Splice Implementation Inside MPC OS

Hey guys,

I have a question about the MPC Browser experience.

The last update brought some improvements but I still think it could be better. I would really love a tag system and collections (like Ableton has).

Having said that, I noticed that the Splice integration is interesting. When I purchased my One a few months ago I noticed that Splice handles the samples in a different way. For sure they wouldn't make a ton of copies of the same sample in order to have them available in different folders. It would be a waste of space.

After further inspection, it's clear that the main directory works just like the desktop version. The "real" samples exist in the Packs directory.

All the content from the other folders functions as "shortcuts" to the real file. But they are not the average shortcut.

I hope was able to make myself clear.

My question is: Do you know exactly how it's done? And can you fake it to make your own "Favorites" folder that works just like the Splice folder and let's you link the samples without having the need to create duplicates?

It's just a text file with a .flac extension. I haven't been able to make it work yet outside Splice folder. I also tried symlink which doesn't work. I was originally working on a program that was going to "tag" samples similar to Native Instruments stuff and use this technique but abandoned it.

Drew Hamlett wrote:It's just a text file with a .flac extension. I haven't been able to make it work yet outside Splice folder. I also tried symlink which doesn't work. I was originally working on a program that was going to "tag" samples similar to Native Instruments stuff and use this technique but abandoned it.

Yeah, after I made the post I tried the symlink method and it didn't work. Then I tried the text file method and it didn't work either.

And even if it did, it would be a pain to do it for every sample. I wouldn't have the skills to come up with an automated solution.

That's too bad man

I guess I should stop hoarding samples and keep it simple

pedro_oliveira1993 wrote:

Drew Hamlett wrote:It's just a text file with a .flac extension. I haven't been able to make it work yet outside Splice folder. I also tried symlink which doesn't work. I was originally working on a program that was going to "tag" samples similar to Native Instruments stuff and use this technique but abandoned it.

Yeah, after I made the post I tried the symlink method and it didn't work. Then I tried the text file method and it didn't work either.

And even if it did, it would be a pain to do it for every sample. I wouldn't have the skills to come up with an automated solution.

That's too bad man

I guess I should stop hoarding samples and keep it simple

Haha yea, I hoard samples too. I was thinking about still moving forward with a "tagging" system but copying the sample instead of symlink.

Drew Hamlett wrote:
Haha yea, I hoard samples too. I was thinking about still moving forward with a "tagging" system but copying the sample instead of symlink.

That would be an improvement! If you ever go through with it, share it with us!

The last update really improved the browser. But to me it's still the thing I enjoy the least. If they can make it a bit more flexible, then it's killer.

pedro_oliveira1993 wrote:

Drew Hamlett wrote:
Haha yea, I hoard samples too. I was thinking about still moving forward with a "tagging" system but copying the sample instead of symlink.

That would be an improvement! If you ever go through with it, share it with us!

The last update really improved the browser. But to me it's still the thing I enjoy the least. If they can make it a bit more flexible, then it's killer.

I'd really like if they could make the "By Pack" view work similar to the extension view – with the pack image.

Some news.

Opened this thread a while back.

I formatted my SD Card to NTFS and Splice is back running as it was before the 2.11 update. No issues.

And regarding what I asked before about symlinks, with NTFS I was able to take advantage of them to route folder as I wanted.

pedro_oliveira1993 wrote:Some news.

Opened this thread a while back.

I formatted my SD Card to NTFS and Splice is back running as it was before the 2.11 update. No issues.

And regarding what I asked before about symlinks, with NTFS I was able to take advantage of them to route folder as I wanted.

Formatting to NTFS did restore my folder hierarchy and Splice categories, but this doesn't fix the random broken FLAC files when doing a sync via WiFi. Tons of samples still unusable. So far no fix in sight from neither Akai nor Splice (it's related to missing meta data during transcoding - no bit rate or sample rate in the meta data).

EnochLight wrote:

pedro_oliveira1993 wrote:Some news.

