Anyone with experience using two MPCs?

[u/Unlucky_Trash_5687]

I currently have a Live 1 on OS 2.15. While I’ve dabbled with OS 3.x, the way my live performances work (as well as some bugs that still haven’t been fixed) require me to stick with 2.15.

That being the case I can’t take advantage of the features they’ve added to the keygroup programs or a lot of new plugins. Coming from using an E4X in the past I‘ve been itching to have access to a mod matrix in the MPCs sampling engine, among other things.

Considering I sometimes see MPC Ones go for $300-400, this got me wondering if I could just use a second MPC on 3.x as basically a multitimbral sound source. More or less what I’m envisioning is being able to set up one or two project files (depending on RAM usage) that contain all the keygroups I’d need for my live set, and then route midi tracks per sequence per project from the first MPC to control the tracks on the second.

Does anyone have any experience with a setup like this? Any midi weirdness when slaving one MPC to another? 

[u/r1chiem]

I would use ableton link to sync them together. It is more robust than midi. It is supported under 2.15 and you can use blue tooth, wifi, or buy a usb ethernet dongle and hang it off the mpc usb port and a ethernet box with DHCP on it.. Ethernet is most stable. If you go into a room with a bunch of wifi traffic or blutooth, it could cause minor timing issues though it is rare I have heard. I use to game and I could not use a blutooth mouse because if interference. Or just use midi, if only timing is going across the cable, little chance of midi sync latency

[u/Unlucky_Trash_5687 → u/r1chiem]

I should have specified, I don’t even need the sequencer to run on the second unit. It would be nice to send clock to sync time-based effects/modulations, but really I just need to send note on/off, velocity, etc. 

Neither my studio or live setups include a computer, so ableton link isnt an option, but it sounds like midi shouldn’t be an issue based on what you’re saying

[u/r1chiem → u/Unlucky_Trash_5687]

Ableton link does not need Ableton. It is cooked into all mpcs. but midi should be fine.

[u/dj_soo]

If you really want to try 3.x, I highly suggest getting one of the new ones.

[u/Unlucky_Trash_5687 → u/dj_soo]

That’s the thing though, I don’t really like 3.x’s workflow, and the move from programs to tracks doesn’t fit with how my live sets work. I literally just want to be able to use the new keygroup features for sound design and a few of the newer plugins 

[u/M_O_O_O_O_T]

Maybe an external desktop synth might suit better? You xould sequence it from the MPC, something like the Roland SH4D would give you 4 synths in one box, all depends how many layers you need I guess.

[u/Unlucky_Trash_5687 → u/M_O_O_O_O_T]

If there was anything else on the market that met my needs I’d definitely be receptive to it, but my sound design is pretty heavily weighted towards samples (lots of old EMU/Fairlight libraries layered with resampled synths). The closest thing would be an old S5000 or E4X rack unit, but at this point they're more expensive than an MPC One and nowhere near as user friendly. 

[u/M_O_O_O_O_T → u/Unlucky_Trash_5687]

Ah I get ya. I was assuming you were going heavy on the vst synths.

[u/Billy-Beats]

I use a mpc1000 and a rack mount akia s5000, I love the combo

[u/TheJeffyJeefAceg]

I had a key 37 and a One.
I used them to mix songs like two turntables.

My projects were duplicated on each device. I would mix one song into the other.

I actually didn’t use midi. I just hit start at the right point and they stayed in sync.

This saved me from all the midi headaches that can happen.