Post your views and questions about the Akai MPC2500
By Swindt412 Sun Apr 06, 2008 3:24 am
I am yet to successfully convert to song mode. I made two songs recording pro tools while real time changing the sequences... this can get very annoying and tricky with 2 bar sequences and so I must figure out song mode!!!... I have had varying problems in the past but currently my problem is that while everything plays fine in each individual sequence... when put into song mode the sampled melody is now recorded as bass sounds... this makes no sense to me... anyone have an idea of whats wrong... i would be very grateful... i am very excited about sampling but very frustrated
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By Lampdog Sun Apr 06, 2008 6:30 am
Song mode the way i'm going to explain it is the same in every sequencer I've played with.

Make a seq. Now copy that sequence a few several times and edit each one with different stuff.

Now go into song mode and chain them together in the order you want them to playback.

Have ALL your tracks line up the same throughout EVERY sequence
Or you will cause the headache that you already have, melodies playing other samples, not a smart thing to do...

seq1 / trk1=bass / trk2=snare / trk3=kik / trk4=hhat etc....
seq2 / trk1=bass / trk2=snare / trk3=kik / trk4=hhat etc....
seq3 / trk1=bass / trk2=snare / trk3=kik / trk4=hhat etc....
seq4 / trk1=bass / trk2=snare / trk3=kik / trk4=hhat etc....

Now when you go into song mode and play your song back, you can do your pad mutes or whatever you guys do to make droputs.

By Swindt412 Sun Apr 06, 2008 6:52 am
I have an idea of what your saying... but im kind of thick headed.... so you mean by "Have ALL your tracks line up the same throughout EVERY sequence" just make sure that each track for each sequence has the same instrument, BUT im allowed to alter the pattern for the instrument, CORRECT?

AND.... "Now when you go into song mode and play your song back, you can do your pad mutes or whatever you guys do to make droputs."

I have no experience with this at all.... i dont expect you to tutour me either... but could u give me an idea of how to do this...

By Swindt412 Sun Apr 06, 2008 7:59 am
Thanks... I took your advice and get hear the melody but its still messed up... like for example.. there is one sound that i want to do a kind of beat to so i keep it playing consecutivley without it playing the whole way through.. like i hit it a bunch of times and keep starting it so it has a dj scratch appeal to it... hope you know what i mean and its all good but in song mode it messes up and overlaps... ive been messing around with the program-->poly and mono but i dont know the right formula
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By Lampdog Sun Apr 06, 2008 8:09 am
seq1 / trk1=bass / trk2=snare / trk3=kik / trk4=hhat etc....
seq2 / trk1=bass / trk2=snare / trk3=kik / trk4=hhat etc....
seq3 / trk1=bass / trk2=snare / trk3=kik / trk4=hhat etc....
seq4 / trk1=bass / trk2=snare / trk3=kik / trk4=hhat etc....

Do that. Exactly what I said, don't add to my meaning. :twisted:
I said what I meant. Just do it.


"Make a seq. Now copy that sequence a few several times and edit each one with different stuff."

Do that. Exactly what I said, don't add to my meaning. :twisted:
I said what I meant. Just do it.


I'm not going to add to your confusion by rephrasing something that I think I broke down the easiest way I can. Just do that, try it out, and keep going.


hope you know what i mean and its all good but in song mode it messes up and overlaps
I don't understand that one.

By Swindt412 Sun Apr 06, 2008 8:48 am
damn... i got the demon head... hahha


yea.. sorry... you made that perfectly clear... i sometimes try to make shit harder than it is...


im going to try one more time and see if i can get around the messed up sample playback in song mode
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By Lampdog Sun Apr 06, 2008 8:54 am
Yeah it happens. People over think stuff sometimes and confuse themselves even more. Try not to let that happen to you. It can be frustrating.

By Swindt412 Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:38 am
I figured out that it plays back correctly whenever I go to song mode and then press play after I have put all the sequences in order... before I was trying to play the song through the main screen and all the sequences were overlapping....

thx again :P
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By Lampdog Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:18 am
Song mode is a chaining of sequences. Gotta understand that and you'll be fine.

Song mode is like that in many other sequencers as well.

I told you to "go into song mode" at the beginning.

By 1ABGood2 Sun Apr 06, 2008 12:18 pm
Swindt412 wrote:I figured out that it plays back correctly whenever I go to song mode and then press play after I have put all the sequences in order... before I was trying to play the song through the main screen and all the sequences were overlapping....

thx again :P


Yeah thats all good as long as you DON'T CONVERT the song...
Not to go into it too much but you need to understand that A TRACK WON"T CHANGE PROGRAMS for you.

As an example, having recorded a bass pattern from program #1 on track 1 sequence 1,and a highhat pattern from program #2 on track 1 sequence 2 and then converting the song to another sequence, the converted sequence will see TRACK 1 as PROGRAM #1 , NOT PROGRAM #2 ...so all you'll hear is the pad of PROGRAM #1 sound playing to timing of your highhat melody...NO HIGHHAT SOUND FROM PROGRAM #2.

Read what Lampdog is saying...Then read it again...and again....You really need to understand what he's saying because you'll love him for it later on....And it'll save you a lot of **** ups.

Easy fix is each time you change to another sequence and then record a DIFFERENT sound, DIFFERENT PROGRAM, Don't use a track that you USED ON A PREVIOUS (or any other sequence)

You have 64 tracks per sequence.....use em...
Hope this helps.
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By That-1-DJ Sun Apr 06, 2008 3:02 pm
You have 64 trks for 99 seqs to create 1 song USE THEM!
The way that I do it is on Sq:01 I do a complete layout of the song that i am working on (Meaning, That I put in every voice that I am going to use in the song on a different track, Remember that you have 64 of them) and then I will map out my song in my head usually 8 Bar Intro,1st verse 16 bars, Chorus 8 bars, 2nd verse 16 bars, and so on. I then copy Sq:01 a few times and then i rename them Intro, Chorus, 1st Verse, 2nd Verse, 3rd Verse, bridge , Outro. I then do my track mutes for each Sq, after that I go to song mode and put it all together. hope this helps!

By Swindt412 Sun Apr 06, 2008 7:07 pm
Yes most definitely, I have a long long way to go, but I've learned a good amount for a saturday afternoon. THanks again.. everybody :P