what are the units/notation of "D" in the step editor?

in what units does the D in the step editor run in? i've searched and cannot find it. what equation can be used to find out what # equals _ ticks? i have searched the manual as well...

a whole measure in 4/4 is 384 ticks
quarter note: 96 ticks
eighth note: 48 ticks
sixteenth note: 24 ticks

hope this is what you meant

no sorry i must not have been clear.

i know how many ticks to a measure and whatnot. it's in the step editor. reading from left to right you have time placement, pad number, Tone, and d (decay, i'm pretty sure - too lazy to look it up)

the decay can be set using the data knob. however, i want to know what those numbers are in relation to the time itself. ie, if i want a ride to stop at a snare, i'd set the decay to kill the cymbol just before the snare starts. that's why i want the notation/units of that decay number.

is this better? thanks for your help...

. ie, if i want a ride to stop at a snare, i'd set the decay to kill the cymbol just before the snare starts. that's why i want the notation/units of that decay number.

...[/quote]

Set the snare and cymbal to the same mute group

Antonym wrote:the decay can be set using the data knob. however, i want to know what those numbers are in relation to the time itself. ie, if i want a ride to stop at a snare, i'd set the decay to kill the cymbol just before the snare starts. that's why i want the notation/units of that decay number.

That's not decay, that's duration. But what's in a name. Say you have a ride on count 1 and a snare on count 2. When the duration of the ride is 96 ticks it will stop exactly at your snare hit. If you want the sound to stop earlier make it 90 or so. Make sure the sample is set to note on.

I'm not sure if this is what you meant. There's a formula for converting sample length to ticks, you can use that to place a reversed cymbal to stop on time. I'm at my work now, when I'm home I'll look it up.

deity13 wrote:. ie, if i want a ride to stop at a snare, i'd set the decay to kill the cymbol just before the snare starts. that's why i want the notation/units of that decay number.

...

Set the snare and cymbal to the same mute group[/quote]

Remember that samples only follow the duration (from pads or sequencer) if they are set to Note On. The default is One Shot, which means they play all the way through.

Mute Groups are fine of you want muting to happen every time, but think about a real drum kit: a cymbal is not connected to anything else, it will ring... unless you stop it with your hand. But that's got nothing to do with any other part of the kit, it's an on-the-spot choice. IMHO anyways...

ok you're all helping a lot, and this must be somewhat of a tricky question to word.

i know the mute trick and i know that note on needs to be on for duration to work (and yes, what is in a name, i looked it up later and it is in fact duration haha my mistake).

ok. the DURATION option goes from 1 to a whopping 9999.

i'm asking what notation this is in. what is this number? i know it means how long the sample plays, but what is its UNIT? think back to physics and such, every numeral of measurement needs a unit of length, weight, mass, etc.

so DURATION's unit of measurement is ____?

if it doesn't have a specific unit, then what is the conversion factor to ticks? does anyone get me now? very tricky to word this without great confusion arising, i know. and i'm very thankful for your sagelike knowledge and dedication.

check out some of the work i've done in the last 4 days since i got this little toy...

http://excommence.com/orphanage.mp3

the tick relates to the sequencer resolution. According to MPC1K specs:

Resolution 96 parts per 1/4-note (96ppqn)

so, every quarter note is divided into 96 slots in the mpc. For every quarter note, there's 96 slots to place a sound in..

Let's say you have a sound at 1.1.00. its duration is 48 ticks. so, the sound starts at the first tick and lasts until the center of the quarter-note.

Why have 96 slots? Why have more than, say, enough slots to make 1/128 -notes? So if you want a loose feel to your sound, shift it back a little, you could move it to 1.2.01 instead of spot-on 1.2.00. This will be a difference that you can't tell with the naked ear (There was a thread about this, and I think somebody proved that it is not a distinguishable difference with any sensible tempo setting), but anyways that's basically swing for you.

..Why precisely the number 96? damn if I know.

Of course, the resolution or amount of slots can be doubled with a simple trick. want a 90bpm beat made? just set the tempo to 180bpm. there you go, 192 ppqn.

This isn't really my strong area, but I hope I managed to answer some of the things you were wondering. In case of serious mistakes, somebody set my facts straight please.

p.s. orphanage sounds nice.

thanks, that's all true, but might not be relevent unless the DURATION NOTATION is measured in ticks. which i don't think is true. can someone tell me that?

Test it. Load a simple sustaining sample, set it to a quarternote (96 ticks), play it along an eightnote hihat or the metronome and count.

What makes you think it's not so? To have note duration in any other measure than ticks would certainly complicate things. An option to show duration in straight note values would be cool peharps.. I'd rather have recordable/memorized track mutes though.

Antonym wrote:thanks, that's all true, but might not be relevent unless the DURATION NOTATION is measured in ticks. which i don't think is true. can someone tell me that?

Duration is measured in ticks! A one bar break beat sample will only loop, with note on, if the duration is set to 384.

sweet. thank you. the reason i didn't know for sure about that was because i had never seen ticks go above 96, and for that reason didn't think that duration's notation was ticks because you could set it to an obscene number.

but it works perfectly now. i deeply appreciate everyone's help and attempts at conveying the message.

enjoy your pad tapping.
nym

Old thread, but relevant to me now. What I'd like to know is the

"formula for converting sample length to ticks". I checked that deepsound page with all the mathematics stuff, alas-- nothing.

stinktank wrote:Old thread, but relevant to me now. What I'd like to know is the

"formula for converting sample length to ticks". I checked that deepsound page with all the mathematics stuff, alas-- nothing.

The length of a sample is fixed in time by the sampling (or playback) frequency.

samples / sampling frequency in samples per second = length in seconds

The length of a tick in seconds depends on tempo, so we will have to bring that into the equation.

tempo in beats per minute / seconds per minute = beats per second
beats per second * ticks per beat = ticks per second

multiply these and you have your answer

(samples / fs)((bpm / 60) ppq)
or
(samples / 44,100)((bpm / 60) 96) for the MPC 1000

Thanks, Grant. That ought to do it.