Opened this thread a while back.

I formatted my SD Card to NTFS and Splice is back running as it was before the 2.11 update. No issues.

And regarding what I asked before about symlinks, with NTFS I was able to take advantage of them to route folder as I wanted.

Formatting to NTFS did restore my folder hierarchy and Splice categories, but this doesn't fix the random broken FLAC files when doing a sync via WiFi. Tons of samples still unusable. So far no fix in sight from neither Akai nor Splice (it's related to missing meta data during transcoding - no bit rate or sample rate in the meta data).

Sorry to hear that.

As far as I could tell - I did not spend much time listening to the samples - everything worked well.

What I browsed played perfectly. When I get home from work I'll try it again to see if it's something I missed.

pedro_oliveira1993 wrote:Sorry to hear that.

As far as I could tell - I did not spend much time listening to the samples - everything worked well.

What I browsed played perfectly. When I get home from work I'll try it again to see if it's something I missed.

If you've got a relatively small Splice library, it may not be an issue that appears on your MPC (or Force). But I've got dozens upon dozens of Splice collections, and thousands of samples. So many random ones that don't work at all, it's a travesty.

Hi . Can I ask what method you used to format the drive . Ie was it in controller mode and using an attached PC/MAC to the USB ?

EnochLight wrote:

pedro_oliveira1993 wrote:Sorry to hear that.

As far as I could tell - I did not spend much time listening to the samples - everything worked well.

What I browsed played perfectly. When I get home from work I'll try it again to see if it's something I missed.

If you've got a relatively small Splice library, it may not be an issue that appears on your MPC (or Force). But I've got dozens upon dozens of Splice collections, and thousands of samples. So many random ones that don't work at all, it's a travesty.

Sorry for spreading fake news mate!

I did try it again and you are indeed right. It's super minimal for me. In 3000 samples I found a couple of them that didn't play or load.

Still, that makes me a little mad, not gonna lie. Not that I use splice that much (I hate how it's implemented) but I can totally see how that may be a turn off for someone with a lot more samples than me.

karlroe wrote:Hi . Can I ask what method you used to format the drive . Ie was it in controller mode and using an attached PC/MAC to the USB ?

I think I did it using and SD card dongle. But I think in controller mode should be fine.

karlroe wrote:Hi . Can I ask what method you used to format the drive . Ie was it in controller mode and using an attached PC/MAC to the USB ?

I always format my MPC (and Force) SSD in Controller Mode. Shows up as attached storage in Windows, and I use Disk Management to format. Works like a charm. I was using ExFAT for a few years, but I'm all Windows these days so have since switched to NTFS (which Splice seems to prefer for some reason).

pedro_oliveira1993 wrote:Sorry for spreading fake news mate!

I did try it again and you are indeed right. It's super minimal for me. In 3000 samples I found a couple of them that didn't play or load.

Still, that makes me a little mad, not gonna lie. Not that I use splice that much (I hate how it's implemented) but I can totally see how that may be a turn off for someone with a lot more samples than me.

No worries - not surprised you found some issues though. Out of 3000 samples, I'm sure you probably have more than just a couple that are bad, though. Try accessing them via the "By Pack" folder and diving into subfolders, as well as the "All Your Samples". Keep "audition" on and set to "auto".

I've got full on Packs that are totally blank (well, blank on the MPC/Force, as the FLAC files are missing the bit rate and sample rate metadata or they have the codec wrong). Ambient Worlds is one of them. If I open these same FLAC files via Computer Mode using a robust desktop media player like VLC, they do play back fine though. It's just that MPC/Force requires correct metadata to work correctly. Just wondering if it's a Splice transcoding issue or an Akai issue (I'm willing to wager it's an issue on Splice's end).

In the case of Ambient Worlds, instead of the codec being properly listed as "FLAC", the metadata has it listed as "PCM S24 LE (s24l)", which apparently the MPC/Force can't reconcile.