By jamos
Fri Jun 27, 2025 3:04 pm
I use an MPC Live to control a Hydrasynth Deluxe and Pro 3 live, and I've been plagued by volume problems for years. I seem to get things tweaked, and then something changes, and I tweak it again... and I finally figured out why. (MPC standalone stable version 2.13.)
Both the MPC and Hydrasynth Deluxe have bugs in the way they handle MIDI volume changes. I've known about the Hydra bugs for a while, but today I finally hooked up MIDI-OX and confirmed the MPC problem, which is: the initial track volume, as set through the slider in Track view, is (usually) not sent when playback starts. I say "usually" because I've found a few cases in which it is sent, though to be honest I don't feel like doing an exhaustive investigation. If you want to set the initial volume of a MIDI instrument from the MPC, you MUST explicitly send an automation event at the beginning of the song. (List Edit is the best way to do this.) Do not rely on the track volume sliders.
The Hydrasynth Deluxe does not handle volume messages on different channels properly. Any message sent to a lower-numbered channel also affects high-numbered channels. My HD is set to channel 1 for the master (that's where program changes are sent) and 2 and 3 for the two engines. If I send a volume (or any other MIDI CC message associated with a physical controller) on channel 1, both engines are affected. Interestingly, if I set channel 1 to 0 and then subsequently raise the volume of the higher channels to a higher value, the volume will change as it should; the channel 1 message is not setting the master volume, but is overriding each channel individually.
This gets really nasty and confusing if I send a volume message to the Hydrasynth on one song and then do not send one in the next, The volume change will carry over; it is not reset. So I need to go through my set with a fine-tooth comb and make sure every track as the proper automation events. ¡Caramba!
To further complicate things, the Reset Controllers message will set volume to a value of 100. So if this message is used, be careful how it is sequenced.
I hope this saves someone hours of confusion.
Both the MPC and Hydrasynth Deluxe have bugs in the way they handle MIDI volume changes. I've known about the Hydra bugs for a while, but today I finally hooked up MIDI-OX and confirmed the MPC problem, which is: the initial track volume, as set through the slider in Track view, is (usually) not sent when playback starts. I say "usually" because I've found a few cases in which it is sent, though to be honest I don't feel like doing an exhaustive investigation. If you want to set the initial volume of a MIDI instrument from the MPC, you MUST explicitly send an automation event at the beginning of the song. (List Edit is the best way to do this.) Do not rely on the track volume sliders.
The Hydrasynth Deluxe does not handle volume messages on different channels properly. Any message sent to a lower-numbered channel also affects high-numbered channels. My HD is set to channel 1 for the master (that's where program changes are sent) and 2 and 3 for the two engines. If I send a volume (or any other MIDI CC message associated with a physical controller) on channel 1, both engines are affected. Interestingly, if I set channel 1 to 0 and then subsequently raise the volume of the higher channels to a higher value, the volume will change as it should; the channel 1 message is not setting the master volume, but is overriding each channel individually.
This gets really nasty and confusing if I send a volume message to the Hydrasynth on one song and then do not send one in the next, The volume change will carry over; it is not reset. So I need to go through my set with a fine-tooth comb and make sure every track as the proper automation events. ¡Caramba!
To further complicate things, the Reset Controllers message will set volume to a value of 100. So if this message is used, be careful how it is sequenced.
I hope this saves someone hours of confusion.