MPC500 to Drum Kit MIDI help

I have an MPC500 and a Roland TD6V drum kit. I am trying to get the kit to trigger the samples from the MPC. I bought the MPC off ebay, and it came loaded with some sequences. When I hook up the MIDI out of the TD6 drum kit to the MIDI in of the MPC500, the drum pads do trigger the samples, but only for the sequences already on there. Whenever I create my own sequence, the samples aren't triggered. A weird thing is that the Note No.'s from the MPC do not match with those of the TD6. They are similar, but not the same. When I compare the Note Number for a pad on the MPC and the TD6, they are not the same....even for the ones that are working on the previously loaded sequences. They are something like MPC = (C 1)37 and TD6 = 37(C#2). I do not have them both in front of me right now. I will try to put in the exact note numbers later, but I am pretty sure they don't match.

I kinda figure that the problem is a setting that is specific to each sequence. I can not find out what it is though. I have read both manuals, but the language when it comes to all the MIDI stuff is a bit out of my range. I am new to MIDI.

Here are the settings that I have in the MPC.

Receive Channel - ALL
Soft Thru - As Track
Pad to Sampler - ON
Sync - Slave

I am pretty sure that these were the settings on both the sequences that were already loaded (and work), and the ones that I created (and don't work).

Ultimately, I would like to easily specify which MPC pad is triggered by which drum pad. Any help?

edit: not sure if this is of any help, but here is a link to the manual for the drum kit.....HERE

The MIDI settings are the same regardless of what sequence you have loaded. And the key thing is not so much the sequence as the loaded program / track settings. I suggest you start a new program, select track A1 and select it as "midi" (as opposed to drum) and then assign the sounds to your pads. Now go through each pad and change the midi note corresponding to that pad to match the ones on your drum kit. Now, as you have selected soft thru "as track", it will transmit saved sequences on midi channel 1 but you don't need to worry about this if you are playing rather than recording and playing back.

It is worth reading up on MIDI, it is a headf*ck at first but it all becomes clear after a while...

Thanks man. I have been messing with it a bit more...I think I have a better grasp on it. It is odd though, the Note # listed on the MPC under 'Defaul Assign' doesn't seem to have any effect on the relation to the TD6 drum kit pad. If I change the note # on the MPC, it makes no chage in the way it sounds when I hit the drum pad.

It seems like each note # on the TD6 corresponds to a pad on the MPC. I guess now I just need to work through all 48 of them. I think I have the first bank done.

I think I am kinda getting it down....it still doesn't make much sense though.

SirDuke wrote:If I change the note # on the MPC, it makes no chage in the way it sounds when I hit the drum pad.

Hmmmm that is strange... I think MIDI throws this in every once in a while to mess with our minds...

Yeah....well....I had thought about it, and read some more. It seems like the 'Default Assign' on the MPC is for when there is no sample applied to the pad. In other words, the Note # assigned on the MPC is the note that it will trigger on an external device if there is no sample. I don't have the MIDI going out from the MPC anywhere, so this doesn't really matter.

I think a hard thing for me to grasp at first was the idea that MIDI sends the information, not the sound. So, my instincts were to put 'in' where 'out' should be. The MIDI info transfered just tells the device which note to play and how to play it.

So, now I have everything mapped out, and can assign whatever I want, wherever. This should get fun from here.