Prevent switching from "Recording" to "Overdub"

Hi everyone (and sorry for my poor English, it's not my mother tongue ).

Recently bought a MPC X se, so I'm still a newbie. But I know how to read a manual and how to work with logically constructed machines. But I haven't found a way to prevent the MPC from switching from record mode to overdub mode when the end of a loop is reached and the sequence starts again..

When I loop the sequence, I want to stay in record mode until I'm happy with a recording. I.e. I want the new recording to overWRITE the old one instead of overDUBBING it. Since I also record guitar and bass, it's often too much hassle to press "stop and record" again and again. It would be easier if I could concentrate on playing the instrument while recording, instead of constantly getting away from the instrument's neck and having to press buttons. Very annoying for workflow, inspiration & concentration on the musical side of things.

So my question is: How can I stay in record mode and prevent switching to overdub mode? I haven't found anything about this topic in the manual or on YouTube. It looks as if this question hasn't been answered in the forums either. Does anyone know how this works or have a workaround for this problem?

I'd be very grateful for any help Thank you and have a nice day

You cannot stop it going into overdub when looping, so you could just set the sequence loop to 'off' and it will continue recording, adding bars to your sequence as needed until you hit stop. Then find the best bit and use the sequence editing tools to trim down to the desired length.

MPC-Tutor wrote:You cannot stop it going into overdub when looping, so you could just set the sequence loop to 'off' and it will continue recording, adding bars to your sequence as needed until you hit stop. Then find the best bit and use the sequence editing tools to trim down to the desired length.

Jolly good idea - thank you MPC Tutor !

MPC-Tutor wrote:You cannot stop it going into overdub when looping, so you could just set the sequence loop to 'off' and it will continue recording, adding bars to your sequence as needed until you hit stop. Then find the best bit and use the sequence editing tools to trim down to the desired length.

Thanks a lot for your reply. I've already thought of something like that. One doubt though: If I don't loop the sequence, the backing will stop after a certain number of bars, and e.g. I would have to solo over "naked" bars, right? Unfortunately that doesn't make much sense ...

But maybe I could double or quadruple the sequence under "edit" before soloing. That should be easy to do. Then play my part various times, cut out the best version and paste it in a new track of the sequence, and finally delete all unnecessary bars. A bit cumbersome, but it could be a workaround.

Thanks again for the quick reply an have a nice day

as an alternative, you may just play everything looped as normal with record disabled and use „retrospective record” once you’re happy with your take.

dustyslices wrote:as an alternative, you may just play everything looped as normal with record disabled and use „retrospective record” once you’re happy with your take.

Thanks, that seems a good idea, too. I didn't know about "retrospective record". As I said, I'm a newbie to that machine and still have to learn a lot about the special functions.

I googled "retrospective record" and I think it only works for MIDI, right? If I use my bass or my guitar, then it doesn't work, I guess. Or am I wrong?

Have a nice day

yeah it’s for midi only but you may use looper if you want audio, it records in the background so it’s just a matter of arming it and going back to the main screen.

EDIT:
aaahhhhh… scratch that, forgot it records a whole main mix :/

dustyslices wrote: aaahhhhh… scratch that, forgot it records a whole main mix :/

Nevermind, I learn something new with every answer ... I'm starting to like this forum

Take care!

emm kah wrote:

MPC-Tutor wrote: One doubt though: If I don't loop the sequence, the backing will stop after a certain number of bars, and e.g. I would have to solo over "naked" bars, right? Unfortunately that doesn't make much sense ...

You can set each MIDI track in your sequence to have a specific length (default is 'seq), so if you had some drums on track 1, set the length of this track only to, say, 4 beats, and this track will just keep looping those 4 beats while the sequence itself will continue adding extra bars while you record to your audio track.

MPC-Tutor wrote: You can set each MIDI track in your sequence to have a specific length (default is 'seq), so if you had some drums on track 1, set the length of this track only to, say, 4 beats, and this track will just keep looping those 4 beats while the sequence itself will continue adding extra bars while you record to your audio track.

Yes, this seems also very useful. Does the same thing apply to an audio track or just to MIDI? E.g. is the audio track repeated, if I set the length of the track long enough? Anyway, it would almost replace the loop function. Very nice.

I'll try that right away. If it works, I'll sleep more peacefully again

EDIT:
Sorry, I just saw that you wrote "MIDI track". Then it probably won't work with audio. But it should be useful anyway. E.g. to get a harmonic basis for the design of a solo guitar, you could simply record a synth bass and a pad and later replace the bass line with an audio recording ...

The way I record audio is to firstly set it to record on the next loop cycle, this can be done on the locator popup.
Go into the track view
Play the sequence
Arm the track audio or midi
Press record when ready (it will start recording at the start of the next loop cycle,
it will go into overdub at the end of that loop, in the case of audio it will just play ( monitor needs to be set to auto) what you’ve just recorded, if you don’t like it press record again, it will then record over the top of the previous recording.
If you do like what you’ve done add and arm another track and carry on.
You can do similar with midi however it will actually overdub.

I find this method using the track page similar to the way the force records audio and midi . It just looks different.

Wul wrote:The way I record audio is to firstly set it to record on the next loop cycle, this can be done on the locator popup.
Go into the track view
Play the sequence
Arm the track audio or midi
Press record when ready (it will start recording at the start of the next loop cycle,
it will go into overdub at the end of that loop, in the case of audio it will just play ( monitor needs to be set to auto) what you’ve just recorded, if you don’t like it press record again, it will then record over the top of the previous recording.
If you do like what you’ve done add and arm another track and carry on.
You can do similar with midi however it will actually overdub.

I find this method using the track page similar to the way the force records audio and midi . It just looks different.

Thanks for the good tip. Your method seems to provide a nice workflow once you've internalized the individual steps. And it fits quite well with my personal working style. Will try this out tonight.

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To all you guys:
Thank you so much for all that help. I didn't expect to get so many different ideas. As a newbie you sometimes can't see the forest because of all those trees But you really helped me out, I'm sure that I can now build my own workflow. Take care, guys

emm kah wrote:I'm sure that I can now build my own workflow. Take care, guys

Keep us posted on what workflow you end up with, it may be helpful to the future newbies.

B-Wise wrote: Keep us posted on what workflow you end up with, it may be helpful to the future newbies.

For sure. But it may take some days (I'm an optimist), depends on how fast I progress.

Thanks & take care.

emm kah wrote:

B-Wise wrote: Keep us posted on what workflow you end up with, it may be helpful to the future newbies.

For sure. But it may take some days (I'm an optimist), depends on how fast I progress.

Thanks & take care.

You can't rush greatness!
Take all the time you need. Peace