Memory Warning

For playing live, I use one Project where I load backing tracks which are stereo WAV files as Samples to each pad. I simply trigger those backing tracks by hitting the pad at the start of the song. I've got around 50 minutes of material loaded and I also use the Jura on that Project with 7 presets loaded, and the Solina with 1 preset loaded.

Everything is operating pretty smoothly, but I am getting a RAM warning that I'm at 86%

My Project is on SD. I assume that gets loaded into RAM when I open the Project, and I assume that it doesn't really make a difference where the synth plugins are loading from, internal or external storage, I'm thinking they run the same way as the Samples, I don't know that placing them in external storage is going to do anything to help with the RAM limitation I'm coming up against.

So I presume there's nothing I can do to improve this without decreasing the size (and therefore quality) of the backing track Samples, or spending $250 plus another $100 shipping back and forth to have the 4GB CPU/RAM chip installed, and have done some research which seems to confirm that presumption. But I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

I assume you are running MPC3? If so, go to MENU > PROJECT, tap and hold on the lengthy audio files, select 'Stream From Disk', re-save your project.

I am on 3.x but only because that's what it shipped with. I had some issues with a project created on 2.x and I haven't yet determined if I'm going to get the same problem when creating in 3.x so I'm not sure yet if I'm staying on 3.x or going back to 2.x. But I did not realize Disk Streaming was available on the machines that do not have an SSD, so this is a great tip, I'll give it a shot. Thanks!

Yes you can stream from an SD card, it doesn't have to be SSD. In fact I've yet to find any difference in performance between all possible disk types, they all work identically in my tests. What issues were you experiencing when importing an MPC2 project?

Here's the context

For me, the MPC serves two purposes, 1) as a Drum Machine when writing/recording, and 2) as a backing Tracks player for live performance. So for 1) I basically just tap out the drums (employing multiple Sequences arranged in Song Mode), export them to DAW, mix them, overdub synths, guitar, bass, and vocals, mute the parts that are going to be played live (leaving mainly just drums and some synth), and export that as a stereo WAV file backing track which gets loaded as a Sample to a pad in my live performance Project.

When I create a Project for the first purpose above, I'll open a Project called MasterDrums, which has different kits loaded to each Bank (for example, A=626 samples, B=808 samples, C=909 samples, D=LinnDrum samples, etc.). I immediately re-name the Project to whatever new song I'm working on and at some point late in the process after I've got the whole thing arranged in Song Mode, I'll purge unused samples. There are certainly better ways to go about this, but this is how my process has evolved and it still incorporates aspects from when I had very little idea about what I was doing.

Anyhow, in a Project I always use a unique sample per Track consistently across all Sequences. For example, within a particular Project:
Tr1 is always Sample ClosedHat38 (which is loaded to, say, Pad H12)
Tr2 is always Sample ClosedHat09 (which is loaded to, say, Pad A04)
Tr3 is always Sample OpenHat02 (which is loaded to, say, Pad A10)
Tr4 is always Sample Snare14 (which is loaded to, say, Pad B11)
Tr5 is always Sample Kick01 (which is loaded to, say, Pad E16)

Obviously, since the samples can be all over the place Bank-wise I'm not finger drumming the whole beat at once. I'll actually usually do that first as a scratch track, decide which Samples I'm going to use for the final version, and then I'll tap out the individual parts one Track at a time.

I arrived at this arrangement after the first time I exported exploded tracks into DAW and realized that inconsistent assignment of the same samples to the same Tracks (as well as having more than one sample on a Track) made it impossible to mix the way I want to, which is to have a single track per sample (as if I had recorded an acoustic kit with a single mic per drum, per track). Before I figured this out, I was ending up with, for example, a kick and a snare on the same track exporting as a single WAV when what I wanted was each of those drums on its own Track. I believe it is actually possible to export based on Pads rather than Tracks, but again, I figured out a way that works for me so that's what I've stuck with.

Here's the problem I had when opening a Project created in 2.x on a machine using 3.x

I got a warning when I opened the Project and I don’t recall what it said. Something about what it was going to do to the Project if I proceeded to open it.

In Sequence 1 in the Project only Tr1 is populated (a closed hat).
Sequence 2 has the same thing for Tr1, and adds Kick on Tr3. Tr2 is empty.
Sequence is the same as Sequence 2, but with the addition of Snare on Tr2.

Arranged in Song Mode on 2.x, then you first hear Hats counting in for a couple bars, then Kick comes in with the Hats for a couple bars, and then the full beat starts with Hats, Snare, and Kick.

Opened in 3.x, I’m hearing Snare and Kick immediately. I figured I could at least go into Sequence 1 and mute the Tracks I don’t want to hear, but here’s where it gets really weird – All Tracks except Tr1 are empty, and in Tr1 I see a waveform which seems to contain all Samples from all Tracks, Hats, Snare, and Kick.

