It's nice to be back!

I've been on hiatus for awhile, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a new OS waiting for me when I got back. I've been messin' with OS 4 for a few days now. First I have to say that I'm still pinching myself that I can browse alphabetically. Those of you who've read my previous posts on this matter know how anal I am about having my samples in an orderly fashion. I used to jump through hoops to organize everything alphabetically in the MPC.

Anyway, my question is regarding the Direct Record feature. When I'm first composing a song, I sometimes bypass the computer altogether and sequence everything with the MPC. I use the MPC to record a MIDI track of an outboard synth and then sample the audio to a pad using the old record method. It's not a big deal because I can send the output of any of my gear directly into the MPC with a press of a button (thanks Mackie!). Last night, I was trying the Direct Record feature, but soon realized that I couldn't play my outboard synths when switching to the Direct Record tracks because they don't send MIDI. I can work around this by routing my keyboard controller directly to the synth instead of through the MPC, but this is a hassle because I already have all of the MIDI channels configured for my outboard gear and I'd rather not have to touch that.

Should I just stick with the old method of recording or am I overlooking a feature?

Peace \/
chisel316

can you not just play the sequence of midi notes with the audio track selected, and overdub on? i thought that was the whole point of the audio tracks?

If i get you right you are trying to record while you are playing the synth, thats not possible, true.
Why dont you record the midi first?

I am still wet behind the ears, but welcome back...

chisel, if u set the midi inputs in 'midi'sync' page to thru, not 'as track' assuming your ctrl kybd is set to send on the right chan to trig the outboard gear, it should work live, as opposed to pre-recording the midi to a track that plays when u r in direct odub/record to your audio track.

rinseout wrote:If i get you right you are trying to record while you are playing the synth, thats not possible, true.
Why dont you record the midi first?

You get me. So, if I record my outboard synth to one of the MPC MIDI tracks, can I switch to an audio track and record the synth output by playing back the MIDI track - the same way I usually do it with the regular record feature? If that's the case, then I'll have to give it a try. Thanks.

Peace \/
chisel316
www.soundclick.com/chisel316

arebee wrote:chisel, if u set the midi inputs in 'midi'sync' page to thru, not 'as track' assuming your ctrl kybd is set to send on the right chan to trig the outboard gear, it should work live, as opposed to pre-recording the midi to a track that plays when u r in direct odub/record to your audio track.

Nice tip! I'll have to give that a try also!

Peace \/
chisel316
www.soundclick.com/chisel316

What mackie mixer are you using?

I got the Direct Record working if I play my synths live. I still haven't figured out how to record a MIDI track from the MPC. I can do this in the regular Record mode, but not in Direct Record mode. Am I missing something? BTW, I'm using a Mackie 1202VLZPro for running all my outboard gear to the MPC and studio monitors. When I'm ready to track to the PC, I also have the individual outputs of all my gear running into two Behringer ADDA converters which route directly into my Pulsar II. This way I can compose without turning on the computer, but track out to the PC without touching a single cable. What I was referring to in my previous post was the Mackie "Mute ALT3-4" feature which basically directs all the channel mutes to another output. In my case, that output is routed to the record in on the MPC.

First off, no version of the JJOS has Direct Record. That feature is only available on the 2500 Akai OS. Direct Record allows you to select drum, midi, or audio in the track type field in any track.

The JJ has a similar but not identical feature called Audio Tracks. This feature permanently assigns tracks 57 to 64 to record audio only. Everything else has to go on the tracks below that.

Are you trying to record midi on an audio-only track? I don't really understand why you would want to do that to begin with, but no, that won't work.

Yeah. It looks like I got those features mixed up. I see that if I want to sample my synths which are playing MIDI tracks from the MPC, that I still need to use the old Record method. Audio Tracks only works if I'm playing the synths live.

Peace \/
chisel316
www.soundclick.com/chisel316