2 Questions...Note Variation Slider and Tempo Change

First things frst, I'm new to these boards and I've searched for these 2 questions through the search option and couldn't find any so if this has been discussed before, I apologize.

Now all my beat heads with MP's don't even use the slider so they couldn't help me and one of my cats suggested it might be broken cause usually the slider is the 1st to go. I just copped a MPC2000xl off of ebay and I was told it was used once or twice but was in mint condition. The reason I throw that in is because I don't think the slider is broken because when I received it, it was just as he described...mint condition. But from the manual it's saying to press shift and the after button and the screen will appear asking to choose between tuning, attack, decay, etc. and what pad you want to assign. Then it says go back to the main screen and as you move the slider the sound will change up and down but mine doesn't. It just changes the sound of the pad (exp. a snare sounds lower) but it doesn't increase or decrease as I move the slider...any advice?

And my 2nd question is I'm sure most cats saw the Pete Rock video on youtube.com. In the beginning when Pete was showing how he had the sample spread out over 16 pads and once he played the beat, he was able to speed the beat up and the sample seemed "locked" into the tempo, how do you do that?

Thanks in advance and I'm glad to be a part of the team building on the MPC and beats...

Kil wrote:First things frst, I'm new to these boards and I've searched for these 2 questions through the search option and couldn't find any so if this has been discussed before, I apologize.

Now all my beat heads with MP's don't even use the slider so they couldn't help me and one of my cats suggested it might be broken cause usually the slider is the 1st to go. I just copped a MPC2000xl off of ebay and I was told it was used once or twice but was in mint condition. The reason I throw that in is because I don't think the slider is broken because when I received it, it was just as he described...mint condition. But from the manual it's saying to press shift and the after button and the screen will appear asking to choose between tuning, attack, decay, etc. and what pad you want to assign. Then it says go back to the main screen and as you move the slider the sound will change up and down but mine doesn't. It just changes the sound of the pad (exp. a snare sounds lower) but it doesn't increase or decrease as I move the slider...any advice?

And my 2nd question is I'm sure most cats saw the Pete Rock video on youtube.com. In the beginning when Pete was showing how he had the sample spread out over 16 pads and once he played the beat, he was able to speed the beat up and the sample seemed "locked" into the tempo, how do you do that?

Thanks in advance and I'm glad to be a part of the team building on the MPC and beats...

the light has to be green for it to be in effect...

Good looking for the reply but I'm still lost...let's start from the beginning...so I turn the MP on, load a sanre to the 1st pad, do I hit the assign button 1st to turn on the gren light? Or do I hit shift and assign to get to the page 1st? So I'm in the page and I pick the snare as the instrument I want to tune with the slider, then I pick tuning and put the levels from +120 to -120, then do I hit assign again to turn on the green light? Or do I hit main screen and then hit assign to turn on the green light? Cause I just tried all 3 ways and none of them worked. Plus I might be reading what the slider does wrong. I'm under the impression that since I have the tuning @ +120 and -120 then I'll be able to have the slider @ the bottom and when I hit the pad the snare will sound like -120 and if I move the slider to the middle, and hit the pad the snare will sound like +75 and if I move the slider to the top, and hit the pad the snare will sound like +120...is that what it's suppose to do? If so it still isn't doing it. Any other help will mos def be appreciated. And here may be another question...with making beats when would you use the slider? I've got at least 5 cats with 2000xl, 60's , 3000 and none of them use the slider. I ask them what it does and they're just as lost as I am and they've had their machines for years! I've made @ least 12 beats so far (I've been a ASR cat for the last 11 years) so I fell right into the MP with no problem and I've never felt the need to use it but I'm just the kind of cat who wants to know what every button on my machine does.

Kil wrote:Good looking for the reply but I'm still lost...let's start from the beginning...so I turn the MP on, load a sanre to the 1st pad, do I hit the assign button 1st to turn on the gren light? Or do I hit shift and assign to get to the page 1st? So I'm in the page and I pick the snare as the instrument I want to tune with the slider, then I pick tuning and put the levels from +120 to -120, then do I hit assign again to turn on the green light? Or do I hit main screen and then hit assign to turn on the green light? Cause I just tried all 3 ways and none of them worked. Plus I might be reading what the slider does wrong. I'm under the impression that since I have the tuning @ +120 and -120 then I'll be able to have the slider @ the bottom and when I hit the pad the snare will sound like -120 and if I move the slider to the middle, and hit the pad the snare will sound like +75 and if I move the slider to the top, and hit the pad the snare will sound like +120...is that what it's suppose to do? If so it still isn't doing it. Any other help will mos def be appreciated. And here may be another question...with making beats when would you use the slider? I've got at least 5 cats with 2000xl, 60's , 3000 and none of them use the slider. I ask them what it does and they're just as lost as I am and they've had their machines for years! I've made @ least 12 beats so far (I've been a ASR cat for the last 11 years) so I fell right into the MP with no problem and I've never felt the need to use it but I'm just the kind of cat who wants to know what every button on my machine does.

