Support and discussion for all of Akai’s modern standalone MPCs including the MPC X / X SE, MPC Live 1, 2 & 3, MPC One / One+, MPC Key 37/61.
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By 64hz Fri Oct 02, 2020 4:22 pm
Janolat wrote:
Lampdog wrote:Every mpc when converting song to seq uses the track assignments of the very first seq in the chain. This is in every mpc manual that I’ve read.

Make sure every seq has the EXACT same track assignments BEFORE converting.

Seq1...trk1/kik, trk2/snr, trk3/hhat, trk4/openhat, trk5/horn, trk6/toms
Seq2...trk1/kik, trk2/snr, trk3/hhat, trk4/openhat, trk5/horn, trk6/toms
Seq3...trk1/kik, trk2/snr, trk3/hhat, trk4/openhat, trk5/horn, trk6/toms
Seq4...trk1/kik, trk2/snr, trk3/hhat, trk4/openhat, trk5/horn, trk6/toms

Well, that's not my workflow but I will try it like that maybe. I usually would not assign a track for each sound of the drumkit I made. I would have the whole rhythm on one track and a variation on another. On sequence A track1 would be muted while on sequence B it would be track 2 that is muted while track 1 plays.

I still think it is a bug.

Otherwise tell me why it is playing correctly when I let it play in songmode?
Following your Logic this should not be the case. What benefit would it have that it works different when converting in song mode compared to playing back the songmode selection while in songmode?
Sry for all the songmodes :mrgreen:


It's not a bug, atm you convert a song to a sequence it becomes ONE NEW sequence and since there has to be some track order that makes sense the mpc takes the track order from the sequence you select as first in song mode. If you just listen in song mode it plays one sequence after an other hence it will play the correct track order for the sequence playing.
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By Lampdog Fri Oct 02, 2020 6:12 pm
Otherwise tell me why it is playing correctly when I let it play in songmode?
Song mode is not a conversion (using track assignments for first track only) and retains each sequence as they were made.

Following your Logic this should not be the case.
No and no.

Sry for all the songmodes :mrgreen:
All good, no worries!

So since you put almost everything on one track then maybe your programs need to be paid attention and maybe your not understanding fully how to use/implement programs. If you could send someone your project they could look it over in detail and find the problem. I’ve done that for a several people on the forum here. I use X standalone, btw, no mpc software, eww.

Making a single track for everything is cool when I first start (for the feel and ey’thang), but I explode it later on so I can mix and have better control over every little thing.
By CharlesRandolph Fri Oct 02, 2020 6:23 pm
Janolat wrote:Well, that's not my workflow but I will try it like that maybe. I usually would not assign a track for each sound of the drumkit I made. I would have the whole rhythm on one track and a variation on another. On sequence A track1 would be muted while on sequence B it would be track 2 that is muted while track 1 plays.

I still think it is a bug.

Otherwise tell me why it is playing correctly when I let it play in songmode?
Following your Logic this should not be the case. What benefit would it have that it works different when converting in song mode compared to playing back the songmode selection while in songmode?
Sry for all the songmodes :mrgreen:


Doing it the way @Lampdog suggest would also give you more control over the mix. Two tracking the drum mix is good for when you're bus/group mixing, but even when tracking live drums, we mic each drum, plus stereo overhead.
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By Lampdog Fri Oct 02, 2020 8:26 pm
64hz wrote:It's not a bug, atm you convert a song to a sequence it becomes ONE NEW sequence and since there has to be some track order that makes sense the mpc takes the track order from the sequence you select as first in song mode. If you just listen in song mode it plays one sequence after an other hence it will play the correct track order for the sequence playing.

I was still typing while you were kicking knowledge, lol.
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By Janolat Fri Oct 02, 2020 11:18 pm
Really appreciate your help guys.
I don't really use one track for everything.
For example when I create a drumkit I assign samples to the several pads and tweak gain and adsr in the first step. Then I maybe group the hihats to a subchannel to get the ability to apply effects on this subchannel. Once I have everything balanced somehow I start working on the program bus of the drumkit and so on. I felt no need to assign kick and snare to different tracks because I have control through the pad mixer. Maybe I misunderstand something in the concept.
Since I understood what is happening through the conversion process I somehow understand why it is this way.
The songmode playing it back correctly made me assume that it will sound the same after the conversion.

