How do I create a master bus automation?

Hey everyone, MPC Live MK1 owner, running 2.8.1 - All of the below was done in standalone.

I'm trying to perform the simple task of recording the automation of a low pass filter opening up in the beginning of a song, as if the song came from underwater, but I've not found ANY way to make this happen on the MPC Live. I've tried to insert an XYFX into the master track, turning the automation to WRITE but quickly realised that it won't write the XYFX automation for the master, only for individual tracks (what????). Then I tried to insert a LPF plugin into the master and record the automation of that and quickly understood that it won't record.

My last attempt was to try to write the LPF plugin automation into one track and then copy it over to all the tracks but I failed miserably when I tried to copy over the plugin from one track to another (in order to not have to input the settings I wanted it to start on again). Then I also realised that I can't find a way to copy automation from one track to another.

I come from Logic where this type of thing takes me about 10 seconds to accomplish, so this is very frustrating. Am I missing something terribly obvious? I'm quite inexperienced in the MPC workflow so I'm hoping I'm missing something fairly easy to find.

I also googled this extensively and found nothing

Thanks guys, hope this is just inexperience talking
Best regards

Yes found this out as well. Not possible and the conclusion I've come to as to why is because the master as well as the submixes are audio paths only and contain no midi. Automation if you look for it can be found within gridview. Your submixes and master can not be found within the grid so there is no place for this Automation to be written. This is just my educated guess. My work around would be to mix down your track, assign it to a pad and automate xyfx within the program.

ralphyartis' wrote:My work around would be to mix down your track, assign it to a pad and automate xyfx within the program.

or go back to logic.

...as a really happy mpc owner, for me, this is something that they should update after all that time.

As you already figured out the filter automation can be written to the seperate programs, so if you just want to filter your drums you can just go for it, but if you want to automate many filters for example in a drop in electronic music on different programs, it gets messy and could be done way more efficient on automated filters on subgroups..

And one more thing, the filters always work, even if you put them to 20kHz, so if you want to bypass them when they are not working, make shure to automate the x/y fx filters, because you can write automations for the filter to be on or off..

Lol Yall funny...

Try Creating an Intro Sequence, and Automate a Low Pass filter at the beginning of the sequence. Takes about ummmmm 10 seconds

I really wish they would allow automation to the master track in a future update, it would definitely streamline the process.
In the meantime, the easiest way I've found to apply automation to multiple programs at once is to create a new sequence, resample the tracks/programs you want to apply the automation to, put that sample on the new program, and apply the automation there.

Or Just buy a Force which can automate effects on Master, returns, and submixes. These workarounds are tedious and simply do not scale. I'm still waiting for AKAI to explain why they can't put automation on return, submixes and master tracks when the MPC is supposed to a DAW. MPC software has the exact same limitations, so what's the excuse with the software? Not enough CPU or memory on PC?

mpc_fan_2022 wrote: I'm still waiting for AKAI to explain why they can't put automation on return, submixes and master tracks when the MPC is supposed to a DAW. MPC software has the exact same limitations, so what's the excuse with the software? Not enough CPU or memory on PC?

The mysterious red ninja clan will never reveal its secrets to why its so illogical.

you can try this, at your risk:
assign a midi control change to the parameter on the master you want to automate, take one midi cable and hook one midi out to one midi in then use a midi track and record the automation for that midi cc. please be careful because you are possibly creating midi feedback loops. but it might be feasible.

hyena wrote:you can try this, at your risk:
assign a midi control change to the parameter on the master you want to automate, take one midi cable and hook one midi out to one midi in then use a midi track and record the automation for that midi cc. please be careful because you are possibly creating midi feedback loops. but it might be feasible.

You can tell the MPC to send on a different channel to what the MIDI Program is receiving on, so you can avoid MIDI loops that way

kazakore wrote:

hyena wrote:you can try this, at your risk:
assign a midi control change to the parameter on the master you want to automate, take one midi cable and hook one midi out to one midi in then use a midi track and record the automation for that midi cc. please be careful because you are possibly creating midi feedback loops. but it might be feasible.

You can tell the MPC to send on a different channel to what the MIDI Program is receiving on, so you can avoid MIDI loops that way

yes but you cannot choose the MASTER track as target for the midi send, and the OP asked about master bus automation

run the mpc as a plugin and automate this from the daw, it will save you headaches.

Jeff Soltero wrote:run the mpc as a plugin and automate this from the daw, it will save you headaches.

so much for a standalone device.