Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
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By Blue Haze Wed May 23, 2007 4:02 pm
Keep working McSmooth enjoy the 4k great work. 8)

By drumtrack Wed May 23, 2007 4:54 pm
hyena wrote:i noticed a problem but dont know if it is a bug...
set an lfo to control the amp of a part.
set it to midi sync to a small value (1/4 for example)
select a pulse or a sawtooth.
the thing doesnt behave exactly how i thought it would...
i assumed the result will be a precise gapper, perfectly synced.
even tweakin phase and offset doesnt really help so much...
it is synced but doesnt fall where i want it to...
anyone experienced this?

i dont know what you mean.. this tremolo thing youre doing always works smooth here and I do this at least a few times per project
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By hyena Thu May 24, 2007 1:44 pm
yeah, if i use it as a tremolo no problems, but...
i was tryn to use it on a chopped break track, to use it live.
(assign a q-knob to lfo depth and when i want to gap the breaks i just turn the knob and voila, sound come out all clicka clacka clickaty clack if you get what i mean)

but this doesnt appear to work as i assumed...
ill have some further investigations!
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By Blue Haze Thu May 24, 2007 1:48 pm
hyena wrote:yeah, if i use it as a tremolo no problems, but...
i was tryn to use it on a chopped break track, to use it live.
(assign a q-knob to lfo depth and when i want to gap the breaks i just turn the knob and voila, sound come out all clicka clacka clickaty clack if you get what i mean)

but this doesnt appear to work as i assumed...
ill have some further investigations!


How about using the qlink step sequencer?
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By Blue Haze Thu May 24, 2007 2:06 pm
hyena wrote:well, fact is that the LFO must sync perfectly and open\close the part's amp without the need of any q-sequences...


I`m talking about using the qlink step sequencer itself without LFO.


I get your idea square wave assigned to LFO to a 100% depth set at 1/16 or 1/8 notes with midi sync.


I was suggesting though for you to write in your sequence with qlink sequencer without the lfo and you can just hit the button on and off. :idea:
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By Bazziman Fri Jun 22, 2007 8:15 am
Here's another short tip...to emulate a Synth don't use big samples but only a single cycle (or just a few cycles) of a sample. If you only use one or two cycles (looped) you can radically alter the timbre by adjusting the loop points (too bad you can't modulate those!)

Also the Akai has a pretty decent 'autoloop' function built in: press the magic yellow button when you're in the loop section of loop/trim....

Yesterday I stacked 4 samples from my Casia Vl-Tone into one patch: one -12 tuned, one +12 tune, one at the regular pitch and one an octave below....now THAT'S huge.
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By feline1 Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:01 am
Does modulating "Zone Start" not let you effectively modulate the loop points?
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By Bazziman Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:03 am
feline1 wrote:Does modulating "Zone Start" not let you effectively modulate the loop points?
I never tried that....I thought that Zone-Start only changed the sample starting point...

but it would be cool...you could get some sync-like screeches like that or even wavetable like sweeps (with a fixed length for the sample loop)...I guess I got some experimenting to do tonight.
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By Bazziman Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:04 am
feline1 wrote:Does modulating "Zone Start" not let you effectively modulate the loop points?
I never tried that....I thought that Zone-Start only changed the sample starting point...

but it would be cool...you could get some sync-like screeches like that or even wavetable like sweeps (with a fixed length for the sample loop)...I guess I got some experimenting to do tonight.

By deaf-mute Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:25 pm
Bazziman wrote:
feline1 wrote:Does modulating "Zone Start" not let you effectively modulate the loop points?
I never tried that....I thought that Zone-Start only changed the sample starting point...

but it would be cool...you could get some sync-like screeches like that or even wavetable like sweeps (with a fixed length for the sample loop)...I guess I got some experimenting to do tonight.


I've been doing some similar stuff, recording some of my pk 6 synth waveforms and playing them in Ableton's sampler. Even been doing it using more complex tones... Once I get a clean click free loop, using the crossfade function, I record the result as an audio file and send it to the mpc.. Then been layering the different waveforms for ultra fat bass and synth sounds. It rocks...
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By feline1 Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:48 pm
to be honest, I just find it MUCH simpler to use my real analogue synths for stuff like this though! :P
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By Bazziman Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:01 pm
feline1 wrote:to be honest, I just find it MUCH simpler to use my real analogue synths for stuff like this though! :P
Hehehe.....sometimes doing things the hard way is more fun.

Now that I think of it; wavetables and digitally sweeping oscillator shapes on an analogue machine? I think not.....
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By feline1 Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:15 pm
well - PPGs, Casio phase distortion ones, etc etc - you know what I mean.

it's the KNOBS that make the difference.