whats a good daw to use with the mpc 500

whats the best daw for use with the mpc 500

Logic.

ive used reason and fl way before i had an mpc, ive never tried anythign else though, you say logic is a good idea?

Yeah, logic is the greatest software! With VST plugins it's killer!

i have cubase sx, my friend had protools but i didnt like it really. but then he got logic.... that sh*t is so awesome! they came out with a newer better version and actually dropped the price to only $500. if i get a new daw, its easily logic... i would just have to get a mac though (thats the catch).

i want logic too! its the shit, were using it at school, but i dont have a mac...

I like Live, 6 le is cool! great effects and real easy to use!

Cosmic wrote:i have cubase sx, my friend had protools but i didnt like it really. but then he got logic.... that sh*t is so awesome! they came out with a newer better version and actually dropped the price to only $500. if i get a new daw, its easily logic... i would just have to get a mac though (thats the catch).

is cubase set up a little like logic?

i guess this is a stupid question, but you know how in logic you can send your midi on whatever track, and shit, like hats, snare, melody, ect.

is cubase set up like that too? like ease of use wise?

ummm.... they r set up similar but of course hav their differences. like wen i compared cubase to protools, they were way different that it was very annoying. wen i messed with logic, it wasnt 100% the same, but somewhat similar, so it was a lot more to my liking.
as for as the midi question, i dont know exactly what u mean. a difference how i see how it worked though that my cubase doesnt do, is how logic has sounds/samples/loops stored in the program and organized so well! like itll organize sounds/loops by genre, instruments, moods etc., then it imports it into the song and also already adjusting the tempo of it wen u preview the sound. -awesome! i guess thats more of an audio track though.
and then for midi on logic, if u hav a plug-in but no midi-controller, u can use your computer keyboard as a midi-controller, ex. computer keys A S D F G H J K L ; are actually keys on a piano, so u can play a song with ur computer keyboard, even trigger drum sounds pressing these buttons (but of course not velocity sensitive).
the way i use midi on my cubase with my mpc is, i use about 3 or 4 midi tracks assigned to the same midi channels assigned in the mpc. record them, edit however, and then wen im satisfied with the drum pattern and how it sounds, i record each midi track into audio from my drum sounds on the mpc. -so yeah that part is real easy! what sucks is u cant use the 12levels or 16 levels on mpcs with a computer midi, the computer wont pick up the midi signals to stretch a sample to different levels, it plays all the tunes as only the one main tone/sound. u can only record the 12 levels audio, but not midi.

dope, thanks alot man i wana try out cubase now. i guess my question, was more like is the midi workflow in cubase like the workflow in logic?

like ill have my program set up in my mpc 500, ie melody samples on pad bank A, some back ground samples on B, and drums on C and D then i assign them to midi channels ( i just learned how to do this last week so all my stuff is on the same midi channel) . then i trigger the samples with midi in logic and use it (logic) as the sequencer instead of my 500 cause logic works way better than my 500 as a sequencer.
so what im trying to ask is the workflow of the sequencer in cubase similar to the workflow of the sequencer in logic?

i bet it would be wayyyyyy easier to set up your midi enviroment in cubase than in logic because you have to go through all those steps everytime you set up logic.

oh ok, i see a bit more of wut ur saying now. well i think most programs hav a feature that u can save templates, meaning u can set up the program so wen it first loads up, all the settings u save as a template load up. so i do it in cubase and i think u can do it in logic too, that u know how they say for a new project what type of set-up/template u wanna load? like just for audio with all audio tracks loaded, or just for midi with only midi tracks loaded, or both etc etc? so on my cubase, b4 i start recording, i set up the tracks with all the settings i like, ex. 4 midi tracks set to the same midi channels that would be for the mpc, 3 midi tracks for a keyboard etc etc. then i can even preset sound effects for audio tracks, set up the tempo and how many bars to loop/cycle, and etc etc. so while i didnt record anything, all my settings are already prepared. i save that as a template b4 i record, so everytime i load up this template this screen comes up with all the settings set the same way.... therefore i dont hav to go through the tedious b.s. of setting up the midi channels on the program and sound effects etc etc. i did this on cubase... took a couple minutes caus i made so many settings to the most convenient way i like. but its soooo worth it, makes doing music so much quicker. just load up the template and everything is ready.
im pretty sure u can do this on logic too. just open a new project, set up everything the way u like, and save it as a template, name it and next time u wanna work on a song with those settings, just open up that template. it makes doing beats a breeze.

