Just curious

I read through a lot of the JJ manuals today, brushing up on stuff I had a few questions about. In the process, I read through each addition in the OS2 manual (I have the Steez, OS1, and OS2 all bound together, it was included by the previous owner of my MPC when I bought it off ebay). I ran across a lot of stuff that I have never used, and frankly can not ever see using. Again, this is OS2. I'm curious which of these features you guys use, especially if you find them quite helpful, and how you use them:

AUDIO TRACK screen, editing, including pad locate (and GRID EDIT AUDIO)

GRID EDIT (I can see why people used to MIDI editing would use this, but it seems that most of the core functions can be carried out in step edit)

LOOP EDIT MODE

EXTRA AUDIO PLAY (completely baffling)

Master effect: compression (very tough to gauge its severity track by track)

I'm big on the Q-links, GPE and all its options, the simult feature, mixer/mute automation, and trim/chop/slice and all its glory. The reverb is laughable, esp. compared to the one on the 2000xl (eb-4 efx board). Some of the effects are passable, though.

Thanks for the feedback.

GRID EDIT (I can see why people used to MIDI editing would use this, but it seems that most of the core functions can be carried out in step edit)

well, they CAN be, but a lobotomy can also be carried out with a spoon!

grid edit for me is dramatically faster and more complete a sequencing tool. a comparison would be looking at a line of sheet music compared to only looking at 4 notes at a time(step edit).

you can see much more and navigate faster accordingly. furthermore, you don't have to use the ridiculous practice of recording each drum on its own track, which both slows down the editing process and also discourages playing the pads like a drumset.

step edit is just good for a live readout of a track. i've also used it to quickly adjust qlink note on values for a track that doesn't have much going on.

step edit becomes next to useless when it gets busy (drum track, any track with chords, etc)

LOOP EDIT MODE

for those of us that use double time resolution, loop edit mode is basically useless because you're only listening to a half-bar at a time.

any mpc EFFECT

are all but useles, use a damn DAW.

AUDIO TRACK screen, editing, including pad locate (and GRID EDIT AUDIO)

scratching, remixing, acapella chunks, live beatboxing. pre-daw audio track. extremely useful for prototyping, sometimes useful for chunk sampling.

bump. good thread.

Thanks. I'm curious what the heck people have to say, so speak up.


PS: This is off topic and perhaps walking on the wrong side of the line, but I'm having a damn hard time finding a version of the PSP vintage warmer that actually works. If anyone has a working copy of this and can send me a .rar file, please PM me. This goes for any quality plug ins, especially the waves and PSP plug ins. I had all of this stuff at one time and am trying to get it back after losing it. Need VST.

AUDIO TRACK:

Critical to me! The MPC with Audio Tracks is something I always dreamed of. I hit one switch, all my gear turns on and within ten seconds I'm singing/playing my song ideas in. No fuss or loss of focus (no matter my mind state).

GRID EDIT:

I'm not a pro on the Grids yet, but I'm starting to use them instead of step edit. I was never a huge fan of step edit, but grudgingly used it (also on my triton, very similar).

LOOP EDIT MODE

This I really love. I use it to fine tune the groove of drum sequences I recorded in real-time. I'm probably the only who does it this way, but it works better for me than any type of sequencing I've ever tried! Only problem is it doesn't work well in other time signatures, or with tempo doubled (like Nym said).

EXTRA AUDIO PLAY:

Yep, completely baffling...!

MASTER EFFECT: COMPRESSION

I usually throw this on while I'm working on a track, but it doesn't end up in the finished product. It's cool for keeping your levels in check (the gain parameter), especially if you're flipping between projects.

you can use pad locate to jump around the sequence, pretty cool for live remixing of your beats, it works on a blank audio track too.

never really used grid edit til 0s2xl ,in my opinion its much better and very useful.

elevated wrote:AUDIO TRACK:

Critical to me! The MPC with Audio Tracks is something I always dreamed of. I hit one switch, all my gear turns on and within ten seconds I'm singing/playing my song ideas in. No fuss or loss of focus (no matter my mind state).

See, it just doesn't seem that different to me from using the regular old "record" feature. But I guess it alleviates the step of going in to TRIM to edit the sample. Just seems redundant, but maybe just an "ease of use" feature.

Mikolo, the pad locate to remix beats sounds good, I'll try it.


PS--I found a copy of the vintage warmer that works. Awesome.

Trunk-- You're right, I could work around using Audio Tracks.

I would use Record mode, hit Play on the sequencer at the same time as I begin performing, edit start point of resulting sample in Trim, assign Sample to a Program, and record a MIDI note at the beginning of the Sequence to start the sample.

Audio Tracks skips a few steps. Nothing crazy... but I'll never go back to the old way.