MPC - Track Audio Recording - not working - help required

Another serious issue with the MIDI configuration of the MPC.
- As the MPC has NOT a constant running MIDI clock I made my Korg M3 the Clock Master, as it is sending a constant clock tick as nearly all synth and sequencer are doing
- Trying to record an audio track, as explained in the manual "MpcTuiManual.pdf" on page 38, while the M3 is the master.
I realized that the recording stops in a fraction of a second - if MIDI Machine Control is handled by a synth
- Recording works well if the MPC is master, but as all my synth hardware needs to synchronize clock speed with the MPC there is always a slight delay
- I have tried ALL possible settings in the Sync menu but the MPC just stops - except if I disable MIDI in Receive - which makes of course no sense, as it starts running in its own clock speed!!

I am not the first who found out about it, but no solution was found.

All ideas are welcome - maybe I have missed something. But I assume it is another MIDI flaw of the AKAI hardware. They are simply not committing themselves to the global MIDI standard.

Please do not misunderstand me: It is a fine machine and in most cases doing what it should!!!

Do you mean that when sync'd the MPC won't record?

If so, I stumbled on the same issue with the looper last night: when I hit record, it flashes on for a fraction of a second, then reverts to playback. I just emailed Akai about it:

"Not sure if this is a bug or just a current limitation (Live in standalone). The looper record won't function when the unit is sync'd to clock. If I disable the sync, it's fine. (I'm using the looper workaround recently posted on the long Gearslutz thread: set up a poly programme for the looper, trigger a few blank pads at the start of the sequence, record a loop, assign to one of the pads, clear loop, repeat)."

I also asked about a workaround - to have the Live 'grab' the most recent sync clock value and overwrite its own. This wouldn't be perfect but would probably work well enough for what I'm trying to do (capture loops from an old Casio with no MIDI and a slider to control tempo - I'm using an audio-to-clock box between that and the MPC).

Oh - one more thing (Columbo style). I recorded some long jams (15-20 mins) with the Live as MIDI master and several hardware units. Everything locked in nicely. However when I imported the stems to a DAW with the same nominal tempo setting, the tempo drifts over time so that by the end the metronome is out.

Is this just usual for MIDI, or can/should Akai improve it?

Edit: forgot to mention that all the tracking was on a non-sync'd Tascam DP24. Even so, I'd be very surprised if the multitracker introduced timing variations. Maybe I'll try using the DP24 as the clock master.

Zack Zerox wrote:Do you mean that when sync'd the MPC won't record?

If so, I stumbled on the same issue with the looper last night: when I hit record, it flashes on for a fraction of a second, then reverts to playback. I just emailed Akai about it:

"Not sure if this is a bug or just a current limitation (Live in standalone). The looper record won't function when the unit is sync'd to clock. If I disable the sync, it's fine. (I'm using the looper workaround recently posted on the long Gearslutz thread: set up a poly programme for the looper, trigger a few blank pads at the start of the sequence, record a loop, assign to one of the pads, clear loop, repeat)."

I also asked about a workaround - to have the Live 'grab' the most recent sync clock value and overwrite its own. This wouldn't be perfect but would probably work well enough for what I'm trying to do (capture loops from an old Casio with no MIDI and a slider to control tempo - I'm using an audio-to-clock box between that and the MPC).

It sounds very much the same, except that I haven't tried the looper - currently not used here - but it makes sense to be basically the same.

You have just destroyed a plan to buy an external clock - your audio-to-clock is not working too

Zack Zerox wrote:Oh - one more thing (Columbo style). I recorded some long jams (15-20 mins) with the Live as MIDI master and several hardware units. Everything locked in nicely. However when I imported the stems to a DAW with the same nominal tempo setting, the tempo drifts over time so that by the end the metronome is out.

Is this just usual for MIDI, or can/should Akai improve it?

Edit: forgot to mention that all the tracking was on a non-sync'd Tascam DP24. Even so, I'd be very surprised if the multitracker introduced timing variations. Maybe I'll try using the DP24 as the clock master.

I am pretty sure this is NOT normal for MIDI to be out of synch - but this is a delicate issue, as it can have multiple reasons why it is "floating"... not only the MPC.
Drifting of MIDI has been reported here in this forum before.

Using a long recording like this is something I have not tried as yet.
But look into the "List Edit Mode" (page 230 of the manual) and delete possible not required MIDI signals at the start. A slight delay at the beginning might cause drifting.

You can’t use audio tracks with the live as a slave. You can try the midi time code work around but I haven’t tried it myself.

DeaDeus wrote:You have just destroyed a plan to buy an external clock - your audio-to-clock is not working too

The good news is, it does work - but you can't record audio with it enabled! I've suggested to Akai that an option to set the internal BPM to the last-received sync value would be a helpful workaround here.

Cockdiesel wrote:You can’t use audio tracks with the live as a slave. You can try the midi time code work around but I haven’t tried it myself.

That seems a perverse limitation! I wonder why?

Zack Zerox wrote:

DeaDeus wrote:You have just destroyed a plan to buy an external clock - your audio-to-clock is not working too

The good news is, it does work - but you can't record audio with it enabled! I've suggested to Akai that an option to set the internal BPM to the last-received sync value would be a helpful workaround here.

That's what I am talking about. The Korg M3 has a steady clock running and things are working fine except of having the MPC running as slave during the Audio recording.

I wonder why this should not be possible, as there is not much of a difference whether Slave or Master ... maybe stupid legal issues - or they've simply forgotten it.

Cockdiesel wrote:You can’t use audio tracks with the live as a slave....

Yes - that's what it is al about...

Cockdiesel wrote:You can try the midi time code work around but I haven’t tried it myself

'cmon - this is no solution - it is easier to just run the MPC as Master - but switching forward and backward during a creative session and having to change the sequence to have the hardware synchronized for recording at the beginning is silly - and the counting clock during recording is recorded too

Here’s the other work around...
Keep the live as the master and just let the sequence play for a loop until it catches up. Hit overdub when you want to record.

I believe it to be a real issue too. If the clock was always being sent it would make things so much smoother. Listening to delays and other stuff wobble all over the place for a bar or two is a no no for audio tracks.

Still no solution for that. Contacted the akai support:
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Hi support,
i have a big issue (which is also known in forums, but without a solution)

When Sync is set to "Midi Sync" or "Ableton Link", audio recording will not work!
Not to tracks and also not to looper.
Even if is Midi sync enabled and "Play" pressed on the forced (and not on a different device) it will not work.
And it doesn't matter, if other devices are connected or not.
Just plug a single Akai Force to the power, switch it on, set sync to "Midi Sync" or "Ableton Link" and you cannot record any audio.

Audio recording is only possible, when sync ist set to "off".

Thats a big issue. Please make a fix for that. (Using Firmware 3.0.5)

2022 still the same issue on live 2. For me, thats the moment i choose to sell my mpc.

Don´t get me wrong. the mpc is great. but for all of my requirements it doesn´t fit. i´ve got to go on every workfolw an extra way. its just frustrating... but yes, of course, the mpc is great.but for me, i doesnt have got barely any fun with it.