song mode questions.....

I am a little confused when it comes to recording in song mode. I can't seem to make this work. If someone can help me out with the steps in reording in songmode i would appreciate it. If I already have a sequence saved, can I transfer the sequence to put it in song mode? I need some info on this. Please hit me up!!!!
thanks

song mode is more of a means to "compile" all your sequences together. If the mpc sequence is the individual instruments, the song mode is the conductor, telling the sequences when to play.

so, a common way to use song mode is say, build a main part of, say 8 bars. this is the meat of the track. in song mode tell the thing to play this sequence twince and you got 16 bars, then say you got a sequence 2 bars long that is the break to the hook, and a 6 bar hook, tell song mode to play these next, so basically, you assemble all the pieces with sequences, and create sequeunces for fills, variations stops etc. then use song mode to start putting them all together in a logical order. Once you got it where you want it, song mode exports the song as a long sequence, that you can now edit like any other sequence to add ghost notes, make the drums velocity feel more natural etc.

hope dis helps.

How can I make the ,lets say hi hat, kick, and snare keep playing for like 4 mins straight? I cant seem to do this. Whenever i try to it doesnt happen.

i would say keep your tracks for these instruments on . as you don't need them turn them off.

you must have your sounds recorded in different tracks for this techinque

Just make a sequence with only what you want.

Go into song mode and tell it to play that seq how
ever many times you want it to play.

"2" repititions for seqxx will play that seq 2 times..

all u gotta do is program a sequence, say 2 bars and then set the mode to "loop-ON" in the main screen and it will loop forever. in song mode, there is an option to tell it to play a sequence for a certain number of times, so if you have a 2 bar loop with hats snares etc. and its at 95 BPM and you set it to repeat 10 times well, 8 beats per bar times 10 is 80 total beats so it will come in just under a minute. to find how long it plays for, just take the bpm, and add up all the total beats (4 per bar usually, times the number of bars) that will give you a ratio of total beats you got (in this case 80) over the number of Beats Per Minute, 95.

adn yah. DJ ede is right on, It sprolly best to keep each thing, kick, snare, hat etc. on a seperate track. it may seem like a lot of work, but when you start assembling and doing edits it will save you mad time. MAD TIME> plus its simple to dop mutes and stuff, and to add mixer changes this way etc.

I dont think I know a cat who doesnt do it likethis, (sep. the sounds in diff trakz, I mean, u got 64, may as well use em right?)

Foo,

I'm non-traditional with it also like the cat you say you know. I use tracks sometimes but most of the times no I don't.

word, dog, but how "deep" into the MPC features have u gotten?
I only ask since as you get into using more and more of the features, you get a feel for what stuff works well 4 ur style.
When you start chopping 1 second samples into parts and layering them to get space sounds, ghost notes, and double ups slightly off to get stutters, sampling ambient noise off of a mixer and chpping that up to get bass sounds and stuff, filling up programs and all (when I first started I was like, "pshhh, 1 program is more then enough for me to do a track" now, I find myself running out of the 4 A-D programs in the first 1/2 hour or so.) and stuff it will get mad confusing to open a track and have to sort through midi data for: drums, loops and little bits like this to edit them.

Basically I have found that the MPC is geared towards, Live laying of tracks then coming back and doing intensive editing/tweaking with efx, filters, seqnecer delay , stutters etc.

I like to look at it as building a house, you dont throw all the materials into one pile, you sepearate the wood and the concrete and the rebar etc., just so you know where to go look for it when you need it.

thanks for the info, i'll try this out.

Very deep into all the features except MIDI. I know I should kick myself for that but I just haven't gotten as deep as I should..

I read the WHOLE manual (and actually understood it) before I even touched the machine. But when I got on it it was like being on my old Roland R-8 almost. It fell just as good but with gobs of more options.
Now it just sits there unless I run into something way outta order and need a quick reference.

I do ALOT of experimenting with sounds shaping/coloring so I know exactly what you are talking about there. Sometimes it's a hit sometimes it's a miss..

ok well, in one sequence i have the whole beat layed down. I have the kick, snare, etc on seperate tracks. Is this right? I'm confused in spliting up tracks for song mode. Do i need to have each track split up into different sequences? for example, the hihat in sequence 1, kick in sequence 2, snare in sequence 3, ... I dont get it!! help me out. thanks

To keep things simple:

Samples go into tracks.

Tracks go into Seq's.

Seq's go into Songs.

You don't have to split tracks like you were describing.

Make a seq using each sample in a different track.
Now go into song mode and place all your seq's in whatever order you want. Song mode is for editing a chain of seq's only.

ok now i got the hihat in sequence 1, the snare in sequence 2. In song mode, i have sequence one for the first step and i put it to repeat for about 38 reps. Then i have sequence 2 which is the snare, under the second step. For some reason they wont play at the same time. How do i get the sequences to play at the same time in song mode? Sorry man this is just confusing me a bit. help me out...thanks

what you want to do is create a sequence with everything you want in it.
go into song mode and repeat that sequence as many a times as you want. go back to sequence and copy sequence 1 to a whole new sequence,
which will be sequence 2. In song mode you can only play 1 sequence at a time. So if you have 2 sequences which are generally the same, you can tweak them how you want them and then put them in the song mode.

seq 1 = kick,snare, hi hat, melody etc.
seq 2 = kick,snare, hi hat, etc.

once in song mode you play the seq in any order you want

seq 1 = 2 reps
seq 2 = 2 reps
seq 1 = 1 rep
seq 2 = 3 reps

jus freak it how you want it.

I'm chimin' in to give the other guys a break. Your kick, snare and hat don't go in different "sequences", they should be on different "tracks" and even that isn't required. Song mode is just a form of automation for your sequences. You said you have a sequence saved and want it to play for however many minutes, if it's just one sequence you don't need song mode, just make sure the loop function is on in the main screen and it will play for hours.

Now all this has been said already but I'll go ahead and say it again. Song mode is for arranging your "sequences" in whatever order you want them to play in for however long you want them to play. Take another look at Foo's first answer to your question as this is as basic as it's gonna get. Looking at your last post I noticed that you actually got it right you just didn't record the sequences correctly. Your getting closer though. Good luck.