Any MPC one + users ?

[SumOne]

Anyone else use their MPC as a Bass multi-fx? 

 

I've gone on about this before and but as far as I can tell it isn't something people really do - I'm not sure why though, it seems a pretty good multi-fx to me. 

 

Plug in, set the it as an 'audio' track, set input to mono, record 'arm' to monitor live... And off you go, can use as tuner, effects (most have more parameters to adjust than your average multi-fx), it has bass amps, all sorts. No noticeable latency. 

 

 

 

Edited October 22 by SumOne

[BigRedX]

How easy is it to change sounds using this method?

 

Any glitches if you were to change as you are playing?

[SumOne]

11 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

How easy is it to change sounds using this method?

 

Any glitches if you were to change as you are playing?

 

It's not easy enough to change whole projects quickly/seamlessly for live use in mid-song, that is a downside. There are workarounds. i.e. could save several Bass 'tracks' within one project,  then set the drumpad to mute/solo the tracks.

 

Time spent changing between projects is one downside of the MPC in general: Changing from one project to the next requires: 'menu > new project> 'do you want to save changes to previous preset'? (if you've changed stuff) y/n > (wait about 3 seconds) > 'select project' screen opens (you can organise it in a user list)> click project and wait about 3 seconds for new one to load. So changing project is do-able between songs, but not during a song. It's a shame as it means using it live for a DJ type tool of seamless mixes between songs needs some workarounds, perhaps this is something the new software is dealing with - I'm yet to fully get into it though.

 

 

[Woodinblack]

I haven't used it as an effect but I have recorded the bass with it and then added the effects. Mine is for use live for complex samples and sounds - I have an MPX that can play samples, but it is litterally just a sample playback tool, and when I wanted to play the same sound but longer or shorter or with a different velocity (ie, keyboard stuff), i went for the MPC, especially with the multisampling where you can have the same sample at different velocities, so on the MPX you can play back the same sample at a lower volume when you hit the pad softer, but on the MPC you can play a different softer hit sample and it makes quite a difference. And the MPC can play back sequences on a pad too

[BigRedX]

36 minutes ago, SumOne said:

It's not easy enough to change whole projects quickly/seamlessly for live use in mid-song, that is a downside. There are workarounds. i.e. could save several Bass 'tracks' within one project,  then set the drumpad to mute/solo the tracks.

 

Could that be done using MIDI program changes or controlled via running the project itself?

 

37 minutes ago, SumOne said:

Time spent changing between projects is one downside of the MPC in general: Changing from one project to the next requires: 'menu > new project> 'do you want to save changes to previous preset'? (if you've changed stuff) y/n > (wait about 3 seconds) > 'select project' screen opens (you can organise it in a user list)> click project and wait about 3 seconds for new one to load. So changing project is do-able between songs, but not during a song. It's a shame as it means using it live for a DJ type tool of seamless mixes between songs needs some workarounds, perhaps this is something the new software is dealing with - I'm yet to fully get into it though.

 

This seems to be a problem for almost all hardware solutions that I might want to use in a live situation. So far I've not come across anything that does the job as painlessly or quickly as a Mac running Logic and Keyboard Maestro. I have an AirTurn with two footswitches, one which starts/pauses Logic and the other which runs a Keyboard Maestro macro which closes the current Logic project switches to the Finder scrolls down one file and opens that. This process takes less than 5 seconds even on an ancient 2012 MacBook Pro. All I have to do is add a number to beginning of each Logic file in order I want to have the songs in the set and I'm ready to go.

[SumOne]

14 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

Could that be done using MIDI program changes or controlled via running the project itself?

 

 

 

 

I expect so, although I've only used an Akai MIDI Mix with an MPC to basically add volume sliders to each track and for the knobs to control a couple of parameters for each track (that's quite good for stuff like live dub mixing - fading in different tracks and turning the knobs to do stuff like increase reverb). The 'Learn' MIDI feature does all the usual things like toggle and momentary so I expect it could turn on/off tracks or groups of tracks.

 

https://support.akaipro.com/en/support/solutions/articles/69000858922-mpc-series-how-to-send-program-changes-with-a-midi-controller

 

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

Could that be done using MIDI program changes or controlled via running the project itself?

 

Yes

[sammybee]

15 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Yes

 

I'm not sure it's possible to change a project with a midi cc message. You can certainly change a sequence with a cc message within a project

It's a workaround, but it would quickly get very messy and confusing if you had multiple songs you wanted to arrange into a set within a project

[Woodinblack]

35 minutes ago, sammybee said:

I'm not sure it's possible to change a project with a midi cc message. You can certainly change a sequence with a cc message within a project

 

Its not possible to change program, no, the yes you quoted was an answer to "Could that be done using MIDI program changes or controlled via running the project itself?" where that was a quote to muting and unmuting several bass tracks.

[SumOne]

The Akai Midimix is a good relatively cheap (£77) addition to an MPC:

 

 

Plugged in and it all worked as it should with minimal faff, the 'MIDI learn' function of the MPC works well. 

