Does anyone use their MPC to sequence vst's?

I plan on switching my set-up to Ableton Live. I do not like software sequencers when it comes to midi. I like the MPC way of sequencing things. But I do find software samplers, romplers, synths and FX quite powerful (while be somewhat cost-effective).

My plan was to get a 2000XL to use purely as a midi sequencer. I would use Ableton Live to host my vst's and fx and slave it to the MPC (either over MTC or midi clock) and I would sequence the vst's. This way I can work with the quick and smooth workflow of MPC sequencing while still having good rack of samplers and synths with alot of functionality in a virtual rack on my computer.

Likewise I could use Live as a visual editor by recording the midi outputs of the MPC sequence into Live (with Live's quantize set off). That way I also get a visual representation of the midi sequences so I can manually edit and further quantise or further swing or adjust.

I would basically use the MPC 2000XL as the brain when recording midi Ableton Live as the arms and vst's as the modules. I hope I'm making sense here.

Has anyone done a similar set-up as myself?

If so, are you running into any problems or issues?

Do the two sequencers (DAW and MPC) drift at all when recording or playing back the sequence (either when sync'ed midi clock or MTC)?

Any issues using MMC to control your software when syncing?


Side questions:
How much would a stock fully functioning MPC 2000XL go for?

Is there a way to make the slider and knobs control software, either by transmitting midi cc#s or over sysex?

i also do this with pro tools m powered
havent had a hiccup yet

Works well for me too.. I run Battery2 inside Logic, treat that like it was a program file in the MPC, and just use the MPC for sequencing/triggering sounds.

Interested to hear how others do this, because I'm not 100% happy with Battery and I'm looking for a replacement program.

One thing to consider though, both Ableton and Protools seem to have trouble chasing clock when the MPC is the master. Logic handles this much better, and from what I've heard Cubase does too. I was going to switch to Ableton at one point, but I didn't because of this.

^^ I've heard the same. Fortunately I also have Cubase but I am very unhappy with Cubase 4's stability. Even with the updates it still seems like there are issues every now and then. I decided to start getting into Live for making the beats but then possibly rewiring Live into Cubase somewhere down the road for fx arranging and mixdown.

I heard older versions of Live have trouble slaving to external clock sources but later versions are much better. I've heard Live 7 has adressed those issues and is rock solid now with external sync sources.

Btw, a nice replacement for Battery is FXpansion Guru.

arks why dont you like battery? & what version do you have?

I tried recording vsts with the mpc and my synth, but the problem I was getting is that the MPC would only record and sequence one channel. While everything played fine I was dealt with one channel thru cubase. The software apparently couldn't recognize the mpc's midi channel changer, it didn't correspond with it.

i have experimentd wih several methods,

1. Using stienberg v stack, and 16 of my favourite instrument plugins, and creating all the sequences in the mpc, was a alot of fun, and very flexible.

2. Syncronising MPC with ableton or cubase, and doing all my chopping on screen, with the MPC only for drums/perc.

3. Breaking my song into phrases and triggring these live, with fx and one shots. Dioing it this way there is no need to use the mpc's sequencer or clock as the timing/triggering is all up to you.

4. Sending the 8 outs from the mpc, into 8 Virtual Audio tracks in ableton, each input having its own Virtual FX chain / EQ / COMP and whatever else, which was all controlled realtime with a midi controller whilst muting and unmuting parts on the mpc live, a barrel of fun for Live PA.

i use my computer as a vst rack and all drums and seq. on the mpc with a program call chainer its a vst rack you just select the file with your vsts in it and pick what vst you want. it sync good works like a big sound mod .the only problem i have with it is that i want to buy the full ver. and i never got it so i just use the demo. the only think with the demo is you can't save your work but it works real good for playing vsts on your mpc
soon i'm going to get battery so that i could have all my drums on my computer so i don't have to load them on my mpc

Tohtruck wrote:Btw, a nice replacement for Battery is FXpansion Guru.

I agree, but only because of Guru's sequencer.
If you are using the MPC's sequencer to trigger sounds then there's little point switching to Guru if you already own Battery.