Overwhelmed, trying to set up custom instruments

Hey all,

I just got a nice MPC 61-Key... Well, it feels nice. Unfortunately, this is my first keyboard like this, I'm used to having tone banks on old-school keyboards.

A little background, I like older video games, like N64 games for example. I like to play along with old video game music sometimes, but after some time spent researching the importing process, it seems... over my head so far.

So, general questions I'm struggling to figure out:
1. Will I need an external drive? E.G. a thumb drive or a hard drive?
EDIT: I think the answer is yes to this, I'm seeing if any of my old drives will fit nicely.
2. Are there any guides on getting soundfonts or VSTs onto this thing?

I feel completely lost on these, it feels like every time I try to follow a guide (E.G. the "MPC Bible") a lot of the information is vague or applies to other hardware, or I get the hardware and software parts mixed up.

I'd prefer things to be standalone as much as possible, due to the audio latency of playing into software.

Also, I'd definitely love to try out some other instruments at some point, as the ones it comes with feel a bit... lacking?

I'm worried I should have kept the box for this, right now... So, any advice would be appreciated! Thanks

You can not use vst in standalone. Only the internal plugins work in standalone

But it is a sampler and creating a keygroup is as easy as pressing one button. There are lots of 3rd party keygroups people sell. Look into that

NOT FOR LIVE 3, v3.6 manual

TheBunby wrote:1. Will I need an external drive? E.G. a thumb drive or a hard drive?
EDIT: I think the answer is yes to this, I'm seeing if any of my old drives will fit nicely.

Turn it off, flip it over, open the lil door, install a sata hdd, mine is 2tb, before installation I formatted it on a pc to EXFAT like the mpc manual suggests.

Also, you can use usb stick in back.

TheBunby wrote:2. Are there any guides on getting soundfonts or VSTs onto this thing?

Also, I'd definitely love to try out some other instruments at some point, as the ones it comes with feel a bit... lacking?

Convert soundfont to wave prior to import.

There are many many plug-ins (some premium, some free) from inmusic/akai/etc to try.
Before purchase ensure the version you get is for STANDALONE, computer versions will not work on the standalone key61.

It’s also a sampler, you’ll never run out of sound

Thanks for the replies - I've never used a sampler before, but I'll do some research on keygroups and how to use the sampler.

Thanks for the advice, wish me luck and feel free to post any specific tutorials you think I should check out if you know of any

NOT FOR LIVE 3, v3.6 manual
Make a simple beat, run through different menus and manipulate that beat, see how things react when you change this or change that, EVERY MENU you can possibly touch and dive into. You may not ever use some features again, but SEEING and DOING it will give you ideas on how to combine options/features in order to ultimately achieve what you want because there’s NOT a feature/option/menu for everything little thing.

Then make another beat using some of that stuff you just self-learned.

Then make another using even more of that stuff along with some of the things you liked/loved that you previously saw.

You WILL get better and better, don’t force yourself, it WILL get more and more fun in just a few days time..

J.O.BEATS wrote:You can not use vst in standalone. Only the internal plugins work in standalone

But it is a sampler and creating a keygroup is as easy as pressing one button. There are lots of 3rd party keygroups people sell. Look into that

Hey! Checking back in, I've done some fiddling around and I'm learning... some. It's taking a lot longer than I thought, and I don't have a lot of free time right now.

You mentioned 3rd party keygroups... How do you find those? Quick searches have yielded pretty unsuccessful so far. I found some site selling Expansions, but... I'm still struggling to figure out keygroups.

From what I understand, you load in 1 sample, hit a magic button, and presto, you have a full keyboard of it. But, I just haven't figured out how to do all that yet, or where I'm going to get that 1 sample from for each instrument I'm trying to set up.

This thing has a steeper learning curve than I anticipated!

Especially since most tutorials are about making "beats", which isn't what I want to do with this...

A guy over on gearspace made a ton of keygroups for free. Here's the thread. You can dig through the pages some more. I've got all of these loaded up in my MPC.

https://gearspace.com/board/electronic- ... ead-4.html

NOT FOR LIVE 3, v3.6 manual
New drum track
Load a single sample into a pad
Program Edit, global tab at bottom
up top, tap the kybd icon
you just created a keygroup track

"Keygroup tracks" pg 115 in the MPC 3.6 manual

Hey,

Quick update, a LOT of these tutorials are VERY frustrating... My menus don't look the same as in a lot of tutorials, I feel like I'm completely missing something

Lampdog wrote:New drum track
Load a single sample into a pad
Program Edit, global tab at bottom
up top, tap the kybd icon
you just created a keygroup track

"Keygroup tracks" pg 115 in the MPC 3.6 manual

HUGE help...

How do you get the note to "turn off" after you've let go of the key? I got polyphony working and transposed a sample properly, but I'm not sure where you'd find a setting like that.

EDIT:
I think I've got an idea of how to do it... Turning off "PAD LOOP" and setting the "SAMPLE PLAY" to "Note On" seemed to do the trick... sort of!!!

NOT FOR LIVE 3, v3.6 manual

Follow what I wrote above.

After that you can find your keygroup track on the main menu, you'll see one of your tracks with a little piano icon in front of the track number, that's the one you created.

Program Edit while on the newly created keygroup track.
Look for SAMPLE PLAY.
Experiment while changing it.

NOTE ON
NOTE OFF
ONE SHOT

-----------------------

On that same Program Edit screen, notice up top, is a LEGACY button.
Toggling that button off/on will change the tabs at the bottom V2 (legacy) options <--> V3 options.

Lampdog wrote:Follow what I wrote above.

After that you can find your keygroup track on the main menu, you'll see one of your tracks with a little piano icon in front of the track number, that's the one you created.

Program Edit while on the newly created keygroup track.
Look for SAMPLE PLAY.
Experiment while changing it.

NOTE ON
NOTE OFF
ONE SHOT

-----------------------

On that same Program Edit screen, notice up top, is a LEGACY button.
Toggling that button off/on will change the tabs at the bottom V2 (legacy) options <--> V3 options.

I thought I was missing something with the Sample Play, until I realized I was hearing the pad loop stuff - found it on my own before seeing this somehow, still a huge help though!!

EDIT: Is the pitch wheel not available for this, btw?
EDIT2: How would you play multiple keygroups at once? E.G. one for the high range, one for the low.. would really help for performing

NOT FOR LIVE 3, v3.6 manual

Multiple keygroups is explained in the manual, it’s very possible.

You really shouldn’t overlook the manual, actually do everything you read about to see how it acts/reacts.

Even keyword searches in the manual are very useful.

Lampdog wrote:Multiple keygroups is explained in the manual, it’s very possible.

You really shouldn’t overlook the manual, actually do everything you read about to see how it acts/reacts.

Even keyword searches in the manual are very useful.

I'll see if I can find it again - last time I think I got frustrated because it appeared to be for a different version. I'm sure most stuff is still relevant though?

I figured out multiple keygroups eventually. I'm struggling to figure out how to edit the samples more, like length of notes in different parts of the range / etc, but I'll get there eventually I'm sure

NOT FOR LIVE 3, v3.6 manual

TheBunby wrote:length of notes in different parts of the range….

Program edit
Bottom tab, amp envelope
Tap a pad/key, the current pad/key shows up top
That is sample you ar now editing.

Tear drop icon up top is for selecting multiple notes.
**Remember to turn it off before going back to main or you will mistakenly edit
all those same samples again in other screens.