really strange problems with 1000

okay, before i describe this, let me assure you i've been inside out and upside down through the 1000's setttings; mono vs. poly, mute groups, mute target, etc. and there is no explanation for this.

i load up a sequence i'd been working on that has just a couple drum tracks and one track with midi going to a synth. I wanted to write lyrics with the synth line, but couldn't haul the actual module, so i dropped it to wav on my comp and dragged the wav to the mpc via usb. then i load the file onto into ram, set it up on a pad in a new program and, since its already the same length and BPM of the sequence, it loops no problem.

now here's where it gets weird. when i have just the kick and hats going the loop plays fine, but when i bring the snare in, the loop cuts off halfway through. if i'm playing just the snare track and the loop, again its fine, but as soon as i bring in the hats or kick, boom- its gone after a bar and a half. i think, maybe there's something wrong with the .pgm file, so i save the .seq with only midi info and redo the program and same deal. then i start the obligatory freak out- what if my mpc is getting ready to die?

for now i'm gonna hope i just have a corrupted flash card (luckily i back up fairly often and i'm becoming unneccessarily good at recreating lost sequences) but that was scary- it was like a ghost in the machine turning my samples off. anyone have any problems like this? i'm wondering if it has to do with those error messages we're getting when we try to save .prj files- i've started deleting my .prj file and .ipt file before i resave them.

Also, i don't know much about flash cards... if it is indeed corrupted, will an initialization fix that? or do i just get a new one?

thanks for any insight or whatever.

go to mode the n select params in the top right corner it should be on poly so the drums wont cut each other off an they'll play correct. hope this helped.1

trust me, thats not what this is. i checked all the little settings that could have been **** this up; no dice. i'm pretty sure it was a corrupt file or worse a bad flash card.

sounds like you reached the polyphony limit. be aware that although the mpc has a 32 voice polyphony limit, using stereo sample brings that down to 16. check to see if you have a drum hit happening at the exact point that the long sample cuts off, if so, it is likely that you have reached the polyphony limit. you could try turning the drums to note on.

hope this helps.

make sure all your drum hits are in mono. i ran into this problem back in the day, but never happened again.

don't worry, your mpc isn't busted...this does not sound like a hardware issue at all.

keep us posted kid

Okay i don't have the machine in front of me, but this is more or less my program setup:

-kick, three layers
-snare, one layer, mute group 1
-snare2, same as above but set to note on, mute group 1
-snare3, three layers
-hi hat, one layer
-bass loop

Now i know the bass loop is in stereo. I'm not sure about the others, but i'll bet they are in stereo too. I guess i never thought that could be the problem because this is one of the least complex programs i've made, but i forgot how many layers there are to it. maybe i'll resample my kick and the snare3 and set the snare3 to mono. But i like how they all sound now, i don't want to lose something in the change to mono... whats the best way to do that?

Or maybe i'll just dump it all into ableton and be done with the whole thing... i don't know why all these musicians are complaining about piracy- my career wouldn't be possible without it...

AlphaMale wrote:Okay i don't have the machine in front of me, but this is more or less my program setup:

-kick, three layers
-snare, one layer, mute group 1
-snare2, same as above but set to note on, mute group 1
-snare3, three layers
-hi hat, one layer
-bass loop

if all samples are stereo:
kick: 3 Layers = 6 voices
snare: 1 Layer = 2 voices
snare2: 1 layer = 2 voices
snare3: 3 Layers = 6 voices
hi hat: 1 Layer = 2 voices
bass loop: 2 voices

this adds up to twenty voices in total. however, realise that if you have some of the drums set to poly, and they continue to play after the sound you can hear finishes, then they still take up voices, so for example if you have a hi hat sample that is just over 1 second long, and you have four hits of the hi hat a second, then you'll have four voices used up after a second. try trimming the tails of the samples once it goes to silence. also try changing any highly repeated samples to mono.

hope this helps.

ps sorry: when i posted before, i meant to say switch to mono, not switch to note on.

AlphaMale wrote:maybe i'll resample my kick and the snare3 and set the snare3 to mono. But i like how they all sound now, i don't want to lose something in the change to mono... whats the best way to do that?

Well you could resample, and create a whole new project with the same sequences. That way you can a/b compare between using mono sounds and stereo sounds without losing what you already have.

Mono can be punchier because if it sounds that way , it usually stays that way no matter what the system. If you use a stereo sound that sounds great to you, sometimes that same sound can sound empty or not there when played on another system for various out-of-your-control reasons that include, they are running mono, they have their speakers out of phase, the club has bad speaker placement that causes out of phase issues all over the place.

A lot of those problems based on different systems disappear with mono signals. You might want to keep important elements to your beat, such as kick and basslines in mono. Low frequencies are also mainly heard as mono to a listener under the best of circumstances so you may not be ever giving them what is coming at you through your headphones or your particular monitoring system.

There are always exceptions to all things, so I do not want to say that this is the way one should always do things. But in making your choices you should think into the future as to what can screw up your mixes and try and minimize the chances a little by compromising, hopefully in ways that really do not compromise the overall mix.

noision1 wrote:

AlphaMale wrote:maybe i'll resample my kick and the snare3 and set the snare3 to mono. But i like how they all sound now, i don't want to lose something in the change to mono... whats the best way to do that?

Well you could resample, and create a whole new project with the same sequences. That way you can a/b compare between using mono sounds and stereo sounds without losing what you already have.

Mono can be punchier because if it sounds that way , it usually stays that way no matter what the system. If you use a stereo sound that sounds great to you, sometimes that same sound can sound empty or not there when played on another system for various out-of-your-control reasons that include, they are running mono, they have their speakers out of phase, the club has bad speaker placement that causes out of phase issues all over the place.

A lot of those problems based on different systems disappear with mono signals. You might want to keep important elements to your beat, such as kick and basslines in mono. Low frequencies are also mainly heard as mono to a listener under the best of circumstances so you may not be ever giving them what is coming at you through your headphones or your particular monitoring system.

There are always exceptions to all things, so I do not want to say that this is the way one should always do things. But in making your choices you should think into the future as to what can screw up your mixes and try and minimize the chances a little by compromising, hopefully in ways that really do not compromise the overall mix.

all true what you're saying, but i think dude is just trying to get the phrase sample playing its whole length. the in depth stuff comes later.

no having a go, just saying, that's all!

I'm so glad i posted this, ya'll are aces.

I always trim up my samples to cut out dead air, so i'll see what tracks/ pads i can make monophonic, to save some polyphony there. And the kick and snare sound so good all layered up that it would be worth it to bounce them to a single sample anyway.

i think dude is just trying to get the phrase sample playing its whole length. the in depth stuff comes later.

Actually, this would be the other way around. Audio engineering is my real skill, the electronic knowledge is only a few years old. i know how to mono sum my mixes and the company i work for makes plenty of mono radios for me to test them on. they also have tons of free coax cable.

anyway, again, thanks so much. i'll dig into this first thing at the studio tonight.

AlphaMale wrote:

i think dude is just trying to get the phrase sample playing its whole length. the in depth stuff comes later.

Actually, this would be the other way around. Audio engineering is my real skill, the electronic knowledge is only a few years old. i know how to mono sum my mixes and the company i work for makes plenty of mono radios for me to test them on. they also have tons of free coax cable.

anyway, again, thanks so much. i'll dig into this first thing at the studio tonight.

i meant in this thread, like you were trying to find out how to stop the phrase sample cutting off, not to find out how to mix with mono samples. if you get me.