workflow suggestions for beginners

HouseWithoutMouse wrote:With an MPC, you get a whole universe of things to explore. Endless possibilities. If you have no purpose, no goal and limitations, you can spend the rest of your life trying out things. But if you have a "gig", something where you have to deliver a concrete result in a limited and known amount of time, it puts things in order and in perspective. Order instead of chaos. You need a delay effect... lots of different options are offered, but if you have only ten seconds time to pick one, you'll have to make up your mind! No undo, get it done. Etc. You focus on what there MUST BE, and behold, there is order, priority and purpose.

When talking about any workflow, there is always an idea of an outcome. The purpose of work is to get a result. "Get things done"... But if you aren't really sure WHAT you MUST get done, then what workflow are you even talking about?

Ok I see where you're coming from. It just that based on the first few post, they were all "MPC specific workflow" tips for beginners like file naming & not saving/deleting via the internal HD. You made valid points about how a gig forces one to create & not get lost in the many options of the device, but for some users taking their time to explore the device is a major part of the enjoyment during their art creative process.

Also, some users don't make music to perform it live for all kinds of reasons, so your great "general workflow" advice might be mostly useless to them, but these non-preforming artist may still want basic tips on how to use their device so they don't get too lost or at least may want to know all the hotkeys/shortcuts & these basic MPC tips could point out to them that their currently lack of understanding of the MPC has them moving 100MPH in the wrong direction or doing something correct but doing it in the most tedious way when there a shortcut.

Your general workflow method seems to be telling beginners that don't even know how operate the MPC to go out to gig & learn on the job which is not realistic since everyone doesn't have the same musical goals. Even if they wanted to to a gig most would still want to be skilled enough with their MPC to put on a decent show so people will want to see them again. Which is why I said & still say that your great advice needs it's own thread.

Maybe the word "workflow" threw everything off. There are device specific workflows (which is what the first post here was about) & artistic workflow (what your talking about). I hope you do start a new thread going more deeper into that type of stuff for those that's want that information. Peace & try not to be so quick to insult people for asking for clarification.

Since 2017...I still learn New Shit inside the MPC. Everything from Basic to Complex. I have Multiple Workflows in this thing lol

40Beatz wrote:Since 2017...I still learn New Shit inside the MPC. Everything from Basic to Complex. I have Multiple Workflows in this thing lol

Ok that's cool for you, but do you have any workflow tips for MPC beginners?

Yes Indeed!

Even tho there's so many subjects to talk about...

Beginners...start off using 4 Bar Sequences. Easier to manage.

Get to know your delay Effects. 1/4 Delay is my friend.
Try not to be Perfect. I used to spend Weeks on One Beat...Tweakin n shit
File Management is another thing. I save my Beats in Monthly Folders("HotBeat 5-1", in May 2023 folder)
Make Program Previews of all your beats, so you can listen to them without loading them.
Save your shit after every Element you create, bcz It kills my soul when my MP freezes up in the middle of session
Its so many more Tips. I could go on for days.
Give me a Request and I'll help you/them get better at it!
Free of Charge

Do you have any good workflow tips for finding good loop points for very long loops? You know, it's kind of clunky and time consuming, having to listen to the entire long loop just to hear what the loop transition point sounds like.

Lol... My Man!
Again...In Sample Edit, the MPC will tell you what the BPM is of a Sample. Next, Set the Tempo to the Nearest Whole Number BPM of the Sample. If the Loop is off a little bit, tweak the End Point while the Sequence is playing.

After learning that skillset, You can save time by Choppin up Long Loops, instead of trying to loop a 4 or 8 bar Sample.

You can hear what it sounds like, playing in the sequence while editing it

40Beatz wrote:You can save time by Choppin up Long Loops, instead of trying to loop a 4 or 8 bar Sample.

You can hear what it sounds like, playing in the sequence while editing it

Yes, this is the conclusion I've come to as well: in Akai land it works best if you chop everything to relatively small pieces of audio you can trigger via MIDI-like events, instead of trying to make the MPC/Force understand the audio in its entirety.

That's a big workflow suggestion! It's not Ableton Live, so don't try to make it work like Ableton Live. The point here is to understand these two different cultures and "languages" and differences in their expressive power.

All this would change if Akai were to add better audio "warping" features like what Ableton has. Don't hold your breath though.

The Warping Algorithm is better in Software Mode