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.
Byanon1969382 Thu May 04, 2023 8:56 pm
Hello all,

I have a Live II and a question about the "Browse > Load" functionality.

Whenever I start a new project and then I add a Drum Program to Sequence 1, Track 1, by loading a Drum Kit via "Browse > Load", my kit is auto assigned to the 16 pads.

However, this only happens on my first "Browse > Load" attempt. After that, I have to assign the samples to the pads manually.

Does anyone knows if it's possible to change this behavior?

Thanks.
User avatar
By hyena Sat May 06, 2023 11:28 am
jamos wrote:Press the pad you want to assign the sample to, before you load the sample.

what jamos says if you load individual hits, if you instead load up another drum program, you don't need to re-assign samples, you just need to go to a track, and change the program field to the new drum program you just loaded. i suggest you purchase Tutor's MPC Bible if you are struggling with the weird but great mpc architecture\workflow.
Byanon1969382 Sat May 06, 2023 2:02 pm
hyena wrote:
jamos wrote:Press the pad you want to assign the sample to, before you load the sample.

what jamos says if you load individual hits, if you instead load up another drum program, you don't need to re-assign samples, you just need to go to a track, and change the program field to the new drum program you just loaded. i suggest you purchase Tutor's MPC Bible if you are struggling with the weird but great mpc architecture\workflow.


Hey hyena,

Thanks for the reply.

I do have the MPC Bible.
From your comment I did realize that I can just change the Program and I'll find the Drum Kit loaded to the 16 pads.
However, I was confused because of this weird behavior below. If you follow the next steps, why does this happen?

1) Start from the default configuration -> Track 1: (unused) / Drum Program: Program 001
2) On "Program 001" panel click on "Assign Samples"
3) Click on the "Browse" tab
4) Select a .xpm file
5) Click on "Load"
6) Click on the "Sample Assign" tab
7) Check that the Drum Kit was auto assigned to the 16 pads and that the Drum Kit name is showing up on the "Program" combo-box on the top bar
8 ) Go back to "Main"
9) Select Track 2: (unused) / Drum Program: Program 001
10) On "Program 001" click on "Assign Samples"
11) Click on the "Browse" tab
12) Select a .xpm file
13) Click on "Load"
14) Check that the Drum Kit doesn't show up auto assigned to the 16 pads because the Drum Kit name is not showing up on the "Program" combo-box on the top bar

Am I doing something wrong?
User avatar
By MPC-Tutor Sat May 06, 2023 3:47 pm
Some unnecessary steps there (e.g. hitting SAMPLE ASSIGN after loading an XPM file). An XPM file is a program file, it will already contain all the required samples assigned to the pads. But when you load an XPM file it is not automatically assigned to your track, so you have to manually assign it.

Here's the process:

1. in MAIN, select a track and make sure it is set to DRUM
2. Go to MENU > BROWSER (or as you say, hit ASSIGN SAMPLES > BROWSE).
3. Locate a drum kit you wish to load - double tap the XPM file, or single tap and hit LOAD.
4. Return to MAIN (forget about going to ASSIGN SAMPLES, that page is literally for assigning samples to pad, you don't need to do this if you are working with pre-made kits).
5. On the DRUM PROGRAM row, either single tap the current program name and use the data wheel to select the program you just loaded. Or, double tap the current program name and select a program from the list (this is a list of drum programs you have loaded previously).

Make sure the track is armed and you're good to go.
User avatar
By hyena Sun May 07, 2023 5:56 pm
yep. just to explain a lil further: the sample assign button is only useful when you want to create your own drum kit loading only individual samples, not entire programs. if you want to try build your first drum kit, select the program 001, rename it, go to the browser, select the waveform icon in order to be able to browse only sample files. you can use your search bar to type in stuff like "kick", "snare" etc... use the preview feature to audition the samples you are scrolling in your libraries, when you find one that's good you can tap on the pad where you want to assign it, it lits up green, then click on the encoder wheel or the load button on touch screen, then move to another sample,select another pad and so on.
when in another moment you want to assign other samples you can either go to the browser and do the same, or hit Sample Assign from the main window.
i suggested the bible because i think you have to properly understand how the mpc architecture works and all confusion will be gone: sequences are made of tracks, each track can be of a different type (drum program & keygroup programs for samples, midi for controlling external gear, plugin to use the mpc's virtual instruments and so on). Programs are... well, you can think of them like the presets of your instruments: you can assign a specific type of program to any of the tracks, depending on the track type. the mpc architecture is great in that you can assign multiple tracks to the same program (example: to use a track only for kick, another only for snare, another for open\close high hat and so on...), so you'll have your beat organized on multiple tracks note-wise, but it will be a single instrument on your channel mixer. you can use this many tracks to the same program also for creating different variations of your , for example, drum beat, on different tracks, all referring to the same drum program, then you can switch between drum patterns by just muting\unmuting the different tracks...
Byanon1969382 Mon May 08, 2023 10:43 am
Hello guys,

Thanks for the detailed replies! They were really helpful.

Actually, I was using the "Sample Assign" screen to display the Samples names to know what I have available from the Drum Kit.

Is there another way to do this visually?