Mpc2000 Question(s) (mpc heads enter)
 

yo sorry if this is a noob question but i just got my machine 2 days ago..

I made up a basic drum loop. the rthym and everything is fine, but I want to sequence it into the song, how would i do that? I fucked around looking for it for about 20 minutes, still no luck.

So basically, how do I start arranging my sequences?

also ill probably have more questions later..peace

okay nevermind. figured this out. its easy as shit.

but i have more questions.

where is xkwest, doesnt he have a mpc???

sup... its the same as using fruity... except the visual privelege isn't there... you figured it out though...
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aim: xkfenex <----- iam not on much...sometimes once a week...

contact@xkwest.com <---a better chance of catching me via email... i check it several times a day....

by the way i have a 2000xl...so if you have a 2000 there might be slight differences in what and when to press something...
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if you haven't already... this might be your best forum for mpc resources.... there's tons of info by doing a search... and asking questions...

http://www.mpc-tutor.com/phpBB2/

yeah I go there.and i have a 2000xl.

Okay.

I was just wondering how you do your drums. I noticed that everyone assigns a kick to a track, a snare to another track and so on.

and just records one at a time.

Is that supposed to be the best way? because for some reason I have to hit the kick and the snare... just wondering.

lol

one more question. i want to lower the decay of a individual sequence, not a pad. how would i do that?

peace!

http://www.techtv.com/audiofile/sto...3308290,00.html
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^seriously... my first 3 days... i didn't have a clue on the correct way to do until i watched those 2 videos... on that site...
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its best to record one pad to a track at time.. unless your doing something like two or more pad variations of the same kick... or unless your doing some melody stuff with chopped samples...
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i woulnt' recommend tapping the kick and snare on the same track... it wouldn't be good if you took it to a mastering engineer like that....
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i feel you on the two hands thing... this is what i do... one hand hits the kick pad... while the other taps a metal part of the mpc covering(basically that hand is pretending to tap the snare)... like that metal space area close to the circular data wheel... or i'll tap close to the akai....

^^^i do that a lot on slight complex patterns where i put my rhythmic soul into the beat... and iam usually dancing... while tapping that shit out....lol
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decay on the sequence... iam not fully understanding what you mean... do you mean like a fading effect ....

example.....

at 1:13 of this http://www.xkwest.com/xbeatm3us/kiss_me_xkwest.m3u

that's nothing more than decreasing the velocity.... basically i just turned the 16levels for velocity on... on the last bar i just tapped pads 16 then 12, then 8, then pad 4...

^there's other ways to do it.. but iam most comfortable doing it this way...

Ok im starting to get my drums down, thanks for the tip on hinting the mpc. it helped.

what i mean by decay, is i have a part that i want to fade out on..

and i just have a question on how you set your samples up.

do you just assign your melody sample a certain way, do you play the melody and then play the drums over it or what???

im just wondering, because i find myself pretty cluttered up.

peace

so you mean decaying a sample on a pad?... if so...
1. shift-6
2. params
3. on the left side is decay... the default value is 5... increase it for a more gradual decay....

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for me its important to be organized....
in bank A..
i always have the kick on A13, snare on A14, hat on A15...
^thats basic so i get my creative juices pumping... depending on how ill the sample is i'll have the same kick snare.. and hat on the pads right under those... with slightly different filter settings... as far as the rest of the pads on bank A, like pad A16,A12, and those 8 others... ...those would be for my percussions...and extra drums... like a tom... rims.... tambourine...guiro, shaker,,,etc...
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basically bank a is for drums and percussions only.... its like that on every beat....


bank b is for samples and extra effects......i love to chop my samples... its organized based on the chops.... if its chopped into 4 equal pieces... then the 1st pads on the 1st row are filled... as far naming the samples... iam nit-picky and i have those organized too.... example... the name of the beat is dreamstar... so the melody samples are named DMSTARM1, DMSTARM2,etc.... the m denotes... melody.... for vocal samples... its like DMSTARV1, the v denotes vocal of course....
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iam giving you more info than you should know... but it helps in the long run....when you get creatively tired of a beat and you want to come back to it later....
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i should start my own mpc training lessons... you must provide your own hotel, food accomadations though...lol

aight good lookin out. ill try to start a full track. shit aint that hard. lol

actually one last question lol.

I was just wondering if you have a effects card? it sucks that you cant use reverb on normal xl's, because i really like them with my drums.

if you do have a effects card was it worth the money?

naw i don't have an effects card... its kind of a hassle.. to take the sample back and forth on the mpc... and add effects using cooledit or whatever... and bring it back to the mpc... so basically i rarely use effects... i just have work arounds... for the flanger effect... and that delay effect... plus other stuff to widen the stereo field of the sample...
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if its worth it i don't know... there should be alternatives like a lexicon mp100 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...&category=41784
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for me sometimes having effects makes me lose focus on finishing the beat.... i remember when i was using fruity... of course... the effects were right at my fingertips... and i would spend minutes to hours to fiddlin' with the effects... and all i would have laid down is one pattern... knowing that i need to make a full song... so it really bogs me down anyways...