 

Two things I've used it for so far:

 

For an Organ preset I use it as the Organ drawbars which is much nicer than doing that on screen, and the knobs are mapped to mirror the Organ delay and reverb screen, it means you can do stuff like change the delay feeedback at the same time as moving drawbars -  stuff that's impossible (or at least tricky) to do simultaneously on the MPC alone without doing stuff like switching between screens. 

 

I also use it like a sound desk mixer e.g. A slider for guitar volume and dials above it for some guitar EQ and overdrive control, another similar channel for piano, drums, bass etc. also  some sliders specifically for for effects (e.g.  Global delay dry/wet mix on the slider then delay time, feedback, hpf on the knobs). Doing all this with loops is good for live dub mixing sort of stuff.

 

...and of course using the Midimix as a controller frees up the MPC controls to do other stuff like use the screen as the XY effects controller, assign the Q-Link knobs and the pitch/modulation wheels to specific things, assign pads as sample triggers etc. it feels with a bit of planning that it should be as many controls as I'll reasonably need and be able to cope with in a live situation. 

 

The main issue is remembering what you've assigned things to do if you get more complex and change stuff around for different presets. I'm considering some sort of interchangeable overlays I can label - something like this https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1782574539/akai-midimix-overlay-blank-template) 

 

Edited November 7 by SumOne

[SumOne]

I've recently bought a few MPC plugins: 

 

• Mini D is Excellent. I think it's great, I immediately found presets with exactly the Minimoog bassline sounds I want. Editing is straightforward and intuative. Inspiring to make P Funk synth bassline sort of stuff. I've spent hours on it.
• Jura: Very good. I've found lots of great sounds and is inspiring for making 80s synth pop type stuff (it has had me listening to a lot of Italo Disco and getting quite close to replicate it) , I especially like the arpeggiator stuff and the lead and pad things. It has loads of editing potential - admittedly a bit too much for me right now to be completely sure what it is I'm tweaking sometimes.
• MPC Stems: Rubbish! Or at least it has been rubbish with a phone recording of the band - which is something Moises dealt with quite well, and I had Stems technology with Serato for DJ stuff and it'd do a good job of stems separation in a few seconds per song. MPC stems though - takes ages (something like 5 mins for a 5 min song) then has an extermely un-intuative way of working with the stems and the separation is bad. At least it was only £10, but so far it is one of the worst £10 I've spent in a long time. Big caveat here: I only got this yesterday and spent about an hour with it, if I spend more time with it and get better results I'll edit this.
• Sub Factory: Good, but I haven't been inspired by this one (which is what I think a really good synth does), it does the 808 bassline thing well - but so does the MPC Bassline (which I already have) and I don't find that to be a sound that really needs too much parameter editing, it just needs to do a good 'boom'! I dunno but I find this synth over-complicates stuff and becomes a bit uni-intuative, it's not encouraging me to play around with it.  I like dubstep and drum n bass so thought this'd be right up my street for getting really in-depth control of complex bass sounds but the results so far are a bit bland and in the no-mans land of not sounding 'retro' like the Mini D or Jura but not sounding cutting-edge enough to keep up with current dubstep/dnb producers. Hopefully more time on this will help.
• Ring the Alarm: Good for what it is - but it's basic (but at least is only £14), it's a dub siren with a few extra bits. Sounds good but the issue with this one is using the MPC hardware because the touch screen and 4x Q link knobs that you need to swith around isnt ideal for this sort of hands-on knob twiddling thing (it would be good if you could trigger it on screen and leave the keys and pads for other instruments)  ideally it's something that's a separate on-hand unit to occasionally off-the-cuff do a quick siren effects - but as an MPC Plugin it doesn't quite work like that. For my ideal setup I'd like to add a small mixing desk and add a a real dub siren and some outboard effects like a space echo pedal (Boss RE-202) they could also solve the issue of playing live and filling the time for the new song to load on the MPC (but  hardware dub siren + space echo + a mixer is a lot more equipment and cost than £14!). 

Edited 11 minutes ago by SumOne

[Woodinblack]

I was going to get Jura and analog dreams, but I was put off as when i went to get analog dreams there was a 'sign up to NIs marketing list and get $25 off' so I did, then went to check out and got a 'you can't use it for that'

I had MPC stems before, and found it very useful, so interesting to see you didn't get on with it.

I will get round to getting jura before it goes back up - £34 is pretty good as I couldn't get together the money to get a real one in 1982!

[SumOne]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I was going to get Jura and analog dreams, but I was put off as when i went to get analog dreams there was a 'sign up to NIs marketing list and get $25 off' so I did, then went to check out and got a 'you can't use it for that'

I had MPC stems before, and found it very useful, so interesting to see you didn't get on with it.

I will get round to getting jura before it goes back up - £34 is pretty good as I couldn't get together the money to get a real one in 1982!

I'd recommend the Jura, I find it really addictive. 

 

I'll persevere with the Stems, perhaps it was user error.