By
trupro
Fri Dec 12, 2003 8:58 pm
No matter how many tracks you lay at once, you can use the standard method I describe below. This will let you lay tracks, start over, and keep laying, all from the same start point down to the frame. DOG YOU SHOULD REALLY COP YOUR 8 OUTS THO! For one, say you got sixteen tracks from the MPC. If your going stereo, you gotta lay 8 passes,; even more if you got stereo sounds. W./ the outs: 2 passes+. The $250 or whatever is worth it. Plus, if someone pays you to lay a track, you may have to bring your mpc to a studio, and if you have the 8 outs, you are streamlining thier process, and they will like that. Most important, just for making beats, how you gonna mix a real track down to a beat CD, or whatever, when you ain't runnin the sounds individually thru a mixer, channel by channel by channel. Yeah I make stereo only beats, but there's no substitute for mixing like a professional. It's not possible to compress a snare, when you can't separate that snare on it's own output, etc. Eq, effects: same deal. ANYWAY, use the formula below, and PM me if you got questions.
Won... TruPro
OK, do the following: Connect a midi cable from OUT 1 on protools rig, to IN B (or 2) on your MPC. (I use the second port there because I have a synth pugged into the first midi in).
First, deal with the MPC. Hold shift+MIDI/SYNC on your MPC to open up the sync window. There you will see two columns: one sync in, one for sync out. Left side is "in" parameters, so do the following:
Change it to IN: B (or whichever port on the MPC you have used for this) then cursor down to type and frame rate. Scroll with the wheel on this field untill you have MTC (MIDI Time Code) and change the frame rate to 30fps (frames per second). Hit main screen to go back to your sequences. Go to an UNUSED sequence and change the bar count to one (1), then make sure the tempo is the same BPM as your song. OK, so now you have a sequence that is 1 BLANK BAR. Now, in song mode, put together whatever you want to lay down. If there alot of changes on most tracks, lay all your sequences. If there are only a only a few changes in your overall song, put only the sequences in song mode that contain variations. You will be arranging in ProTools after this anyway, so don't use sections that are like say, just duplicates of the main sequence with a double snare trick or something; you'll just be wasting hard disk space. OK, next, when your whole song is all good, insert the 1 BAR BLANK SEQUENCE as the FIRST step . I'll explain later, if you don't already know why. Now for the computer...in ProTools, open up the windows column on the top bar. The drop-down menu contains stuff like "show transport", etc. Move the mouse down and click on "Show Session Setup". A window opens with some parameters. Toward the bottom, you will see "MTC to Port". That's gonna select where time code from PT comes out of the computer, so click the circle next to DIGI 002, etc. 30fps should be the default and already selected. Next, on the transport (if it's not showing, use that drop down menu again), you need to be showing the full bar. If it's not, go to Views, and drop to "Transport shows". Make it show everything. Now, you will see, on the transport bar, a little conductor dude icon. Kill that guy, he's a loser. Just click on it so the light goes off. The BPMs next to him are set at 120. Click to highlight and change them to the BPM of the joint you are laying down. NOTE: if you enter decimals, watch out! Say your tempo in the MPC is 95.5 you need to add a ZERO when you enter that into Protools. Type 95.50 or else it will end up as 95.05, which is wrong!
OK, now hit enter, and look at the left area of the transport bar. You will see preroll and postroll. (before we go any further, make sure you're time codes are all set to BARS and BEATS on the top of the screen) In each section of the pre-roll, you must click and enter the right number, so follow the example: type one (1) and hit enter in the leftmost number; that's 1 BAR. This preroll will go by and play that blank bar you inserted in the MPC songmode earlier. This gives a little time to lock the two together, so if you have a really early drum sound or synth note on the first hit, it won't miss it!! Click on the silver PreRoll on the Protools transport bar to activate this. NOW...
Make sure in the top left that you have selected GRID mode.
Now highlight the length of the joint you are laying. Again, if it's just a four bar loop, you should only have: the blank bar for preroll, and four bars worth of sequences in song mode. Or, whatever length you are really gonna lay down. In protools, take the cursor tool to any track edit area, and highlight the TOTAL bar length you are laying down. AND, start at bar two on the highlight. That preroll area will not record data, it's just lockup time. So now, on the transport bar in PT, you will see the following (I'll use a four bar example): Start: 2/1/0 End: 6/1/0 Length: 4/1/0
If I have synth sounds or acoustic recording that will linger over the bar count and hence be cut off by looping, I highlight a 5 bar length on a four bar sequence. Then later, I can cut all but those tracks to a four bar length, and let those 'extras' stay longer, moving and crossfading them later on. But for tight loops, the technique remains simple. OK, Almost done!! In the MPC, MUTE all the track in the sequence you are not laying on a particulatr pass. For instace, say you got 16 tracks of sequencing, and only 8 outputs going to protools. Mute the other 8 in the MPC. You will of course lay the first 8. Go Back, mute the ones you laid, then unmute the ones you didn't, arm new tracks in PT, and so on.
NOW, when you hit play or play/record in protools, the MPC will start playing. IF YOU HAVE A 2000, you need to hit PLAY/START on the MPC first in song mode, and the bottom of the screen on the MPC will display "Waiting for Time Code". If you have a 2000XL, just starting ProTools will trigger the MPC2000XL automatically.
Good luck. PM me for any followups.
