track mixer vs. sample mixer

ola forum.
i wrote this some time ago in a different thread, but nobody really replied to this.
so here is my question again:

i record 2 or 3 hihats, set pan and fx and then go to track mixer. now i want to keep my pan and fx settings (pgm-mode), but i can't change the track-velocity either, because to set track-velocity (i think it's volume now), i need to switch to track-mode. so both, the sample-mixer and the track-mixer, won't let me record a track, pan it, set fx and then change the track-level.
or do i miss something?

sup robot.

if you make program-level changes (individual pan, individual mix-level, individual fx) you will want to keep your track as PGM through and through. however, you can still globally control the level in GPE. go to the OUT page of GPE, hit WHOLE on LEVL, and drag it all down (you can preview while doing this, of course)

basically the method of lowering a whole pgm track's volume is the same as it was in os1 - you do it w/ WHOLE in GPE.

however, in some cases, people put drums on different tracks but utilize the same program. between trackmix/various grid edits, the OS has pushed for users to group drums on similar tracks, but realistically not everyone is going to do this.

unfortunately, in using diff tracks for diff drum sounds, if you were to go into GPE and WHOLE down the LEVL of the sample, you'll pull ALL the tracks down instead of just the one you're looking at.

in this case, your best bet is to use the earliest level setting, and my personal favorite: SAMPLE LEVL. this is where i do 90% ALL my drum level setting (partly so i can leave my drum pgms as TRACK until i track out to DAW!)

so, say you have a ride track employing two rides on two pads. instead of thinking "hey, i need to turn down the volume of that track, it's too loud" think "i need to turn down those two pads." move to that track, WINDOW over the sample in the main screen, and turn them down. this is the number one usefulness of the main screen Layer Program Edit shortcut.

if you're in grid edit, say, go at it from GPE itself, and then hit window over LEVEL to go to LPE if you have layered samples to change. if not, just stay in GPE

I use the track mixer over the pad mixer. On the xl i just did it by adjusting each tracks Vel%. I think its better this way, then each track holds its own velocity data, irrespective of the program level.

adding/subtracting velocity can be found in the slept on seq editor! recently i've been using that function heavily.

also it's important to know that velocity does not equal volume, velocity is simply another facet of midi note data that is APPLIED in samples to various modulation, such as filter cutoff, pitch, amp envelope, and more -- "level" is only one card out of many.

nym - he's sayin that he cant adjust collections of sounds, like a track level would do, its way better i many respects to have track vel, because of this.

your w/around of adjusting a whole program affects any and all tracks containing those samples, im with cmdr robt here, i did slightly prefer the former track vel approach because it is more flexible.

i know u r helping somewhat, but i think, as our methods all vary greatly, its hard to get a broadly perfect product like this without fundamental changes negatively affecting half of the community of users and not the other half, shame really, i wish somehow, that jj would add changed features, yet somehow keep the features removed - with options for switching functionality on & off, almost making the OS2 more "modular" in architechture - i mean there's supposed to be loads of room in there now, no?

by sheer, scientific data, track velocity is actually less flexible as solely a means of volume control - this is definitely not an argument, just a presentation of data.

unfortunately the way it was originally presented has given it this sense of being a quick volume control, but that was never the case for anything other than a very surface level use of the mpc velocity sensitivity.

by default in os2, pads hit "harder" than they do in os1/akai os. by default in these two earlier os's, amp vel is by default 0-100, in os2 it's 50-100 (a more commonly used "default" curve for both instrumentation and percussion).

first of all, simply speaking from a velo-level perspective, this 50-100 default gives you a smaller curve of attentuation - you start high and can only go down HALF as much as in other os's unless you specify a range of 0-100. second, if you were to adjust TRACKVEL seeking to simply change the level, this will change ALL of the following:

*any PGM with filter velocity settings (vel-cutoff, suddenly your whole track will be much more lowpassed than the rest

*individual pad relative volumes in drum PGMS where you've assigned different amp vels (snare=75-100, hat=0-100, you're gonna end up with inaudible hats next to a comparative hammer snare

*simulted layers with different amp vels ala my recent technique post will change "level" at different rates when TRACK VEL is changed

*90% of ANY preset or homemade you're using from any number of hardware/software synths are going to sound different when attentuated via TRACK VEL due to all the in-house velocity modulation triggered by velocity. VERY EASILY, you could end up trying to turn down your volume for these tracks via velocity, and the only thing that happens is A, you lowpass it, or B, you turn down the LFO rate because either/or were being modified by velocity.

your w/around of adjusting a whole program affects any and all tracks containing those samples

did you read my whole post? i accounted for that with a faster, more specific solution:

so, say you have a ride track employing two rides on two pads. instead of thinking "hey, i need to turn down the volume of that track, it's too loud" think "i need to turn down those two pads." move to that track, WINDOW over the sample in the main screen, and turn them down. this is the number one usefulness of the main screen Layer Program Edit shortcut.

if you're in grid edit, say, go at it from GPE itself, and then hit window over LEVEL to go to LPE if you have layered samples to change. if not, just stay in GPE

lastly, if folks are DETERMINED to be using separate tracks for similar elements of their beat (ie all drums on different tracks), they might as well be using different PGMS for each drum sound as well - that way we can backtrack to the beginning of this thread and just let every track be TRACK MIXED since there will be no program confliction.