Clips per sequence, please!

Support and discussion for all of Akai’s modern standalone MPCs including the MPC X / X SE, MPC Live 1, 2 & 3, MPC One / One+, MPC Key 37/61.
 Reply Share on Facebook

Clips per sequence, please!

By Masi Mon Nov 03, 2025 6:04 pm
I believe this to be the reason why all all sequences on an MPC must have the same time signature.

And for a live performances it would be much more convenient to have a set of clips per sequence. Yep, the number of allowed clip rows is large enough, but who wants to keep on scrolling endlessly on stage?

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By B-Wise Mon Nov 03, 2025 7:02 pm
Either that or they have something like the RS7000 where each project has 64 projects in one that can be to independent beats or whatever. Each had their own 16 patterns, 16 tracks & 256 clips. This would be dope & something I asked years ago for the Force.

In the meantime, the best to navigate a big project with a lot of rows is to use the Navigation menu that let's you jump to anywhere in the clip-matrix using the screen.

They should include Location Markers like the have in the Arranger so we can go specific places. I'll send in a request.

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By Masi Mon Nov 03, 2025 8:54 pm
B-Wise wrote:In the meantime, the best to navigate a big project with a lot of rows is to use the Navigation menu that let's you jump to anywhere in the clip-matrix using the screen.

I guess that if you alot 8 or 16 rows per "track" shift-scroll should work quite well.

Though it won't solve the time signature problem.

The whole clip launcher per se is great BTW. I works differently than I thought it would (stupid me didn't check Force videos), but it is fun to play with it.

Rant: Still clip launch is no reason to take clip programs/tracks away. The latter had the potential (I think it wasn't actually possible) to be triggered by MIDI. They have similarities, but are not the same.

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By B-Wise Mon Nov 03, 2025 9:30 pm
Masi wrote:
B-Wise wrote:In the meantime, the best to navigate a big project with a lot of rows is to use the Navigation menu that let's you jump to anywhere in the clip-matrix using the screen.

I guess that if you alot 8 or 16 rows per "track" shift-scroll should work quite well.

Though it won't solve the time signature problem.

The whole clip launcher per se is great BTW. I works differently than I thought it would (stupid me didn't check Force videos), but it is fun to play with it.

Rant: Still clip launch is no reason to take clip programs/tracks away. The latter had the potential (I think it wasn't actually possible) to be triggered by MIDI. They have similarities, but are not the same.


Working multiples of 8 helps, even if you have to use dummy tracks to make it even. On the Force you can move by 8 track or rows at once. On the MPC I think it's 4.

The Clip-matrix is the reason I picked the Force over the X back in 2021. Back in 2019 I didn't really understand how powerful it was based on the lack info in the videos at the time. I thought it only had 8 tracks & 8 clips, boy was I wrong. There's 128 tracks & 999 clips!

When I got the Force it had been greatly updated & I knew it was more advanced than the any MPC & the future of the brand & now BAM! The L3 is a baby Force. I rather wait for a X-Force, as the L3 is downgrade from a Force hardware wise, especially if like using the Clip-matrix workflow.

On the MPC 2500/1k with JJOS there was a Program pool & each could be assigned a PC# & that # could be assigned to a1 or more tracks & it would switch automatically to them when you play that seq. That's what some hope they bring back.

I never really liked how each track could have a different program as it make my workflow extra tedious trying to keep that shit in order based on I used the MPC, but I get why others loved it & hope that Akai brings it back as an option.

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By Masi Tue Nov 04, 2025 7:01 pm
B-Wise wrote:I never really liked how each track could have a different program as it make my workflow extra tedious trying to keep that shit in order based on I used the MPC, but I get why others loved it & hope that Akai brings it back as an option.

If they don't bring it back they MAY resolve the issue of stopping notes when switching sequences. After all nothing has changed in terms of synth source.

Anyway I don't think programs will make it back. It would screw up the the global clip pool. IMHO they would need to implement first what I have been asking for in this thread: a clip pool per sequence.

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By B-Wise Tue Nov 04, 2025 7:54 pm
Masi wrote:
B-Wise wrote:I never really liked how each track could have a different program as it make my workflow extra tedious trying to keep that shit in order based on I used the MPC, but I get why others loved it & hope that Akai brings it back as an option.

If they don't bring it back they MAY resolve the issue of stopping notes when switching sequences. After all nothing has changed in terms of synth source.

Anyway I don't think programs will make it back. It would screw up the the global clip pool. IMHO they would need to implement first what I have been asking for in this thread: a clip pool per sequence.

Yeah, a multi-project mode would work & be great for live shows, since each could have their own clip-matrix & set of Plugins/Audio tracks. I don't know if gen1 would be able to do it, but the concept is gold.

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By richhickey Tue Nov 04, 2025 11:57 pm
While I agree the single set of clips quickly becomes unmanageable, and serves no purpose if you're not going to arrange your whole track from the clip matrix, after thinking about it I'm not sure a clip pool per sequence is the right answer.

Instead I think they should just give us something like 8/16 clip pools. That way you could pull up whatever clip pool you need in any particular context, and not be bothered by clips you don't need. Aligning clip pools with sequences raises all kinds of questions about copying, accessing clips from another sequence etc.

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By B-Wise Wed Nov 05, 2025 1:50 am
richhickey wrote:While I agree the single set of clips quickly becomes unmanageable, and serves no purpose if you're not going to arrange your whole track from the clip matrix, after thinking about it I'm not sure a clip pool per sequence is the right answer.

