assigning pads to different tracks in record mode

all i want to do is push record and hit multiple pads and have certain pads record to certain tracks and other pads to other tracks. is this possible?

FrumiousBandersnatch wrote:all i want to do is push record and hit multiple pads and have certain pads record to certain tracks and other pads to other tracks. is this possible?

Nope. There are other things you can do with it, but if that's all you wanted then I guess you're not interested.

it's certainly doable to move each pad to it's own track after the fact in SEQ EDIT but it can be a little tedious, especially if your using all 16 pads (or more, if using the B, C, D banks).

for the record, i think it would be great if JJ could add an EXPLODE option to SEQ EDIT, which would automatically move each recorded pad to a new track in one step.

maybe EXPAND would be a better term, but i like EXPLODE.
kind of like an 'exploded view' diagram of a machine, which shows all of the parts dissasembled & floating in space.

anyone else would find this useful? might be worth a request...

that would be incredible. see, i play the mpc live like a drumset. its really easy for me to record a beat all at once, but that means that everything is one track and its hard to edit that all at once. if i could put different pads to different tracks, i could record the beat all at once in real time but then go back and edit the different tacks individually. having to record beats bass, hi hat, snare at a time really hinders my creative ability at times. lets get this goin as a new feature pa pa please....

i resist this because of the following statement:

i play the mpc live like a drumset. its really easy for me to record a beat all at once, but that means that everything is one track and its hard to edit that all at once.

it is absolutely not hard to edit all at once.
i record, edit, and eventually track out all my drums on 1 track by necessity.
sure, it's hell to edit in step edit - but kid, you're using JJOS. step edit is a rare closet full of winter clothing. use grid edit or better yet midi grid edit (or NO edit, just the main screen, using selective erasing)

NOTE: i used to place my drum parts on different tracks. i would record them all at once and then use SEQ EDIT to selectively copy certain pads out of the original and into other tracks. this was time consuming. even worse was editing them one at a time - i would be editing a hat track and suddenly realize that the problem wasn't the hats, rather the kick - and i'd have to cruise all the way over several tracks just to fix that, then flip back--all in step edit--said and done, i ended up spending a lot more time just doing that trying to deep edit than i do now.

having to record beats bass, hi hat, snare one at a time really hinders my creative ability at times.

absolutely, and you shouldn't. along those lines, you shouldn't have to EDIT them one track at a time, either - for the above reasons. i look back on that comparative nightmare and i see the reason for all of the issues that i now take with my drums from my cd Edge City in 2006.

i've argued against the separation of drum parts to different tracks for a LONG time now. it encourages "hunt and pecking" which i think puts off the inevitable (being able to play the MPC pads as if it were a straight up instrument, a drumset). maybe this is a genre thing - hunting and pecking is fine for some drum patterns, but as far as TC off, groove based intricate acoustic-modeled drums, it's a ship built in a bottlel.

you being a drummer--or at least interested in drumming multiple pads at the same time--i am confident that you're have a far better experience using midi grid edit - if allows you easy access to single pads for editing WITHOUT spreading you all over your tracks.

this conversation has come up before and i've caught heat for it but i stand behind it!



^ the best damn drum editor you EVER WILL SEE.

yo Nym, when i'm talking about adding the EXPLODE option to SEQ EDIT, i'm saying that this is something you do as a last step.

you would still record your beats all on one track just banging the pads. then when you got everything set you would copy to different tracks. this is all about LIVE use & dropping all your different sounds in and out in the TRACK MUTE page on the fly.

Nym, you've got to do some live sets man & see how the other half lives!

in my live sets, i play live drums on the mpc.

but you have a point - for live track muting, for sure, i agree 100% that any in-mpc solution other than what you described (different sections on different tracks) would be awfully inconvenient.

unfortunately, codewise, EXPLODE seems like a weird one to implement - by that i mean how would one set the specification for which pad gets its own track? would each pad automatically get its own track? what about pads w/ no sound assigned? what about existing tracks? etc etc etc. a very large number of questions arise.

however, we already do possess an explode function. how would/could EXPLODE be anything different/more convenient than "MOVE" in seq edit? in MOVE you can selectively tap out the pads you want moved to a different track.

i could record a 5 pad drum pattern (2 pads hats, 1 pad kick, 1 pad snare, 1 pad roll or shaker or whatever) and have it EXPLODED to 4 different tracks with just 3 MOVES in seq edit. this EXPLOSION would take less than 30 seconds.

what EXPLODE feature could offer more than this?

for editing, however, referring to the preceding poster's posed proposition, given the current tools available,

the more i think about EXPLODE in seq edit, the more i like it
my biggest concern is the specification for dealing with existing tracks, as well as empty pads.

it'd be great if the mpc could just go from PAD to TRACK (the numbers correspond, anyway) but you know what i mean

it'd be absolutely best if this was a very simple addition, that's the best chance that it'd get implemented. unfortunately the question comes down to do we request improvements on existing capabilities (things we can do already, like MOVE tracks) or increase the functional capacity by requesting stuff that's beyond the machine's current capacity (multitimbrality is a big one that's in the common wishlist)

In my opinion explode function would be nice if JJ doesn't implement PAD mute.

My RS7000 had this Explode option and it was useful for sending kicks, snares, hats, etc, to different tracks after recording. Would love to see variable track lengths offered in that machines sequencer available in JJ OS one day too.

G4s

le rat wrote:In my opinion explode function would be nice if JJ doesn't implement PAD mute.

yeah, i've been requesting PAD MUTE in the past but the more i think about it, EXPLODE would be way better.

with PAD MUTE, you can drop pads in and out. pretty cool...

...but with EXPLODE giving you each pad on its own track, you can not only do this (via TRACK MUTE), but also have each pad using a different PROGRAM, and switch them on the fly as the sequencer runs. very powerful.

Nym wrote:the more i think about EXPLODE in seq edit, the more i like it
my biggest concern is the specification for dealing with existing tracks, as well as empty pads.

yeah. the way i see it is only recorded pads would be moved to the next available empty track in the order of the pad #.

example:
lets say you recorded a beat using pads 1,2,3, and 6 on track 1.

hit EXPLODE:
pad 1 stays on track 1
pad 2 gets moved to track 2
pad 3 goes to track 3
pad 6 goes to track 4

if a track is already in use, the EXPLODE function will just skip it and put the pad on the next empty track.

unfortunately the question comes down to do we request improvements on existing capabilities (things we can do already, like MOVE tracks) or increase the functional capacity by requesting stuff that's beyond the machine's current capacity (multitimbrality is a big one that's in the common wishlist)

why not both? i don't see it as an either/or proposition. that's what JJ's been doing anyway: improving old stuff & adding new stuff.

also, i thought the multitimbral thing was a hardware limitation that's unfixable by JJ?

+1 EXPLODE

also, i thought the multitimbral thing was a hardware limitation that's unfixable by JJ?

i don't remember hearing this. correction - i remember reading this from an at-the-time-less-than-credible-source...i'd need confirmation from the boss on that one, i'm still holding out for multitimbrality...

edit: forgot to mention, your explanation is solid. i like it.

Yeah that would work I'm for it if it can be done. I could use that to quickly lift and split up patterns programmed from weird cruddy midi groovebox interfaces.

On that multimbrality thing I thought the limitation had to do with the basic Akai specified software architecture that it's all still based on. One of those slate-wiper issues that's waiting for a completely Akai-cleansed OS3 or somesuch.....