STEP EDIT

rickrock305 wrote:

Antonym wrote:well, MIDI itself is pretty confusing for a lot of people. So once you start talking about manipulating the actual MIDI data, I'm sure its over a lot of people's heads.

The Step edit is simple as ****, if you just take some time to actually read the parameters and not just panic cause it isn´t the animated, self installing, giving-tips-through-talking-windows bloat people are used to from their PC´s.

The time values could be understood by some very basic math and understanding in how a basic 4/4 beat works.
You probably know what pads you´ve hit and once you grasp that a higher velocity value equals a higher volume on pad playback and low does the opposite your ready to do wonders to tour tracks compared to not touch step edit mode.
After one´s got used to working in step edit one can move on to inserting tempo changes and other more powerful MIDI commands which is just as simple but less "direct".

who are you, Jesus? Laughing

i really hope not.

anyway, step edit really is NOT confusing. honestly it was the first thing i went to when i got my mpc. love that thing.

There are two ways that I think about step edit :

Firstly ... thinking in terms of beats and off-beats. Normally when you're counting time in a 4/4 bar you do 1, 2, 3, 4 for each beat of the bar. To get off beats in there you count 1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4 ... each "and" being the off-beat. If you go into step edit mode and set TC to 1/8th and turn off auto increment you can use the Step forward button (Shift and >) to count through 1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4. Hit a pad each time you want a hit at this position. This is good for placing kicks for break beats where the kicks don't just fall on the beats. When you're looking at the numbers on the screen the note position of each beat will end .00 and each off beat will end .48

Secondly ... thinking in terms of a 16th note "grid". If you're used to programming beats on a Roland TR-808/909 type drum machine it's quite a different way of working and thinking. Reason's Redrum works this way, Fruityloops too IIRC, the Korg Electribes and it's pretty much the default setting when programming using the Matrix view in a computer based sequencer. The 16 16th note steps map to the following beat.tick numbers on the MPC :



As I've spotted Nym wisely saying ... just putting the notes at these positions and leaving them there will give your beat a very straight (not in the good way) feel, so move them around a little after getting them in the right place, for a more human feel. The MPC is great for this, you can't do this on a TR type drum machines

My 2c,

p.

or the later sp series for that matter, unless you're pretty damn good at working with the limited sequencer.

Pendulum wrote:There are two ways that I think about step edit :

Firstly ... thinking in terms of beats and off-beats. Normally when you're counting time in a 4/4 bar you do 1, 2, 3, 4 for each beat of the bar. To get off beats in there you count 1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4 ... each "and" being the off-beat. If you go into step edit mode and set TC to 1/8th and turn off auto increment you can use the Step forward button (Shift and >) to count through 1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4. Hit a pad each time you want a hit at this position. This is good for placing kicks for break beats where the kicks don't just fall on the beats. When you're looking at the numbers on the screen the note position of each beat will end .00 and each off beat will end .48

Secondly ... thinking in terms of a 16th note "grid". If you're used to programming beats on a Roland TR-808/909 type drum machine it's quite a different way of working and thinking. Reason's Redrum works this way, Fruityloops too IIRC, the Korg Electribes and it's pretty much the default setting when programming using the Matrix view in a computer based sequencer. The 16 16th note steps map to the following beat.tick numbers on the MPC :

Code: Select all1 : 1.00
2 : 1.24
3 : 1.48
4 : 1.72

5 : 2.00
6 : 2.24
7 : 2.48
8 : 2.72

9 : 3.00
10: 3.24
11: 3.48
12: 3.72

13: 4.00
14: 4.24
15: 4.48
16: 4.72


As I've spotted Nym wisely saying ... just putting the notes at these positions and leaving them there will give your beat a very straight (not in the good way) feel, so move them around a little after getting them in the right place, for a more human feel. The MPC is great for this, you can't do this on a TR type drum machines

My 2c,

p.

you can also double your resolution to get the 1, and, 2, and, ... count.

i usually use step edit mode when for instance i've played a kick twice, have a phasing effect and want to cancel that. i should use it in a more advanced way like you for sure !

is the bug that makes half of my seq disappear if i move notes around more then once or twice whit the movefunction in stepedit fixed in later jj os's? ive got the free 3.06 now which i feel good whit, exept that

ShakyCrates wrote:is the bug that makes half of my seq disappear if i move notes around more then once or twice whit the movefunction in stepedit fixed in later jj os's? ive got the free 3.06 now which i feel good whit, exept that

yes! last night, in fact.
bout damn time, though. that had been a really irritating and difficult to reproduce bug that caused me to just use copy/delete instead like we did in 1.07

aright! now the jj os definitive feels worth the money to me! gonna be sweet not to have to make backupcopys of everytrack

hahah!!! you made a backup of every track?

pretty good workaround, i never thought of that. i just avoided "move" altogetehr

nice to see that someone thought of a different idea. did you find a way to reproduce the bug this way?

ye its retarded but it works. if the timing dont feel right after i moved the notes i just copy and paste from the copyed track which is in the original state. its nice when you have 8 bars of hats that you want to move a bit late for example

joeybells wrote:Just starting to get my hands dirty with Step Edit.
From I can make out, Step Edit is the serious S***.
I'm starting to thing Step Edit is what alot of cats are missing?
Please tell me if I'm wrong!

Step edit would be nice, if only it wouldn't scroll while the sequence plays! The step edit on my Boss SP-505 is a blatant rip-off of the one on the MPC, but it doesn't scroll, allowing you to change notes and values around while the loop is playing. I love to make beats that way, but I can't do that on the MPC, since you have to stop the sequence before you can change anything. It's a very annoying workflow-killer