Thinking about picking one up.......have some questions...

First off, I'm the drummer/programmer for an industrial metal band in columbus,oh...we have a lot of sequences and such going on live (multiple drum tracks, our synth lines, and even our effects are all automated via program changes..I also play an electronic kit with drum kit changes automated...) we've been using a Roland VS studio to run our tempo and program changes as well as recording our entire backing tracks onto it for live playback....unfortunetly recording them like that takes a lot of the VS's hardrive and we're bound to run out of space eventually so I've been looking into alternative means of running our live sequences...

My questions are......

1. I compose most of our electronic stuff in a program called Reason....so will I be able to transfer the sounds I create in reason over to the MPC and then export the midi sequence from reason and load it into the MPC and run the sequence I made in reason on the MPC...using samples of my reason synths?

2. How is the midi as far as program change messages? We automate everything in our live performance...two Boss guitar processors...a Boss bass processor..a vocal effects processor..and my roland v-drum kit...

3. Can it handle a lot of samples well? Loops? Cause 100% of our sounds are made by scratch by myself...and I do I lot of recording loops from my drum kit and heavily processing them and runnning them overtop of the live drums...(the live drums and sequences/loop drums play together a lot in our stuff..very busy rhythm stuff).

4. Does it have any built in metronome? If not, would it be possible to program a straight click track and then output it just through like the headphone out or a seperate output? There is a lot of sequenced stuff going on in our music so when definatly need some sort of click track capablity...to make sure the live drums, guitar, and bass are all in time with the backing tracks...

Thanks ahead for any answers...

i can only help with......

3. 350 seconds of mono sampling time (half for stereo). 256 sounds max in memory at one time. 32 simultaneous playbacks.

4. yes there is a metrenome.....which can be customised also.

by the way how do u switch from stereo to mono?

SHIFT + SAMPLE

the highlight "stereo" and rotate the data wheel

then go to the sample time below and turn it up to the max sample time with data wheel

pull up your sequence in Reason, assign your synths and drums to a midi channel (track one=midi channel and so on), then export the midi file. the mpc will play back your sequence just fine. now for all of this to work you have to your MPC and Reason midi sync'd.
another alternative would export your synth and drum parts as wavs. try to make phrases or loops of your synth and drum parts so their files wont be too big when you export them because the mpc has a max memory of 32megs. from there just load the wavs into your mpc. you can trigger the samples but midi'n up the mpc with your v-drums or you can make a midi sequence on the mpc and have it play along with your already existing midi sequences.
if you have a laptop your can sync up your midi sequence in Reason with your v-drums sequencer which might be the best option since you already know your way around reason plus you wont have to 1. record your synths and drums in reason then sample or export them, then load the wavs in your mpc. it's really time consuming.
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Dang! Sounds like you guys might as well lipsync to a dat or something. You guys barely play anything live.

But anyway, I think the MPC would be an excellent alternative to what you're looking to do.

Pick one up...you won't be dissappointed.

PEACE.

I play my triton and sequence it live when I do keys. I hardly ever use step edit when playing the pianos/strings cause I want my certain feel to shine through even if I am off a note or a little delayed hitting a note. I record it into the sequence that way. If I mess up I will play it again. I guess that would be semi live huh.

pobeats wrote:Dang! Sounds like you guys might as well lipsync to a dat or something. You guys barely play anything live..

We have Live vocals, 2 live guitars, live bass, and my live drums....the backing stuff is only for synths and secondary drum lines...we have alot more live stuff than backing...we just don't want any more people in the band...two many opinions and too many hands to pay...etc...

Mr. Messenger wrote:SHIFT + SAMPLE

the highlight "stereo" and rotate the data wheel

then go to the sample time below and turn it up to the max sample time with data wheel

i switched it to mono,but it says mono left or mono right...does it matter which one i choose?

let me break down mono/stereo for you.

stereo is the sound recorded into both channels (left and right.)

mono left is just the sound recorded into the left channel.

mono right is just the sound recorded into the right channel.

simple, eh? when you're sampling something, check out both channels - sometimes you'll find something completely different. a lot of old rock records have the bass on one channel, and drums on another.

doc loops.

hell yeah thanks doc,i cant believe i never figured that out!!
peaceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

doc loopologist wrote:simple, eh? when you're sampling something, check out both channels - sometimes you'll find something completely different. a lot of old rock records have the bass on one channel, and drums on another.

.

yeah, a good way to spot these records is:
If they say : Stereophonic sound, REMASTERED FROM MONO, its not gonna be like this.

IF it is TRUE STEREO, and old, it may have it.

If it is TRUE stereo and on Columbia, it prolly does have it.

If it is true stereo and done by axlerod, it prolly has it (he did lotsa weird panning and stuff with his music, esp. on Lou Rawls stuff.)