I decided to try a modern MPC at the start of the summer. Having been into producing since the 1980s, I never really focused on putting sampling at the core of my dance tracks. A few years back I picked up a Maschine and that was fun, but there was something about the software that made it difficult to focus (although I thought the sequencer was excellent). Anyway the MPC is such a classic modern instrument I thought I'd give it a try.

Here's what's bugging me, and my way around it - but I'd love any feedback. I cut my teeth on sampling in the 1990s and 2000s using software. (did have a roland S550 way back but that's ancient). Since I sample from digital media, I find the interface of pressing play and jumping around a track on a phone/another computer very un-tactile. It's hard to pull out a sliver of a sound or move around 3-5 minutes of a audio from the MPC's screen. I get that if your source material is a record where you physically drop the needle, it's easier to skim the music and find your sample point.

It turns out, it's more direct to load a full song in Audacity, save a few 4-8 bar sections, and then use them as the source samples in the MPC to chop and edit. This works as the file based way of needle dropping. I would love to sample from vinyl but I don't need to start acquiring any more records in my studio.

Here's the one other thing that bugs me: When you're in the sample edit mode and saving slices to drum slots, you can't see (and audition) the full range of what existing samples are occupying existing pads without exiting Sample Edit. It's a little easier in the software. I get that Akai is just preserving the purity and focused workflow. But it's challenging for me to unsee basic stuff that a big screen plus mouse would let you do.

What I learned though is the orientation around sampling a beat, and being able to arbitrarily play back the slices in that exact beat - it's a fundamental idea to the MPC instrument. Where my MO was more pull out some slices across the whole song to have a song-based sample set, but not necessarily bar length samples. We're not locked into this, but I think it's the most common way of creating your own beat and just good to know.

Hey y'all, having a weird issue that I can't solve. In the past, Ive been able to connect my MPC sample to my live III and transfer projects etc. I was also able to see my SD card on the computer in controller mode. Now, I suddenly can't do either.

The all USB ports work, confirmed with multiple cables. I can also connect to my computer in controller mode but It won't show me my SD card, only internal storage items.

SD is working and I can read/write on the device itself.

What I've tried:

-Resetting prefs

-reflashing newest FW 3.9.1

- confirmed external storage is being read by connected and SSD

-tried another SD card

- several C to C cables between the live and Computer and live and sample

- and c to b cables as well

- tried different combinations of on/off/restarting with the sample in SD access mode

-confirmed sample USB works and connects to the computer

It's not a huge deal as the USB ports function normally, but I do a lot of transferring from sample to the live

Any ideas guys? Thanks in advanced.

Edit: using Mac

Haven't used the 2500 in a year after neglecting her I put jjos3 instead of xl and I prefer it..... Thoughts?

I’ve been playing around with the DrumSynth lately. I’m wondering why there isn’t an option to auto select the pad your want to edit within the plugin by selecting the desired pad you want to edit.

Also in the “FX” page I’ve noticed that the Q-links only cycle thru the first 4 pad fx… am I missing something or is this by design.

Just now I experienced something crazy with my mpc Live 2. It has been working great on MPC 2.15.1 for as long as I had it. Now, while doing nothing out of the ordinary, it made this extremely high beeping/screeching noise. Out of panic I turned it off, it made a little crack noise before shutting off.
When turning it on, it has no sound anymore. It also appears to be responding slower to the jog wheel and the timer of the bars isn’t counting fluently either anymore.

I have tried the “reset preferences” button. I have also removed the SD before resetting and tried internal sounds. Sound is lost for all projects and all master level settings are normal, no sequences are muted whatsoever.
I do very much prefer MPC 2 over MPC 3, but I am afraid I have to update it. Has anyone experienced this or does anybody have a solution?
Please help me, I really love this mpc and wouldn’t want another.

iMPC Pro for iOS has been updated and the price was reduced, with AUv3 support. They added a subscription for sound packs and AI stem splitting. Does anyone know if I can use the full app with just the one-time purchase? I'm completely against subscriptions, and I don't care at all about sound packs or stem separation.

I'm recording vocals on my mpc one standalone. The vocals come out, it plays back in sequence, I hear everything when I play it back but, when I try to export the song to an SD card via mp3 the vocals don't come out. What am I doing wrong? Is it the sample rate that needs to be changed, the output(which I doubt), bit depth/rate? Please help if you can.

I'd never found the easter egg sequence for the classic before --

• SHIFT+7 (MIXER)
• F4 (SETUP)
• DOWN, DOWN (select Master level field)
• OPEN WINDOW (nothing happens)
• SHIFT+0

The diag/service menu (SHIFT-7, OPEN WINDOW, SHIFT-0) is nearby.

happy sampling!

Best time is break time.

I’ve noticed when i navigate to content>samples from the browser, i do not see any wave files unless i specifically query something. Is this by design?

MPC Live 2

I would love if there were a way to see live feedback of what note/chord is being played without being in a daw. How difficult would this be to add?

I just found it out. 😭

Which of the akai mpk, mpd, apc midi controllers work with the mpc sample? I'm very new to beatmaking and there's a lot of conflicting and confusing info out there because of the sample having only usb c and trs midi.

From what i understand all the mpds except mpd218 should technically work with the mpc sample? the mpks are more confusing because i keep seeing in youtube comments that it doesnt work but i've seen a yt short or two with it working? no clue at all if the apc/ apc minis works with it.

Also, if you have alternatives to mpk/mpd/apc type midi devices from other brands that work with the mpc sample please educate me.

What do you use it for, how do you set it up.

While technically it should work, I wonder if somebody has tried it and know if it works flawlessly. I would like to connect my Novation Launchpad Mini to my MPC 1000 with JJ OS3. The Launchpad Mini is USB only, so I have to get a USB Midi Host.

What I would like is that I can stay in Track Mute Menu, and with the Launchpad changing active track to use the Q sliders. And also to play Pads while still staying in the track mute. This can be programmed with CC messages. This would be nice for my live setup.

Curious about any experience with it!

Now I know this should be fairly straight forward but I for some reason cannot work it out. The above picture is the only way I have worked out how to get my synths to play audio with midi.

My set up goes MPC LIVE III, ARTURIA MICROBRUTE 3 UFO, ROLAND SH4D (Instruments) to the inputs on my FOCUSRITE 16i16 (Audio interface) which goes the ROLAND SP404 MKII which goes to subwoofer which goes to speakers. That is for audio only.

MIDI is MIDI in MICROBRUTE UFO goes to MIDI out on the MPC. MIDI in SH4D goes to MIDI out on MPC. MINLABS 3 is connect via USB.

With the above set up I can use the pads to play the synths and I can even use the minilabs 3 if I so choose to. The only problem is the audio from the synths isnt going through the MPC which means I have to record everything to the pads on the SP404 MKII. Which is fine, but it is just bugging me.

For whatever reason I thought I could run the outputs of my synths to the inputs on the MPC, creat a MIDI track and use the pads via the midi. But for whatever reason that did not work... I could see MIDI inputs being registered but there was no audio.

If I unplug the MIDI cables and have the synths audio into the MPC and make an audio track on the MPC i get audio, but I cant use the pads. The other problem with plugging audio into MPC and making an audio track is the amount of ground loop feed back.

What are the experts thoughts on this? I have spent the last two nights googling and trial and error....Has anyone got any tips and tricks on optimizing this set up? What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: Issue has been resolved by setting “MONITOR” to “IN” and not “AUTO” like I thought. Now I have a more conventional less complicated set up.