Adding drum against a complete song track

I'm new here (just ordered the MPC 1000, hasn't arrived yet) but I've read the PDF manual 3 times... so I'm ready!

I want to use the 1000 for creating drum patterns (duh) and was wondering about how the best way to work with a song. If I already have a complete mix of a song (without drums yet) mixed to a single .WAV, I can import that to the 1000 to work against. I assume I could assign the complete song to Track 1 of a pattern, and then use the other tracks to add drums on. The only problem with this is... it will force me to work completely linearly (I think) throughout the entire song. What I'd like to do is... put the song mix *somewhere* on the 1000 so it would play (in the background?) while I build up a MPC "Song" made up of different tracks. For example, it would be really cool if I could build the Song (using Akai's terminology) out of small drum patterns while listening to my "song" (my .wav mix) all at the same time.

Keep in mind that I like working AWAY from any other computer devices, so I can't sync to a computer to play the song while I work on the drums with the 1000. I'd like (if possible) to somehow put everything together on the 1000... song .WAV running beginning to end, while I create small patterns and string them together in a Song. Does this make sense what I'm asking? Is it even possible?

Over time, I will probably build up many patterns/sequences that I can reuse over and over. When I work on some *future* project, it seems like it might be difficult to string these patterns together to make a song WHILE trying to listen to one, long, "real song" track at the same time.

Or if you all have a much better idea, please let me know! Thanx in advance.

Brad

If your song is already in WAV, you'll need the EXM128 memory expansion before it can fit in memory: with the standard 16MB, minus 3-4MB (?) for the OS, you won't get much more than a minute in stereo sample time. If you get the WAV in memory, you'd assign it to a single pad, trigger it at the start of a track, and you'd be working linearly, like you suspect: there are no timestretch or beat chopping options on board.

Then, if the existing WAV was sequenced, you know the BPM, and you've kept it digital all the way, then you should have no problem creating bars in the MPC1000 that sync to the song bars exactly. You can then build up drum and other tracks as you like. The MPC1000 is not just for drums, either, I use it to play back piano and other melodic samples from a MIDI keyboard, and sequence parts for my synths.

One suggestion: put the big WAV pad event in its own Sequence, then add that Sequence at the top of a Song, before the other sequences, and only kick it off when you need to hear the whole song. When you trigger that, it will play all the way through, and you can't stop it short of powering off, so you may want to consider chopping it into sections! (I wanted to say "use Note On" mode for that big WAV, but I don't think you can sequence a MIDI event long enough, doesn't the event length max out at 9999 clock cycles?)

stereoroid wrote:If your song is already in WAV, you'll need the EXM128 memory expansion before it can fit in memory: with the standard 16MB, minus 3-4MB (?) for the OS, you won't get much more than a minute in stereo sample time. If you get the WAV in memory, you'd assign it to a single pad, trigger it at the start of a track, and you'd be working linearly, like you suspect: there are no timestretch or beat chopping options on board.

Fortunately I did order the 128RAM, thinking I'd probably need it just for this case.

Then, if the existing WAV was sequenced, you know the BPM, and you've kept it digital all the way, then you should have no problem creating bars in the MPC1000 that sync to the song bars exactly. You can then build up drum and other tracks as you like. The MPC1000 is not just for drums, either, I use it to play back piano and other melodic samples from a MIDI keyboard, and sequence parts for my synths.

That's interesting. Are you saying that you can use a MIDI keyboard (or MIDI track) to trigger "melodic samples" that are stored within the 1000? While reading your reply I was thinking that it might be possible to take a Track that was recorded as Type=MIDI (using an ext. MIDI kbd) and then, after the recording, change it to Type=DRUM to get it to play internal samples. Maybe create a Program that maps a set of tuned Piano samples all across the 64 pads? Or maybe with such a Program I could just set the track to Type=DRUM but instead of tapping on the pads, use an external MIDI keyboard to trigger the Program? If that's possible, that means I wouldn't really need the "big WAV" at all (I think). In other words, I could just take the MIDI data that I used to sequence the "big WAV" on my computer, load that MIDI data into the 1000, and use that MIDI to trigger my "Piano Program" (or whatever) internally and use that as a reference track?! Or more likely, I misunderstood and you can't do that at all

Brad

tritone wrote:That's interesting. Are you saying that you can use a MIDI keyboard (or MIDI track) to trigger "melodic samples" that are stored within the 1000? While reading your reply I was thinking that it might be possible to take a Track that was recorded as Type=MIDI (using an ext. MIDI kbd) and then, after the recording, change it to Type=DRUM to get it to play internal samples. Maybe create a Program that maps a set of tuned Piano samples all across the 64 pads? Or maybe with such a Program I could just set the track to Type=DRUM but instead of tapping on the pads, use an external MIDI keyboard to trigger the Program?

No, you read right, I've even put a couple of PGMs up on my page (link below) that use samples from Hollow Sun to do that, and there's a "multisampling" section in my FAQ-in-progress about that. The MPC-Tutor multisampling tutorial covers this for other MPC models.

One track I'm working on now uses the Yamaha CP70 piano samples laid out this way. My only synth is a Kawai K5000S which doesn't do piano too well, it's primarily an additive synth, so I'm using the samples. But I'm thinking about getting a general purpose sound module, and since I keep the MIDI mapping standard, I can switch between internal samples and external synths just by changing the Program / MIDI parameters.

I'm not too clear on the distinction between MIDI and DRUM track types in practical terms: I set MIDI type on these tracks, and use the Program and MIDI fields to control where the MIDI goes e.g. set Program to Off if I'm only using external MIDI; or set MIDI channel to off and select the CP70 program; or both.

Memory is a big problem, I'm about to order the upgrade myself. I've been playing with AWave from http://www.fmjsoft.com/ to extract sounds from SoundFonts, e.g. the free Steinway soundfonts at http://www.trachtman.org/pianosounds/ and send them to the MPC1000, I can only get one velocity layer in memory if I leave out half the samples, it sounds marvellous but needs more work, the velocity switching has no crossfade, so the switch can be jarring.

But yeah, you can transfer the MIDI and rearrange the track with MPC1000 samples, I would just suggest doing the MIDI in sections, not one big file, and load each section into its own Sequence for more flexibility. (You can do the MIDI chopping in the MPC too, but it might be easier on computer.)

Hope that helps... I shoulda been a schoolteacher, right?