I haven’t educated myself yet about the fundamental differences between 2.x and 3.x. I understand that Tracks span Sequences. That makes perfect sense with the incorporation of Arranger – this is like a DAW and you don’t typically record multiple instruments on a single Track when recording. In 2.x each Sequence is a discrete unit with no relationship to the other Sequences, so Track consistency across Sequences is not necessarily relevant, For me, it happens that it was, for the reasons I’ve described, and so I thought I was sitting pretty for 3.x cause I’m already observing Track integrity (uniqueness and consistency), so to speak.

If I recall, I read something about the concept of Programs being discarded in 3.x and if that’s the case maybe that’s related here, but I don’t understand that concept at the moment. I think of a Program as a set of pre-loaded sounds to work with, but that could be incorrect.

If your original project used the same program over multiple tracks, this is no longer possible in MPC3, you cannot assign the same program to multiple tracks. One workaround, and this is the one used when importing MPC2 projects, is to put the original program on track 1 and use MIDI tracks on the other tracks with their 'send to' set to trigger track 1. So I suspect track 2 is a MIDI track which sends event triggers to to the snare 'hosted' on a pad in track 1. Track 3 is a MIDI track sending to the hi hat on track 1 and so on.

This tells me that I do not understand what a Program is. I'm going to take a look at the manual.

Well, in 2.x, at least, a Drum Program is what I thought it was. But I'm still not understanding the 3.x architecture.

If a Drum Program is a collection of Samples assigned to particular Pads (a drum kit, so to speak, or a collection of drum kits, each in its own Bank, as I have set it up), I don't understand how it is possible that a Program can't be assigned over multiple Tracks. Certainly people are creating multiple Tracks using the same Drum Kit, if it's accurate to describe a Program in that way.

As far as opening my MPC 2.x Project in MPC 3.x goes, I'm not really concerned, as I've just exported that out of the 2.x machine to DAW at this stage, so I'm good there.

I'm going to have to do a sample Project in 3.x to get a grip on how that works. I'm sure the way I'm reading this can't be the way it works because that would mean basically duplicating and renaming a Program containing a bunch of populated Pads over and over every time you need a new Track in order to be able to use the same sounds on different Tracks (or in order to draw from the same drum kits), which would unnecessarily eat up storage and memory, as well as countering the stated goal to "streamline and accelerate workflow," so I know I'm missing something fundamental that will hopefully become obvious when I get in there and work on a 3.x Project from scratch. I hope it works like I need it to because there's a whole lot about 3.x that I really, really like, and kind of need at this point (most of which has to do with a 3rd purpose I use the Key 37 for that I didn't mention, which is use of Synth Programs between songs).

Disk Streaming completely solved the RAM problem - down form 86% to 9%! Thank you very much.

MPC-Tutor wrote:If your original project used the same program over multiple tracks, this is no longer possible in MPC3, you cannot assign the same program to multiple tracks. One workaround, and this is the one used when importing MPC2 projects, is to put the original program on track 1 and use MIDI tracks on the other tracks with their 'send to' set to trigger track 1. So I suspect track 2 is a MIDI track which sends event triggers to to the snare 'hosted' on a pad in track 1. Track 3 is a MIDI track sending to the hi hat on track 1 and so on.

I was able to accomplish what I want in 3.x, which is what I've been doing with MPC 2.x, and that is to export each individual sound (i.e., in my case, each individual Pad) as a separate WAV file for import to DAW as a separate Track. This allows me to mix, e.g., Closed Hats, Open Hats, Snare, Kick, etc., each individually as a separate track.

First I assigned one sample to each of three pads, Closed Hat to Pad 13, Snare to Pad 6, Kick to Pad1.

I created a Project with 3 Sequences, starting with Track 2 as suggested in the manual, though I'm not clear whether this is necessary:

Seq1
Track 2 - Closed Hats (Pad 13)
Copy Seq1 to Seq2

Seq2
Track 2 - Closed Hats (Pad 13) (copied, step above)
Track 4 - Kick (Pad 1)
Copy Seq2 to Seq3

Seq3
Track 2 - Closed Hats (Pad 13) - copied, step above
Track 3 - Snare (Pad 6)
Track 4 - Kick (Pad 1) - copied, step above

Arranged in Song mode as:
Seq1 (1x)
Seq2 (1x)
Seq3 (1x)

So it goes 4 bars Hats, 4 bars Hats/Kick, 4 bars Hats/Kick/Snare.

From Song Mode I did Convert>Sequence to Seq4.

Then I was able to Save As > Export Tracks (locally on the Key 37), and then import those individual WAV files of Hats, Snare, Kick into DAW.

This, I'm sure, is not news to many people, but it was my big worry about MPC 3.x. It was inconceivable to me that this would not be possible, but from what I was reading about some of the changes, I wasn't sure, and I have two friends who also weren't sure and have not yet updated from 2.x, so I'm at least not the only one. Very good news for anyone else wondering about the same thing.

I'm still not totally clear on how what I've done has not violated the "inability to use the same Program over multiple Tracks" architecture change of 3.x (vs, 2.x). I think maybe technically, in 2.x the Program was being completely recreated and stored in each Track, but now it is sort of stored in a pool that all Tracks can use. I don't know, but at the bottom of it, nothing has changed for me in this regard moving from 2.x to 3.x