Keyboard is cheating?

Hello,

I recently got an MPC One+ and these are my first steps into the MPC workflow. I’m a keyboard player rooted in jazz and funk. I start messing around a bit and the first thing I wanted to do was to hook up a keyboard for familiarity reasons and comfort. This feels a bit like cheating and I feel like I would rather have to exploit the possibilites (constraints?) of the pads. Does anyone else share this feeling?

I may kind of get what you mean, when playing beats from the sampler and sampling keys from records, but all the plug-in synth keyboard synth options, it seems crazy not to use a keyboard if you have the chops to play decent keys. Why jump through hurdles of playing a chords through pad perform, and try to humanise them, when a keyboard is right there. Seems daft to me.

Scott Storch played keys over MPC beats, in lots of hits around the 2000, so that's nothing new. I don't know enough names to list them, but when you think of teh RnB influence in Hip Hop from DF'Angelo through to Glasper, or all those funky keyed basslines from Minneapolis. The MPC is like peanut butter, but with a keyboard attached more like Peanut butter and Jam (Jello).

I used Korg Gadget on iPad and that’s where I got the idea of going standalone, and now I try to recreate the exact piece on the MPC one+. So far so good, but for the melodic (and improvisation) part I think I definitely will use a keyboard. I just need some thinking how I will make the built-up, whether by using track mutes or create separate sequences alltogether (on Korg Gadget this was the only way)

(Original piece https://on.soundcloud.com/NCerc9qST5dBnENy7 )

keyboard is crucial imho.

I don't think anything is cheating, having more control interfaces is great -- have fun building keygroups, drum banks, plugin patches etc. and enjoy hearing and feeling them differently with every control interface you play them through

Not in the slightest.

Pads for drums keys for instruments.

Don't get me wrong. Il play instruments on pads but always prefer a keyboard.

Why eat soup with a fork when a spoon is available.

Cheating whom? Poseurs? Nobody is judging you. We are in a era where people can push a button and generate entire tracks with AI, yet you're worried about "cheating" by adding a MIDI keyboard to a MPC?

your beat, your rules.

How can playing an instrument be cheating?

If using whole untouched loops from sample packs and splice isn't cheating, than attaching a midi controller to play out your own creations CERTAINLY isn't!

Just because it's an MPC doesn't mean you have to bash stuff out like some old school hip-hop head. You'll find that playing melodic stuff like synths comes out kind of weird when you use the pads. Plus you're stuck at one octave, chord inversions really suck with the pads. It can be cool though, it causes you to play things a little differently but there aint no shame in using a keyboard either.

No it's not cheating because making music isn't taking a test. Most people feel more comfortable on keys vs 4x4 pads. Even on the Force with 8x8 pad layout can be put into piano mode & be use as an 4 octave piano, I still prefer to play on keys in most cases.

Sometimes you can play things on pads in ways you wouldn't on keys that go across from left to right. The octaves on the Force are stacked on top of each & can lead to interesting riffs, but still, keys are king!

I just hooked up my North because, well, color

Try sampling your piano performance, chopping it up, and playing it on the pads. This can create phrases that wouldn't typically come from a keyboard.

icyjamie wrote:I just hooked up my North because, well, color

Nord!! I meant Nord!!