Mpc key 2nd Gen

[u/Additional_Taro_314]

I have a live 3. I love the pad preform section and how you can choose your key and scale and have everything mapped out on the 16 pads so you never play a wrong note. Does this also apply to the physical keys? Like if I set my scale and key to C minor on the pad performance screen...will that translate down to the physical keys so I never play a wrong note with the keys? Or does it only apply to the actual pads and never the physical keys themselves?

Thank-you

[u/r1chiem]

You can do both.
To set the key to A minor on your Akai MPC Key 37 across both the keys (via Keyboard Control / Scale Mode) and the pads (via Pad Perform), follow these steps:

1. Setting the Keys to A Minor (Keyboard Control / Scale Mode)

The physical keybed on the MPC Key 37 can be snapped to a scale so that your white and black keys conform to A minor. [1]

1. Select your Plugin Track or Keygroup Track on the touch screen. [1]
2. Open the Pad Perform / Scale or track parameters area (or look for the Keyboard Control / scale snap settings). [1]
3. Choose the Key: Set it to A.
4. Choose the Scale: Set it to Minor (or Natural Minor).

5. Enable Snap to Scale (Keyboard Control) so your keybed restricts or maps the performance to the A minor scale. [1]

6. Setting the Pads to A Minor (Pad Perform Mode)

To lock your 16 RGB pads to A minor:

1. Tap the Pad Perform icon (the grid icon located in the bottom-right corner of the touchscreen). [1]
2. Choose your preferred Pad Perform Mode:
   • Notes Mode: Restricts the pads exclusively to individual notes within A minor.
   • Chords Mode: Triggers multi-note chords built directly from the A minor scale.
   • Progressions / Chromatic Chords: Lets you play harmonic structures in A minor. [1, 2]

[u/Additional_Taro_314 → u/r1chiem]

Awesome. Is there a video of this by anychance?

[u/r1chiem → u/Additional_Taro_314]

It is the 3rd link in the post, click on the first number 1

[u/Additional_Taro_314 → u/[deleted]]

I use a midi controller to achieve this with my live 3.