new here need 4k advice on use live :)

first off HI!

like the site guys/guyesses? looks like somwhere i could get used to posting

ok, i need some questions answered if possible, but i'll give you a little history 1st to help you answer better

ok, im the singer Guitarist in a (now 2 piece) band, we lost our bassist, and in short havent a hope of getting another one any time soon... so i was hoping to buy a MPC4k and load it with our songs midi sequenced up samples of BASS GUITAR send the drummer a click and mix via headphones... and a mix to my monitor... and then thru a behringer DDX (ADAT) the bass (and B.Vox for chorus, some keys all on seperate stereo pairs if possible) to the MAIN PA...

no problem so far as i understand it this would be easy enough to do

i know (?) that you can set the pads up to retrigger a loop/sequence/phrase (not sure of the term) say a chorus riff bass/Bvox but as that would take ONE hand/finger and the two of us (me and drummer) are useing both hands already i was thinking of using a midi pedal (Behringer again!) set to do the same job only with my feet

so that rather than playing to a SET sequence we can improvise a little by repeating a chorus here and there, and making the whole thing sound more spontanious

anyway.... can that be done??

and have any of you used the machine LIVE..? how does it stand up to life on the road?

does the HD stand up?

OH!! and can i down sample to 22khz or 16khz?? say for the bass samples?? im thinking i can load this thing to the HILT! and get 3/4 hours plus of songs .. easy enough as far as the reasonable short bass samples are concerned.. and the key samples wouldnt be too big... the only problems i see as far as RAM ROOM is when i start loading up Backing Vox for 50/60 songs


oh, and any advice on where to buy from in the UK would be cool to

oh... while im still asking questions... say i had a HD failure at a gig... can i load from a CD

i think thats it.. for now

any help would be AMAZING ... if i get this baby to do what i need, i will have realised a dream, growing another set of arms :D:D:D


cheers in advance

Rod

or even a link to another post that covers this

cheers people

Rod

sup welcome to the forum,
regarding ur foot pedal question , i have looked at the footswitch assignment page before and theres lots of parameters to assign it to.u can assign up to two foot switches to play a single pad ,select pad banks,play+start,play+rec Etc..........

the 4k is built like a tank ,but its big and bulky and road worthy. my Hd has never failed on me nor have i heard of this before but it would be possiable to load off cd if this happens.
Its a good machine to work with live, in my opinion its the best hardware suquencer on the market for studio and live use.
its no problem lower sample rates of samples,
i cant really say i ur have enough room 4 all ur songs but the 4ks memory is 512mbs which at 16bit 44.1 is about 51mins sample time which should give u a good idea.

try getting quotes off this lot(dealers section).............and check out the downlaod section 4 manuals, addendums and info

http://www.arbitermt.co.uk/index_akai.htm

hope that helps u.....Good luck bro

cheers Reveal and thanks for the welcome!

i was wondering about the footswitch inputs on the back, and thought they would at LEAST do start stop


this is the pedal board i was talking of using, setting one pedal for start stop one for (i hope) verse repeat, one for chorus repeat.... and maybe setting up some way to break down the sequenced stuff like a ch repeat but with out the B.Vox and keys.. ie JUST the bass... im not entirely sure if its something i NEED to do, but id like to know its POSSIBLE

http://www.behringer.com/FCB1010/index.cfm?lang=ENG

i thought the machine was tank like just wanted a hands on user opinion THANX, it would be treated pretty kindly im sure, but as anything can muck up when your going live.. its good to know the CD load is there id be using it with a UPS and flightcased, so it should be safe enough

i thought the spec for 512 was about 1hr 34 mins in mono @ 44kh 16bit?

hence flying in stereo B.Vox lasting about 20seconds MAX per song should get a fair few songs.. at least thats my thinking

if i run into diffs i can always take a break halfway to start a re-load.. if i remember rightly it loads in the back ground right?

ARGH, im blind! will go and check the downloads

thanks muchly for the info

if anyone wants to add to that im all ears as i say im already sold on the machine, i just need a few niggles ironed out

Rod

sup rod ,
no problem........ahh just had a look at ur link , didnt know it was midi enabled thought u were talking about the foot switch inputs,
so u could have a sequence looping ,then in the track mute page u could mute & unmute all ur seperate tracks,building up and breaking down each song, i think its possable 4 u to do this unsing ur pedal & midi coms by assigning volume/trackmute? controler to each midi channel ,and in your mpc have u have each program(cotains ya samples) assigned to a channel. then u can just stomp tracks in and out and trigger samples (if ur pedal permits this)

also i think ur gona have to use a foot switch to start and stop the sequencer.,
or wait till note trigger option but still u have to arm it/stop it each time
or u could just loop up ur chorus and verses/tacks and trigger them manually via ur pedal as looped etc.. samples using midi note on commands on the same or different channels

, theres lots of different angles to take into account, and wayz of doing these types of things..but only u know what best for u

u cant really load in background so to speak but u can from ak.sys though,u can play the selcted tack/program and thats it.
i ment stereo sorry, when stating sample time, mines 101mins in mono

good luck with it all