't use every synth on every song and there is no easy way of cutting the unused tracks. So then I'm scrolling through empty tracks to get to others and it's just not smooth.

Then you just delete those midi tracks you are not using in the specific project, easy as that? Just go to the track, and press on the pencil on the right of the screen and there you can delete it. It's literally two times pressing.

double post.. forum was not responding.

dBVelocity wrote:I would really like to see the midi Programs updated to at least store the midi channel and relevant cc data with custom labels. Then I could load it in a new project and set the PC, msb,lsb as needed.

Good luck with that request.

You can only clear a track of it's data as I can tell. The track will still exist in that spot. So if there is e.g. track 5 midi program to blofeld and track 6 is used for clips, when I clear the blofeld track from the template it will be empty with clips on 6 still..
I have simplified this scenario because I have many assignments that I'd like to create a template for. I have songs that use only a few tracks and others that use much more. I am left with creating each project from scratch unless there is a true delete track option.

I guess as a final note, it is what it is. If we had the shift+pad for track select it would be smoother and not a big deal to have empty tracks thus always know which track is controlling which synth. To that end having a midi program to load up your settings for control would be sublime.

dBVelocity wrote:You can only clear a track of it's data as I can tell. The track will still exist in that spot. So if there is e.g. track 5 midi program to blofeld and track 6 is used for clips, when I clear the blofeld track from the template it will be empty with clips on 6 still..
I have simplified this scenario because I have many assignments that I'd like to create a template for. I have songs that use only a few tracks and others that use much more. I am left with creating each project from scratch unless there is a true delete track option.

Yep, from scratch is then the best option. if you just remember which midi channels are which synth, how much really would it take to assign a track to the right synth? like.. 10 seconds? Is that really a thing you're hung up on? Then i'd say; buy another piece of hardware.

I always start with a blank project and have 6 external synths. Two of them being a digitone and an analog four that each have 4 seperate midi channels, and a roland jv 1080 which has 16 seperate channels.. I have it going in seconds...

I guess the best advice is stop making it an issue and just work with it.