thats hella dope man!

im gona look online at the logic manual to see about setting up a template.

im trying to trade my mom computers, she has a macbook pro and i have a sony viao. lol. i hope she trades me then im gona cop logic and be in heaven lol.

i have a question to ask you though?

so you use your keyboard and a mpc right?

so you use the keyboard for one channel and the mpc for another.

when i set up my mpc in logic, all the pads were on the same channel (1)
so whenever i recorded my stuff and wanted to mix it down, i would to volume automation on one track, ie the melody, and it would do it for all of the tracks at once because they were all on the same midi channel, then heres where the problem comes in.

theres only 16 midi channels, and theres 48 (pads) in essence on my mpc 500. so i cant set up each pad to a different channel, so i would have to send all my drums to one, ie, the hat, the snare and the kick, and i would send my melody sample to another, but what if i wanted to pan the snares and the hats different, i couldent becuase everything i pan on that midi channel would pan the same.

so i guess i could set up a template, but i would have to take time to map it out for each beat i make, not just one for my 500. do you see what im saying? have you ever run into this problem?

so when you set up a keyboard voice, do you set up each voice on a different channel so you dont have that same problem, but what do you do with each of your pads?

hmmm those r good points man, utilizing that mpc midi to the fullest with daws. well u know each midi instrument through each midi port gets its own 16 tracks right? the way i use my keyboard though is just using one sound at a time. so like i would record a violin midi, n then record it audio. then change the sound to piano etc, n record new midi on a different midi track... then record that audio on a diff track also and etc etc. same midi settings though, so after i record it midi and record it audio, i mute the midi track. thats just my keyboard though, everyone is different.... and wen i use plugin instruments its way more convenient (but not as many quality sounds as my keyboard).

as for the mpc on the daw, yeah i run into the same problem with changing volume and panning through midi and it effects all the sounds on the mpc. so since it has its own 16 midi channels, i think u can go on the mpc and set up a different midi channel for each track... that might work to prevent one volume/pan setting effects all sounds. -im not sure about that though caus i never tried it, i probably will test it now though... thats a good idea. but usually i just record mpc midi on my daw all on the same midi channel, then record audio each kick track, snare track, etc etc and mess with volume pan effects eq's for each kick track, snare track etc.

note: my keyboard and mpc go into seperate inputs into the computer (port 1 & port 2), because of that, they each get their own seperate 16 midi channels for each. got me?

yeah, i got it, but this brings up some more questions, lol.

when i hook up the mpc and i use a yamaha s90 keyboard hooked up to logic 7 at my school. but when you say you record each track to audio, do you do this all in logic? ive only taken one class or whatever with logic pro so weve bounced all our midi into protools to turn it into audio, but do you switch it to audio in logic itself. for example

you record some midi violins on your keys and then you record your mpc samples and drums, then you go bounce each track to audio seperately while still working on the midi in the other tracks?


and by the way, thanks alot for helpin me out man!

well, i dont hav logic, i only hav cubase but i hav used logic a couple times. regardless, the way im talking about recording midi and audio is the same in all the daw's.
but wen u say recording midi with the keyboard and mpc.... are u first recording on the keyboard itself and the mpc itself? -then transfering the recordings to the daw? or are u just straight up recording the keyboard and mpc into the daw midi, using the daw as the master sequencer?