I play around with some 90ish hip hop beats and some drum and bass stuff but was working with cubase/ ableton/ flstudio and a bit reason before.
Finally I can make beats like Premo :lol:
Well at least I can try :roll:
Have to get used to the different workflow but I love this box so far. Nights got shorter somehow :-D
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By Lampdog Sat Oct 03, 2020 3:45 am
With so many mixers in the mpc this generation it kinda tosses traditional mixing to the side just a little. But, cool, mix however you see fit, if it works for you then it WORKS for you and bang on.
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By 64hz Sat Oct 03, 2020 11:52 am
Lampdog wrote:
64hz wrote:It's not a bug, atm you convert a song to a sequence it becomes ONE NEW sequence and since there has to be some track order that makes sense the mpc takes the track order from the sequence you select as first in song mode. If you just listen in song mode it plays one sequence after an other hence it will play the correct track order for the sequence playing.

I was still typing while you were kicking knowledge, lol.


But you had the fancy reply. :nod: :lol:
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By Janolat Sat Oct 03, 2020 1:31 pm
Lampdog wrote:With so many mixers in the mpc this generation it kinda tosses traditional mixing to the side just a little. But, cool, mix however you see fit, if it works for you then it WORKS for you and bang on.

Thx, but I am always open for other approaches. I am probably missing a lot of the traditional mixing knowledge.
How do you guys do it? I mean do you have tracks for every single element of the drumkit and mix with the track mixer then?
Is there some downsides in adjusting stuff in pad mixer untill kit is balanced and then continue working in track mixer?
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By 64hz Sat Oct 03, 2020 8:20 pm
Janolat wrote:
Lampdog wrote:With so many mixers in the mpc this generation it kinda tosses traditional mixing to the side just a little. But, cool, mix however you see fit, if it works for you then it WORKS for you and bang on.

Thx, but I am always open for other approaches. I am probably missing a lot of the traditional mixing knowledge.
How do you guys do it? I mean do you have tracks for every single element of the drumkit and mix with the track mixer then?
Is there some downsides in adjusting stuff in pad mixer untill kit is balanced and then continue working in track mixer?


Coming from almost two decades with mpcs its almost second nature to 'explode' everything. I might start jamming in one track but once I need to edit stuff I explode the track. In the old days it was just a pain in the .... to edit anything when there where events everywhere in your track. I usually mix different sounds within a program on pad mixer with send effects or not. Depending on how it goes I might adjust the whole program at some point. But I actually like the ability to see 16 pads and mix them. Great improvement imho.
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By Janolat Sat Oct 03, 2020 9:08 pm
64hz wrote:Coming from almost two decades with mpcs its almost second nature to 'explode' everything. I might start jamming in one track but once I need to edit stuff I explode the track. In the old days it was just a pain in the .... to edit anything when there where events everywhere in your track. I usually mix different sounds within a program on pad mixer with send effects or not. Depending on how it goes I might adjust the whole program at some point. But I actually like the ability to see 16 pads and mix them. Great improvement imho.

I can imagine that. Wasn't able to afford an mpc or something like that back then so I started with cracked software :roll:
Was the only way to get into it at that time. Now I have a legal ableton Live and fl studio but back then even that would have been to expensive.

Coming from ableton live I actually like all the mixers. I have some fasttracker experience so I know workflows are very different :mrgreen:
But I like that every pad has a mixer channel and how you can route to the subchannels.

Btw is there a way to draw automation curves that are preshaped somehow? Like a sine or saw shape for example or do you have to record it with encoder/ draw on touchscreen?
I loaded some saw waves to the different layers of a key group sampler, looped and synced one cycle of the waveforms an pitched some up and down a bit to make a bass reese sound for dnb. Works great, you can get some nasty sounds by using the filters and inserts.
But it would be great to draw some filter cutoff automation in accurate shape.
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By Lampdog Sat Oct 03, 2020 9:58 pm
64hz wrote:But I actually like the ability to see 16 pads and mix them. Great improvement imho.

I like the diff mixers also. I would have rather had a traditional mixer looking GUI but it’s fine.

Janolat wrote: Btw is there a way to draw automation curves that are preshaped somehow?

No automation templates in standalone. IDK about software.
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By Janolat Sat Oct 03, 2020 11:53 pm
Lampdog wrote:No automation templates in standalone. IDK about software.

Ok, well I feared that but it's ok. Not interested in the software. I can do all that in ableton if I want to. But some anker points ramp drawing would be great.

I guess one has to use the List Editor to make fine adjustments to the automation curve?