aight thanks for all the help.

lol what was your first beat on the mpc? just wondering, do you have a link or somthing?

i had three first wack beats... they were so wack i deleted them...
http://www.xkwest.com/xbeatm3us/stream_xkwest.m3u
^^thats the fourth beat i've made on the mpc...

thats pretty dope for a 4th beat off the mpc.

you are my inspiration xk :)

thanks man... just sharing the knowledge...

i hope to join this circle of knowlede soon

no doubt.

aiyo.

wow. can you explain time signitures and shit? im really confused right now.

don't know what to explain.... most forms of music such as hiphop,pop,rnb... deal with 4/4 time... 4 beats per measure.... i wouldn't worry about those other time signatures unless you have more knowledge in music theory... as far as hip hop... iam not sure the emcee would ride the beat well enough....

well. i fucked around alot with time stretching, and all it seems to do is make a echo type effect at the end of the loop..... now im trying this in recycle, is it better to do pitching and stretching on the computer or do all that shit on the mpc?

because i guess, when i put a loop into the mpc it calculated the sample timing everything, and i cant even change it so its not on the "poly" setting (when i want it on mono...)

1. shift-5
2. select "loop" - f2
3. highlight that shit
4. loop "on"
5. select "params" - f4
6. on the right side: where it says beat.... adjust if necessary to the correct amount of beats that sample is..... remember 4beats equals 1 bar... 8 beats is 2bars.... and so on....

7. Also on that right field is the where it says new tempo is the actual bpm of the sample...

8....you probably already know steps one through 7.....

9. on the left field is tune.... basically this is adjusting the pitch... notice how when you increase the pitch... the bpm increases......
^^...i always adjust the pitch first before bpm matching....

10. now for the actual time-stretching....

11. press f1 or f2....dosen't matter....

12. select "edit" - f5

13. flip to the time stretch menu(you know... where it has ratio: preset: .....)

14. for me.... i don't fuck with that screen... fuck that ratio shit.... fuck that preset shit... fuck the adjust amount... fuck all that... for me its a waste of time... and its too much calculating shit... when sometimes the result is a metallic sounding sample.....
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15. so what i always do is.... bpm match it... basically i enter the bpms i want....

16. select "bpm" - f2

17. go to the new tempo field... and enter the bpms you want...

18. PRESS ENTER.... IF YOU DIDN'T THEN YOU DIDN'T DO SHIT...

19. press do it......

20. walla... the sample is adjusted to the proper bpm

21. i always turn my loop mode off... that holdin' down the pad-waiting for the loop to end type of shit ain't cool with me...
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you said something about poly and mono.... if have the sample with the loop mode on.... then it will always show note off..... thats why i have the loop mode off... so that i can have the sample in mono.......
^^,,, for me this is better.. cuz i can stutter the sample... and also do a little melody using the 16 levels function....
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****.... i always^^^ go through these steps.... before choppin' the sample....



as far as using recycle.... i use it on occassion... mostly for big synth heavy samples that are large in polyphony therefore takin' up many megabytes... sometimes i just don't like to wait for the waveform to render in the mpc...

aiight . thanks for all of that. ima go try this shit out.

aight sorry for the double post.

but, i think im starting to get this shit down.

i just have a question about bpms.

what exactly do bpms represent? this is kinda a broad question, because i dont really know how to explain what i want to know, sorry.lol
pz

beats per minute....
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basically its the tempo..
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or in simpler terms.... the speed of the composition...

well yeah i kinda knew that.

but when i up the bpm the dynamics of the sounds arent sacrificed right?

well, i should stop bothering you, ill just figure whatever else i need to . thanks for the help.peace

you just gotta listen to see if it makes a difference... for some samples it sounds cool.... for others its shitty...

and as far as bpm-matching.... if your going down a lot in bpms... like from 100 to 70.... expect it to sound a little weird.... kinda metallic... due to the fact that your stretching the sample pretty hard.... sometimes it gives a good gritty effect.... sometimes it sounds plain shitty.....

i got my 4000 on sunday. it is a beautiful thing.

I already made a banger that blows all my other beats away.



. . . when I master this machine the game is over . . . *evil laugh* . . .

^^..no doubt... thats gonna be one of my next pieces...
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i was wondering... how do you save... does it still use zips.... or is it smartmedia cards...?

i dont think either, after im done i just save the entire memory to my harddrive

hey dont foget to make a beat by sunday in the league

lol im back..almost completed a beat..

just i have the main part done, but i want to copy certain parts of it to make a hook.... the drums specifiically...instead of playing everything out again..

would i just go to step edit, and add the the tracks or what?

pz

just copy the sequence as a whole to a empty sequence... and erase the tracks you don't need.

yeah i figured that out, bar copy or whatever.

but yo, i have a vocal sample that i want to start at one part of a sequence and end at the beginning of another, what i did was cut the vocal sample into 2 parts...one part would be the begining and go to sequence 1 and the end would go to the beginning of sequence 2...

i thought it would work, but it sounds like crap, all cut up and shit.

I looked through the manual for about an hour and i cant find somthing that would be like a "free record".. do you know what im trying to say?