Shift and note assign at the same time.....hit the pad you want to influence...pick your parameter....then hit note assing again to turn your green light on....turning the green light on enable you to record what you are doing with the slider....BUT, after you record what you are trying to do, you have TURN OFF the green button to hear your effect...

Kil wrote:...Then it says go back to the main screen and as you move the slider the sound will change up and down but mine doesn't. It just changes the sound of the pad (exp. a snare sounds lower) but it doesn't increase or decrease as I move the slider...any advice?

And my 2nd question is I'm sure most cats saw the Pete Rock video on youtube.com. In the beginning when Pete was showing how he had the sample spread out over 16 pads and once he played the beat, he was able to speed the beat up and the sample seemed "locked" into the tempo, how do you do that?

Thanks in advance and I'm glad to be a part of the team building on the MPC and beats...

Q1: Your variation slider works perfectly, don't expect the slider to change the sound of the pad while the sample is playing it only takes effect on the trigger of the pad (aka when you press the pad)

Q2: Say you have a sample of 1 bar and you cut it is 16 equal parts, now place ech of these parts on a 16th note in your bar. If play your sequence it will reproduse your sample the way you sampled it (if you set the sequence tempo the same as the tempo of the original sample). If you now increase or decrease the sequence tempo the 'sample' will increase or decrease in speed. This is of course only limited since the speed of the sequence will have no effect on the speed at wich each individual chop is played it will only define speed at wich each chop gets played after the other thus giving this effect of the sample being locked in the tempo.

Oh b4 I forget welcome to the forums and good luck with your MPC, and remember the manual is your best friend, don't be afraid to experiment with your mpc it won't break by you pushing buttons.

pt3r wrote:
Q1: Your variation slider works perfectly, don't expect the slider to change the sound of the pad while the sample is playing it only takes effect on the trigger of the pad (aka when you press the pad)

this means that u can variate the sample just BEFORE u trigger it with the pad, not WHILE u are triggerin it, you can try it on a open hi-hat assignin it to DECAY, so u move the slider constantly and u go on triggerin the hi-hat, u will notice that each time u trigger the sound it comes out with a different "lenght" , so u can emulat a charlie open and closed, but if u have a "long" sound and move the slider after u pressed the pad, it will not affect it, it will change only the next trigger of that sound.

not so very realtime but can be nice and useful.

Good looking for all of the answers...I've been on a lot of message boards that have turned me away from getting down with them because you can't ever get any help or really politics about beats and equipment, you get smart comments and going back and fourth about nothing but from reading a lot of the posts around here and mine in general, you cats have really looking out on helping cats...I appreciate it....

@Kil, it's been alot of craziness around here lately with cats wanting to be hand held and such, these cats that answered your questions are a few of the SAME good cats that have been answering questions.

The thing that seperates you from the some of other craziness lately is that you didn't spam the boards with the same problem, you spelled out your problem in a detailed way. You EVEN spelled out what you tried in the manual. That right there says that you gave it a good effort to help yourself.

Cats WILL help you if you are a chilled individual. I'm sure of it.

Lampdog wrote: you spelled out your problem in a detailed way. You EVEN spelled out what you tried in the manual. That right there says that you gave it a good effort to help yourself.

BINGO!!!!

hi i'm an mpc 2000xl user from italy.
first i want to say hello to every user couse i'm a new user.

I have the same problem as KIL.
I had a mpc2000 before I get the xl and I know how the slider works... but now it doesn't work! I bought my MPC in mint condition from ebay as Kil did...
so when i hit shift+note variation and open the page, I hit the pad i want to assign (a snare),I select TUNING -120+120 and then I hit main screen. now if i hit continuosly (not recording, only playing) my snare while moving the slider i should hear the sound going from -120 to +120. It's not working: i hear the sound alaways at -120. it seems like the slider is broken and doesn't move from the lowest position. if i select, for example, tuning -70 +70 I hear the snare alaways at -70. Can someone tell me why? I read all the answers but i didn't found a real solution.

thank you

yeah no doubt that the people on this board are pretty cool man, none of that internet arrogance and whatnot. I've asked a couple of stupid questions too and they still helped me out... and now I'm loving my MPC beats more than anything else I've done! Because the MPC just has this "feel" ya know?

attarus wrote:hi i'm an mpc 2000xl user from italy.
first i want to say hello to every user couse i'm a new user.

I have the same problem as KIL.
I had a mpc2000 before I get the xl and I know how the slider works... but now it doesn't work! I bought my MPC in mint condition from ebay as Kil did...
so when i hit shift+note variation and open the page, I hit the pad i want to assign (a snare),I select TUNING -120+120 and then I hit main screen. now if i hit continuosly (not recording, only playing) my snare while moving the slider i should hear the sound going from -120 to +120. It's not working: i hear the sound alaways at -120. it seems like the slider is broken and doesn't move from the lowest position. if i select, for example, tuning -70 +70 I hear the snare alaways at -70. Can someone tell me why? I read all the answers but i didn't found a real solution.

thank you

Sounds like your slider is broken. Mine is bad also, same thing.