Instead I think they should just give us something like 8/16 clip pools. That way you could pull up whatever clip pool you need in any particular context, and not be bothered by clips you don't need. Aligning clip pools with sequences raises all kinds of questions about copying, accessing clips from another sequence etc.


I've been using the Force clip-matrix since 2021 & the best way to deal with clips I lve found so far is create a clip-bank section where you put all the clips you can come up with for each track.

Then have a pre-arranger/song section in the matrix where you use the clip bank to build it up & use the Scene Follow Actions before you record it all the the actual arranger. Basically you're emulating Ableton's Arranger/Session view.

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By renegadebliss Wed Nov 05, 2025 6:25 am
B-Wise wrote:Yeah, a multi-project mode would work & be great for live shows, since each could have their own clip-matrix & set of Plugins/Audio tracks. I don't know if gen1 would be able to do it, but the concept is gold.


That was the beauty of the MPC 4000, it had the Multi. A Multi could be changed via program change as well. You switch a Multi and all the Global FX and Program would all change for the new song. It was a great live machine except for it's size :-D

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By B-Wise Wed Nov 05, 2025 7:43 am
renegadebliss wrote:
B-Wise wrote:Yeah, a multi-project mode would work & be great for live shows, since each could have their own clip-matrix & set of Plugins/Audio tracks. I don't know if gen1 would be able to do it, but the concept is gold.


That was the beauty of the MPC 4000, it had the Multi. A Multi could be changed via program change as well. You switch a Multi and all the Global FX and Program would all change for the new song. It was a great live machine except for it's size :-D


The 2500 & 1k with JJOS had something similar. I hope they bring something like that back.

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By Masi Wed Nov 05, 2025 7:57 pm
richhickey wrote:Instead I think they should just give us something like 8/16 clip pools. That way you could pull up whatever clip pool you need in any particular context, and not be bothered by clips you don't need. Aligning clip pools with sequences raises all kinds of questions about copying, accessing clips from another sequence etc.

Yes, that would be even more flexible.

But then I want to be able to assign a default pool for a sequence. Otherwise switching a sequence will force you again to go fast to the next set of clips (previously clip launch rows, then clip pools).

That remeinds me of the question I asked recently: does Akai accept feature requests :)

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By robleighton22 Wed Nov 05, 2025 9:56 pm
Personally I don't mind the simplicity of a global matrix rather than per sequence. But I get the ask for being able to have multiple songs in a project.

Elektron do this well as a project can have 128 different songs in it and its super fast switching to a completely different song in the same project.

I used to be an Ableton person but I find arranging in a matrix painful with more than 8 tracks. Hate scrolling around the matrix.

But glad matrix view is there as it has great ad hoc uses for me to experiment with ideas out of the arrangement.

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By renegadebliss Thu Nov 06, 2025 12:10 am
robleighton22 wrote:Personally I don't mind the simplicity of a global matrix rather than per sequence. But I get the ask for being able to have multiple songs in a project.

Elektron do this well as a project can have 128 different songs in it and its super fast switching to a completely different song in the same project.

I used to be an Ableton person but I find arranging in a matrix painful with more than 8 tracks. Hate scrolling around the matrix.

But glad matrix view is there as it has great ad hoc uses for me to experiment with ideas out of the arrangement.


And the MPC could handle it until MPC 3.x came out. At least they gave us the workaround of Clip Matrix now that we can use in a live situation.

But to have multiple projects and then to have a "Next Project" button like the Next Sequence so we can mix between songs in a live set.. that would be primo. Until then, I have my Hapax, which can load multiple projects and then stop and load up the MPC Project in the background, and then click the button that sends the Start command to the MPC to bring it back into the flow.

Re: Clips per sequence, please!

By B-Wise Thu Nov 06, 2025 12:52 am
robleighton22 wrote:Personally I don't mind the simplicity of a global matrix rather than per sequence. But I get the ask for being able to have multiple songs in a project.

Elektron do this well as a project can have 128 different songs in it and its super fast switching to a completely different song in the same project.

I used to be an Ableton person but I find arranging in a matrix painful with more than 8 tracks. Hate scrolling around the matrix.

But glad matrix view is there as it has great ad hoc uses for me to experiment with ideas out of the arrangement.


I don't mind a global matrix either, but the option to multi-project mode would be useful. May that's Akai next paid plugin after this free one for Black Friday. :lol:

That's dope for Elektron to support 128 projects. The RS7000 from like 2001 had 64 per project.

On the Force moving around the matrix is way faster, but it's best to use the Navigation menu to move around big projects, or the pads themselves with it shortcut to move anywhere within 64 track across & 64 row down with just 1 of the 64 pads. Not easy to explain, but just now it's super fast. It pad acts as a matrix locator jump point.

The matrix is better for storing & organizing our ideas, but it can get messy & that's why I'll have a section just for ideas & another section for composing those ideas. The arranger is like a snapshot of performance. I've been making copies of seqs/arrangements to add different automation data, mixing & FX setting, then resample it,take notes,update until done & move on. Maybe, I'll feel the need to make a whole new arrangement. I like testing out different ideas of the same source material.

I also like that we can name each Rows. I have a section of rows that start with "Intro-01" & the rest is just named 02, 03, 04 (these can be renamed later)...Outro-32, this way no matter what row I start the song after my clip idea section, it will start with row Intro-01 & the rest of the rows will be numbered "correctly" making it easier to follow on the matrix. You can set up template & have all row follow action be set to "play next" & the outro set to "END". I wish we could copy sections of rows at once.
 Reply
Return to MPC X, MPC One, MPC Live & MPC Key