Sample while sequencer is playing

Hi all,


I'm considering a mpc1000 or 2000xl and have a few questions.. I'd mostly use it in the studio and writing room, still knowing the mpc live rep I'm curious of that aspect as well. I want to simplify things at the writing stage. Ever get the feeling the computer screen (and the desk, racks, monitors) is towering over you? "Oaah! Let me out of here!"

So.. Can any of these units sample while the sequencer is running?
So that you for instance could record a pod'ed guitar, or sequence some external gear and record the output?

Also, considering the 1000 with its compactflash storage, how fast does it load new sequence and sample data? You know, in a live context, what margins am I looking at. I know it depends on the amounts of data overall, I'd just like to get a clue, hunch, feel of it's performance in a live situation.


Peace,

Donca

I asked the same thing about recording while playing a sequence on the MPC and I was told it is not possible. Too bad, that would have been a killer feature.

I tried this last night on the 1k. I didn't actually record a sound but went through the motions of doing it and made a recording of nothing, guess I could have tried recording the mainout. The sequence kept playing and I was able to record and assign the sample to a new pad without the sequence stopping. It did however seem as if the sequence stuttered slightly when I did this. -g

Really? that would really help playing live instruments to record to the mpc.

I'm getting my mpc tomorrow. ABOUT time. I'll have to look into this then.

By the way, I was just devising a plan to go around my crappy soundcard when transferring a finished song from the MPC to the computer, and thought of this: What if I "resampled" the whole song, put that on a CF card and transferred it to the computer? Is it worthwhile in terms of getting better quality results?

I think I read in the manual that the MPC will only allow up to 5mg on a single sample. I just looked again but can't find that reference. Can anyone confirm this?

On the subject of recording the main outs, has anyone noticed this? The default output setting for the 1k output level is -12db. So if you sample the main out at this setting the sample will play back much lower than it sounds like when it's playing back from the sequence. I'm guessing that the master effects are being recorded to that sample as well. So if you play back a sample recorded with master effects on the same set of master effects are being applied again to the sample. Changing the output level to 0db before recording from the master out gets the sample recorded at the same level you're hearing it played at. An alternative of getting the volume back up is to stack multiple copies of the same sample on a single pad.

-g

I found a reference to a 5mb file size limit (the PDF manual is great for looking stuff up, see www.akaipro.com ), and it apparently concerns saving data to the internal flash memory. makes sense that way, too.

Thanks for the feedback!

Seems like at least the 1000 is 'likely' able to do this. It would be great if you could get back on this, Kluster. It's the first thing I'll check out when I get the chance. 5 Mb max for a single sample is about half a minute in stereo.. adequate for what I had in mind. I researched this sample-while-sequencing function last night, and it seems its not too common actually, the other piece of kit I've found so far is the ensoniq asr-10 kb/rack.

"Can any of these units sample while the sequencer is running?"

The MPC1000 does. I've done it many times.

"how fast does it load new sequence and sample data? "

it's not bad, but that should not be an issue since you should be able to do an entire live set on a single load. I do 2 hours sets without additional loads.

The question for me is:
can you record something into the sequence while the sequencer is running???
That would be wonderful for recording overdubs directly on the sequence.
I tried to this with my 2000xl but I was not able to.
Will this happen in 1000?????

Yep, just hold down overdub and then hit play and you're recording again. It would be nice if you could also turn the metronome on and off without stopping the sequencer. -g

DoncaMatic, from what I've gathered, the 5mb limit really does not apply to sampling. The flash memory is just used to load stuff when turning on the MPC. For example, the factory preset sounds are loaded from flash memory. So the 5mb limit affects how much stuff you can get automatically loaded when firing up the MPC, not how long phrases you can sample on the MPC.

This is really an interesting question.. does the MPC write stuff on the CompactFlash while sampling, or is the sampling time dependent on RAM?

MPC3000, you just made my day. When I get my unit tomorrow, I'll be able to try stuff out on the bass while the sequence is playing, and when I feel like it, I'll just press record and sample the lick I've come up with. That's really the only way it feels like it should be.

Of course, I don't have the unit yet, so my sayings should be taken with a grain of salt. If I'm wrong, do correct me.

"the MPC write stuff on the CompactFlash while sampling, or is the sampling time dependent on RAM?"

RAM.

Thereotically, one could write a tune on the MPC and then re-sample it into a single WAV on the CF card. Move it to PC for burning. You could throw away that crappy soundblaster. I dunno if this works. There may be some max sampling time below memory limits.

Right! great, smashing, super.. This far

My wallet is in trouble again. Can't wait to check one out. See ya